Where are you from?

[Melkor]

Forgive me if it's been done before...
I'm sure Lor will rectify it if thats the case...


-glares-


Just wondering.

A-Where are you from..Okay I don't want an address children...just a country, city maybe...

B-Do you enjoy living there/ have a sense of identity due to it?

C- What traits/stereotypes do you beleive you are cursed/blessed with?


As for me

-Belfast Northern Ireland....you all knew that yes?

-I guess I do..but I'm entirely against the idea of patriotism..

-A terrible accent and a lot of slang that no-one gets?

 

[FusionKnight]

A-Where are you from..Okay I don't want an address children...just a country, city maybe...

B-Do you enjoy living there/ have a sense of identity due to it?

C- What traits/stereotypes do you beleive you are cursed/blessed with?

A. Saint Paul, MN USA. I was born here, and have lived here my entire life.

B. I do like Minnesota. It's a beautiful place. We've got lakes and woods galore (our motto is "Land of 10,000 Lakes" and we have the Boundary Waters Canoe Area and Lake Superior). We have all 4 seasons, which means we have winter. Winter in MN can range from cold to frigid. Yesterday it snowed some 6 inches, and it took me 1.5 hours to drive home from work. Then I shoveled snow for an hour...

C. I tend to blow my nose really loud; it usually ends up sounding like a fog horn...

 

[Melkor]

Ohhh sounds interesting.


It's always cold where i live...count yourself lucky....

and some people wish for snow, and never get it...so.....

 

[grey matters]

I live in a quiet little redneck town (gee this sounds like South Park the tv show) just outside of Houston Texas. I am not from the southern united states and being very clearly a yankee I get a bit of flack for this, to which we (my husband and I) respond, "well, you lost that war. We are here as part of the occupying force" (and they haven't burned down our house yet for that...go figure). Yes I know the civil war ended over 150 years ago but there are some people here who still here the cannons booming so to speak. Needless to say some things are a little slow to change here. Dispite this Texas is not a bad place to live.

We are too far south and too close to the Gulf of Mexico to get any real winter weather. I have tropical plants growing in my yard. We may get a freeze once or twice a year but it only freezes for a few hours.

A few years ago we had an ice storm. As I recall it had been a decade since the last ice storm. My husband was going to get a lawn chair and a 6 pack of beer and go out near the highway and watch the carnage. Southerners can drive on ice and snow just as well as our president can balance our budget. The kids were out of school for 2 days because of the storm. In the south their idea of an automatic sanding truck is two guys in the back of a pick up truck with shovels.

Frankly, I don't know why Mother nature even bothers with winter down here. In mid December the last of the deciduious trees have lost their leaves only to regrow them two and a half months later.

Now for my question: Fusionknight how can you call freezing your ass off beautiful?

 

[FusionKnight]

There are lots of nice things about winter. That being said, in Minnesota winter typically lasts from November through March which is 5 months!!!

If it didn't last so dang long, I'd love it. When we get lots of snow there are a ton of fun outdoor activities like sledding, cross-country and downhill skiing, snow-shoeing, snowball fights, etc.

Winter has a certain loneliness and solitude to it which can really stir my soul. There's nothing quite like standing on a frozen lake at 1:00 in the morning when the temperature is -40 F, watching the aurora and listening to the ice crack (zzzzzzzziiiiiiiiiip, BOOM).

In Saint Paul we have a Winter Carnival which is pretty cool. We build an Ice Castle (this one's not the best example), have famous sculptors do Ice Carvings in the downtown city park, and have a treasure hunt for the Carnival Medallion (worth a bit of cash if you find it).

Still, 5 months is looooooooooong. Usually by the middle of January I'm going stir crazy, and just want to tear off my clothes and run around on some tropical beach somewhere.

 

[grey matters]

My sister spent a winter in Madison Wisconsin. That spring she heard the ice crack for the first time but didn't know what she was hearing, she thought it was multiple car accidents without the sound of screeching tires.

