Hey there!

[mesmerith]

General
Name/Nickname: Mesmer
Pronouns: She/her

You
Do you have any hobbies?: The most obvious one is chess. I could easily spend 4 hours playing chess. I also like arts, reading, writing, listening to music, and playing video games. Studying should also fall under my hobbies, lol, but I don't spend as much time with it than I do with chess, hehe. I'm into window shopping as well, since I'm a broke student living off a scholarship. Does gardening count? I'm a plant mommy! And a cat mom too!
Do you have any interests, that wouldn't fall under a hobby?: Check my interests, you'll see!
Any dislikes?: Blundering my chess pieces...
Are you into fandom?: Well, I'm not into any right now, but I used to be into bandom (MCR, FOB, The Used, etc.) Oh! I also used to be in the Stardew fandom. Now I guess I'm just into chess-dom, LOL!!
What does your day to day look like?: You'll see when you add me, my DW account is fairly new, but I'm not new to Dreamwidth.

Entertainment
What do you like to watch?: Comedy! I used to like horror movies, but not anymore. It's like I just woke up one day with guts that can't stomach poltergeists anymore, haha. Never been a fan of gore, either. I like sitcoms, however. I find romance and drama appealing, too.
What movies do you enjoy?: Off the top of my head, I love Five Feet Apart, The Fault In Our Stars, and The Big Bang Theory. I ought to watch Interstellar soon. Oh! And did I mention I'm into Sci-Fi, too?
Do you play games? If so, what do you like?: Chess, it's sticking out like a sore thumb. Identity V, Stardew Valley, Animal Crossing, League of Legends (not so anymore, I also quit Genshin as it stopped piquing my interest), Little Nightmares, Doki Doki Literature Club, and uh, a lot more I can't remember. Thank my boyfriend for this, I don't really play a lot of games. Except for chess, chess was entirely on me.
If you like to read, what do you read?: Huh, I'm a very picky reader, so unless it's a really good book (it's subjective, come on), my attention won't be anywhere near it. So far, I've read Red White & Royal Blue, The Midnight Library, and uh-oh, that's where it stops because I really can't remember the rest. I haven't been reading as much nowadays, but if it interests you, I'm into fiction and romance and all that good stuff. I also like the horror/thriller genre, I just don't like watching it.
What kind of music do you listen to?: Anything rock, pop music, musicals, and classical. My taste is quite versatile, to say the least. I'd listen to anything except metal, not to offend any metal-lovers out there!

Journal & Friending
What do you post about?: Life. My interests, my problems, my stuff. You know. I also post personal stuff, but they're usually under a good lock, so... well! I mostly write about chess, haha.
How often do you update?: Depends on my mood, really. I could stop posting for three months but then come back when I feel like it.
What do you look for in a DW friend?: Someone who can tolerate life, I suppose? I'm a human being who isn't you, and that I have issues too, I will write about whatever, my mental health, my interests, things, really. :) Just be kind and we'll get along just fine.
What do you like to read about on your friends page?: Anything, I tolerate life pretty well.
Do you have any kind of friending policy?: Not really! Buy me a pie? Hee-hee, just kidding!!!
Do you have any deal-breakers?: I don't, unless you're a flying termite, because if you are then I don't think this will work out. Y'all feasted on my kitchen light-bulb last week.
Is there anything others should know before friending?: I'm pretty chill, but I do cuss every once in a while. I say squee a lot! And I give a lot of hugs, too.

Anything else? *hugs*

Comments

Re: Hello from another big SF reader/watcher!

[mesmerith]

That's awesomesauce! A rating reaching the thousands is pretty impressive to me, I could simply never. I started playing chess when I was 8 and then promptly stopped, only to return this year with a rusty brain and a measly 400+ (or so). Suffice to say, I now remember why I loved chess so much! So now all I'm doing is studying and analysing my matches. Maybe the website was chess.com? It's one of the most popular sites for chess right now, next to lichess.org.

I hear your friend! Even without any restrictions, it is indeed still pretty dreadful out there. Hopefully the feeling wanes soon, and the world breathes anew, or whatever poetic stuff that would essentially mean, "I hope things get better soon!" Also, studying snakes sounds interesting! Would love to hear about your adventures. :D Do you mind if I friend you? ^^

May the world breathe anew!

[claire_chan]

Thank you kindly! ^_^
Nowadays I can no longer play so much chess as I once did, considering my varied pursuits in academia and writing, as well as something else concerning about me...
However, I recall the days of playing five games simultaneously, years ago. They were very hectic if in a controlled way. The games with the bad players were done immediately but, when you are against some players, you honestly can't estimate their skill level by how they move.
Most likely it was chess.com, but my maybe-ex likes lichess.org and has spoken of it now and again before the pandemic seemed to have diverted his interests.
I can't tell. He told me to come over to eat. I have refused the offer for a few reasons. a) I can attend his school (for graduate study) without being physically present
b) I don't want to harm my family's increasingly-fragile situation [I am safe AFAIK]
c) If I get too busy with him then I won't actually be able to study snakes anymore. I don't want to be busy with that other stuff, and he has told me before he thought he was probably related to me anyway. Dr Chien (my former Chinese History professor) has told me she might have interesting insider information about this but my mother has told me like the Mafia we need to keep it all in the family.
In the past, he has told me how to make tasty food before.
I don't want to make him cook for me, even though I understand that may be beneficial, because it seems demeaning.
Later on, it now seems more of a way to have someone else also eat all the product after a successful cooking event.

