Books have been my constant companions for as long as I can remember; they helped me get through a lonely childhood and tumultuous adolescence with my sanity relatively intact. I love science fiction (especially hard scifi by authors such as Greg Bear), fantasy, classics, scripture, historical fiction, utopian and dystopian literature, and non-fiction on topics such as quantum physics, comparative religion, nature and ecology, anthropology, history, politics and philosophy. Especially important books that have helped shape who I am include:


1984 - George Orwell
American Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis
Anatomy of Love - Helen Fisher
Anvil of Stars - Greg Bear
Aphrodite's Daughters - Jalaja Bonheim
The Bacchae of Euripides - trans. C.K. Williams & Martha Nussbaum
Beyond Beef - Jeremy Rifkin
Birdy - William Wharton
The Bishop's Jaegers - Thorne Smith
Black Rain - Masuji Ibuse
Blood Music - Greg Bear
The Bomb - Theodore Taylor
The Book of Mormon
A Bright Red Scream - Marilee Strong
Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame - Charles Bukowski
The Burning Shore - Wilbur Smith
The Changeover - Margaret Mahy
Children of the Dust - Louise Lawrence
The Chronicles of Narnia - C.S. Lewis
The Chronicles of Prydain - Lloyd Alexander
Cloven Hooves - Megan Lindholm
The Collector - John Fowles
The Continuum Concept - Jean Liedloff
Cujo – Stephen King
Damage - Josephine Hart
The Dangerous Book for Boys – Conn & Hal Iggulden
Democracy In America - Alexis de Tocqueville
Desire: The Tantric Path to Awakening - Daniel Odier
The Discovery of Cosmic Fractals – Yurij Baryshev & Pekka Teerikorpi
Doctrine and Covenants
The Dragonlance Chronicles/Legends - Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman
The Education of Little Tree - Forrest Carter
Electro-Fractal Universe – Colin Hill
The Emily books - L.M. Montgomery
everything by Francesca Lia Block
everything by Tolkien
everything by William Morris
The Fabric of the Cosmos - Brian Greene
Faerie Tale - Raymond E. Feist
The Fifth Sacred Thing - Starhawk
The Forge of God - Greg Bear
From the Corner of His Eye - Dean Koontz
Geek Love - Katherine Dunn
Germanic Heathenry - James Hjuka Coulter
The Gift: Poems by Hafiz - trans. Daniel Ladinsky
Go Ask Alice – Anonymous
Gooberz - Linda Goodman
Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
The Hunger for Ecstasy - Jalaja Bonheim
It - Stephen King
The Jigsaw Woman - Kim Antieau
Johnny Got His Gun - Dalton Trumbo
King's Oak - Anne Rivers Siddons
Lady Chatterley's Lover - D.H. Lawrence
Leaves of Grass - Walt Whitman
The Master Course trilogy: Dancing with Siva/Living with Siva/Merging with Siva - Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami
Epictetus' Handbook & the Tablet of Cebes – Keith Seddon
The Mists of Avalon - Marion Zimmer Bradley
Mockingbird - Walter Tevis
The Nature of Smoke - Anne L. Harris
Nature's End - Whitley Strieber & James Kunetka
The Neverending Story - Michael Ende (trans. Ralph Manheim)
The Night Life of the Gods - Thorne Smith
The Old and New Testaments
Our Fathers' Godsaga - Viktor Rydberg, trans. W.P. Reeves
Our Troth - The Troth
Pearl of Great Price
The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek - Annie Dillard
Pre-Raphaelites at Home - Pamela Todd
The Republic - Plato
Rose Daughter - Robin McKinley
Roustabout - Michelle Chalfoun
The Second Coming of Christ - Paramahansa Yogananda
The Secret History - Donna Tartt
Shiva: Wild God of Ecstasy and Power - Wolf-Dieter Storl
Spiritual Midwifery - Ina May Gaskin
Tantric Quest: An Encounter with Absolute Love - Daniel Odier
This Perfect Day - Ira Levin
Tohunga - Samuel Timoti Robinson
Trainspotting - Irvine Welsh
Unassisted Childbirth - Laura Kaplan Shanley
The Vedic Experience - Motilal Banarsidass
Waking Beauty - Paul Witcover
Walk Through Cold Fire - Cyn Forshay-Lunsford
Watership Down - Richard Adams
WE - Yevgeny Zamyatin
The Well and the Tree – Paul Bauschatz
When The Wind Blows - Raymond Briggs
Winter's Tale - Mark Helprin
Woman and Nature: The Roaring Inside Her - Susan Griffin
Women From Another Planet? - Jean Kearns Miller
Wulfsyarn - Phillip Mann
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte


