Clare T. Rampling

Orientations & relationships: I am polyamorous, bisexual, and genderqueer. I am a girlfag (I like gay/bi men), though I also enjoy other orientation flavors too (I like straight men, bi women, gq people, etc.). I am in multiple relationships of various types, locally and long distance, and am open to others (especially in the LA area). My feline companion, mira_kitty is online with her own LJ now (and she was recenly diagnosed with hip dysplasia, a genetic form of arthritis). =^..^=

Philosophy: I am an atheist and a secular humanist (a eupraxsophy). I am a strongly skeptical person, uncomfortable around most pseudoscientific and paranormal beliefs (I especially dislike astrology, as do 186 Leading Scientists -- Richard Dawkins writes "Astrology is neither harmless nor fun, and we should see it as an enemy of truth" -- ASTROLOGY IS BIGOTRY). I'm OK with religious or spiritual people, as long as their outlook is essentially humanistic (i.e. primarily focussed on human responsibility and happiness in this world), and they don't push their beliefs onto me. But for me The God FAQ sums it up concisely.

I am an eccentric! I will not pronounce the word normal (when I can help it) since it makes assumptions about the desirability of being at "the norm" of some distribution curve, and usually carries the implication that being off of (or far from) the norm is bad somehow. I prefer to substitute "average", "ordinary", "usual", "common", "typical", "regular", etc. Note that these words tend to carry the opposite implication, that the norm is boring!

Time Orientation: I am a night person (most of the time). I have a non-24-hour circadian rhythm (a.k.a. non-24-Hour sleep/wake syndrome a.k.a. hypernychthemeral syndrome), which seems to be a more extreme version of delayed sleep phase syndrome (DSPS), and I cope by most of the time being nocturnal, except when I "wrap", and my sleep phase may pass quickly through other (more "regular") hours. As part of this, I very often have sleep onset insomnia and nearly always have morning hypersomnia. Some say we nocturnal people are an oppressed minority, and I must say that sometimes it really feels like that!

Jobs: My most recent long-duration job was at a college, writing programs to handle and process satellite data into formats that astronomers could use to help analyze their data. After that, I had a very short stay at a rocket scientist job (well, I was rocket programmer, really, but I think that counts!), which turned out to be a poor job match for me (ultra-startup life-eating mentality). A few weeks after leaving that job, my shoulder started hurting and I was unable to jobhunt for 6 months (see below). Then I started working again at the same college, doing similar work as before, but with additional responsibilities and duties. And then... out of work for a rather unpleasantly too-long time. Then (6/8/2009 - 6/25/2010), I had a "green" job, working as a Program Manager (with part-time Technical Writing duties). Now I'm back to JOB HUNTING....

Spinal Neck Tumor: On 5/5/2004, I noticed that my left shoulder was REALLY BUGGING ME. After wrangling the COBRA insurance stuff from my previous satellite data programming job, I managed to see a doctor on 5/17/2004. He wasn't so good, and never got me the MRI I needed. Finally, on 7/10/2004, I finally got the MRI (see pic at right -- my neck and lower head, looking left), which showed that I had a 3cm tumor in my spine, next to my spinal cord, with a >99% chance that it was benign. On 7/28/2004, I had surgery to remove it, and they found that it was a benign combination of a meningioma and schwannoma. I was on many medications, including Morphine and Vicodin, for quite a long time, both before and after the surgery. If you check out my userpix, you can see a pic of my original "Cervical Collar" from back when the doctors didn't know what it was, a pic of my "Throbbing Neck Tumor" in hot pulsing red (reproduced in this paragraph for your convenience), and a pic of my Big Red Scar with stitches across it (which I jokingly call my "Tumor's Exit Wound"). You can also view bigger MRI pix with tumor identified.

I managed to get SDI (State Disability Insurance), backdated effective to 5/10/2004, at a nice rate of $104/day including weekend days. I ended the SDI on 10/29/2004, for nearly 6 months of disability. Happily I was strong enough after the SDI ended to put a full effort into jobhunting, which turned out well (see above).

IT'S NOT A TUMOR (Arnold, the Governator) ~ ~ ~ Yeah, but sometimes it is a tumor!

