Family: Emily (me), 31, Tabitha, 8.
Extended family: Large and freaking complicated.
Location: Not far from the birthplace of the Internet, that gravitational anamoly Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. Once you enter, you will never really escape.
Occupation: Cubicle Denizen, CWA member, and cellular guru. Bring me your dropped calls, your missing service books and POP3 settings, your caught-in-limbo picture messages yearning for deliverance. I will rebuild your registration and correct the errors that keep you from enjoying a life of wireless content. Fear no error message.
School: Studying to take over the world. (Finishing up my Associates in Psych at the moment, with plans for a Bachelors in General Studies with an emphasis in adult education and an eventual Ph.D. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology.)
Hobbies: Reading obsessively, mostly non-fiction. History, politics, religion, philosophy, economics, or g) all of the above. Favorites include Carl Sagan, Ayn Rand, Douglas Adams, Pirsig, Tom Robbins, Sam Harris, Steven Brust, Howard Zinn, Nietzsche, and Chuang Tsu. I like Robert Anton Wilson, too… but that’s just because I’m kind of a sick puppy.
Weltanschau in a nutshell: It’s natural to dislike and distrust people who are different from you and think differently than you do and want you to view things from their perspective. Philosophy is the process of coming to terms with that problem and building healthy societies in spite of it. Generally speaking, I try to stay neutral unless I can point to something about that perspective that causes definite harm to society. I don’t always succeed, of course, but that’s only human nature. It doesn’t make the other person right or wrong, malicious or benevolent. It just means I’m having trouble staying objective because my personal bias is conflicting with their perspective. But when I do find something that I can readily identify as causing harm to society, I will speak that truth as I feel the situation demands. Cautiously to those who might be swayed by the voice of reason, and brutally to those who are trapped in a mental prison of delusion– always with the constant awareness that true evil rarely acknowledges that the ends only justify the means if no other option exists and the only alternative is worse than doing nothing. It’s my goal in life to raise that consciousness just a little, whenever I can, and to listen closely to arguments that inspire that awakening in myself.
