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| User: | diannelamerc (869178)  My Little Corner of The Insanity...
The Musings of an Ecclectic Waterbuffalo of Death }:o |
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| Name: | I'm not a real person, but I play one on LJ... | |||||||||||||||
| Website: | My really, really old fanfic page... | |||||||||||||||
| Location: | Glendale, California, United States | |||||||||||||||
| Birthdate: | 1969-12-31 | |||||||||||||||
| E-mail: |
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| AOL IM: |  lamerc (Add Buddy, Send Message) | |||||||||||||||
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| Bio: | Life Lived Like A Wikipedia Entry... ~(updated May 8, 2008)~ More About Me Than Any Sane Person Ever Wanted To Know So, I'm Dianne -- also known as la Mercenaire, the Waterbuffalo, Death, Dee, The Grand High Poohbah (Emerita), SunS Listmom, TGUT Flunky-in-Chief, Horsechick of the Apocalypse, member of the Apocalypse West Vidding madness, fangirl, and many more that will only come to mind sometime after I post this. My Life I live with my roommate ( ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} lizbetann) and our two cats, Matisse & Ginkgo, in beautiful Glendale, California, just outside of Los Angeles proper. I spent three years living in Washington, D.C, and while I seriously miss Dupont Circle and being able to get nearly anywhere by Metro, I'm a true California Girl, born and bred, and will always love to drive, far more than is PC for an environmentally-conscious Pagan. (Lizbet takes the L.A. Metro to her cool new job downtown. That's not easy to do around here! *is impressed*)In theory, I write mystery novels (5 at last count), but have yet to get one actually finished and submitted, let alone published. I even keep a separate writing journal at imawriter. Meanwhile I'm on disability for Chronic Depression and working on getting back to work as an independent Wordsmith (editing, proofreading, and indexing for clients such as Caltech and Modern Parlance). At last count I've held more jobs than I have lived years on this planet -- everything from ice cream scooper, to archivist, to deeply disgruntled postal worker, to technical writer, to teaching adult literacy, to being one of a bunch of grunts called in to dispose of records/evidence in advance of an oncoming trial for a major oil company way back when I was in school. I can remember maybe two years when I actually had only one job to report on my annual taxes, and often it was four or five). If you can think of it, I've probably done it in one form or another. This is (theoretically) an excellent background for a writer, but (in reality) lousy for the resume and the bank account. Thus me still paying off student loans from 20 years ago. Someday when I am a rich and semi-famous novelist, I plan to move up to the Monterey area (a.k.a. The Most Beautiful Place On Earth) with a few cats, and live happily ever after (with side trips to travel all over Europe and other funky, faraway places). ;) In the meantime, I manage to keep busy watching TV, writing fanfic, making vids, attending cons, reading historical mysteries and slash fanfic, making LJ icons, swilling ungodly amounts of unsweetened iced tea, eating chocolate, and just generally having much fun as I can. (It's been a while now, but I've been known to bellydance, sing, and bead jewelry as well. In the past I have been aka_vala at ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small} fandomhigh, and was the original phantom_dennis for the sunnydale_socks.) Depression and Me It's something I tend to avoid bringing up, because it can be hard to explain and I spend too much of my time pretending even to myself that I can somehow "control" it. But it's a major factor in my life, whether I want it to be or not: I have been fighting often-debilitating chronic clinical depression since childhood. While a number of lifestyle changes and three separate psychoreactive drugs manage to keep me from actually killing myself on any given day, they can only do so much to control things. Thus, I have good days and I have bad days. And I have no way of predicting when either one will hit. Try this: Imagine or remember a time when you got a sudden flu or food poisoning and were basically out-of-commission for the day without warning. Especially if it hit on a day you had really been looking forward to: Christmas, a birthday, a wedding, a trip to the beach, a romantic dinner. You can make it through, especially if you're really motivated, but no matter how much you want to enjoy the day, it's gonna be hard and you're simply not going to be up to enjoying it the way you want to. It's frustrating as all hell, especially when it hits at a really lousy time and you're watching your friends or family having fun mostly without you. Sucks, no? Now imagine a big cosmic dice roll takes place every morning. You have absolutely no idea when you go to bed and make plans for the next day whether you'll find yourself fine, sick as a dog, or somewhere in between when you wake up the next morning. Not only does this make it a bitch to plan even as far ahead as the next day, but you always feel like you're letting others down. (I can make a promise to get someone's story beta-ed ASAP... and then find myself completely out-of-commission for three or four days in a row. Suddenly I come off like a flake -- and maybe technically I am -- but the intent of the original promise was sincere.) The classic, and never superseded explanation of the effects of this kind of invisible disability is Christine Miserandino's simple, yet brilliant The Spoon Theory. While she is speaking specifically of Lupus, the same analogies work very well for Chronic Depression. (Unlike her, I have the advantage of some days with unlimited spoons, but the disadvantage in that it's a surprise each morning as to how many spoons I've been given for the day. I can help keep from losing any more by things like taking my meds. But on occasion I'll suddenly run short mid-day with no warning... and there's nothing much I can do about it except hope tomorrow is better.) Buttons and Other Doo-dads
 It's fun, for a good cause, and I'm listed right below Stephen Colbert ("IMDb should put these credits in. It's as valid as most of my credits." -- Sundance Film Festival 2005).  The best webhosting ever! I've been with them since July of 1998. They're good, they're cheap, and best of all, they grandfather you into new levels at the same price as services improve (by now I'm getting the 'business level of service' for what used to be the 'intro' price! ;-) Plus they're funny. Never underestimate the value of that.    I've competed in National Novel Writing Month every year since I first heard of it (2001). I've won for the last  They're not evil, they encourage you to share songs, and they offer a free daily download. How can you not like that?  I offer books for trade on Bookmooch               Notes Doctor Who (2005) mood theme courtesy __kali__!