Poetry: Longfellow, Walt Whitman, Marge Piercy, Hafiz, Mirabai, Rumi, Kabir, Pablo Neruda, Charles Bukowski, Rainer Maria Rilke


Comics/Graphic Novels: xkcd, Hathor the Cow Goddess, Lenore, Bone, Spawn, V for Vendetta, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, The Tick, Aria: Blanc & Noir


I also love big art books with full-page reproductions of paintings and photographs... my favorite kinds of art are Pre-Raphaelite, Neoclassical, Surrealist, Fantasy, and Fractal.

I love most kinds of music, some only when I'm in a specific mood. I love the bagpipes. I especially like folk and folk metal which reflect the heart and soul of my cultural heritage.


Favorite bands/singers include: ABBA, Alanis Morissette, Alice In Chains, Alicia Keys, Alkonost, Annie Lennox, Arkona, Beck, Ben Lee, Bic Runga, Bjork, Bob Marley, Che-Fu, Corvus Corax, Crowded House, The Cure, Damh the Bard, Dark Tower, Dave Dobbyn, David Bowie, The Doors, The Dreamside, Eichenschild, Elton John, Faun, the Finn brothers, Fiona Apple, Gaia Consort, Gjallarhorn, Herbs, Incubus, Jill Tracy, John Lennon, Kate Bush, Kokia, Korpiklaani, Kristi Stassinopoulou, Lapis Serpentis, Laurie Ann Haus, Leaves' Eyes, Led Zeppelin, Live, Mediaeval Baebes, Midnight Oil, Moana, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Neun Welten, Nick Cave, Omnia, A Perfect Circle, Poeta Magica, The Pogues, Portishead, Queen, Radiohead, Rage Against the Machine, Rarog, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Roger Waters, Sarah Brightman, Simon & Garfunkel, Smashing Pumpkins, Supergroove, Therion, Thetis, Tool, Tori Amos, Des Teufels Lockvogel, Wai, The Waterboys, Weezer, Wendy Rule.


Favorite composers include Gorecki, Saeverud, Beethoven, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky and Mozart.


Favorite hymns include If You Could Hie to Kolob, O My Father, Shine Jesus Shine, and Mary Did You Know.

I like intelligent, insightful, whimsical, thought-provoking, funny, scary, gruesome, spiritual, mystical, childlike, earnest, satirical, quirky and visually striking movies. I enjoy sci-fi, surrealism, magical realism and fantasy in particular, and also films with innovative stylistic touches. Some favorites are:


