Interview meme 1
Thursday, June 5th, 2003 02:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tamaranth... the questions from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
flickgc ...
1) Do you still feel that you need to have more than one LJ, particularly given that there are [some] people on both friends lists? Why?
'Both'? That is, my name is legion: there are several of me out there. :)
However, it's true: there are two major LJ accounts I use, with a very small crossover. A rather larger number of Friends of one LJ have friended the other but not been friended back, so they see only public posts. Why did I have two in the first place? When I first set up my journals, I was working somewhere where I couldn't specify the Friends-group filtering for a post (it's a Javascript applet); instead, I set up two separate identities, in both of which I could post public or Friends-only posts and (important!) expect them to reach different audiences. Nowadays, the two LJs represent quite different communities in which I have different personas.
The great Outing last year made me think about what I post where, and why. My conclusion -- much reinforced recently! -- was that there are conversations I can have with imaginary internet friends that I couldn't have with anyone who actually knows me (or, sometimes more importantly, knows my real-life friends and connections). And vice versa -- though to a lesser extent, as there are more and more people on my Friends list here who I don't actually know in person.
There's another aspect of the 'audience' issue which is difficult to explain (well, I'm finding it difficult!). My other LJ is active in a particular subset of communities and journals, and newcomers to that area have a fair chance of finding my other LJ without knowing very much about me. They are not necessarily the target audience for posts about my personal life. Likewise, a great many of my real life friends, and their friends, and incomers from fandom etc, would be (at best) uninterested in my life Over There. [Does this make any sense?]
As you can see, I really do need multiple journals to cope with the amount of hot air [or cyber-equivalent] I can produce at the drop of a hat!
2) If you could save three pieces of music, and all others would be destroyed, which would you choose?
Define 'destroyed'. Destroyed everywhere except in my memory, or in my memory as well? Important distinction to me, because there is a great deal of music I know by heart. Let's assume 'destroyed in ways not involving amnesia' ...
You know those Microsoft progress bars where the last 5% takes as long as the previous 95%? Well, that's my brain, thnking about this question.
- Beethoven's Ninth (am a huge fan of his vocal and orchestral work, and this combines the two). Have a feeling that a whole symphony might be cheating: but just think, it could be an opera, and that would be even longer ...
- Led Zeppelin, 'Rock'n'Roll' - bouncebouncebouncebouncebounce
- Blondie, 'Dreaming' (Utah Saints remix) - ditto, but differently
3) What do you want to do for a living? Would you rather freelance or have a contract? IT or writing?
I'd rather have something that allowed -- in theory, at least -- for breaks between projects. Have just suggested to agency that I would far rather take on short-term contracts (one month rather than six, for example) until they find me something that actually meets my requirements. That way I can take a break after each job, keep looking for something that fits my skill-set and experience, and pay heed to my non-work needs (fresh air, sunshine, writing, Real Life).
Oh, and IT, definitely. Not least because I suspect programming pays more than I would ever make from writing! I can write to order, but the results are seldom satisfactory to me. And I love problem-solving, which is what programming at its purest is about. When I'm not doing any IT work, a part of my brain languishes: but even when I'm working hard on an IT project, the creative side of my brain is churning away (writing drabbles during beaks, scribbling dialogue on the back of system specs ... oh, and actually the specs can be pretty creative too!)
4) If you could go back in time and meet, on their death bed, one person born pre-1800, who would you choose? Would it make a difference if you were to meet them when they still had most of their life before them?
I have a suspicion that the further back you go, the less the chances are of being able to have a conversation -- I mean in terms of mindset, rather than actual spoken language. But *waves magic wand* let's assume that I can talk to whoever it is as an equal, regardless of cultural (and gender-based) distinctions ... Given my current classics fetish, I'd like to talk to Odysseus*, assuming there was an original warrior/adventurer on whom the myths were based. (Other contenders include Farinelli, the Empress Theodosia, Leonardo da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin, Barbara Strozzi, John Donne, Byron, Beethoven, Laurence Sterne ...)
As for whether it would make a difference to meet earlier .. well, depends. With Odysseus I think I'd be more interested in talking about what he'd done, what he'd seen: but with some of the others I'd like to know more about their hopes, ambitions, intentions -- and, assuming I could remember anything from their biographies, I'd want to dispense advice ("Flying a kite in a thunderstorm is really stupid, and you'll catch a chill").
5) Would you be happier if you didn't live in the UK? Where would you like to live, if you could choose anywhere (UK or otherwise. Trips off-planet not yet possible).