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| Memories: | 174 entries | |||||||||||||||
| Pictures: | over 90 public | |||||||||||||||
| Interests: | 144: angel, anthropology, anti-bra, apocalypse west, archery, are your interests lj-approved?, barenaked ladies, beading, bellydance, betareading, bi, big cats, bisexual, bisexual rights, bisexuality, boobs, books, buffy the vampire slayer, california, cats, chocolate, chronic depression, creative commons, creativity, daily show, depression, disability, doctor who, doctor/rose/jack, domestic partnerships, eclectic paganism, equal rights, fan cons, fan fiction, fandomhigh, fanfic, fanfiction, farscape, feminism, fic, fiction, finding like minds, firefly, firefox, flying spaghetti monster, forever knight, freedom of speech, friendship, gay marriage, gender equality, gender roles, goddesses, heroes, horsechicks, horsechicks of the apocalypse, humor, iced tea, icons, janet evanovich, jon stewart, kingdom of loathing, language, lesbian rights, lestat, let california ring, lindsey davis, los angeles, lost, love, lowen & navarro, madness, marriage equality, marriage is love, masturbation, matisse, media conventions, monk, monkey crack, monkeys with jetpacks, monterey, moonlight press, mst3k, musicals, mystery novels, mythbusters, nanowrimo, national novel writing month, nopity noshame nosilence, omgwtfpolarbear, open minds, ot3, pagan snark, paganism, panera, plot bunnies, prozac, ratbert, religion, roberta gellis, rosemary rowe, same-sex marriage, san francisco, sense of humor, sex, sexual equality, sexuality, sexuality equality, silliness, singing, slash, smart people, snark, south park, spirals, spiritual humanism, starbucks, stargate, storytelling, stupid cultural beliefs, sunnydale slayers, suns, supernatural, tara maclean, television, television without pity, tgut, the colbert report, the daily show, this week in god, torchwood, trills, ugly betty, vidding, vids, water buffalo, waterbuffalo, wicked, women, words, wordsmith, wordsmiths, world religions, writers, writing | |||||||||||||||
| Schools: | High Point Academy - Pasadena, CA (1979 - 1983) Mayfield Senior School - Pasadena, CA (1983 - 1987) University of Southern California - Los Angeles, CA (1987 - 1991) National University of Ireland, Galway - Galway, County Galway, Ireland (1990) Claremont Graduate University - Claremont, CA (1991 - 1993) | |||||||||||||||
| Friends: | ||||||||||||||||
| Mutual Friends: | 74: _callmelanky_, airawyn, amilyn, bktheirregular, bookwhatbook, brainiacfive, brightone, butterflykiki, captainsblog, celli, ceridwyn2, chaodai, christinenj, comedownstairs, diannelamerc, dracian, dreamsmadetext, faithfully_luna, fantasticangel, finabair, froggimus_rex, havocthecat, history_spork, honorh, iknewyorick, imawriter, jetpack_monkey, kajivar, kenobi, kirbyfest, lanky_writing, lily_robert, lizbetann, magdamai, maureen_the_mad, meeby, melissaukgirl, midnightfae, miladygrey, mimarie, morgandawn, mpoetess, natmerc, neadods, neonhummingbird, ninamazing, nycdeb, qkellie, rainbow, redefining_self, reinalynn, rhi_silverflame, safti, side_of_zen, sneakyangel, spoonishly, starlet_harlot, stepinrazor, suzvoy, taraljc, thanatos_kalos, thebratqueen, theninthdoctor, thepessoptimist, thevelvetdays, tinagilman, trollprincess, tv_elf, vampychick, veggiebelle, vicki595, wiliqueen, woodface, xanderbear | |||||||||||||||
| Also Friend of: | 39: aimeeuth, anxietygrrl, aphy_snape, boos_garden, boos_kitchen, cassie_fraiser, celtae, creativecommon, darklady7, dreamsofstars, drusemia, g_hammond, gylzgirl, hildy, iko, irishkate, jaffa_kree, joeyfalconetti, kimbo_demonica, kitkatbyte, kittycat22, laura47, lefunkymonkey, lilah_morgan, lucycat, mayatawi, misstitania, misty_anne, pink_soprano, plsteward, requialexa, sabine791110, siler, tanzachick, tenebraeli, therienne, timjr, victoriamorgan, whereismyscifi | |||||||||||||||
| Member of: | 37: apocalyptothon, apocwestcredits, bad_sex, better_with_3, bras_suck, catsnotkids, dw_ficsearch, fandom_counts, fanfic_quotes, fen_outta_work, fic_of_doom, geezer_fen, girl_doctor, hcquotelist, horsechicks, lez_sex_tips, little_details, ljcensor2008, ljdq, m15m, metaicons, metaquotes, otw_news, pagan_snarkons, paidmembers, puppet_paluza, recanything, seen_serenity, sextips, suns_lj, suns_quotes, torchwoodicons, userpicks, vidding, vidding_archive, vividcon, zimbabwecon | |||||||||||||||
| Account type: | Permanent Account | |||||||||||||||