The ice castle is beautiful unfortunately you have to endure freezing cold temps in order to go out and look at it. I used to live where it got cold and have determined that there are two things that should only be reserved for crazy people Tequila, and downhill skiing. Tequila is obvious, but skiing I might have to explain. You see skiing involves cold temps., wind chill, falling down and getting wet. the latter two things cause you to freeze even more and to feel the pain even more sharply.

In Houston we have rednecks (at least where I live), 5 months of unbelieveably hot temps, and the occasional hurricane but our "cold" weather (temps between 40 and sometimes 30 degrees farenheight) only lasts about two weeks total.

 

[Ogion]

I'm from Germany, from around the former capitol Bonn. Now studying in Giessen (where US GIs were stationed long time. They are away now, though).

I do like it in the temperate zones. Meaning having all four seasons. Yes, i do like winter as well.
I like that German is my mother tongue, because it is a very apt language, especially for science and stuff Otherwise i am thankful to live in a country which can be called among the most developed.

Otherwise i do not place much importance on my country (any country really), since i rather think in terms of humans and humankind, not in terms of national and nationalities...

Ogion

 

[Melkor]

So do you have an accent and sexy eyes?



Hey wait a minute.....you're female right?


I'm not sure...we're all so ambiguious these days....

 

[Ogion]

Sorry, i must disappoint you. I am male...(There is a photo from me in the photo gallery thread...)

Hm, maybe i have an accent, but i speak English a lot better than many Germans (which would really have an accent )

Ogion

 

[Melkor]

Awww damn......


I always get it wrong...

Well at leats it didn't get awkward...

 

[Ogion]

Still want to impress me? Or was that born our of other interests...
(You may pursue things with my avatar instead, if you like. At least i find her hot )

Ogion

 

[Melkor]

Okay then.....

-hits Ogion with an iron and runs-

 

[Ogion]

(Ogion sees he has only half an hour left before the shops close, and he still needs something to eat, so he'll be off for half an hour...)

But i'll leave my avatar here, if you want to have some fun. (Do not attempt to harm her, it's useless. She is a Q, you know?)

Ogion

 

[Waterstiller]

I'm from Orange County, CA. Anaheim & Stanton, specifically. However, I've been living in the valley for most of the past 10 years.

I enjoy living in California, I suppose. I'm planning on moving to NorCal or Washington in a couple years so I'm not very attached it it. I have a bit of guilt and shame being a US citizen; if I could, I'd move to Montreal.

Ever seen Weeds? It's an extremely accurate representation of the suburban area I live in. On top of that: blond hair, tanned skin, big trucks, manly men, bitchy women, extremely Christian. Add to that all the other CA stereotypes. Then the ones associated with the US.

 

[Ogion]

That'll be a lot of stereotypes... (Especially from my German perspective )

Ogion

 

[Agent Intellect]

i live in Grand Rapids (township of Wyoming) Michigan, USA.

just like with fusionknight, we get all four seasons here. i think MN is colder, but the weather changes at the drop of a hat around here (mostly due to being surrounded by the great lakes). just today, at ten in the morning it was 40 degrees fahrenheit, now at five thirty its about twenty degrees and snowing like a blizzard.

we can also have pretty hot summers, getting up to 95 degrees (i'm sure the texans will laugh at that) and violent storms will pop up from lake michigan out of nowhere.

if you don't like the weather in Michigan, just wait an hour.

i dislike michigan for too many reasons, but the main ones are: snow and the economy.

i don't know about stereotypes for michigan. i know one that people have pointed out is that in michigan people say "pop" instead of "soda" and "supper" instead of "dinner". when telling people where we live, michigan people often hold up their hand and point to it like a map. other then that, i've been accused of being half canadian due to michigans close proximinity to canada.

 

[Ermine]

I live in Kalispell, Montana, US. It's up near the Canadian border and is pretty close to Glacier National Park. It's currently really cold, but I like it here. I love how there are breathtaking views everywhere you go. We're surrounded by snowcapped mountains, always have cool clouds in the sky, and several ski resorts nearby!

It's a beautiful place. My only reservation is that it's a small town. Hardly any art galleries, too many people know my name, and there are a lot of hicks. All they talk about around here is skiing, snowboarding, and hunting.