I've done some intensive thinking recently on this subject. There are a great many things I love about living here -- quite aside from the fact that very nearly all my friends are UK-based. The one massive drawback is the climate; I've had to face the fact that every year I'm going to suffer a major bout of depression as the light levels drop in the autumn, and I have observed that this is getting worse as I get older. This effect responds to medication (and would no doubt be alleviated if, for the last two autumns, other things hadn't hit crisis point around the same time of year) but it's no fun to live with. (And, I have to admit, neither am I).
Thoughts of emigrating have produced the following conditions:
- it'd need to be somewhere where English (or some colonial variation) was the main language. I'm bad at learning languages and paranoid about not understanding people.
- climate. I don't mind more extremes of temperature, but I demand more light. More sunshine, really.
- sea. At one point I was thinking very seriously about Colorado, and the one major drawback is the distance from the nearest beach (Thousands of miles: flying distance). London feels too far from the sea and it's about 50 miles.
- seems very likely that I'd be going on my own, so I'd prefer a country where I knew somebody, even if only online.
- political situation, within reason, not as important to me as it would have been ten years ago. Blame Blair for making me want to stick my head in the sand. I like Scandinavian politics better, but they all speak strange foreign languages.
- some culture, please.
So: USA, Australia or New Zealand are the prime contenders. As to whether I'd be happier .. I really don't know. Some of the things that make me unhappy are connected with my present situation in the UK and would be left behind. Some would, by definition, be over before I could leave (clue: family). Some are probably hard-wired, but I don't know if they'd be as important given absence of other factors.
Buy me an air ticket, arrange my visa etc and I'll let you know!
*and would have said this even before the announcement about the role being played by Sean Bean in the forthcoming film. Honest.
OK, next? Leave a comment if you want to be interviewed!
EDIT: Thank you, LochJournal, for converting all the HTML tags you put in to exciting literal strings!
flickgc ...1) Do you still feel that you need to have more than one LJ, particularly given that there are [some] people on both friends lists? Why?
'Both'? That is, my name is legion: there are several of me out there. :)
However, it's true: there are two major LJ accounts I use, with a very small crossover. A rather larger number of Friends of one LJ have friended the other but not been friended back, so they see only public posts. Why did I have two in the first place? When I first set up my journals, I was working somewhere where I couldn't specify the Friends-group filtering for a post (it's a Javascript applet); instead, I set up two separate identities, in both of which I could post public or Friends-only posts and (important!) expect them to reach different audiences. Nowadays, the two LJs represent quite different communities in which I have different personas.
The great Outing last year made me think about what I post where, and why. My conclusion -- much reinforced recently! -- was that there are conversations I can have with imaginary internet friends that I couldn't have with anyone who actually knows me (or, sometimes more importantly, knows my real-life friends and connections). And vice versa -- though to a lesser extent, as there are more and more people on my Friends list here who I don't actually know in person.
There's another aspect of the 'audience' issue which is difficult to explain (well, I'm finding it difficult!). My other LJ is active in a particular subset of communities and journals, and newcomers to that area have a fair chance of finding my other LJ without knowing very much about me. They are not necessarily the target audience for posts about my personal life. Likewise, a great many of my real life friends, and their friends, and incomers from fandom etc, would be (at best) uninterested in my life Over There. [Does this make any sense?]
As you can see, I really do need multiple journals to cope with the amount of hot air [or cyber-equivalent] I can produce at the drop of a hat!
2) If you could save three pieces of music, and all others would be destroyed, which would you choose?
Define 'destroyed'. Destroyed everywhere except in my memory, or in my memory as well? Important distinction to me, because there is a great deal of music I know by heart. Let's assume 'destroyed in ways not involving amnesia' ...
You know those Microsoft progress bars where the last 5% takes as long as the previous 95%? Well, that's my brain, thnking about this question.
- Beethoven's Ninth (am a huge fan of his vocal and orchestral work, and this combines the two). Have a feeling that a whole symphony might be cheating: but just think, it could be an opera, and that would be even longer ...
- Led Zeppelin, 'Rock'n'Roll' - bouncebouncebouncebouncebounce
- Blondie, 'Dreaming' (Utah Saints remix) - ditto, but differently
3) What do you want to do for a living? Would you rather freelance or have a contract? IT or writing?
I'd rather have something that allowed -- in theory, at least -- for breaks between projects. Have just suggested to agency that I would far rather take on short-term contracts (one month rather than six, for example) until they find me something that actually meets my requirements. That way I can take a break after each job, keep looking for something that fits my skill-set and experience, and pay heed to my non-work needs (fresh air, sunshine, writing, Real Life).
