I joined Mensa, the semi-famous "high IQ society," in 1991, hoping primarily to find romance with a brilliant, socially ept nerd. It only took six months to find him -- and he turned out to be handsome, too! More about him in a moment.
The other thing I wanted from Mensa was intellectual stimulation. I got it. Now, Mensa is foremost a social organization, and few of its activities are specifically designed around stimulating topics; instead, you just put a bunch of Mensans together in a room and enjoy what happens. Mostly, it's ordinary conversation carried on with a bit more wit and depth than you'll find most other places. It's much like being with science fiction fans (and LOTS of Mensans are fans), except without the focus on science fiction.
In my original local group, Greater Phoenix Mensa, I founded or co-founded several special interest groups: one to explore my interest in longevity, and most recently a Libertarian SIG). I have contributed articles to the local newsletter, and co-wrote and/or performed in plays put on at our 1993 and 1994 Phoenix Phiesta regional gatherings. I even edited our newsletter, Much Ado About Mensa, for a short while.
I wrote an article for our national magazine, The Mensa Bulletin, on "smart drugs."
On Thanksgiving weekend in '95 I married Kent Van Cleave, who I met through Mensa. When I met him, he was the editor of The Mensa Bulletin. Our interests and attitudes are unusually well matched. If you know about the Myers-Briggs Type Inventory (MBTI), both of us are INTPs. Two days separate our birthdays in May, and we joke about being Gemini "twins".
Kent and I are both involved in Libertarian activism -- you know, the "freedom and individual responsibility" party. I served as Second Vice Chairman of the Maricopa County LP, and as Chairman of the Arizona Libertarian Party until April 1999. Kent's been a member at large and Secretary on the Arizona LP board. He actually ran for the state legislature in '96, '98, and '04 (not to win, but for the exposure -- gotta keep getting the message out).
Kent takes his activism to the WorldWide Web, too. He runs the award-winning anti-police-state website Welcome to Homeland Security, and is the founder of the voter empowerment website VoteBuddy.org.
My involvement with the Libertarian Futurist Society has allowed me to combine my interest in freedom with service to the science fiction community. Over the past five years or so, I have been a judge for the LFS Prometheus Award for best libertarian science fiction novel, or the LFS Hall of Fame Award, or both. In the photo at left, I am presenting an LFS Special Award for 2006 to the movie "Serenity." When my term as Director of the Society ended this September, I stepped down in order to spend more time on my writing.
Anyone interested in philosophical topics should visit Kent's website, designed for a wide audience ranging from laymen to professional philosophers and scientists: "Evolution and Philosophy".
We're not in Phoenix any longer, and we miss it. For most of 1999, Kent and I lived in rent-free housing on the campus of Sage Hospital in Ganado, Arizona. It's right in the middle of the Navajo Reservation. We moved to Indiana in late 1999 so Kent could pursue a doctorate in History and Philosophy of Science at IU's Bloomington campus. We spent that winter renting a huge farmhouse on 300 acres outside Spencer, IN. In March of 2000 we bought our own home in a rural setting almost exactly halfway between Bloomington and Bedford, where we enjoyed our rural surrounds and the easy commute into Bloomington. In May of 2005 we sold our house and moved into an apartment on the remote outskirts of Vincennes, IN. This neighborhood is more forested than the one we left, while being much more convenient to the amenities of town.
We share our home with twin female Maine Coon Cats -- Pandora (who daily lives up to her name) and Schrödinger ("Dinger" for short ... and yes, we're certain about that).