Karyotype

For my swap partners!: Hi everyone! I'm in the middle of a mini-disaster. I'm currently swamped with school and work, but I've been diligently trying to get my swaps sent out as soon as I possibly can. If you're afraid about the status of your package, please let me know and I will happily give you an update! Sorry about any delays and thanks for your patience, guys! Your swap WILL get to you. Absolutely. :O

Karyotype is your average everyday university student. At twenty years old, she looks at growing up with alternating regret and relief. Her creepy-strict Thai family just can't seem to wait, however.

¶ She is a sociocultural anthropology/applied linguistics double-major and not-so-secret computer science enthusiast who spends the majority of her day forcing herself to do work and keeping her nose to the grindstone in hopes of one day becoming - are you tingling with excitement? - a computational linguist. School is pretty much her top priority; ironically, she will probably spend the next decade of her life still being a student/slave to her studies. :'|

¶ When she's not busy trying to figure out why she's getting a segfault or questioning the sanity behind the Minimalist Theory, she's likely writing her heart out, digitally painting strange things, or squirreled away with a good book.

Random British television (Top Gear, Peepshow, Spaced, QI, That Mitchell and Webb Look, The IT Crowd, pretty much anything that features Gordon Ramsay), The Office, Dexter, The Tudors, cooking shows, cute-but-practical Japanese items, caffeinated concoctions, bubble tea, fruity tastes and smells, strange hair products and accessories, comic books and graphic novels, Threadless tees.

Artists -- Mucha, Privat-Livemont, Dali, Junji Ito, and Usamaru Furuya. All things originating from the Golden Age of Sci-fi make her heart sing in a glorious chorus.

Otherwise, her interests mostly lie in the weird and scary: she enjoys creepypasta, weirdass guro and the like (zombies, ghosts, ghouls, end-of-the-world scenarios). It probably has something to do with being raised on a strict diet of old world ghost stories and lame Thai horror movies. Mmm, delicious childhood trauma.

An item combining the cute and the scary/macabre would be her dream gift.

Röyksopp, Kings of Convenience, Daft Punk, I Am Kloot, Of Montreal, Franz Ferdinand, The Police, Belle and Sebastian, The Coral, The Beatles, Interpol, Girl Talk, The Decemberists, Editors, Kaizers Orchestra, Audiobullys, Cut Copy, Ambulance Ltd., M. Craft, N.E.R.D., Phoenix, The Chemical Brothers

My favorite artists don't reflect this, but I'm also a big fan of classic rock and (gulp) trance/mainstream club music -- both genres are amazing to listen to when you're doing language processing texts at 3 in the morning!

Nowhere near exhaustive, but!

Genres: I generally like fiction-wise -- horror and science fiction novels. I particularly adore old time-y science fiction (the kinds of things written in the '50s and '60s when people still pronounced "robot" like "ro-butt"). On the non-fiction side I like books about language & linguistics, history, sociology/society, and the science of everyday things.

Fiction: The World According to Garp (John Irving), Jude the Obscure (Thomas Hardy), Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury), Until I Find You (John Irving), While England Sleeps (David Leavitt), Haunted (Chuck Palahniuk), The Stand (Stephen King), House of Leaves (Mark Z. Danielewski), World War Z (Max Brooks), I Am Legend (Richard Matheson), The Handmaid's Tale (Margaret Atwood), collections by Ray Bradbury and Isaac Asimov

Non-fiction: Mutants (Armand Marie Leroi), Stiff (Mary Roach)

Comics/manga: Gyo, Girls, The Walking Dead, American Virgin, Runaways, Tomie, Uzumaki, Short Cuts, 30 Days of Night, DMZ

I also love artsy, photobooks about fashion and artwork or your typical "coffeetable" books for inspiration and passing the time -- examples: [1][2][3]

Genres: horror (both serious and tongue-in-cheek), sci-fi (modern and old school), movies that are slightly-romantic but generally offbeat

Like what? GATTACA, Soylent Green, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Planet of the Apes, The Eye, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Donnie Darko, Apocalypto, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Funny Games, Buffalo 66, Shortbus, Me and You and Everyone We Know, Ironman, Survive Style 5+, The Science of Sleep, Big Fish, Ghost World, The Machinist

Other miscellaneous facts: She has somehow evolved into an INTJ. She's a polyphasic sleeper. She's employed as an intern in a natural language proccessing lab and as a research assistant to a sexologist. Srsly. She's more of a traditional American comic geek than a weeaboo (but, aren't both pretty bad anyway?). And! --- she's in love with a clever programmer/computer scientist extraordinaire who also happens to be her high school sweetheart. They listen to terrible music together and enjoy watching British television late at night.