Oh, and IT, definitely. Not least because I suspect programming pays more than I would ever make from writing! I can write to order, but the results are seldom satisfactory to me. And I love problem-solving, which is what programming at its purest is about. When I'm not doing any IT work, a part of my brain languishes: but even when I'm working hard on an IT project, the creative side of my brain is churning away (writing drabbles during beaks, scribbling dialogue on the back of system specs ... oh, and actually the specs can be pretty creative too!)
4) If you could go back in time and meet, on their death bed, one person born pre-1800, who would you choose? Would it make a difference if you were to meet them when they still had most of their life before them?
I have a suspicion that the further back you go, the less the chances are of being able to have a conversation -- I mean in terms of mindset, rather than actual spoken language. But *waves magic wand* let's assume that I can talk to whoever it is as an equal, regardless of cultural (and gender-based) distinctions ... Given my current classics fetish, I'd like to talk to Odysseus*, assuming there was an original warrior/adventurer on whom the myths were based. (Other contenders include Farinelli, the Empress Theodosia, Leonardo da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin, Barbara Strozzi, John Donne, Byron, Beethoven, Laurence Sterne ...)
As for whether it would make a difference to meet earlier .. well, depends. With Odysseus I think I'd be more interested in talking about what he'd done, what he'd seen: but with some of the others I'd like to know more about their hopes, ambitions, intentions -- and, assuming I could remember anything from their biographies, I'd want to dispense advice ("Flying a kite in a thunderstorm is really stupid, and you'll catch a chill").
5) Would you be happier if you didn't live in the UK? Where would you like to live, if you could choose anywhere (UK or otherwise. Trips off-planet not yet possible).
I've done some intensive thinking recently on this subject. There are a great many things I love about living here -- quite aside from the fact that very nearly all my friends are UK-based. The one massive drawback is the climate; I've had to face the fact that every year I'm going to suffer a major bout of depression as the light levels drop in the autumn, and I have observed that this is getting worse as I get older. This effect responds to medication (and would no doubt be alleviated if, for the last two autumns, other things hadn't hit crisis point around the same time of year) but it's no fun to live with. (And, I have to admit, neither am I).
Thoughts of emigrating have produced the following conditions:
- it'd need to be somewhere where English (or some colonial variation) was the main language. I'm bad at learning languages and paranoid about not understanding people.
- climate. I don't mind more extremes of temperature, but I demand more light. More sunshine, really.
- sea. At one point I was thinking very seriously about Colorado, and the one major drawback is the distance from the nearest beach (Thousands of miles: flying distance). London feels too far from the sea and it's about 50 miles.
- seems very likely that I'd be going on my own, so I'd prefer a country where I knew somebody, even if only online.
- political situation, within reason, not as important to me as it would have been ten years ago. Blame Blair for making me want to stick my head in the sand. I like Scandinavian politics better, but they all speak strange foreign languages.
- some culture, please.
So: USA, Australia or New Zealand are the prime contenders. As to whether I'd be happier .. I really don't know. Some of the things that make me unhappy are connected with my present situation in the UK and would be left behind. Some would, by definition, be over before I could leave (clue: family). Some are probably hard-wired, but I don't know if they'd be as important given absence of other factors.
Buy me an air ticket, arrange my visa etc and I'll let you know!
*and would have said this even before the announcement about the role being played by Sean Bean in the forthcoming film. Honest.
OK, next? Leave a comment if you want to be interviewed!
EDIT: Thank you, LochJournal, for converting all the HTML tags you put in to exciting literal strings!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: Thursday, June 5th, 2003 06:13 am (UTC)please please
Date: Thursday, June 5th, 2003 06:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Thursday, June 5th, 2003 06:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Thursday, June 5th, 2003 06:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Thursday, June 5th, 2003 06:59 am (UTC)Beagles (lately, anyway) :)
Date: Thursday, June 5th, 2003 07:20 am (UTC)What single magical power would most improve your current life? How? Why?
If you were to run away and leave (almost) everything behind, what three objects would you take with you? (People and
hellspawncats not included).What surprises people most when they discover it about you?
Which period of history would you most like to have real, authentic memories of?
no subject
Date: Thursday, June 5th, 2003 07:20 am (UTC)What were you sure of at 18 that you are no longer as sure of?
When was the last time you really pushed yourself physically (running, climbing, swimming, dancing)?
If you could live in the universe described in any SF or fantasy novel -- for example, living in Earthsea, but not as one of Le Guin's characters -- which novel would it be, and why?
What's your very favourite song, and why?
no subject
Date: Thursday, June 5th, 2003 07:21 am (UTC)If you could live someone else's life for a day, whose life would you choose? Why?