As for stereotypes, there are the general US stereotypes of being stupid and fat, and for specific state stereotypes, it's probably the druggie jokes. Since it's a small population in a big state, a lot of people tend to drug abuse. Oh, and the huckleberries. And the Canadians come to visit all the time. Apparently Kalispell has all the stores they like but don't have up in Alberta. So there's a friendly Americans vs. Canadians feud. They're always challenging us to hockey games.

 

[grey matters]

Ogion, you write English better then many English speakers do.

Waterstiller, how do you cope in that environment?

A.I. I know someone who lives in Michigan, she has these special lamps in her house to help her cope with seasonal affective disorder (for those who don't know, the sun rarely shines in Michigan).

The last time I was there I almost died on the road when I saw one of their "ski resorts". (for those who don't know) Michigan is as flat as a pancake in order to get the elevation for a ski resort they piled up dirt to about 3-4 stories high and put lights and a rope tow on it. The "pile of dirt" could have been a modified glacial feature but I think it was too far south to be that. It had a gentle slope like most kiddie slopes at ski resorts. The cross country skiing is kick ass though, (if you can handle the cold). Sorry to make fun of the state you live in, I just had to tell that story.

95 degrees must be like a kind of torture up there.

 

[grey matters]

Does everybody live where it's freezing cold? At least Ermine has a fur coat. The mountains are beautiful, but only habitable in the summer.

 

[Ogion]

Hey thanks, grey.

I would say Dissident has it probably not all too cold, living in Argentina. Though there are cold regions there as well..
Oh, and of course all people living in Texas...

Ogion

 

[Waterstiller]

Waterstiller, how do you cope in that environment?

It's kind of nice. Beautiful if you ignore 95% of the people, especially this time of year. I wander out to the wineries or the hills for some nice places to just relax. I've found pockets of Bohemia here and there. I even managed to locate another INTP trans girl who lives 5 minutes away who's the most intelligent person I've ever met.

As for the temperature.. tomorrow it'll be 78F.

 

[grey matters]

An INTP trans girl who lives 5 minutes away, what are the odds of that happening?

 

[EloquentBohemian]

A. Saint Paul, MN USA... ...Winter in MN can range from cold to frigid. Yesterday it snowed some 6 inches, and it took me 1.5 hours to drive home from work. Then I shoveled snow for an hour...

i live in Grand Rapids (township of Wyoming) Michigan, USA.... ....other then that, i've been accused of being half canadian due to michigans close proximinity to canada.

I live in Kalispell, Montana, US. It's up near the Canadian border and is pretty close to Glacier National Park.... ...So there's a friendly Americans vs. Canadians feud. They're always challenging us to hockey games.

HA! Silly American K-ni-gits! Up heres in t'e Ottawas, we have t'e snows, and then we gets the more snows, and then we imports even more t'e snows from the Artic circles, eh!
Tabernac!
In facts, we invented the snows.
Jus' like we invents the Hockeys 'n' the Basketballs....
'n' t'ose little curly-cue thingies on the tops of t'ose Dairy Queens not-really-ice-cream cones.
Tabernac!
We have so much snows t'at we's can farts snows in yur gen'ral directions, eh!
HA! Tabernac!
T'e only ones whose has snows more t'an Canadiens is t'e Russians, but dey are t'e jealous ones, no?!
...'cause we has gots t'e Mooses and t'e Beavers, eh!
We's gots t'e Beavers everywheres.

An' it be's so cold up here in t'e norths of Canada, t'at yur INTPnesses would snap like t'e hockey sticks in Guy LaFleur's hands when he does t'e slap-shots, t'e would, eh!
HA! Tabernac!

(...end cultural silliness)

 

[Waterstiller]

An INTP trans girl who lives 5 minutes away, what are the odds of that happening?

You'd be surprised. I know quite a few online, and in RL I know two.

I have good radar.

 

[grey matters]

I wish I had good INTP radar.

As for E.B., I think he is getting cabin fever. He is starting to loos it.

