Psylo🍄Vibin

General

I am a very curious and explorative person, so I have LOTS of interests! XD Many are in academic/technical subjects, but don't worry: I'm more of an airhead than you might think lol. The primary (and ultra-specific) niches I am interested in are:

Neuropsychopharmacology: Neuroscience, psychology, pharmacology; the study of the physiological and behavioral effects of psychoactive drugs.
Medical Anthropology: The study of different cultures' perspectives on medicine, illness, healing, and health.

Outside of those subjects (and their sub/parent disciplines), I also have interests in linguistics, sociology, history, art (especially interactive/immersive art), music, theatre (especially acting and classical/historical theatre), stage tech/lighting, ecology, philosophy, literature, astronomy/astrophysics, meteorology, geosciences, nuclear physics/engineering, AI/AI ethics, computer science, game development, and chemistry/biochemistry.

My "normie" interests include alternative fashion, flow arts, tattoos/piercings/body mods, jewelry making/lapidary arts, craft beer/mixology, photography/photo editing, urban exploration, camping/hiking, cats, and hippie-dippy woo shit (to a sane degree, I promise).

Music

I am a raver! I was introduced to electronic music through Seattle's radio station c89.5 FM at around six years old (2001), though the few Italo disco, synth pop, and eurodisco/eurodance tracks on my mother's old mix CDs likely predisposed me even younger. I grew up listening to a little bit of everything under the electronic/dance umbrella, so my tastes are highly varied. I have always been partial to trance, though, and when bass music blew up in the US, I gravitated toward melodic/liquid bass genres. Psydub and trippier melodic dubstep tracks have really been doing stuff to my soul lately. My local (very small/indie) scene is pretty big on funky/experimental bass and some tech house and I am here for all of it lmao.

I do still like to go hard, though: I've been really into some DnB, jungle, and UKG lately. Industrial and some darker techno have also been more of a vibe recently. I've always liked hardstyle/hardcore genres but have been on more of a kick for some of that lately as well.

Basically, I'm that person you could drag to any stage at a music festival (or any random club/warehouse/garage/basement rave) and probably have a good time. I strongly identify with the label of polyjamorous~.

I am also interested in the more technical aspects of music production, sound design, and audio engineering!

I also don't just vibe with electronic music: metal is probably my second favorite genre (broad tastes within that as well), and I'm also a fan of folk rock and various flavors of folk/indie music in general.

Movies

I haven't watched a lot of movies in my adult life and have fuzzy memories of ones I liked as a kid lol... As far as childhood favorites (see: Disney lol), Toy Story, A Bug's Life, The Aristocats, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, and Treasure Planet were highly formative. I was also basically made by Studio Ghibli/Hayao Miyazaki and Satoshi Kon lol. Outside of animated movies, The Mummy, Indiana Jones, Star Wars, and Jurassic Park were other staples. I've also always been a fan of alien flicks, including Alien (lol), E.T., Independence Day, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Signs, War of the Worlds, and Cloverfield.

Speaking of Cloverfield, I am a fan of the found footage genre in general, including The Blair Witch Project and As Above, So Below. While not a movie (there was one planned but Idk if it was released/good), the YouTube series Marble Hornets might be my personal favorite in the genre.

I love suspense thrillers and horror (especially sci-fi horror) movies, but the fear and tension need to be created organically. If a movie is obvious that it's "trying too hard" or overly tropey, I'll probably find it more amusing than scary/intense lol. (I do still like these movies, just for different reasons! The Conjuring films and slasher films are a good example.) Any adaptation of books by Stephen King kind of fall into an "in-between" for me, but since many are classics and do tropes very well (or created some of them), they are some of my favorite "pure horror" films.

Space movies in general are an automatic A+ because I love space. 8) Some favorites are 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Apollo 13, and Interstellar.

My inner theatre dork loves musicals, including Les Mis, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Mamma Mia, and Rent.

Also love a good disaster movie, including Twister, Dante's Peak, Volcano, The Towering Inferno, The Day After Tomorrow, and 2012.

Also whatever tf Quentin Tarantino has going on? Inglourious Basterds is one of my all-timers. Django Unchained and Pulp Fiction are also up there.

Going to give a final nod to fantasy films, since I've never not been a Tolkien buff and adore Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Also a fan of some "weirder" and dark fantasy, including The Dark Crystal and Pan's Labyrinth. I guess I could throw Van Helsing and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen under fantasy/action?

Again, I have extremely varied tastes, and they are far from totally covered here lol. I am also not picky/overly critical: as you can tell, some of these movies are not "good", but I enjoyed them and have good memories with them nonetheless.

Television

I don't watch a ton of TV tbh. I did watch a lot of anime growing up; some of my favorites were Pokémon (including the movies), .hack//SIGN and //Roots (loved the .hack OVAs and games too), the Gundam series, Fullmetal Alchemist (OG, have not seen Brotherhood and need to fix that lol), Sailor Moon, InuYasha, Bleach, Death Note, Code Geass, Ghost in the Shell, Cowboy Beebop, Eureka Seven, Wolf's Rain, Higurashi: When They Cry, Evangelion, FLCL, Serial Experiments: Lain, and Mushi-Shi.

Also got into JoJo's Bizarre Adventure recently and have been really into that.

Only other shows I've watched/enjoyed relatively recently have been Gravity Falls (was late to the party lol), Inside Job (RIP), and Common Side Effects.

Yep, all cartoons. No real "preference" other than that I just enjoy animation. :P I did enjoy the Star Trek TV series growing up, though.

Books

It might be more practical to list authors here lol. I already mentioned I'm a fan of Tolkien; I'm also I'm a big fan of all of Aldous Huxley's, Ray Bradbury's, H.P. Lovecraft's, and Carl Sagan's work. I've also read (and enjoyed) some of Terry Goodkind's series The Sword of Truth.

Other books that have stood out over the course of my life (mainly read in school) are Orwell's Animal Farm and 1984, Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, and Robert M. Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

I also love epic poetry! Of course there's The Iliad, The Odyssey, and The Aeneid; I've also read most of the surviving/internet-accessible Bronze Age Irish literature cycles, Beowulf, and The Epic of Gilgamesh.

As a philosophy enjoyer, I am also a fan of works by Nietzsche, Dostoevsky, and Sartre. More modern philosophers I'm a fan of include Alan Watts and Ram Dass. In terms of more political philosophy, the works of Machiavelli, Marx, and Mill have played significant roles in helping me figure out my own politics.

In terms of non-fiction, Carl Hart's Drug Use for Grown-Ups helped reshape my views on drug policy and influenced the trajectory of my career. I'm currently in the process of reading multiple books by Jeffrey Kripal, and am so far really enjoying The Flip!

Heroes

Not really a fan of the term "heroes", but there are a few figures who have inspired/influenced me. Carl Sagan and Bill Nye are probably the two biggest reasons I ended up being drawn toward science communication. Also have to give nods to Hank and John Green and Kyle Hill here!

Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, and Terence McKenna have also been significant influences for me as major figures of the psychedelic counterculture.

We also eternally stan Betty White in my house.

Avicii brought me back to electronic music after a few years of suppressing my identity (long depressing story lol).

I guess I'd also consider astronauts in general my "heroes", even if some of them are questionable people lol. Being launched into space is the most metal thing a human being can do imho.