Hobbies: Cats, Books, Movies, Activism, and a predilection for making Geomag Polyhedra.

Logical Punctuation: I use logical punctuation everywhere, unless someone forces me to change it for publication or suchlike. I hate the illogic of the standard system, and hate the confusion that it so easily engenders. Here's a quote I love:

Me, I use logical punctuation everywhere, regardless of language. Most likely it's because of my analytical mind, but not having English as my first language might have something to do with it too, but I've never seen the bleeding point in non-logical punctuation. It's a counter-intuitive aberration due to hysterical raisins, and should be discouraged. — JIP | Talk 13:11, 5 Apr 2005 (UTC) (link)

I'm such a wild rebel!

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NOTES & LINKS

I started the exercise_pals LJ community to be a place for me and any interested exercising friends to post daily or frequent progress reports about exercise, and a place for supportive friends to watch progress and provide supportive comments.

I started the toymags LJ community to be a place for interested folk to talk about building interesting polyhedra or other structures using Geomags or Supermags or similar magnetic construction toy kits.

I wrote a short article entitled "Who's That Girlfag?" which was published as a sidebar in the Summer 2003 issue of BUST magazine, p. 65 (a popular glossy print mag -- not online!).

I am the founder of girlfags, an LJ community by and for girlfags, guydykes, and those who wanna talk about them.

I am the founder of poly_la, an LJ community by and for polyamorous people in the greater Los Angeles Area.

I am the founder of www.GirlFags.com which includes four groups (one general, two local, and one for personal ads). The main list has over 1000 members!!!

I *WAS* a member of the Board of BiNet Los Angeles, and acted as the Chairperson and Social Coordinator. I am no longer involved with them. I have also facilitated three different Los Angeles area bi chat groups.

For more info on me (a tiny bit), see Clare's Yahoo Profile

I now also have a profile at the Queer By Choice website.

I'm also findable at Friendster, using the name "Clare Rampling",
and at Tribe.net under the name "Clare Rampling",
and at PolyMatchMaker under the name "clare",
and at Orkut using the name "Clare Rampling",
and at OkCupid under the name "clare" -- you can view my profile there without logging in.

View movies I want to see and some of my movie ratings in my Movie Profile at Yahooo Movies

PHOTO GALLERY: on LJ's ScrapBook (in progress)

AFTER I DIE: Follow instructions here.

LJ FRIENDS-ONLY POSTS PRIVACY AGREEMENT: If you are a member of my friends list, and if you choose to read my posts, you agree to keep the contents of my friendslocked posts private. Unless I post whom a friendslocked post is restricted to, you should not assume anyone else on my friends list is privy to the post you see. Yeah, these are all obvious things, but sometimes it's good to be explicit. If you do not agree to these restrictions, tell me, and I will unfriend you.

MY THREE FAVORITE POLY QUOTES Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born. -- Anaïs Nin, The Diary of Anïas Nin, vol. 2, page 4 No one worth possessing Can be quite possessed. -- Sara Teasdale Touch passion when it comes your way.... It's rare enough as it is. Don't walk away when it calls you by name. -- J. Michael Straczynski -- said by Marcus Cole (to Doctor Stephen Franklin), on the TV series Babylon 5, Episode "Lines of Communication", Season 4 [ref] [.WAV file] AND A GENERAL QUOTE I think I've got the right idea, to do crazy things -- what other people would consider crazy things. There's so much fun to be had. -- Richard Feynman

P.S. KITTIES!
P.P.S. Change Your Astrological Sign! -- though I won't change mine; I enjoy being an Ophiuchus, the "13^TH sign", which clearly must be the Sign of the Skeptic! (For a list of what constellation the sun was really aligned with when you were born, this article has a list.) I once told this (about Ophiuchus) to my mom, but she wanted to add it to her astrology, not use it as a "sign" that the whole thing is crap. *sigh*

DREAMS (xkcd)

xkcd: "Grownups"

(& followup)

 

More xkcd, this time on skepticism: "The Data So Far"

 

OK, one more xkcd: "Cat Proximity":

 

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My Nearest PWS (Personal Weather Station):