 

[eudemonia]

I'm from the very unromantic town of Basingstoke. this is about 40 miles south of London. It is a 'new town' which means that it was built up and developed in the 1960s as part of the government's social engineering plan. they brought large numbers of people from the Caribbean into London and shipped out a load of the 'deserving poor' into towns all over the UK. My parents fit the bill, were assessed and offered a job in Basingstoke.

As a result, the town comprises large numbers of ex council estates. Large swathes of identical houses originally owned by the government for which people paid rent. Ugly looking places which were mostly bought when Thatcher came in and privatised everything. Basingstoke's one blessing is its location - close to London, Heathrow, Gatwick, M4, M3, M25 (major motorways) south coast, links to France etc.

Nowadays, it looks better than it was. But only in a mass, homogeneous, faceless kind of way (like most towns in the UK nowadays).

When I left, I vowed I would never return. Now, I live on the outskirts of the town just outside a village called Sherfield on Loddon. It's quaint, middle class and mediocre. its convenient to visit though - if you fancy it one day

Me and my husband vow that we will break out one day, so watch this space.

Traits - I've always walked in way that people think I'm either posh or stuck up. I'm not though, I'm from working class stock. Don't know why I walk that way.

 

[FusionKnight]

Does everybody live where it's freezing cold? At least Ermine has a fur coat. The mountains are beautiful, but only habitable in the summer.

Well, MN has pretty much both extremes. In winter the temperature usually hangs around 0-20F, but often dips down to -20F and occasionally can drop to -40F or so, depending on where you are. Winters are extremely dry, and cause my hands to crack open and bleed...

Summers are typically fast and furious. Highs are usually 75-85F, but sometimes it jumps to 90s, and occasionally around 100F. The humidity makes everything feel worse. Since true summer is only around from June-August, people go nuts during that time, and by September, people are run ragged, and need autumn to recover before the winter holidays.

 

[Melkor]

I wish I had good INTP radar.

As for E.B., I think he is getting cabin fever. He is starting to loos it.

Thats just my mindset settling in....

 

[Calamedes]

lol. I'm an immigrant, so I"ll answer twice.

1) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: United States

- I liked it, but there's nothing special about it.
- I am an American at heart, and I will always be. Despite how much I dislike our current and elect's policies, I would still serve my country given the opportunity.
- stereotypes? I'm a (relatively) poor American Jew of almost pure German descent who's bilingual hebrew/english. I'm not sure any of the usualy stereotypes apply :P

2) Ra'anana, Israel
- I. Love. It.
- I immigrated to Israel in July for a number of reasons, one of them being the typical "Calling" bit. I love Israel with all my heart and I wouldn't leave, despite how much I miss the States. Frankly, I'm not sure what I'd do if they went to war against each other (of course, discounting the fact that it won't happen in my lifetime... lol).

as you can see, I take patriotism to a despicably illogical fault :P

- by stereotype in comparison to the local population, I look/act/think like a typical American... minus the fact that i'm not 10,000lbs (a shit-ton in kg) and i like to think that i'm not an idiot.

 

[NoID10ts]

I live in a sewer below the streets of Houston, TX, I think. It's a nice place, big bathrooms, all bathroom, in fact. It has a natural ambience about it with the dim lighting, the sound of gently running water, and the subtle echoes of the city rolling through the myriad pipes all around. It's very cozy.

Except that I and my family are not alone here. There are others down here. I hate them. I don't like crowds. I carry a rusty pipe with me at all times and let me tell you, when I catch one of my neighbors, well, lets just say we have a nice feast on those nights, haha!

There is this one guy, though, that I haven't been able to catch. Keeps calling me "precious" the little nasty freak. Eats all the rats which pisses me off because my kids love a good rat souffle.

But its not all fun and games and cannibalism down here. I work hard to play hard. I have a hearty fertilizer and mushroom business. I also sell second hand corn from a push along cart in the city parks during Christmas to make a little extra cash. We don't celebrate Christmas down here, mind you, but people love second hand corn during the holidays. I don't know why.

All in all, its a quaint life. As for stereotypes, people say I reek of urine and alcohol, and I guess I mumble incoherenly alot. But I think its unfair to say these things just because I live in a sewer. The sewer has nothing to do with it. It's because I am an INTP.

