Introduce Yourself here and say Hi.

[Pensive]

Hello everybody, It's nice that we are getting so many new forum members who share with us their precious views. There should be a place to introduce yourself and say hi; and this is it.

Come on and tell us about yourself. What are your hobbies? What are your favourite books? And also share with us everything else you would like to tell us about yourself.

Have a nice time browing the wonderful world of books and book-worms!

[Logos]

A great idea Pensive thank you for starting this

I look forward to meeting lots of newbies here!

[Virgil]

Hello everyone. I've now posted over a hundred messages in the past few weeks but have yet to introduce myself. OK, here it is.

I've filled in a few things in my profile for you to check. In addition to that let me add a few things.

I'm probably older than most here, at least according to those who have replied to the age poll. My occupation is probably different than those on this forum. In undergrad I was torn between lit and engineering, at least at first. I wound up taking six years for my undergrad diploma, combining english lit classes with engineering. I wound up graduating with over two hundred credits, a rediculously inefficient amount. Given that there are better jobs for engineers I would got my B.A. in that. Just barely though; my last year in engineering I was really souring on it, but I'm glad I stuck it out because a job in engineering is completely different than schooling. I get to be very creative at my job, and I think that's what separates me from the others. There is no creativity in the education of engineering.

I went on to get a Masters in my true love, literature. But not before I attempted a single grad class in engineering. I went for a couple of weeks and said to myself this is no longer for me, even though my job would pay for it. I wound up paying for my Masters out of my pocket, and for no direct career benefit. But I loved it. It took me, I can't remember exactly, but something like nine years taking a class here or there at night. I loved the give and take in class room discussions, and I loved writing essays, believe it or not. My concentration was on the modern English novel, so if anyone has any particular questions on that, feel free to ask. But I've read most of the classics in the English language, fiction, drama, and poetry, and I've read a bit, though not comprehensively, the classics from other languages, in English translation of course. Like most Americans, I'm not very skilled in foreign languages. I can get by reading a little Spanish (six years off elementary education gone to waste) and Italian (the language of my parents), and I'm trying to dapple in Latin, but that's hard.

What else? Virgil is not my real name. I picked it as a pseudonym when I registered. I've been reading Dante lately, and the character (and of course the author too) has been on my mind. I'm pretty much into all types of music. I don't have any formal training there, and I'm terrible at playing anything. But I do appreciate great music, Mozart, Beethoven, Duke Ellington, Rolling Stones. My laterst kick is early music from the Middle Ages. I don't know why but it's really cool to me.

The avatar I picked has a wolf, which I consider a noble intelligent creature and which if I were to return after death would be the creature I would want to be. It's a running wolf, which I thought reflects my energy and love of life. The avatar also has a dark, mysterious, blue millieu which I thought was cool.

My signature comes from William Butler Yeat's "Byzantium" and the title under my name is my personal motto which I selected for myself several years ago. It means, "He conquors who conquors himself." A motto of self restraint and disapline (I'm a lousy speller).

So much for now. Talk to you on these pages.

[Riesa]

Wow, Virgil, what a great introduction. You seem so very interesting. Great idea Pensive. It seems like so many of this forum members are so much more interesting and entertaining then the "joes" around my neighborhood. I feel lucky to have stumbled across this site and all you posters.

[Virgil]

Thank you, Reisa. I consider 99% of the people in all walks of life, not just here on this forum, interesting in some fashion. They just haven't brought it out and made it public. Or perhaps they're not aware of what is interesting about themselves.

One thing I meant to mention in my intro but forgot was that my Master's Thesis was on D.H. Lawrence's late fiction. Because of all the research for the thesis, I consisder myself an unofficial, semi expert on Lawrence. I've read most of his fiction, some of his poetry, some of his non-fiction, and a lot of the scholarly criticism on him. I'd be happy to field any questions on him specifically. I consider him a great writer. But don't confuse his ideas with me. I'm not in philosophic agreement with him on most things. Some things perhaps, but that's irrelevant. It just goes to show that you can appreciate a writer, but disagree with him philosophically.

