(My name is Katherine. That's a gimme, so I'm not counting it as one of my 69 facts. Also, I'm a girl. And my hair and glasses are now different from the picture above, but I'm too lazy to change it, presently.)

I like my last name. I think I'm related to pretty much all the Valdorias you'd find on the internet. Except, of course, for the watermellon and the fictional cast created by fantasy author Catherine Asaro. I get kind of sore when I can't use "Valdoria" as my username when I sign up for things on-line because some Catherine Asaro fan has taken it. Because of this, I adamantly refuse to read her novels.

I am a Virgo. I think I am a lot like my sign.

I was born in the Philippines, but I haven't been there since I was three years old. I speak better Spanish than I do Tagalog.

I have one sister, although she may deny this. ;P

I live in San Diego with my best friend and boyfriend, Ben. One day, we will get married and live in a smart home where we will raise two geeky n00blets. Well, maybe.

If we have twin boys, we're naming them Hank and Dean. Yep. If you figured out why, please don't tell our parents. ;)

Twins run in my family.

I graduated from UCSD in 2007 with a Bachelor's degree in Interdisciplinary Computing in the Arts.

I used to work part-time for The Big Friendly Giraffe from Wayne, New Jersey. It was actually an awesome job (except for the whole not getting paid enough thing) until they started putting me in Customer Service. Presently, I am a (Lego) robotics instructor for Vision Tech Camps in (the yet-to-be-realized office in) San Diego. It is super fun, albeit super-exhausting.

For that, and other reasons, I think I'm kind of like Amber on Shortpacked. Kind of. And kind of like Hazel on Girls With Slingshots. Only with an entirely different seemingly useless major. And clearly I'm not a skinny redhead who drinks and talks to cacti. Well, I'm not a skinny redhead who drinks, anyway.

I used to be the lead singer for the indie acoustic folk duo, Pure Yellow Colour. I don't really think of it as ended so much as open-ended, but to be honest, we don't really write or perform together any more.

Oh, yes, I play rhythm guitar.

And I can sorta play the ukelele.

I attribute the dissolving of PYC to me being less emo than I used to be. It's funny, though.. had I never begun performing with Mike, I wouldn't have had nearly as much confidence or be the happy person I am, today.

I am a singer-songwriter, but don't consider myself a musician or poet.

My favorite solo musician is Tori Amos, although I'm more of a fan of her earlier work than later. My friend Katie and I once slept on the street overnight to watch her perform on Jay Leno. Good times.

My favorite band is Metric.

After watching Jesus Christ, Superstar! as a child, I was unwittingly a Jesus/Mary Magdalene-shipper.

My absolute favorite musical is Avenue Q, although Into the Woods is a close second. Listening to the soundtrack cheers me up almost instantly every time.

Listening to the Divinyls' "I Touch Myself" also cheers me up.

I used to belong to an asthmatic Russian Blue kitty named Jazz. She died due to complications from her asthma in March of 2006. I miss her.

I think one of the reasons I love my boyfriend is because he reminds me of my cat: he can sense when I am upset and reacts affectionately, is affectionate in general, but is also independent (read: attentive but not needy!). This, of course, is an oversimplification.

I used to have an African Dwarf Frog named Lewis, who outlived his tankmates by a year. His tankmates copulated to death within a week of my procuring them. I am so not kidding.

I have a hamster named Tom, a teddy bear hamster named Chuchu, and three mice named Stella, Tilly, and Three. Three is the third white mouse I've owned. Sugar died in childbirth, Cokie was hyperactive and died of mysterious causes. I think Three is trying to outlive her name.

I like both cats and dogs, but prefer cats merely because I am a lazy pet owner and cats are mostly independent. And quirky.

After the rodents have passed on, Ben and I plan to have a female applehead Siamese kitty... maybe a snowshoe mix. We will name her Edward. Barring that, perhaps we will instead get a Welsh Corgi and call him Ein.

Did I mention I was a geek?

I name things like hardware. I had a Packard Bell named Nona, a HP tower named Luci, another HP tower named Wendy, a Dell named Little-D, a DSL modem named Fritz, a digital camera named Penny, a tablet named Pablo, a Toshiba laptop named Macie, a ThinkPad named Astrid, and an ibook named Candy. Presently, I have a powerbook named Miakoda. I used to have a Sony Vaio tower, but I never named him because we didn't bond.

I have a guitar I call Dar, a keyboard I call Cas, and a ukulele named Bette (pronounced like Davis, not Middler).

I touch my face or cover it in my hands when I'm nervous.

I'm a little o-c. Or maybe just quirky. I don't like to touch doorknobs to public restrooms or use payphones. Ick.

