Get to know Shiny!

Okay, my partner in crime has made a post so you can get to know her, but I'm gonna do a throwback post: 25 Things About Me (remember when that was the big thing going around Facebook a few years ago? lol)

1. My name is Hilary, but when I was born I guess that spelling blew the nurse's mind so my birth certificate lists my name as being Hiliary.
2. I was born on Thanksgiving Day in 1987. Gobble gobble!
3. I work in retail. I won't say where, but let's just say Paris Hilton thought they sold walls.
4. I like to bake and decorate cakes for my friends and family on their birthdays. Most fun so far: princess castle cake, complete with ice cream cone towers and graham cracker walls.
5. I've played piano since I was 12 and am almost entirely self-taught (I took a beginner piano class in high school and had an instructor, mainly for all the technical stuff like finger placement, transposing, etc.) That being said, I cannot for the life of me read music and play at the same time, so I generally learn songs by ear.
6. The first movie I ever saw in a theater was Beauty and the Beast; I was 4 and this was the true beginning of fandom for me. It's still my favorite movie of all-time.
7. Fishing! I haven't been in years and I don't have a license so I can't fish right now anyway, but I do love to fish. The first fish I ever caught was a massive bass on a dinky little kiddie pole when I was about 6 or 7. A few years later, I caught my first turtle (stupid thing kept stealing my bait - served him right!).
8. Pretty much since I first learned how to read, I've loved reading. I read a lot of classics (Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice, 1984, To Kill A Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby), quite a bit of Stephen King (Misery, Four Past Midnight, The Green Mile, currently working on Under the Dome), and fairytales. Not the sugar-coated Disney versions; I own Grimm's and Through the Looking Glass/Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Peter Pan. I also own The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Where the Sidewalk Ends.
9. In high school, my fandom got a good hard shove into fangirl status with Pirates of the Caribbean. I unfortunately lost a good chunk of my collection (still makes me mad at how, so I won't go there), but I do still have a lot of pirate-themed things.
10. Speaking of pirates, I have to say I love history. In fact, my fandom inspired me to actually research and learn a great deal about pirates and privateers and I even at one point had a list of nautical/sailor terminology. WWII is another part of history that fascinates me; for there to exist a single man who could talk a whole nation into mass genocide is mind-blowing to me.
11. I can cook and I'm always experimenting with various spices and seasonings to see what flavors I can come up with.
12. I don't consider myself to be a hardcore gamer, but I am a gamer nonetheless. My platform of choice is currently the PS3 (which I recently had to take apart and replace the thermal paste), though I've recently gotten into playing Star Trek Online on my PC and intend to one day start playing Minecraft.
13. My favorite board game is Clue - the original, not that stupid remake with the added cards and rules. Second favorite is Monopoly.
14. I own a Flash plushie that I've named Sheldon, a singing Soft Kitty, and a Sack Person from LittleBigPlanet that I've named Sackomatic ( <3 Greenly, Boondock Saints 2).
15. I was raised on Country and Classic Rock, but I'll listen to just about anything. If you were to see my Spotify playlist, you'd think my music choices were suffering an identity crisis.
16. That age-old question Coke or Pepsi: Pepsi FTW!
17. My fandom shift over to Sci-Fi really started with Heroes and Big Bang. Then the 2009 Star Trek movie came out and that was my gateway into TOS, TNG and Voyager. Then I discovered Firefly/Serenity, and Battlestar Galactica. Granted, I watched the original Star Wars trilogy growing up, but I never really latched onto it. Just not really my cup of tea, and that's perfectly fine.
18. Since Trek Expo in Tulsa, OK was cancelled this year, the epic Uno battle between Garrett Wang (Harry Kim, VOY) and I had to be postponed. I was so looking forward to kicking his butt!
19. I believe in learning the things that interest me, not things society thinks I need to know. Because of this, I know a little about Interior Design (local tech. school intro. program) , how to take apart my PS3 and replace the thermal paste, how to crochet, how to fold origami, a little HTML/CSS coding, how to play Magic: the Gathering, how to build a stage set (tech. theater, senior year of high school), how to set up and frame a shot (video production, senior year of high school), a plethora of words...to name a few lol
20. Pets I've had over the years: a Boxer, two Parakeets, a German Shepherd, and a Beta. Oh! And Sea Monkeys, though they're really just tiny prawns.
21. I once tried to teach myself to play guitar, but my fingers don't like to cooperate on the frets.
22. I've always thought it'd be neat to learn to play the drums.
23. I was in the school choir from 7th grade till 10th grade. I was primarily a first soprano, but was able to sing second soprano, first and second alto, and tenor. I've since lost much of my upper register due to lack of practice.
24. I got the worst sunburn of my life when I was about 12. It blistered and got infected, so I had to take antibiotics, then it peeled twice. Worst. Summer. Ever. Moral: never jump into swimming without putting on sunscreen, especially if you have fair skin like me.
25. If there's a comic book series I'd like to read that I know will eventually be released as a compendium, I'll just wait. I prefer having one solid book as opposed to various smaller books.

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As of today, you guys have just 19 days left to help get the restored TNG bridge to Star Trek: Las Vegas in August. If you want to sit in the Captain's chair, you can learn more and help here: Experience the Enterprise.