[Weeping Willow]

Well i guess i can't write as much as Virgil wrote but i'll try my best.
As can be shown under my name i'm from Israel, and that ok i guess
except i personally don't like it here so much.
I can't say alot about myself since i can think of anything meaningful about my childhood so i guess i'll start off at 18.
I don't know how many of you know but in Israel when you graduate from highscool at the age of 18 you do not get out to the "real life".
Instead you go on to being drafted (which is mandetory to all) for 3 whole years to the army.
Yes that's right i spend my beautiful years of 18 till 21 serving in the army.
As a direct result of that i must say that when i finished my service it felt like i was 18 again and just finished highscool.. the 3 years seemed as a bad nightmare that i just awoke from, but it wasn't so.
I was 21 and had to get over the lost of those years quickly.
So now i spent my time working in a rathar unusual work place, and i'm pretty proud of saying that i sort of getting paid for playing computer games.
As for studing i really have no idea what i want to learn literature is something i would like to study but it has the problam of not being very useful later on when you actually need a job. on the oppsite side i'm not really a science person.
As for hobbys i like music, almost every kind from jazz to rock. classic is still a bit rougth for me.
I used to play the drums which i stopped at the age of 18 for the reasons mantioned above.
as for book this is my latesed passion.
while i was serving in the army i have no idea why but one day i grabed a book and never looked back.. i read some science fiction some fantasy but lately i discovered the classics. which is where i'm right now. (the three musketers at the moment.)

Wow.. that was much longer than i thought it would be but basicly that's all about me.
Cheers!

[Eva Marina]

Great idea, Pensive!

As for me, I like music (and singing), reading (although I haven't been able to a lot lately), writing, and history. Particularly, I like musicals at the moment, and writing poetry. Most of the year, I play soccer, even though for a quarter of the year, it's snowing (or just really cold). I live on the East Coast, though it doesn't snow a whole lot here. We pretty much survive the winter on minimal snow days, if any at all, though last year we had about two and a half or three feet of snow fall. My favorite books range about as far as my music genres, which is about anything, as long as it's good. Right now, though, I'm in a "Good Omens"-mood, by Teri Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, which was a fantastic book.
I think I may have said this somewhere else on this forum, but I love languages. I'm taking Latin and Classical Greek this year in school and trying to learn a bit of Spanish and German on my own (though it's not going too well). When I finish with Latin, though, I'll be changing to the otherside of the Eurasian continent and maybe pick up some Korean (my grandmother is from Seoul).
I love photography, too. Some things, especially in every day life, can be so beautiful if you can catch them at the right moment. Speaking of which, there is a used roll of film sitting on my desk right now. Hmm, I should probably get it developed some time soon.
Anyway, that's me in a nut-shell in this moment. Can't wait to learn more about you guys out there!

[Virgil]

Nice to meet you both. You both seem interesting.

Weeping Willow: Some day I'm sure you will regard your military experience with the honor and nobility it deserves. Some day there will finally be peace there, and you can tell yourself that you had a hand in the accomplishment.

Eva: I'm impressed with your language abilities. If I have a question on latin, which I've been trying to learn on my own--and poorly at that--I'll shoot you an email.

[Weeping Willow]

hay.
I really hope that someday there will be peace here but i can honestlly tell you that me serving in the army won't have nothing to do with it.
I don't think that serving was all a bad experiance, i tell you one thing it makes you grow up really quick, how should i describe it..
You become aware to your surroundings, become more mature that the word i was looking for... but again.. three years... that's alot of time..
But that doen't matter right now (at list until the will call me again to reserve duty).
I want to add that i'm very impressed that you managed to acomplish both your engineering and literature togther it must have been a hard task.
I just can't decide what to learn.. literature is very interstaing yet not very useful in today's world. and computers is not that intersting to me
altought it has really good jobs....

[Virgil]

hay.
II want to add that i'm very impressed that you managed to acomplish both your engineering and literature togther it must have been a hard task.
I just can't decide what to learn.. literature is very interstaing yet not very useful in today's world. and computers is not that intersting to me
altought it has really good jobs....

Thanks for the compliment. It just seemed to work out that way. Having a good job is very important, unless you're independently wealthy.

Let me lay out some of the options. If you major in lit you'll either be a teacher or do something totally unrelated to literature. If you want to be a teacher, fine; if not, then what did the lit degree amount to? If you get a degree in computers, work may be completely different than school (like it was for me in engineering) and you might like it and be happy; if it's still boring then you made a bad choice. While a job does not have to be the love of your life, you have to be happy at a job. You are there 8 or so hours a day, one third of your life. I happened to get a good job and then went back at took up what I enjoyed, more as a hobby than anything else.