Name one piece of classical music that affects you. How?
Have you ever had the opportunity to live in another country? (Not Jersey!) Why not?
If someone offered you a grant to cover all bills and mortgage for a year on the condition that you wrote a novel, would you accept? (No full-time employment would be permitted).
twisty?!
Date: Thursday, June 5th, 2003 07:22 am (UTC)If you were paid your current salary no matter what job you did, what would you do?
What's your favourite thing about the city you live in?
Role-playing games -- love them or hate them? Why?
Can fan-fiction be literature?
Re: Beagles (lately, anyway) :)
Date: Thursday, June 5th, 2003 07:28 am (UTC)*attempts to shoo you out the door*
no subject
Date: Thursday, June 5th, 2003 07:29 am (UTC)If you could talk to any novelist, past or present, and be sure that you would learn something from them -- who would you want to talk to?
Where do you want to be this time next year? (Read as you will - physical location, emotional state, whatever!)
Which single living person would you most like to meet, and why?
What haven't you done yet? (Again, read as you will!)
no subject
Date: Thursday, June 5th, 2003 08:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Thursday, June 5th, 2003 08:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Thursday, June 5th, 2003 01:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Thursday, June 5th, 2003 02:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Thursday, June 5th, 2003 09:00 pm (UTC)Someone who was close to Jesus, if there was a historical Jesus which I've never been certain of. I want to see and hear exactly what happened firsthand.
What were you sure of at 18 that you are no longer as sure of?
Wow, the world was so different when I was 18 -- there was a Soviet Union and there was no internet. Let's see...I was sure that I would never under any circumstances think about terminating a pregnancy. That I would never want to live in any country other than the US. That I would never weigh more than 120 pounds. That MTV was a fad that was going to go away soon. That if I ever met Harrison Ford I would want to have sex with him. That I was a dog person, not a cat person. That I wanted four children. I know much less now than I did at 18...
When was the last time you really pushed yourself physically (running, climbing, swimming, dancing)?
Boy, you're going to tell me I suck, but it was probably climbing the Tor in Glastonbury!
If you could live in the universe described in any SF or fantasy novel -- for example, living in Earthsea, but not as one of Le Guin's characters -- which novel would it be, and why?
I can't think of any literary a/u that ever held the appeal for me as Star Trek's future did for my entire childhood, even though I never wanted to serve in Starfleet. Nancy Kress' Probability universe fascinates me -- the humans in it act very much like the humans I know, though they're in touch with beings on other planets. I've never had any urge to live in any historical era before this one -- for starters I'd probably have died in childbirth -- and we are rapidly developing all the technology I coveted from Star Trek, like a centralized library computer and instantaneous communication anywhere on the globe.
What's your very favourite song, and why?
"All You Need Is Love," by the Beatles. Because it's the Beatles, and because, yeah.
no subject
Date: Friday, June 6th, 2003 01:01 am (UTC)You never know: maybe I'll do my exploratory thingy one of these days, and drop by for coffee!
no subject
Date: Friday, June 6th, 2003 01:05 am (UTC)Glastonbury? :) Fascinating answers!
no subject
Date: Friday, June 6th, 2003 01:07 am (UTC)2. Name three songs that affect you -- how, why?
3. Can you spot a day in your life when, if you made different choices, you'd be in a different place -- physically, emotionally, socially -- now?
4. Whose life would you like to live a day of?
5. One magic power that would improve your life right now -- how? Why?
no subject
Date: Friday, June 6th, 2003 01:10 am (UTC)2. Have you ever thought about killing someone else?
3. Is a pound of strawberries a balanced meal?
4. Which film would you most like to live in?
5. What's the origin of your LJ name, and how long have you had it?
no subject
Date: Friday, June 6th, 2003 01:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Friday, June 6th, 2003 01:57 am (UTC)interpret as you wish ...!
Date: Friday, June 6th, 2003 02:12 am (UTC)2. How's Tonbridge?
3. Tell me about a piece of classical music that affects you. How?
4. Period of history you'd most like to have authentic memories of?
5. Where are we going?
no subject
Date: Sunday, June 8th, 2003 02:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Wednesday, June 11th, 2003 03:38 am (UTC)1) Which fictional world would you most like to live in?
2) What single fictional thing (magical power, technological advance, event, etc) would most improve your quality of life if it existed / occurred in the real world?
3) What sort of pink drink do you prefer? Why?
4) You live in rural bliss. Or something. Ever miss city life? And if so, what do you miss?
5) What's the worst thing about living miles from anywhere?