Profile

Prologue
Hi. Nice to meet you. I'm Lassarina Aoibhell, alternately known as Meg. We can get the basics out of the way before proceeding to the in-depth stuff, I should think.

Description
My sun sign is Virgo, lunar sign Pisces, ascendant sign Cancer. My Chinese astrology sign is the Dog. I don't care much about astrology as a general rule, but I do find it curious and amusing most of the time. I'm loyal, caring, creative, silly, stubborn, mercurial, impatient, exuberant, emotional, and sometimes difficult to deal with. I'm not perfect, but neither am I a complete failure as a human being.

History
I grew up in Maryland, a few hours from the Atlantic Ocean. I love water, and especially the ocean. (Which makes me wonder why I ended up out here in Chicago about as far as I can get from either of the oceans bracketing America, but there you go.) I've always attended private school. I don't have very many good memories of grade school, because I was the small one who got picked on a whole lot, but high school was better. Then I went to Northwestern University, and I feel I really came into my own at that point.

I initially intended to study creative writing, but the writing program and I were not well suited for each other, so I hopped across the Rock Plaza to the history department, and majored in medieval European history since they wouldn't let me choose Celtic history. I graduated with a 3.3 GPA and went on to a typical liberal-arts-major job: customer service. I've since escaped and found my way to IT, which I enjoy quite a bit.

Things I Do
Well, I love learning new things. History is my favourite field of study. I prefer anything I can find on Celtic history and culture, but I'm also a big fan of the Plantagenet family (including such notables as King John of England, King Richard the Lionheart, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and Henry II) and the Tudors (Henry VII, Henry VIII, and Elizabeth I). I have a bias toward the British Isles partially because my family is of Irish and Scots descent, but also I just find the history fascinating. There's also a soft spot in my heart for medieval France. I like the medieval period because it seems there was so much more going on, and so many interesting personalities. One area I intend to pursue further study of is Chinese and Japanese history, which I have not done nearly enough with and which fascinates me. Despite scoring a 5 on the AP United States History exam, I have little to no interest in American history. Russian history is also interesting; my favourite historical figures are Mikhail Romanov, Catherine the Great, Peter the Great, Alexander I, and Alexander II.

Literature is another field of study I greatly enjoy. I usually read 5-10 books a month, and it's not enough. There are so many authors out there I've not fully experienced, and even more that I've not experienced at all. I absolutely adore Chaucer and Shakespeare. (Milton and Spenser do not interest me nearly as much.) I've attempted to read both War and Peace and Anna Karenina; in both cases I got about halfway through and got distracted, as I am prone to do. I love Romantic poetry, but I'm not much for Romantic novelists. Post-modernism just doesn't do it for me, at all.

Not quite in the field of literature, but still in the category of "things I love to read," there's always science fiction/fantasy. A quick hit list of authors I like: Amanda Downum, Melanie Rawn, Anne Bishop, Jacqueline Carey, Juliet E. McKenna. Past enthusiasms have included Anne McCaffrey and George R.R. Martin. When I derail into the realm of fluff writing, I like Elizabeth Lowell/Ann Maxwell and Nora Roberts.

There is one other type of book I devour voraciously: tabletop roleplaying games. I tend to stick mostly to games by White Wolf Publishing, of which my favourite is definitely Exalted, followed by Mage: the Ascension and Demon: the Fallen, but I enjoy a good hack'n'slash session of Dungeons and Dragons as much as the next person. I also do live-action RP, though it's less fun to me than tabletop is.

I write a lot. Not as much as I used to, but I'm getting back into it slowly. If you're interested in seeing my writing, most of it is posted over at rose_in_winter, and you can also find me on Fanfiction.net as Lassarina Aoibhell or at the Archive of Our Own as Lassarina.

I love music. I play flute and piano (although not terribly well anymore as I've not practiced in a while) and whenever I can, I listen to music. Music tends to drive my creativity...Hmm. That's interesting. I've been listening to music less these days. Perhaps I should do it more and get more with the writing. Note to self: Try that. Ahem. Anyway.

The last two things I want to mention here are intertwined for me: video games, and web design. I run an RPG-focused website, The RPG Place, which I work on intermittently based on my inspiration and energy at any given time. Anyway. All of my HTML is hand-coded, because I scorn programs like Dreamweaver and especially FrontPage. I started The RPG Place because I love video games, especially RPGs and extra-especially Final Fantasy, but like many things that I really focused on in college, I don't have as much time or energy for it anymore.

Random Facts

I use British-type spelling. It's a holdover from years ago when I spent entirely too much time in Yahoo! Chat's Game Room and talked to too many British, Irish, and Aussie folks.

I type 130 words per minute.

I have a large, fluffy, gray and white cat named Ganon (yes, as in the Legend of Zelda villain) who likes to show he loves me by nibbling on me. He is accompanied by Zelda, a much smaller princess in black and white who wants to snuggle all the time.

I follow a Pagan religious path.

Online drama just amuses me. I do my best not to spawn any or participate in it. If you want to start it, go away. I'll have no part in it.

Epilogue

So there's me. If you like what you see, feel free to subscribe, although I reserve the right not to subscribe/grant access back. (Nothing personal against you, just I already spend an hour or so a day reading the friends page. It gets tiring.) If not, well, no hard feelings, right?

I rarely friends-lock entries. I try to be honest and not put on a show, because honestly, if I can't be myself in a journal and if people don't like who I am, then I don't need it or them anyway. What you see is what you get.

~*~

I have done the First Post. Private. Please. meme. 2001/07/15.