Hello, all! Gosh... I haven't filled out a profile in ages...

uhm... well, for starters, my name is Annie, and my username is a sort of spin-off from Thomas Hardy's novel, Far from the Madding Crowd. I am 20 years-of-age, and I am currently a freshman in college - Latin major, English minor. If you're a reader of "Ephemeris Silenti" by the gorgeous The Philosopher's Queen, I help her with her Latin.

uhm... I am a bit of an introvert... actually, scratch that; I am an introvert, but that's okay. I'm in the pre-law program at my school, so I naturally have no life. (My plan is to enter law school after I get out of undergrad school IF I get a good LSAT score, and study criminal law, and EVENTUALLY become a prosecutor. Will that actually happen? Who knows. My back-up plan is to go to graduate school for classics and become a Latin professor.)

Aside from school (... IS there anything aside from school?), I really do love to read, and I did jump on the Twilight bandwagon with half of America (and half of the world, probably) when Stephenie Meyer published the first book. However, I never became totally obsessed with it all. I also enjoy reading "true crime" books, as well. They fascinate me to no end - especially forensic psychology. And psychopathology. XD

DEATH NOTE = WIN. (random statement, I know.) love the anime, love the manga. (But I tend to favor the manga more, simply because I'd rather read something than watch it.) I would probably have to say that my favorite character is Light (yeah, sorry, everyone). I tend to rp as Light (and therefore Kira), Ryuk, Mello, Mikami, Beyond (from the spin-off novel Another Note, in case some of you didn't know), and... well, those are the main ones. Any others are random secondary characters.

Also, I absolutely LOVE John Knowles' A Separate Peace, and I WILL ship Finny and Gene. Yes, they are straight in the novel. But that does not mean that I particularly care. I am also in favor of reviving the ASP part of this site, as it's been dead for quite some time now. This place needs more ASP fanfics!

BELOW THIS LINE: READ AT YOUR OWN RISK. (I'm warning you... it gets lengthy, and some of you may consider it irrelevant.)

Also aside from school, I am religious - Catholic, to be exact. Now, don't go harping on me about how lame I must be just because of this fact. I know that many people don't like other people just because those "other people" happen to be Catholics. That's stupid and, quite frankly, immature.

As I am quite sure there's at least ONE person out there who's mind is swimming with the inevitable stereotypical thoughts about Catholics, I will dedicate the following space to The Four Inevitable Questions:

Q: Catholicism isn't Christianity.
A: ... Don't even get me started. YES IT IS. I can give you biblical evidence that it is. (And before you go accusing me, yes - "biblical" is properly spelled with a lowercase "b." Blame English grammatical rules.) And St. Peter was the first pope, btw.

Q: OMG you're against gay rights! YOU ARE SO PREJUDICED/EVIL/WRONG/insert personal favorite word of derogatoratory value here!
A: ... Actually, I'm not. I, personally, am a very strong gay rights activist. Hell, my best friend is bi. And I love her to death. I'm also a member of the Human Rights Campaign (, if you're interested in checking it out), and have been since last year. I donate money to them regularly. I even write romance between two people of the same gender because I believe that love is love. it just is. I also jumped on the yaoi bandwagon LONG before it was even considered a "bandwagon." I was into it when bandslash was still popular. (I used to write and read MCR slash back in the day. And I'd squeal at the concerts when Gerard would kiss Frankie's cheek. GerardxFrankie forever.)

Q: uhm... Catholics pray to Mary. That's kind of... .;; it's awkward ... You're supposed to pray to God and Jesus. At least, that's what we do.
A: I have actually gotten this one several times from people at school - this, along with the ever-famous "You pray to STATUES" (see below) accusation (every Catholic gets it at one point or another; it's unavoidable). First of all, Mary is the reason for Jesus' existence. Everything depended on her answer when the Angel Gabriel told her that she would be bearing a Son. She could have said no. But she didn't. And she's pretty much amazing as anything because she was immaculate (i.e. sinless, perfect, etc.) ALL HER LIFE, and she didn't even have to go through Purgatory; she just went straight to heaven when she died. Also, praying to the Blessed Mother is a way to pray to God. It's like praying to Him through Mary. If you're too afraid to speak to God, then you can ask Mary to pray for you, and it's easier. Because... well, lets be honest, people. Sometimes mothers are easier to talk to than fathers.

Q: Why do you pray to statues?
A: We don't pray TO STATUES, per se. The statue of Mary or Joseph is called a sacrimental (i.e. pretty much something that helps a person get into the right state of mind for prayer/worship/devotion/etc). And the Church has about as many sacrimentals as it does prayers (which means A HELLUVA LOT). Kneeling down before the statue of the Blessed Mother or Joseph and ask them to pray for you or others, or the Souls in Purgatory.

... There are usually more, but those are usually the four biggies.