 

[Ogion]

Haha, very poetically, NoI. *thumbs up*

Ogion

 

[NoID10ts]

Haha, very poetically, NoI. *thumbs up*

Ogion

What this funny? This is my home, man! I don't laugh at Giessen, Germany.

 

[Ogion]

Well, actually? You should. Seriously. This town is just plain ugly....(I am not coming from this town, i just study here. I come from the former capitol Germany Bonn. Now that is a nice town )

Ogion

 

[Waterstiller]

Selling second-hand corn. That's one of the most disgusting things I've ever heard.

 

[NoID10ts]

I need help don't I?

 

[Titania]

I live in the middle of Finland in Jyväskylä. It's quite similar to what FusionKnight described: lots of lakes and woods, about 5 months lasting winter and the other three seasons, thought the temperatures aren't as radical. Yep, the autums and winters are dark, cold and sleety, but I couldn't live without them. And the light summer nights are great.
Jyväskylä is just... ordinary city. It's called as "the Athens of Finland" 'cause the first school that offered education in Finnish was found here... Now most of the schools will be disband due the loss of money and 'cause the buildings are mouldy. The good side here is that you can get easily away from the civilization and the air isn't too polluted. Sometimes it feels that you are a bit too far away from the other world... I'm not sure about stereotypes, here in Middle-Finland we don't even have a proper dialect. And I hate the stereotype of drunk, cave man-finns that some of us like to promulgate all around.

BTW, Ogion, where the Giessen is? Last autum I visited in Germany, in Staufenberg (about 90 km from Franfurt am Main) and I saw somewhere a sign "Giessen". Is that the same place? :P

 

[Anling]

Currently I am in eastern Idaho. I don't know about stereotypes for here. I don't think I've been here long enough to count as a local.
I suppose every one is related to everyone else and their families have been here forever. And they seem to expect you to know everyone as well.

 

[Ogion]

Yep, titania. Giessen is some 45 minutes with the train from Frankfurt/Main. In the middlee of nowhere, erm, i mean Hessia.

What did you do in Staufenberg/Germany?

Ogion

Actually, Staufenberg seems to be some 10km from where i live now. Administratively it belongs to Giessen.

 

[Calamedes]

I'm an immigrant, so y'all think i should do it twice? nahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

So although I'm from the US, I currently live in Ra'anana Israel. It's about 20 minutes outside Tel Aviv with clear traffic... and a 2-hour+ bus ride otherwise :P

I love Israel. Though I work all over the place (literally one end of central Israel one day, the other the next, and I live about as far out of the Center to still be called part of the Center), I love my country more than I can describe coherently... otherwise I wouldn't have immigrated! lol

Stereotype? I'm an secular, Aryan-looking American who voluntarily tossed himself into a religious town in the Middle East. I'm chock full of stereotypes :P The ones I'm NOT, however, include obese and stupid.

PS I'd like to point out that if you're here, you have more intelligence than the American stereotype. Don't take offense to anything I might say from here on out... I'm both a tad drunk and very much sleep-deprived: not a good combination :P

 

[loveofreason]

"Just wondering" eh Melkor? Riiight...

A-Where are you from..Okay I don't want an address children...just a country, city maybe...

Tasmania, only half a mill people. Won't specify where except to say it's defined by wind and rain and trees.

B-Do you enjoy living there/ have a sense of identity due to it?

I am the land I walk.


C- What traits/stereotypes do you beleive you are cursed/blessed with?

As if I really have a clue how others see me? Except, despite the fact I was born and bred here, the locals know I don't belong. I must seem 'different'.

 

[Jesin]

[...]

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CanadaEh

 

[Chronomar]

Does everybody live where it's freezing cold? At least Ermine has a fur coat. The mountains are beautiful, but only habitable in the summer.

I to, live in the freezing cold. I live in Wisconsin (Milwaukee County). And last time I measured we have 11.5 inches of snow near my house, which is peanuts compared to how much we got last year.