I never sucked my thumb as a baby. I sucked my index and middle fingers.

I sleep too much.

I procrastinate a lot, too.

I only ever had three wisdom teeth. When I got them extracted, I laughed like a loon for hours and hours afterward.

I am a recently-diagnosed Type 2 diabetic. It sucks, but I'm dealing.

I took ballet as a child. It was a short-lived interest.

As a kid, I used to play in the niche under our stairs and pretend I lived in the brick with the Frisbys.

I am both terribly shy and terribly narcissistic.

I've read The Story of O. I found it intensely disturbing. I've read Women in Love. I found certain parts hilarious. I've read Nymph. I found it to be a lot like the rest of FLB's teen fiction work, only she actually says the words "cock" and "pussy" instead of tiptoeing around them.

People tend to think I read a lot. I actually like reading more in theory than in practice. It's not that I don't like reading... its that I like to swallow books whole. Anything I can burn through in a weekend.

I'm a fan of Harry Potter, but what the heck was up with the epilogue in the last one? Ugh. Just leave it to fanfic, why don't you.

I'm also a fan of the Sword of Truth series. I'm ambivalent about the upcoming television series, though. The actor they cast as Richard Cypher looks much younger than I envisioned and a lot like the male lead in an ABC family original romantic comedy. Ew.

I have a penchant for fairytales, especially ones re-told creatively. My favorite re-told fairytale is Neil Gaiman's Snow, Glass, Apples.

Thanks to my good friends Katie and Roberto, I own Lost Girls. Some may see it as smut, and maybe it is. But it's beautifully illustrated smut. And a creatively re-told fairytale. My favorite things.

I used to run a website cataloguing weird sex toys. Three weirdest? The Divine Interventions dildos (like, Jackhammer Jesus), The Lawn Gnome, and the Winnie-the-Pooh Hunny Pot. Yes, the Hunny Pot was actually licensed by Disney. It was sold only in Japan, and it was pushed as a "personal massager." But seriously, with a name like Hunny Pot? OMG.

I still make my dolls kiss. Heck, if they're fully articulated, I make them more-than-kiss.

I am the proud owner of a Puki Sugar named Lilu.

I like Little Apple Dolls, but Blythes freak me out. I think it has to do with context.

I love Polaroid cameras. I also love capsule toys. I think it's the element of surprise.

I collect My Little Ponies, especially the Unicorns and Pegasi. Sometimes I customize them.

When I was seven, I had a crush on Robin Hood. The Disney animated fox Robin Hood.

When I was seven, I had a crush on Peter Pan. I still have a crush on Peter Pan. I cry at the end of the book and the end of every Peter Pan movie I've seen.

If Kate Moennig was a transexual, like her character on That One Ep of SVU, I would marry her and have her babies.

I won't read A Series of Unfortunate Events because I feel it would be unfaithful to Harry Potter.

I like containers. Plastic storage boxes. Bentos. Lockets. I like secret compartments. One of my favorite stores is the Container Store.

Contrary to what you might believe, it's because of the new plastic box smell. ;)

I've been a fan of The Carol Duvall Show since I was a little kid.

I love the quote "Art must be ballsy, well-hung." I am pretty sure Cezanne said it, but I can't find anything on the whole wide internet to back me up. I heard it in a film I watched for Art History, but I don't recall which film, either. Anyway. If I had man parts, I'd tattoo this on my inner thigh.

One of my favorite painters is Marc Chagall, for "Love is not love without a violin-playing goat." I wish I owned a print of "Around Her."

One of my favorite painters is Frida Kahlo. Sometimes I'm not sure whether I like her paintings on an aesthetic level, or because I know and sympathize with the painful history behind them. I guess it doesn't matter, I guess it's the Gestalt.

My favorite movie is Rushmore. Quit judging me.

My favorite Pixar movie is WALL-E. I mean, come on! Robot love! Ben and I plan to have WALL-E and EVE as our wedding cake topper.

If I were to make a movie of my life, I would cast America Ferrera to play me.

My favorite non-Disney animated movie is Spirited Away. I like Hayao Miyazaki, but Howl's Moving Castle wasn't able to top it.

I apparently like Quentin Tarantino.

My favorite thing in the world is waking up snuggled with Ben.

My favorite thing in the universe is the idea that, when the technology becomes available, we will transfer our consciousness into robots and spend the rest of eternity together.

I'm joking. One 8/10ths to a full century-long go-round would be enough for me. I actually hope there is no afterlife, whether or not it's Heaven or Hell, 'cause I don't think I could stand the monotony of being around for that long.



faint.idea