family: one father, one mother, one little brother (okay, not so little, but younger), one husband, one dog, one cat, a variety of grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, in-laws, and distant relatives. My immediate family is very cool. I count both of my parents and my brother and my husband amongst my closest of friends, and I don't mean that in a maudlin sort of way.

distinguishing neuroticisms: a bit obsessive, a bit verbally impulsive, gets a little co-dependent in times of stress, tendancy to obsess over books and role-playing

favorite playwrite: toss up between the bard, Ben Johnson, and Thomas Middleton (solely for the Roaring Girl). My tastes are stuck happily in the 16th Century thanks to Jeff Myers, my Renaissance drama professor in college.

field of study: Generally attention and awareness. I also get off on synaesthesia, though, and any sort of interesting deficit caused by stroke. My advisor is Gordon C. Baylis, D.Phil (he insists on that part, since he's all Oxfordy and British and stuff). And he's excellent in the field, and fun to work for to boot.

why penelope: Long story, but basically Duck is my spirit animal (another long story). Separately, Penelope is the tarot card I use to represent myself when reading from my Greek stories tarot deck. I found out a while ago that the name Penelope means "duck," which was freaky and cool to learn. When she was born, Penelope's father attempted to drown her, but a flock of ducks flew up out of the water and saved her. Her father decided this was a good omen, and took her back in and named her because of the event. Penelope, for those of you not up on your Greek mythology, is the wife of Odysseus, the Greek hero who took 10 years to get home after fighting at Troy for 10 years. Penelope was faithful to him during all of his absence. Both Duck and Penelope are symbols of faithfulness and family-love. Being a bit of a serial-monogomist, this works well for me. Once again, not in a maudlin sort of way.

And yes, if you haven't figured it out yet, I'm not a normal sort of girl. Nor am I into alternative spirituality just for kicks and due to lack of identity. I was pretty much raised pagan from high school on out.

what I read: heh. I don't read that much non-fiction, other than articles and research in my field. Nor do I read thrillers, mysteries, or romance novels. I do read lots of science-fiction and fantasy (though I try to cut out the crap and read the quality, or, lately, the classics), the occasional philosophy and/or religion book, and the occasional comic book. Recent obsession in books: HARRY POTTER. Neuroticism: I dislike Heinlein and can't make myself tolerate him.

what I watch: double heh. It depends on my most recent obsessions, but lately those include Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Tough Enough II (yeah yeah, laugh all you want, but not till you've tried it). In the past they have included WWF professional wrestling (as above with the yeah yeah), Pokemon, Eskowflowne (still obsessed with it, but they figured out how adult it was and stopped showing it on Saturday morning cartoons -- so sad), and the Iron Chef. I also like to watch Animal Planet, Discovery Channel, A&E, and Cartoon Network. But I try to keep my quality television to a minimum.