fanw passed along an interests meme, where someone asked about five of her LJ interests, she posted, and commenters can volunteer to be infected (get asked about theirs.) Her selection for me:

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Because it's awesome. If your screen is short enough to make you scroll, do so slowly, savoring the panels until you get to the end.

( Teh Awesome )

States I've visited, from unforth


create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

This doesn't include Greyhound-only visits, even if I touched the soil -- well, concrete -- of a station. It also doesn't include Kansas, because I was very small though I think I may have memories independent of photos, or Wisconsin from my childhood, because my memory can't distinguish between the Milwaukee and Brookfield Zoos. Maryland was a day trip to Baltimore; otherwise I have at least slept in all listed states. (And Kansas.) Weird that I haven't made it to Ohio.

And the Dark Loner often feels more accurate than I'd like.

zosimos said tonight he was really impressed by my having read all 50 books. "What?" I said. "The whole list was bold." "Uh-oh." I have no idea how that happened; some accident with LJ's Rich Text editor, I guess. Anyway, I've fixed the entry, to a more accurate if less impressively comprehensive entry.

Pompe does an analysis of 24 LJ list-posters.

This is a list of the 50 most significant science fiction/fantasy novels, 1953-2002, according to the Science Fiction Book Club. Bold the ones you've read, strike-out the ones you hated, italicize those you started but never finished and put an asterisk beside the ones you loved.

Well, that's the meme.  I'm not sure I hate much of the ones I've read, but I've liked some more than others.  One * for a positive impression, at least, none for "meh".  Standard comment about disagreeing with the list (which IIRC was based on ideas of "influence", not just quality.)   No Cherryh, no *Vinge* excuse me but the Singularity is damn influential, like it or not.  I don't know if Bujold or Brust are significant.  Good, yes.  4x Hugo-winning, yes...

Explain your LiveJournal name and its meaning. When you're done, tag as many people as there are letters in your name.

Mine postdates my senior year of college. I was writing columns for my school paper, and wanted a distinctive title, and when I thought of this it was so good I could taste it. And part of the appeal was that it seemed to express that idea of taste, the joy in hunting down a new idea. As well as the joy of conversation.

The inspiration was P. C. Hodgell's fantasy novel God Stalk which I love, and which also had been ambiguous to me for a time -- was it God Stalk, or Godstalk? Gods talking, a stalk of gods, stalking gods? Actually in the book it's the latter, but I enjoyed the ambiguity anyway.

From freshman year in college I'd been "phoenix", because I like the firebird and resurrection themes. So does a lot of the rest of the Internet, so I've moved on. The icon is still from that -- it's the first image I ever downloaded, via ftp, found via searching 'archie', the old ftp files index, for "phoenix".

(Which reminds me of a friend who some years ago found a still-working gopher service, and said it felt like a ghost town, with little activity, and occasional mention of this "web" thing.)

http://home.sprynet.com/~dbrukman/hodgell-art.html -- the God Stalk cover (Berkeley 1983)
http://mindstalk.net/ -- see the imitation the editor got someone to make for me.
http://mindstalk.net/old/Publ/mindstalk.html -- me talking about the name, back then.

Tags (since lyceum hit shiver already)
unforth
mrs_feltner
dyrecorn

Usually I'm anti-viral, but anima_mecanique and akashiver doing it broke my defense:
Go to Wikipedia and look up your birthday (excluding the year). List three neat facts, two births and one death in your journal, including the year.

Events:
1960 - Reproductive rights: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves sale of the birth control pill. I get Pill Day!

1974 - Watergate Scandal: The United States House of Representatives Judiciary Committee opens formal and public impeachment hearings against President Richard M. Nixon. "In America, anyone can grow up to impeach the President." -- Calvin Trillin to his daughters

1950 - Robert Schuman presents his proposal on the creation of an organized Europe, indispensable to the maintenance of peaceful relations. This proposal, known as the "Schuman declaration", is considered by some people to be the beginning of the creation of what is now the European Union. I've wanted to write ScF where the EU had peacefully swallowed up the whole world. Conquest by committee.

Births:
1874 - Howard Carter, British archaeologist (d. 1939). I visited the Valley of the Kings when I was 3, and said my first words in Egypt. Oh, and nearly died. Pity I don't remember anything.

1920 - Richard Adams, English author. There was a big rabbit. There was a little rabbit. There was a tasty -- oops, sorry.

Death
1931 - Albert Abraham Michelson, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1852) Yes, that Michelson.

Extra
I also get the births of John Ashcroft (sorry!) and Candice Bergen, and the death of Tenzing Norway ("I'm not scared of heights, I'm scared of grounds.") For events:

This one's for anima_mecanique:
1671 - Thomas Blood, disguised as a clergyman, attempts to steal the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London. He is immediately caught because he is too drunk to run with the loot. He is later condemned to death and then mysteriously pardoned and exiled by King Charles II. Note he wasn't too drunk to steal the Crown Jewels.

1926 - Admiral Richard E. Byrd and Floyd Bennett claim to have flown over the North Pole (later discovery of his diary seems to indicate that this did not happen). So I could have picked an event which didn't happen...

1936 - Italy formally annexes Ethiopia after taking the capital Addis Ababa on May 5. After Ethiopia kicked Italy's butt in 1896.

1940 - World War II: The German submarine U-9 sinks French coastal submarine Doris near Den Helder. Doh!

1941 - World War II: The German submarine U-110 is captured by the Royal Navy. On board is the latest Enigma cryptography machine which Allied cryptographers later use to break coded German messages. DOH!

1945 -- Victory in Europe Day for Eastern European timezones. Goering and Quisling arrested. Jersey islands liberated.

1950 - L. Ron Hubbard publishes his book on Dianetics, entitled "Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health. Ewww, I've got Thetans!

1994 - Nelson Mandela is inaugurated as South Africa's first black president.

And finally, 9 May starts the Roman Feast of the Lemures.