I dislike writing biographies or 'about me' pages as I find it difficult to really know what people want to know about me, or what bits of information others will find important or defining about someone else.

The name I most commonly go by is Firinel, friends call me Fin. It's not my birth name, but it is a given name-- given to me by Marnanel, Thomas Thurman, from his con-lang, Nimyad. It means Creator, or someone who causes things to grow. The reason the shortened familiar form of Firinel is Fin, and not Firin like some would expect, has to do with how word construction works in Nimyad-- Fin is the actual root word, and has the meaning of 'green'. I prefer this name to the one that I was given at birth, which is why I use this name in about >85% of my life really, and fully intend to make it legal at some point. I know sometimes people online like to use people's "real life" names to demonstrate some amount of familiarity, but using that name for me would only demonstrate either a lack of information, or lack of respect.

I guess that's the most obvious out of the way, now the most defining-- I'm an artist. I don't mean that in the way that someone who goes to work at an office job may say "I'm a secretary". One of the few professions I've come across where people regularly do not just do the function of that profession, but LIVE that in a way that defines them are a particular subset of coders. It's not just what we do, it is who we are. It runs deeply into not just how we spend time, but how we think, and interact with the rest of the world. We don't do this because it earns us a pay cheque, we'd somehow do it even if we never got a pay cheque for it. An artist is what I am if you strip me down of everything else, it's the one thing that I don't know how not to be. I've a separate webpage for my art, it's Myriad Colours.

Family is very important to me, but I don't view family like some others do in that "chosen family" is more like I work. Now to define "chosen family" for those that have never come across it before-- common amongst queer culture due to the occasional fractious nature of biological families when someone comes out, it's the idea that one can have people who are not blood, but are every bit as emotionally entwined with others as you'd expect a biological family to be.

I have a daughter, Riordon, who is both bright and beautiful. I do not suffer under delusions of my child being angelic or perfect, but I do think she is better than all other children, and I am pleased to have someone growing into such a wonderful person to be my child. Briefly, as she has her own page: Riordon is a pre-teen, she loves "blowing shit up for science", and is a voracious reader whose favourite books are about vampire tweens, snakes and insects, forensics, or Egyptology. She can be precocious, and finds adults who don't know the words she uses tedious. She is in a special gifted course her school has, as well as plays trumpet in the band, and sings in the choir.

I have two partners, or significant others, with whom I live, the previously mentioned Marnanel, and Alex, both of whom are English and moved to the states. Marnanel is a coder, though I first and foremost think of zie as a linguist, an author, and a hoarder of trivia and information. Alex is also a coder, a different sort I'm told though I wouldn't know about that, but what I do know is that he is better with both managerial aspects, and hardware. He loves taking photos, dancing and playing games. We're all, in our own ways, definitely geeks.

And of course I've a lot of great friends as well. I like to hang around with smart people who make me think, who are passionate about things and will narg HARD about these. ('Narg' is a word that originated at Cambridge University, during or before the Victorian Era, when going to university was something that gentleman did because it was a gentlemanly like thing to do, not because you showed any real interest in your course. If someone demonstrated a passion for their field of study, then it was obvious that they were Not A Real Gentleman. Except it's now become a badge of honour to be a narg, or someone who's guilty of nargery. Nargery would be associated with something geeks or nerds may do.) I don't really care if people narg about the things that I'm interested in, as much as it is that I just appreciate someone showing passion for their interests.

There are things that I can narg about, though. I've a penchant for psychoanalysing things, including myself. I like to figure out the reasons people think things and do things. I like challenging "the norm" by figuring out WHY it's the norm. I pick at and think on things about society and human interaction that others don't necessarily even notice. I guess it's one of the ways that I'm "geeky" in that people associate taking things apart to figure out how they work to be a geeky activity, it's just that in my case it's not clocks or computer hardware that the hows and whys interest me, it's people. Particular areas of interest involve sex and gender, race, and social linguistics.

Well, that sounds very heavy, so let's temper that -- I also play with dolls. At the moment my focus are on American Girl Dolls. There is an idea that the primary market for these dolls is with rich white, and otherwise privileged, Americans and I have to agree that this is overwhelmingly true. However there is a small, but growing, group of us who either don't entirely belong to or eschew the trappings of those, and still enjoy our dolls. We discuss how issues of race affect collections, how we can be culturally sensitive with our collections, as well as focusing less on the rampant consumerism and more on creatively augmenting our collections either through fixing up and customising used and abused dolls, sewing wardrobes, or crafting accessories for them.

The dolls also offer a form of happy world-building escapism when I'm feeling stressed. I get stressed and anxious occasionally, as I've rapid-cycling bi-polar disorder (I've been diagnosed as bi-polar II, but have thus been explained that it's more likely cyclomythia, a "milder" form marked by more depressive episodes, and not as severe mania). I try to make it a point of mentioning this not because it defines who I am, but not only is there immense stigma associated with mental disease, but the common caricature of people with mental illnesses isn't always accurate or the most common. I also suffer with chronic, frequently debilitating migraines, and as yet unexplained joint and muscle pain, which can make me seem a little cranky (prolonged pain does that to a person) and more reclusive than I feel I truly am. I've also mild synaesthesia, but I've never considered that an illness, more a blessing.

I'm so bad at biographies that my last one just had some random facts. They're a bit fun, though, so here are some:

1. My favourite colour is green. My second favourite is orange, my third favourite is more a group of colours than one colour: various browns and beiges. My fourth favourite colour has no name that I know of, but it's a subdued earthy medium teal. Yes, I've given this a lot of thought.
2. I prefer flannel sheets and some days I wouldn't get dressed if it weren't for flannel pjs.
3. I'm trying to teach myself Welsh and Spanish, piano and violin. I've a metallic green violin named June.
4. I've participated in 24h Comic (once), ABtI (two years) and NaNoWriMo (thrice).
5. I'm genderqueer, I use gender-neutral pronouns to refer to Marn and prefer them for myself, as well.
6. Activism is important to me; I think of myself as being socialist (it's not a bad word!), I've definitely anarchist (neither is this!) leanings. I'm a pro-sex feminist.
7. I like surprises, but dislike secrets.
8. I've catalogued a cemetery, including translating the epitaphs.
9. Earl Grey is my favourite tea, I'm particularly found of Twinnings decaf earl grey.
10. I love easter eggs; I think they encourage the inquisitive nature I admire and strive for, and as such, should be in everything.