28 Weeks Later
50 First Dates
300
The Abyss
the Ace Ventura movies
Akira
the Alien movies
American Beauty
Amistad
Antonia's Line
Apocalypto
the Austin Powers movies
Babe the Gallant Pig
Beauty and the Beast (Disney version)
Believers
Beloved
Beowulf & Grendel
Beyond Borders
The Blair Witch Project
Bliss
The Blue Lagoon
The Bounty
Braveheart
The Burning Season
Cape Fear (remake)
Casshern
Children of Men
The Company of Wolves
The Constant Gardener
Contact
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Cube 1 & 2
Curse of the Golden Flower
Dangerous Beauty
The Dark Crystal
Dead Poets Society
The Devil's Advocate
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Educating Rita
The Education of Little Tree
The Emerald Forest
The Emperor and the Assassin
Enduring Love
Erin Brockovich
Event Horizon
Ever After
Falling Down
Fight Club
A Fish Called Wanda
Floundering
Forrest Gump
The Fountain
Foxfire
Freeway
Fresh
Gallipoli
The Game
Gattaca
Ghost in the Shell
Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence
Gladiator
Glory
The Goonies
Happy Gilmore
Heavenly Creatures
the Hellraiser movies
Henry and June
Higher Learning
Howl's Moving Castle
I Am Sam
Idiocracy
Impromptu
Instinct
In the Name of the Father
Joe Versus the Volcano
Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy
L.A. Story
Labyrinth
Ladyhawke
The Last Supper
Leolo
The Life & Adventures of Santa Claus
Lolita (Lyne version)
the Lord of the Rings trilogy
The Lost Empire
Love Actually
The Machinist
Man On Fire
the Matrix trilogy
Mediterraneo
Millions
The Mosquito Coast
Moulin Rouge
Mozart & the Whale
Muriel's Wedding
My Dinner With Andre
My Neighbor Totoro
Mystic River
Napoleon Dynamite
Natural Born Killers
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
Nell
Network
Office Space
Once Were Warriors
Ong Bak: The Thai Warrior
Origin: Spirits of the Past
The Other Side of Heaven
The Others
Phoenix 2772
Pi
The Piano
Pitch Black
Pleasantville
Pom Poko
Primer
Prince of Egypt
Princess Mononoke
The Quiet Earth
Rabbit-Proof Fence
Santa Claus: The Movie
Shaolin Soccer
Shrek
The Siege At Ruby Ridge
Sirens
Spirited Away
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring
Stardust
The Stepford Wives (original)
A Streetcar Named Desire
Summer Lovers
Sunshine (Danny Boyle)
Surviving the Game
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
The Testaments
Trainspotting
A Tree of Palme
The Truman Show
Unfaithful
V for Vendetta
The Wedding Singer
Whale Rider
What The Bleep Do We Know?
The Wicker Man (original)
Wild At Heart
Willow
The World's Fastest Indian

My interests include the following:

Algebra, Ancient History & Civilizations, Animals, Anime and Cartoons, Anthropology, Art, the Bagpipes, the Black Death, Cartography, Codes & Cyphers, Cosmology, Cryptozoology, Dance, Dystopian Fiction, Elves & Etins, Exploration, Faery Stories and Folktales, Fibonacci Sequence / Golden Section / Golden String / Phi, Folkways, Fractal Universe Theory, the Free Culture Movement, the Futhorc, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Highland Games, the Hiroshima & Nagasaki Atrocities, Inflationary Universe Theory, Jigsaw Puzzles, Kilts, Linguistics, Logic, Logic Puzzles, Love, the Magical, the Matter of Britain / Arthuriana, Mediaeval England, MMA, Mormon Apologetics, Movies, Music, Mythology, Natural Parenting, Nature & Outdoors, Nazi Germany, Neurodiversity, Photography, Picnics, Play, Possibilities, Renaissance Fairs, Robin Hood, Romanticism & Romantic Nationalism, Scripture, Socio-Chronology / Horology, Space Exploration, Strongman Contests, Tarot Cards, Theoretical Physics (Quantum Mechanics, Superstring Theory, M-Theory), Theories of Time, Time-Travel & Time-Travel Anomolies and Paradoxes, Traditional Japanese Architecture, the Whimsical, Wonder, Word Games, World Travel.