As for whether I like it or not...
Some good things are:
- the 4 season climate (but then again, I could find that many places)
- the place I live in is not in a big city, but it is next to one, so I get to have access to cool art and science museums and university programs etc while not having to actually live in the city, I like nature too much.
- we have MORE lakes than Minnesota we just don't brag about it on our license plates. (FusionKnight).

Some bad things are...
- I am not from here, so sometimes I haven't been enculturated into certain things. Such as the fact that they have something called "Saint Nick's Day" (I've been told its German thing...can Ogion clarify?) which I always forget to get people small gifts for because we don't celebrate it.
- Some times I think people are a little bossy here (as apposed to where my mom comes from, Kentucky)

Stereotypes: We're all tacky, fat, stupid people who only care about what's going on in their little, poorly named (Brookfield, Greendale...boring names) town. Which, for some people, is true. Not for me or most people I know, however.

 

[EloquentBohemian]

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CanadaEh

Tres funny, eh! Tabernac!
Especially this:

On a side note, Canada is, bizarrely, treated as the most evil country in the world in the X Men books. Seriously. They're the ones responsible for inhumane genetic experimentation on minorities like the Weapon X program. They've put mutants in concentration camps and gassed them, including women and children. Basically, Marvel Canada = Nazi Germany. At least in the mutant line of comic books.

What most Americans don't know is that we have our own superhero, Captain Canuck...

See Official Site and Wikipedia.

Then there's Bullwinkle, who is a Canadian moose...

And, of course, the brave, pure, and terminally naive, Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties...

 

[FusionKnight]

Okay, who can take cops seriously when they're called "Mounties"...??

 

[NoID10ts]

Sounds erotic to me.

 

[Melkor]

Noddy....the nursery rhyme 'one two buckle my shoe' sounds erotic to you.

So you're no proper judge.

 

[NoID10ts]

Noddy....the nursery rhyme 'one two buckle my shoe' sounds erotic to you.

So you're no proper judge.

Well lets see. You want her to bend over and buckle your shoe after counting to two. Counting makes it sound like a command. A little S&M perhaps? Buckle my shoe, bitch! She bends over to buckle the shoe and when she finishes she looks up, still kneeling of course, and .........................

You're just nasty Melkor, shame on you!

 

[Melkor]

Hahahahhaaaaaaaaaaa.

I knew it....

 

[Ermine]

I'll admit that Canada has a lot of good things to offer. There's Rocky and Bullwinkle, Rush, Voivod, many of my other favorite bands, cops called 'mounties", all sorts of fun stuff!

 

[FusionKnight]

I am from the outer places
all around me merely faces

trudging on through fire and storm
the world around me takes a form

of silent mocking, sharp reproach.


Forever have I been a stranger
all my soul always in danger

of splitting asunder who I am
and leaving naught but a hollow sham.


Living in light is where I long
to sleep till I hear the rousing gong

to wake and play and dance and sing
a merry song, and mournful thing.


Though deep in the shadow of the valley of death
I see a light, of life, a breath

that draws me in and gives me hope
that breaths in me that I might cope

with all the terrors that I face.


Will I ever find a home
that's not a mile beneath the loam

that makes me whole and makes me strong
and lets me take my friends along

to the place I see when I close my eyes
that beyond the veil in the future lies?


Only death, I fear, will make
a man who doesn't have to fake

all the things I see them chasing
always running, never facing

all those things that make them sick
all those things I always pick.


The light is shining, goading me
to be the man I was made to be

the fire inside just won't go out
and despite my chains, I shake and shout

that more there must be, more than this
to death's cold grave from life's first kiss!

and so I tremble in the dark,
always listening, waiting, hark!

I hear the drums of war approaching!

Nevermore will it be enough
waiting here, collecting stuff

now it's time for sword and fire
to change the world, to raise a spire

of hope and truth and all good things

from inner flame and strong desire
To sword! To fire!

And when it burns with nothing left
then my life, with it's last breath

becomes a star, becomes a pyre!


I am from the outer places
all around me merely faces

pretending crumbles then it crashes
the world around me left in ashes

above the ruin, above the smoke
my life is free, my last words spoke

and on to light and glory and strength, my life is free, my chains have broke!