[RobinHood3000]

Hi, thought I might as well see what this thread was about and introduce myself.

Call me Robin. I like my anonymity. Nice to meet everybody .

[Virgil]

Hey Robin. We started on this right around the same time, but you got 4X the number of posts than I do. Wow.

[Weeping Willow]

Ok than in Israel it's defintly not an option to become a teacher since with the kids of today you need to be suicidle..
Teachers here get paid real bad and get treated even worse by the students and their parents..
so thats out..
I guess what i would probably do is study somthing like computers.. and like you did, late night course in literature.. because it's just fascinats me.. Thanks for your help it was inlighting...

Oh and it's pleasure to meet you Robin..
Are there any weeping willows in sherwood forest??

[Koa]

Weeping Willow, a question about that army thing: does really everybody spend their age from 18 to 21 in the army??? What if they want to study at University? They do it later??? Here draft was compulsory for one year for all males, but they could delay it for study reasons, or in the last few years avoid it by doing some public service instead. From this year it's not compulsory anymore, totally volunteer, and since a few years ago it's open to women too.

As for introduction well... I guess I'll introduce myself cos I dont have much else to do at the moment, even though I suppose the 'old' ones know enough about me already... well maybe some newbies won't mind since I'm as new to them as they are to me...

Where can I start from... I'm Italian and on 28th November I graduated in Foreign Languages And Literature (that's how the faculty is called, our system seems to be really different from the American one, as far as I know about it), namely English and Russian, plus French as a third language. Languages are my first and true passion, though I am not fond of grammar and absolutely unable to do anything by self-teaching...I need a course and a motivation to do my homework! At school I did English, German and French... so I am fluent in English, I can manage rather well with French, I know little German and little Spanish (just cos it's so easy for an Italian!), I somehow understand and speak Russian, and I know very little Hungarian because I spent one semester as an exchange student in Hungary... which was possibly the best time of my life, when I learnt a lot and finally opened up myself (I've been kinda avoiding social situations from the age of 14 to 22... until last year when I was down there...)...though the wonderful effect of that experience is kinda vanishing and I am back at some passivity...
I am known as the official traveller of the forum, infact I love travelling and experiencing life in new places (besides Hungary, I spent one month in Moscow last summer). I don't like living here, as I don't share most aspects of the Italian mentality.

These days I am working at an office, well rather helping, though I dont really like it and anyway it's going to be temporary, till I decided what to do with my life... Which i really dont know. I think I'll apply for some traineeship abroad, and I am considering doing a MA or something like that in the UK, which I consider my spiritual homeland (though I've never tried to live there for long...), and because I want to experiment a different educational system cos I find the one here deeply unsatisfying at university level. Though I'm not sure exactly what kind of specialisation I want, either Translation or Slavic Studies or something like international relations, or maybe journalism...though I don't think I have the personality to be a journalist.

I like reading though in the past years I havent done it as much as in the past... but I still enjoy it. I've been reading a lot of Russian literature though it would be hard to name any favourites or something I'm really an expert of. I prefer to say that I'm second to noone when it's about ignorance

As for music, I particularly like what could be called synth-pop, I love those electronic sounds, and 80s stuff, especially the dark ones like The Cure and Joy Division, though my favourite band ever is Depeche Mode... I also enjoy some rock and occasionally some pop mainstream stuff, though I dislike silly commercial pop.

And this is way too long so I'll stop it, I just got carried away as usual, but I can never explain things in few words

[samercury]

*Looks at the people above her with awe*--wow -o-

...um....introduction...

Let's begin- I'm a high-school student. I really, Really love drawing and reading- books and graphic novels- (A LOT!!!)....For some reason, I really like the sciences (esp. chem and bio)...
I also love languages- right now I'm taking French and Latin.(yay)....hope to learn other languages later on...
...What else?....I love singing and running, soccer's fun too ...and I'm learning how to play the violin.
I don't like to watch tv a lot...except for anime and I easily get fascinated by random stuff....I love snow and flowers.....
Oh yeah, I love smileys
That's all...for now