Although I'd appreciate receiving anything in a swap, these are a few things that I would either prefer not to get either for practicality's sake or for personal reasons:

• As much as I love cute doggies (they make my eyes glaze over), I'm not really a fan of goodies decorated with realistic drawings/photos of animals (e.g. notebooks with photographs of kitties and dogs frolicking in a field).
• Disney, Diddl, or Warner Brothers items
• Glittery or neon things
• Spicy teas -- I have enough to last me a lifetime (thanks, mom).
• Black licorice, hot or spicy candies
• Excessively mini-stationery -- full-sized things are nifty, but I can never seem to find a use for those really, really tiny notepads.
• Non-Buddhist religious items -- I was raised in a Buddhist household and currently practice the basics of Theravadan Buddhism; this is really rather a case of respecting my beliefs please.

Not-so-favorite Colors:

I'm not a very big fan of neon or pastel, particularly when it comes to wearable items, but I'm not too picky otherwise. (I also make a weird exception for chartreuse, which makes me feel like a little kid again!)

Things that I collect or that I'm always extra-thrilled to get:

• kawaii items! I would love to get any kawaii items, particularly when it comes to stationery and sticker swaps. I recently started collecting again -from middle school, haha-, so I also have tons of cute things to swap in the kawaii category. :D (If we're in a swap that could in any way could conceivably involve something kawaii, I would be completely thrilled to receive such items.)
• handmade polymer-clay goodies (keychain charms are my favorite)
• handmade jewelry
• stationery goodies (especially notebooks and pencils)
• fine arts supplies (inks, pens, specialty drawing paper)
• unique or strange charms
• bizarre foods or snacks
• vinyl or designer toys!
• small kawaii plushies
• practical but cute things (e.g. bento/lunch boxes, hair accessories, kitchen goodies, pencil pouches/boxes)
• anything linguistics/anthropology-related -- if you can think of anything that would fit these interests, I would probably give you my firstborn
• online shopping store/shop recommendations, particularly with deals and cheapo shipping :)

Favorite Themes/Patterns:

This particularly applies to stationery and charms, but in general I like items that feature...

• piggies (!)
• owls
• cupcakes, ice cream, and other sweets
• robots
• skulls and skeletons
• cute zombies, ghosts, and ghouls
• chicks/ducks
• coffee
• toadstools
• tofu
• bears (especially Tenorikuma and Rilakkuma)
• monkeys
• milk cartons
• food with faces in general
• apples (my mom's Thai nickname is 'Apple')
• pears (my Thai nickname is 'Pear')
• carrots
• victorian/vintage
• quirky or offbeat old advertisments

Kawaii Character Favorites:

• Mamegoma
• Natto-chan
• Milk-kun
• Charmmy Kitty
• Tenorikuma
• Rilakkuma/Relaxbear
• Gloomy Bear

Favorite Colors:

I'm pretty fond of earth tones and deep, rich colors. In particular I like:

• burgundy/maroon
• cream/off-white
• olive green
• turquoise/robin's egg
• chocolate brown

I think gold > silver, but that might just be because my name is Karat. :|

Stuff my loved ones would appreciate:

• My mom: clean-smelling candles, coffee and coffee-related items
• My boyfriend: small monkey, mushroom, and ninja themed things; GIANTmicrobes; mamegoma toys; blindbox figures (as you can tell, he has an embarrassingly strange soft spot for plushies and other adorable-unmanly things)
• My little sister: plain mini-sketchbooks or notebooks, Nintendo merchandise (wristbands, keychains, etc.)
• My little brother: Japanese cellphone charms/keychains or cultural items (he's a Japanese major)

Why is some of this profile in 1st/3nd person?

I thought I'd add this because I know it's a little strange. :'D I can talk about my likes/dislikes without much trouble, but for some reason that I can't explain, it's extremely tough to speak "About Me" unless I distance myself somehow (thus, the 3rd person)!

Why haven't you rated me yet?!

Rest assured, I always rate the same day I receive my swaps. :) If you think that something should've arrived by a certain date, don't be afraid to message me about it and I'll get back to you asap. Also, please keep in mind that I live in campus housing, which tends to delay outgoing and incoming slightly.

What's your policy about late sends/resends?

I hate giving out unnecessary 3's. I won't give them out unless (1) you're totally uncommunicative about being late/resending or (2) your swap doesn't meet the specified requirements.

I've had a couple of late sends and resends and, to be quite honest, I'm okay with this. If you let me know that you'll be late (even a couple of days after the deadline) so that I won't worry about flaking issues, I won't be a jerk about it. Life gets crazy sometimes. :3

Also, when it comes to things getting lost in the mail... I will usually message someone if I haven't received their package/letter/card within a month and a half of the send-by date if the swap has been marked as sent. If they choose to resend it and it arrives, I will rate them accordingly. If your swap gets lost and you make an effort to recreate and resend it, then (to me, at least) you're amazing.

I won't give 3's for slightly late or resent swaps when I feel that a swapper has truly put their heart into something they've sent.

Your profile scares me.

Haha, don't worry. Even if we have dissimilar tastes (i.e. I have things on my "dislikes" that you like!), I will always try my best to find something that's compatible with your interests. If we're in a crafty or item swap AND you have a pretty clear "likes" section, I promise that I'll try to create/search for something applicable to that list!