Anyone Up For A Good Old-Fashioned *Mixer?*

[msbeadsley]

Against my better judgement and sense of paranoia, but here goes:
Name: Sandy Diersing
 
Also known as: msbeadsley

Age/Sex: 46, female

Birthplace/Livingplace and feelings about same: Born in Louisville, 
Kentucky; a place I escaped at 25 only to find out later was not 
nearly as awful as I'd thought. Live now in Denver, Colorado, after 
two years in NYC. Like Denver better than either previous locale, 
mostly due to having found SF fandom here.

Family Life: domestic partner of umpteen years, Bruce, two Amazon 
parrots who make excellent surrogate children: it's like having 
perennial two-year olds (mine says "I love you" at the end of our 
bedtime ritual; not a thing I prompted). Extended family of choice is 
Denver (SF, not <just> HP) fandom.

Personality: Mercurial, obsessive, creative, impulsive

Words friends have used to describe you: Sweet (ack! they keep doing 
that!), nasty (that's better), perceptive, scary, unpredictable, 
inspiring

Words you have used to describe you: Smart, lazy, spoiled, arrogant, 
scared

Things you do when not staring at the computer: Read, make jewelry 
(hence the ms*bead*sley), walk, putter, work/huckster at local SF cons

Comfort foods: quartered apples and colby jack cheese, chocolate

Education/Work: High school, autodidactic, early retired from State 
government service but broke and eyeing the job market economy/higher 
education (psychology)

Language skills: I was the firstborn; my parents had me in every 
kiddie book club on the planet and I don't recall learning to read 
any more than I recall learning to walk or talk. I hung out with 
adults and got *very* adept verbally, very early. As well, my father 
is a "character" who indulged in verbal "chop-chop" as I was growing 
up; the family learned to do it in self-defense. And don't I know now 
what a double-edged sword *that* is!

Technical know-how: I can get most Microsoft Office applications to 
do what I want; have replaced cards on the motherboard of my computer 
and, until I quit work, was the person in an office of 25 most often 
tapped (short of calling help desk five floors up) to figure out why 
a piece of hardware or software wasn't behaving as advertised.

Favourite HP book: It's apples and oranges to me but I always say the 
first one because it's what hooked me in.

Favourite HP character(s): Harry, closely followed by Dumbledore. 
 
Favourite HP line: "I think I can tell who the wrong sort are for 
myself, thanks." (CHOP! You go, Harry!)

Watching/Avoiding the HP movies?: Watching, sometimes on an almost 
endless loop (television like flickering fire/hearth; not paying any 
attention).

Into HP fanfiction? Write a bit but don't read it because it confuses 
my sense of canon. Will devour all after canon is all fired off.

Books you'd recommend to just about anyone:
Lois McMaster Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan books
Orson Scott Card, especially the Ender's Game saga;
Louisa May Alcott's Little Men and Jo's Boys (after Little Women)
Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman (nonfiction) should be 
required reading all over the planet

Favorite TV shows: Buffy (snivel!), Angel, Gilmore Girls.  It's all 
about the *writing*. Babylon 5 was also awesome.
 
Favorite Movies: Little Voice, The "Prophecy" Trilogy, Paulie
 
Favorite Musical Artists: David Bowie, lotsa old stuff (70's), more 
recent pop like Seal, Sheryl Crow
 
One thing about your life you'd change if you could (sorry, but you
may not say "lose weight"): Would have joined the human race/"outed" 
myself sooner: reached *out* more and *in* less, earlier

One thing about your life you wouldn't change even for an advance
copy of Book 7: Moving to Denver and in with my love, an IT nerd

Philosophy for an easy life: Get over yourself, have a sense of 
humor. And don't I just work on this one every day!

How you found HPfGU: surfing for OoP reactions.

Active at other HP sites: (There are other HP sites?) A bit.
 
Your most rock solid Book 6 or Book 7 prediction: The DA is the most 
important thing Harry did in Book 5 and we'll see many ripples from 
it later. (Kinda chicken sh*t, innit?) And Sirius will not be back 
for any more than a cameo (like Harry's folks via Priori Incantatem).

Take a moment to wave to members of the fandom you have personally 
met: none from this board, I think. Have met hundreds of members of 
SF "fandom" around the country and regularly get together with local 
ones.

ADD A QUESTION OF YOUR OWN AND ANSWER IT: Is it just me or is HPfGU 
the best HP board out there?