Four or Five Things
This is the last introduction post of the day; I promise.
My name’s Vy. It’s pronounced like the letter V, and it stands for Vendetta, Voracious, Voluptuous, and Vanadium. Anyway, point is, I’m here on Teen Skepchick, and boy am I excited! Not only do I adore skepticism and smart young women, but I also itch to write and tell the entire world my thoughts. Clearly a community blog centered around such things would suit me well.
More thoughts and introductory material after the jump.
Unlike some of the bright minds here on this website, I never pursued science with a passion in my childhood. It was one of the many things that seemed interesting to me, though I soon lost most interest in junior high, when science was presented to me as an existing body of facts to memorize…discovered long ago, in the golden age of the Scientific Revolution.
I even lamented that I was not born in Newton’s time–the era which played host to so many monumental physical and chemical discoveries. That was where the drama and excitement had been. That was where genius surfaced, and where investigation created revolution. Present day seemed so dull and lifeless by comparison.
Now, of course, I know what a grave mistake I had made–how I so grossly misconstrued both science and scientists. With some luck, I hope to re-construe these misconstructions on Teen Skepchick, and entertain some others along the way.
Okay, so enough of why I’m here. More who I am:
1. A fan of Carl Sagan and Vladimir Nabokov.
2. A liberal arts student. I try not to be the hoity-toity kind.
3. The daughter of Vietnamese and Chinese parents. In other words, well-educated in the matter of alternative medicine. (I’m kidding, they’re not all like that.)
4. A foul-mouthed, pedantic young woman.
I do believe I can be summarized in four bullet points, thank you very much. Edit: I was kidding about this, since I also like cereal, neurology, genetics, and very green leafy trees, and this was nowhere in the four points.
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Nabokov…you liked Lolita then? I thought it was too, well, rambling. And creepy. Very creepy.
‘V’ is a good start to a name though! I wholeheartedly approve =P
Welcome! We don’t mind if you are a bit hoity, but keep your toity to yourself, please.
It feels odd to be welcoming you, two weeks after meeting you live. =)
Welcome anyway. Looking forward to more pedanticness… pedanticy… you being pedantic.
If you’re hoity-toity and like Nabokov, you must pronounce it the correct way and not the Sting way.
I’m a big fan of Nabokov, too. Welcome to the blog!
Hi, hi! Welcome to the blog
And, I SO love your name. Haha. My name is terribly long. Plus, you don’t really have to worry about people registering your name as a domain for their website, huh?
*coughPedantrycough*
Welcome to skepchick Vy! Forgive me for saying so, but that’s a sexy avatar you have there
Oh, I uploaded an avatar last night…I hope it appears sometime soon, or someone tells me that I’m doing it wrong.
Lolita was very creepy, I agree. But the sheer beauty of the rambling made it worth it.
Hm, it’s not appearing on the entry, but it appears next to my name. Oh well! I think we’re all supposed to get Skepchick-like illustrated avatars in the near future.
Don’t worry, I see your avatar just fine, both here and on your entry.
:incoming history lesson!:
A Swedish chemist named Vanadium after the Norse word ‘vanadis’, meaning beautiful goddess, which was another name for Freyja, the goddess of beauty and fertility. Apparently his reason for naming the element vanadium was because he felt the element’s compounds were pretty looking. The word vanadis also applies to all of the senior skepchick website’s bloggers, or so I’ve been informed
Imryyr:
Speaking of Nabokov, that comment is going to look mighty suspicious when she changes her avatar to the official Teen Skepchick cartoon, ha ha . . .
Oh, and great intro, Vy! Very glad to have you on the team.
Oh my, I had not considered that…
I did read that story about Vanadis. So I think it’s justified that my avatar is rather sexy, since it’s distantly derived from a sexy goddess.
“Speaking of Nabokov, that comment is going to look mighty suspicious when she changes her avatar to the official Teen Skepchick cartoon, ha ha .”
I was about to say this. I secretly suspect Rebecca is cultivating this site as a honeypot to nab dirty old men.
“Why don’t you have a seat over there?”
W00t, more humanities people.
You should totally read “Reading Lolita in Tehran” if you haven’t yet. In addition to being a really interesting look at women trying to carve out independent identities in a theocratic state, it gives a great perspective o Nabokov and Lolita.
\m/ Vanadium \m/
Hey, let’s not jump to conclusions about academic disciplines here. I’m an engineer, and I still love Nabokov. ;P
Vy: Have you read Pale Fire yet?
Yes. I’m probably going to do science research, but I still enjoy Nabokov.
I actually have not read Pale Fire yet. I know, there are the Nabokov devotees who swear it’s the best–but with time constraints and all, I have only gotten partway through Ada and nowhere near the fire. I’m hoping to take a Nabokov class at some point so my class and I can dissect the beast together.
er, forgot the end italics tag…
Welcome Vy — foul-mouthed, really?! I never would have gotten that impression, but worry not; that certainly doesn’t offend my sensibilities. Please tell me a dirty joke next time I see you! (Like most skeptics, I want proof!)
It’s hard to compare Pale Fire and Lolita directly. They’re both awesome books, but it’s definitely harder to figure out what’s going on and who’s mentally deranged and completely delusional in Pale Fire.
Unlike Ada, though, Pale Fire might not require familiarity with the entire history of the novel to understand, at least in part.
Hey guys, what about Nabakov’s most important contribution – his research on butterflies. Never cared much for his writing, but lepidopterists around the world owe him a LOT!
‘Ello, and welcome!