Who am I?

I am in this picture but I am  not the one dressed up as a cat. But that is my dog absolutely thrilled at being tackled by a large cat.

Hi, my name is Stephanie and this is where I get to reveal my secret.  You see, the fact is, I am a dork. 

By day, I am a wildlife ecologist working for a government agency.  I coordinate volunteers to monitor nesting Bald Eagles, I survey for rare prairie butterflies, I creep around on back country roads at night listening for frogs and toads, and I answer lots of e-mails, go to lots of meetings and manage a lot of data.  So basically, I have a perfectly respectable job which has its ups and downs and involves a relatively normal amount of geekery.  I do get excited about well-managed data and finding small nondescript butterflies. But basically, normal and mundane.

At night and on the weekends however, there is a dork side to my life.  A side that not many people in my daytime life have seen in any real sense.  This part of my life is obsessed with books and sci fi TV shows with long tortured romance ‘ships, and daydreams of someday owning a small homestead with some chickens, a couple of Llamas and a whole passel of dogs.  The blog is a place where I can let my dork flag fly, where I hope to connect with other like-minded folks and can have a creative outlet.  

I will talk about any of the following:  mostly books, TV, movies, gardening, Llamas, dogs, and occasionally things related to my day job (science, biology, nature).  Other stats and facts that might help you decide whether we travel under the same banner… 

•  I was born and raised in the more southerly part of the east coast of the U.S. and now spend my days trying not to dread winter in the Upper Midwest.  I’ve been out here now for almost ten years.  The winters have not grown on me.   
• I am a huge Anglophile which I inherited honestly from my parents and I spent a good bit of time in England in my youth. 
• Other denizens of my home include:

Jasper:  I got him as a puppy from a Golden Retriever Rescue organization.  He’s half yellow Labrador retriever and half golden retriever and has very unique coloring which I think comes from the lab side of his family tree.  He is very pretty and thus overcompensates in the “must be as disgusting, and stinky as possible” part of dog life.  He is also however very affectionate, ardently loves everybody he meets instantly and is NOT named after a character in Twilight.  

Rudy:  Rudy came to live with me at a year old from Golden Retriever Rescue.  He was surrendered because his family said he was “Satan with fur.”  Thankfully this was an exaggeration as all he needed was more exercise and attention to quickly become a perfectly respectable and good-natured member of the household.  He is 100% golden retriever but he does not have the most exalted of bloodlines so his back end is higher than his front end, he has hip dysplasia and enormous ears.  He likes to wrestle with Jasper and chase squirrels.  He came with his name.  

• My top five TV shows in no particular order are:  Doctor Who, The X Files, Firefly, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Veronica Mars.
• Top five books?  Never going to happen because it’s too hard and changes but here are my favorite books from the last few years: 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016.  I read everything. I love genre, I like literary fiction, I like old books and new books, young adult and adult.  I am most definitely a mood reader. 
• And now to the really important thing - my favorite Austen adaptations:  Pride and Prejudice (2005 by Joe Wright), Sense and Sensibility (by Ang Lee), Emma (2010).

Well, I think that wraps up all the important things there are to know.  I will now return to my regular schedule of dorking out.  Thanks for visiting!

If you want to contact me directly you can do so at rudejasperATgmailDOTcom (replacing the words 'at' and 'dot' with those symbols of course).  I am also @rudejasper on Twitter and I occasionally post quotes and such on Tumblr.