User Profile

I am called Monoceros, Greek for "unicorn". I have adopted the similitude of that mythical creature because...well, it seems congenial to me.

I've done many different things over the last few decades. I've studied Classics, computer science, and now I'm working towards a graduate education in chemistry. I love chemistry so much that I have made a hobby of it, and I occasionally post on this LJ descriptions of my amateur work. Analytical chemistry is my specialty, although my command of organic chemistry is also strong--it used to be my favorite aspect of chemistry. But I've dabbled in many sciences. I've studied a fair amount of undergraduate biology, including microbiology which I thoroughly enjoyed. Amateur astronomy has been one of my diversions since childhood, but moving to Seattle discouraged that hobby. I've tried my hand at grinding and polishing a telescope mirror, but never to successful completion.

"The Amateur Scientist" column in Scientific American was my inspiration as a teenager--I was fascinated by the old issues especially, the ones where ordinary hobbyists built their own Van de Graaff generators, spectrophotometers and seismometers. Some years ago Scientific American killed the column along with everything else good about the magazine but the spirit lives on in The Society for Amateur Scientists. I still wear one of their T-shirts now and again.

Amateur electronics has been another long-standing pastime, ever since I was a kid trying to put together circuits out of TAB books checked out of the library, and building those AM and shortwave radio kits that Radio Shack used to sell. Since then I've taught myself a few things about analogue circuit design, but most of my ideas don't leave the breadboard. But I have successfully built a few circuits. I've even worked with vacuum tubes.

I discovered furry fandom in 2004 and I've been there ever since, although not in a big way. I wrote a few furry-themed stories in 2004 and 2005 but I'm not too proud of them today, although I still like some parts of them. I was a regular on the furry website Furtopia but quit after a couple of years because I was getting sick of the site's mismanagement and its slapdash construction. As a result I've drifted to the periphery of furry fandom. But Furtopia is where I fell in love with my mate, hkr. We're still together and still in love.

I'm a regular attendee of Anthrocon (q.v. anthrocon) and have also once attended Further Confusion (q.v. furcon) So far I haven't really gotten into anything local to Seattle. I have a couple furry acquaintances, and by an astounding coincidence my upstairs neighbor, fabletheunicorn, is also furry and unicornish. That's about it, really.

But there are so many other things. I'm a chess fan although I'm a terrible player. I follow the big tournaments and root for Vassily Ivanchuk, especially when he's in one of his losing streaks. One day I may finish my story about Alexander Alekhine and his cat. I like old movies, especially anything with Cary Grant in it, and I could probably quote all of Citizen Kane with a little prompting. My musical tastes are unsophisticated. Mostly I listen to classic rock, with the occasional album from a band that got started after the year I was born. Rush, beyond all other bands, is what I play when I'm in the mood for song. I enjoy the game "Rock Band 2" because it's got a lot of my kind of music. I've learned a little electric guitar but I don't practice like I should. I think Jack Benny is hilarious (usually.) I've come to prefer Mike Nelson to Joel Robinson but Joel's character had qualities that were gone forever when he left the show. Rifftrax are still uneven but I think they've worked out the kinks. I make decent biscuits and pie crusts but haven't mastered fillings that don't turn into runny goo.

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