Hail, hello & kia ora! I go by the name of Aelswyth. I am the mother of a sweet 3-yr-old girl, and I have the greatest husband in the history of the universe (or pretty darn close). :)


Spiritually, I am a Latter-day Saint; my husband and I received our baptisms on the 26th of January this year. Prior to receiving it I devoted about a month to intensive and exhaustive study of the various issues people have with the restored gospel and the church, and read almost every article on both the FARMS and FAIR apologetics websites. Having done that, I feel that as far as those things go, I have a pretty firm foundation in the faith; not only in terms of having a testimony but also in understanding the more "secular" evidences and the latest in Biblical and Book of Mormon scholarship and research. The more I examine the Book of Mormon, the more astounded I am that any good Christian, reading this work, could dismiss it or deny that it is of God.


I like people who are smart and who can make me laugh. There are those who would say I have no sense of humour; but the truth of the matter is, I just don't find a joke funny if it is based on an obvious logical fallacy. My sense of humour is sometimes quirky and often risque. Things that tickle my funny bone are puns, double entendres, and witty repartee in general; also sly, tongue-in-cheek satire and of course plain old geeky silliness.


I was born and raised in Aotearoa (New Zealand) in the Anglican Christian faith; my ancestry is Anglo-Celtic (3/8 English, 1/4 Brython, 1/4 Gael) and Maori (1/8). My English ancestors were predominantly of the landed gentry, my Brythonic ancestors were mostly from mining and seafaring families, my Scottish heritage is from various septs of clan Stewart, and my iwi Maori is Ngapuhi, the largest iwi in Aotearoa with over 100,000 members.


I left school when I was 16 to pursue self-education, a decision due primarily to intellectual boredom, but also to a combination of hormonal insanity and social alienation (I had already learned the curriculum material on my own time, and my friends were a bunch of 20-something musicians, performance artists and slackers). I have since resolved my deep dissatisfaction with school into a reasoned rejection of mass education as a viable means of creating anything approaching intelligent, independent, free citizens. The public school system as we know it was designed to produce obedient, peer-dependent, capable-but-not-too-intelligent factory drudges, not the free-thinking innovators so desperately needed in the modern world. It is a dinosaur; it's obsolete and needs to be scrapped and rebuilt from the ground up.


Needless to say, I won't be sending my daughter to school; instead she will receive her education in real life, here at home and out in the world. It is an adventure upon which I look forward to embarking with much excitement.


I am also an aspie. That's a nickname for someone with AS (Asperger's Syndrome) which is currently classified as an autism spectrum disorder, but which is believed by some experts to actually be a form of NLD (Non-Verbal Learning Disorder). This means I'm very intelligent but my brain is wired differently than most people's, thanks to a specific genetic "mutation" shared by a sub-group of around 20 million people worldwide (yes, I am one of the X-Men, hehe).
AS is not Rainman-style autism. Some "fictional" representations of AS currently portrayed in the popular media include "Bones", her lab technician Zack, Grissom from CSI, or Goren from Law & Order CI.


In my particular case, being an aspie means I'm very logical, literal and analytical, extremely honest and blunt, rather argumentative, irritated by imprecision and logical inconsistencies in speech and writing, almost pathologically unconventional, sensitive to noise and chaos, and easily overstimulated and burnt-out by bright, crowded, chaotic places like malls. I often have trouble assimilating visual-spatial information and so cannot drive, or play sports involving a ball very well. I have no money concept or sense of time, and I cannot conceptualize abstract units of measure such as feet, inches, metres, miles etc. unless someone relates it to something concrete for me.


What else?... Like all aspies, my biggest challenge is figuring out how to communicate effectively and appropriately with the other inmates of this odd little planet. The "normal" process of turning acquaintances into friends is completely mystifying to me. I hate telephones with a passion and won't talk on one unless I have no other choice. I have several specific interests that are pretty obsessive (such as time-travel, religion, cultural anthropology and theoretical physics), and when I get into something new it becomes all-consuming for a while until I burn out of it and either settle down or find something else.


So, in advance: I apologize if my straightforward manner of communicating ever comes across as rude or insensitive; it is not on purpose!