I still have a couple of chess books, the memory of pwn'ing some fearsome opponents in grade school, and the hope you would accept my friendship request. My mother and sister love The Big Bang Theory so I've heard its theme song in the background while I was studying for my varied exams, if never paid attention to the plot, characters or love triangles if extant, because I wanted to have a good representation on the test of what I could do, more than pay attention to people talking in the background!

Aww, it looks like I signed up with my undergrad email and now that I'm in graduate school they've purged my former email address which I had used to sign up with chess.org!
I suppose I just need to come up with a new dinky username of some sort.
Maybe in honour of finally deciding on a focus of Herpetology, some kind of sparkly fanged haruspex!
So my new username has become SparklyFangedHaruspex!

Some places are better than others, even though the restrictions have officially been lifted. I have heard current stories last week about health crises in places you would think are world-renowned for top-of-the-line medical care...
Then again, this is probably a special case scenario, so even if it IS, the current COVID-19 crisis is an emergency happening that's taken the world by surprise.

Your profile suggests you are an INFJ - tests have suggested I may be an INTJ.

Let's become friends! The Japanese (the first foreign language ever I randomly picked out of a hat to study) is "hajimemashite!" n_n It means "pleased to meet you!"
(They've figured out about me that I've studied besides English and Latin Japanese, Russian, Chinese [Mandarin], and enough bits and pieces of Romance languages to understand whichever one's present - I usually say "French" or "Portuguese" as a cover-all but last week I learned a lot of interesting information from a Spanish book about snakes! ^_^)

Although chess.com would not let me "friend" your profile, it would let me follow you, so I did. ^_^ Approximately the same thing, right? I don't know! These days, who knows!

Re: May the world breathe anew!

[mesmerith]

Friendship request accepted, of course~! Declining would be a big, big blunder... get it? Ha-ha *sobs* But anyway! Playing five games simultaneously sounds like a dream to me, it would probably take me, say, a thousand more games before I could pull off something great like that. You impress me! Even though I started playing chess at an early age, I still consider myself a complete novice. I had to re-learn how the pieces moved because my memory failed me, and the only opening I'm familiar with is probably the Sicilian Defense. Oh! And the French Defense, of course.

The Big Bang Theory is a terrific show, it's lovely to know your mother and sister both love the show too! It got me into the sciences, more specifically physics and astrophysics. Astronomy? Haha. The theme song is iconic beyond any doubt, I'm probably going to listen to it since I kinda miss watching TBBT.

Oh, that's unfortunate to hear, but that dinky username of yours is simply perfect. SparklyFangedHaruspex has a nice ring to it, LOL!! Can't wait to follow back soon. Perhaps we could both play chess when we're free, but I'm not the one who used to play five games all at the same time, so I'm probably going to get destroyed. QuQ

Hajimemashite!

God, if only my fleety attention span wasn't like this, I probably would've continued my French-learning escapade. Maybe this is a sign to pick it back up, no? I'm almost always bored nowadays (when my uni tasks aren't poking me in the ass), so I don't see why not. :D

Re: May the world breathe anew!

[claire_chan]

^_^ Arigatou! Or should I try, merci? I don't know much French either but there is Duolingo and their French is pretty all-inclusive, as far as I can tell.
(I can't. I took Latin, Russian and Chinese at the university.)

Well, you could turn my friendship request down, for a number of reasons:
a) overwhelm [for example, I have once been in the middle of 15 books at a time before for research purposes - an important project about tea, when I was fifteen or sixteen] i.e. half my lifetime ago
b) new information about me from outside sources
c) distance
d) government order
e) fear of animal attack [I have raised various creatures such as kittens and birds - who scratch and bite - now they might be after me to raise snakes or salamanders or turtles, since the University fellows were rambling ad infinitum about biodiversity last time they talked to me - IDK I had maybe three or four tanks of Sea Monkeys when I was little-little, I wonder if it'd be similar...?]

I also had to relearn how to play chess thirteen years ago, but for a different and rather dramatic reason.
I heard rumour they almost thought I wouldn't be able to graduate from my undergraduate department after suffering from a car accident. It only took me an extra two semesters.
I did change majors, but did not drop, since that threatened depression, which is the start of the slippery slope.

Anyway, those are strong openings!! They are discussed at length in the books I have. (My chess library is not as big as my mother's juvenile literature collection, but she went to graduate school to be a children's librarian while my graduate literary journey has been a roller-coaster ride of finding funding. x_X)
I own five books about chess strategy now. I'm trying to figure out which one might make a useful sixth one that wouldn't overwhelm me until I died, as I'm already prone to migraine.

I just subscribed to you on ArchiveOfOurOwn - my username there is 1fmeow! ^_^

There are several other topics in this comment I mean to comment about, but it is getting dreadfully late in my time zone, so I mean to talk about them later.
1. Astrophysics
2. The music
3. Names
4. Chess
5. Linguistics
6. Focus

(As you have noticed, I find it handy to list whatever it is I am thinking about.)
Have a good evening!