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 (Me, as Susan, of course) |
Susan... it wasn't a good name, was it? It wasn't a truly bad name, it wasn't like poor Iodine in the fourth form, or Nigella, a name which meant “oops, we wanted a boy”. But it was dull. Susan. Sue. Good old Sue. It was a name that made sandwiches, kept its head in difficult circumstances, and could reliably look after other people's children. It was a name used by no queens or goddesses anywhere. And you couldn't do much even with the spelling. You could turn it into Suzi, and it sounded as though you danced on tables for a living. You could put in a Z and a couple of Ns and an E, but it still looked like a name with extensions built on. It was as bad as Sara, a name that cried out for a prosthetic H. - Soul Music, Terry Pratchett |
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As
you can see, I'm a Susan who likes to hide that fact
behind her
alias. I never much liked my name, and the only nickname I care for
is Susy, which nobody can spell correctly.
Not to
mention the problem that in any
given
place, there are bound to be a half dozen Susans, all of whom are twice
my age. So I go by Meri. Short, sweet, and, most of all, different;
the
uniqueness fits me. I rarely go by Meri offline, however,
because I
have two friends named Mary and that gets needlessly confusing. So I'm
stuck with two aliases that I use equally, neither of which I want to
give up- this spawned the apt observation by one of my friends a while
back that went something like: "half
the time
you don't know who you are, and even when you do, you can't spell your
own name correctly". I got the name Meri from a roleplay character I had years ago who was an Elbit/Elfling (half Elf/half Hobbit)- her full name was Merily Thranduiliell, but while I often keep the Merily, Thranduiliell was way too much of a mouthful (ie, no one, myself included, could spell it), so it got shortened to Greenleaf. No, I'm not a Legolas fangirl; the name actually comes from the fact that my character was the daughter of the Elvenking. What can I say, I've loved Mirkwood and Thranduil since my dad read me The Hobbit when I was six. Ah, twisting young minds with books. ;) I may not roleplay that character anymore, but I still use that alias as my art persona (you'll see references in my art and blog to Woodland, Mirkwood, Elves, etc) and as my main renfaire costume. Besides, as a cheerful tree-hugger, the name Meri Greenleaf fits me well. The drawing on the right is a sketch I did years ago (2002, I think) of my Elfling persona. |
 |
 (Drawing
by me)
|
My
Muses:
Dragon-Girl,
Art Muse:
Another fantasy character you'll see around this site (as well as my shops and my blog) is of a Faerie dressed in green with red hair, Dragon wings, vine tattoos, and horns.Where the Elfling represents me, this Faerie is my art muse, or how I imagine my creative side to look. Now you're likely nice and confused by this point, but don't feel bad; I don't know where this one came from, either. She just showed up one day and demanded that I crochet and draw her, and hasn't left since. I'm not even sure if she really is a Faerie, or is instead some sort of Dragon in the guise of a Fae. Maybe someday she'll tell me. ;) Cyneric, Writing Muse: My other inspiration-giver is Cyneric, my writing muse. He started out as a regular Dungeons and Dragons character but because of his skill with words, he has become my inspiration to begin writing creatively again (I took about five years off from that). I'm currently writing fantasy ficlets/short stories about his world, which you can find on his blog Musings of a Messenger (yup, he has his own blog, but it really doubles as a place to house my fantasy writing stories). |
 (Drawing
by my friend Niere)
|
|
Quick
info, Dungeons
and Dragons
style
Meri (Meri Greenleaf, Merily Thranduiliell) Real Name: Susan Logue Age: 28 (or 559) Location: Media, PA, USA (Philly suburb) Gender: female Appearance: brown hair, blue eyes, 5' 4" Alignment: chaotic good Race: Human (or Elf/Halfling) Level: 3 Elements: equally Water and Earth (as in green growing things fed by Water) Relationship Status: engaged Birth Rank: oldest child Class (occupation): artist/scholar (bard/cleric) College Degree: BA in English (I focused on literature) Dream Job: professor of Brit Lit, artist on the side Known Languages: English, Spanish (not fluent), Old English (even less fluent) Known Types of Art: crochet, spinning yarn, paint/drawing, sculpting, chainmaille, jewelry, embroidery, handsewing, cross stitch (on crochet) Favorite Animals: housecats, foxes, dogs, turtles, dolphins Favorite Fantasy Animals: unicorns, gryphons, dragons Favorite Authors: JRR Tolkien, Terry Pratchett, Mercedes Lackey, Peter Brett, Tamora Pierce, Tad Williams, Anne Bishop, Douglas Adams, William Shakespeare, Aphra Behn, Oscar Wilde, Mark Twain, Jane Austen Favorite Bands/Musicians: Blackthorn, Hanson, Enter the Haggis, Default, Tonic, Jimmy Eat World, Flight of the Conchords, The Beatles,Melissa Etheridge, Spin Doctors, Matchbox Twenty, Goo Goo Dolls Favorite TV Shows: MST3K, Ghost Hunters, Myth Busters, Jeopardy, Cash Cab, Doctor Who, Star Trek, Whose Line Favorite Video Games: Legend of Zelda, Smash Bros, Animal Crossing, Harvest Moon, Lord of the Rings, Gauntlet Favorite Quotes: "You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus." -Mark Twain "We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." -Oscar Wilde |
 Chloe and Clarabell |
 Clara in a nest of my yarn |
  (Bad photo, but this is my fiancé Josh and me after the faire in 2009) |
 I think I have more Renfaire costumes than any sane person should own:
And these aren't counting my cosplay/Halloween costume of Susan Sto Helit from the Discworld books, or the three cosplays I've been planning out but haven't finished yet. Some of my costumes can be found on my Cosplay.com page. As you can probably tell, I love dressing up. ;) |
