memes

[druidspell]

From firedragon9

1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I will respond by asking you 5 questions of a very personal nature.
3. You will update your LJ with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this and an offer to interview someone else in the post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed you will ask them 5 questions.

1. Black or White?
Gray. That's not just how I see the world in terms of the issues affecting it, it's also one of my actual favorite colors. I favor darker grays more than light ones, and any gray over pure white or black.

2. What animal would you become if you could?
A wolf.

3. What got you into bandom?
skoosiepants. She started talking about these Fall Out Boys, and Gerard Way, and Brendon Urie and this band with an ! in the middle of their name. And I looked them up on iTunes, discovered that hey, I already had a Fall Out Boy song on my computer (“Sugar We're Goin' Down”, if you're curious), listened to the 30 second sample of the songs on From Under the Cork Tree that I didn't already have, and decided that hey, I liked these Fall Out Boy people. Although what the hell did they look like? And why did the Internet keep talking about Pete's dick???
I resisted My Chemical Romance for a really long time, actually; the “Helena” video kept showing up in my Yahoo! Music video rec list (you know, the “if you've watched this video 3994789812348564 times, you'll probably like this one!”) and annoying me, my last roommate had been a big MCR fan and I was not a fan of hers, and basically I hadn't let Gerard Way and his ridiculous earnestness into my heart yet.
Panic! won me over with their VMA performance of “I Write Sins, Not Tragedies.” It took me awhile to warm up to A Fever You Can't Sweat Out, but once I did, I was gone.

4. Who would you kiss on a first date?
If the date went well, someone I wanted to go on a third date with. (Being as I'm not out to my parents, I'm trying not to date seriously until I meet someone I'd actually be willing to go through that for. Yes, this limits my options by a lot, but I'm not gonna be that asshole who tells you she loves you, but then refuses to talk about her girlfriend to her family. Just... No.)

5. What's your favorite book?
Oh wow, that's a really hard choice. I've got somewhere in the region of 1000+ books, and I've read all but... 8 of them. (Those are mostly textbook-ish.) There are a lot of books that have had a huge impact on me; here, have a list:
* Orson Scott Card's Hart's Hope--which is really hard to find, but worth it—is the book that influenced most of my perceptions about a writer's role in the universe.
* Simon R. Green's Nightside series helped me figure out some of my end of worldbuilding over at Midnight Rising, which is, in the simplest reality, a fairly dark alternate future where gods and monsters are real, and among us.
* I love Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter and Meredith Gentry series; I couldn't actually choose a favorite of those if I tried—she had a huge impact on how I see the sometimes lighter side of a world where the mundane and magical worlds don't just brush shoulders, but exist together in the same space, sometimes the same person.
* Phillip Beard's Dear Zoe is a book that got me thinking about how, even in the wake of a huge tragedy, there are smaller and sometimes entirely unrelated tragedies that deserve attention, too.
* I've seen other people on my flist badmouth Jennifer Wiener's Loving a Larger Woman, but as a real-life larger woman, I kind of love that book to bits. It's both realistic in the sense that life sometimes sucks, and people suck ten kajillion times worse at times, but it's also feel-good wish-fulfillment fantasy—in the end, it all turns out as okay as it can. And sometimes, life happens like that, too.

But since the question was “What's my favorite book?” I'm going to go ahead and say that Shatterglass by Tamora Pierce has top rank. I've read and reread that book hundreds of times; I can quote chapters to you, and it's a book that combines my favorite things: weatherworking, learning/teaching control of magical gifts, dragons, foreign places and ways of doing things, sociology and anthropology, solving crimes, and blowing glass.

From miriel, who is starting Field School soon, after a stress-filled semester in college in Canada. She is also made entirely out of awesome.

Rules:

Leave me a comment and

1. I'll tell you why I added you to my flist.
2. I'll tell you what I most associate with you.
3. I'll tell you what I like about you.
4. I'll state a favorite memory of you.
5. I will tell you about a character or a pairing that is similar to you.
6. I'll ask you a question about you that I've always wanted to know.
7. I'll tell you which of your user pics I like the best.
8. In return, post this meme on your journal.

Comments

[mardahin.livejournal.com]

*Blushes* Hit me with your best shot!

[druidspell.livejournal.com]

Your meme first!

1. I absolutely fell in love with the worldbuilding you'd done for "Ripples". The first time you commented to one of my entries in my journal, I had one of those moments where it's like you've just been greeted by your favorite celebrity: "Oh my god, was that really...? Did they just...? OMG, I MUST REMEMBER THIS ALWAYS!" (I had this same reaction the first time you messaged me over AIM.)
2. The third-floor hallway at Whitehall Classroom Building, where I plugged in my laptop and skipped class because our conversation about Atlantis was much more interesting than whatever lesson I was supposed to attend.
3. The way that you let people talk you into really big projects and pull them off with flair--14 Valentines, the entirety of Ripples. The way that you build worlds, the way that you're really incredibly smart, the way that you like hockey.
4. One of the first times we chatted on AIM, we got to talking about Sandra Takei and PegCorp LLC, and the way things work out. It was a conversation that lasted hours, and at the end of it, I felt like I'd watched a universe be born and grow up. I want to live inside your brain forever--even if your brain is writing papers about Nazi brothels in WWII.
5. Lindsey Novak: Sweet, smart, capable, able to handle difficult people with far more grace than the rest of us. I think I'd have screamed at your roommate long before you ever did.
6. You've mentioned before that your extended family is a bit of a mess. If things were different, which member of your extended family would you most like to know better?
7. Three-way tie: or or . Although made a decent running, because I freaking adore Eowyn. She's my favorite of Tolkien's characters, let alone his women.


1. Which Firefly-verse character reminds you most of you?
2. What's the first thing you remember being really fannish about?
3. How did you decide on your current course of study?
4. How many siblings (full, step, or half) do you have, and what are their ages?
5. How often do you have contact with your mom, now that you're living out of the country?

[mardahin.livejournal.com]

1. *G* Hopefully you've gotten a bit more used to interacting with us Author-types, especially given that I'm really not all that high-and-mighty in the grand scheme of things. I loved chatting with you, both in comments and on AIM, because you took the universes seriously and asked questions that led to incredibly interesting answers and pushed the outskirts of the various universes that much further. I'll admit, I was really nervous when I sent you that first AIM, b/c I wanted someone to talk about some of the universe-building *with*, and I didn't want to seem strange and stalker-like.
2. Eep! Didn't mean to be a negative academic influence ^_~
3. Well, this year's 14 V didn't exactly come off with flair, but I'm pleased you think so highly of 2007's attempt. I'm going to try to be better about 2009.
4. LOL!! Thanks, I think!
5. I love Lindsey. I think she's incredibly under-utilized (and I'm still convinced that she and Lorne had a black-market racket-thing going on for all of S2 and S3). I also have to admit, I think she would have kicked @ss in Stargate: Asgard Embassy. *Sighs*
6. Ooo. Wow. Hm. Maybe my (evil) uncle's second wife, the one he's married to now. She's a nice lady, and didn't realize what she was getting into until she was rather heavily invested. At this point, she's pretty much bowed out of all politics (interactions) involving his relatives, which is a shame because she seems rather cool. Most of the rest of the family? Total self-absorbed dipshits, which means that they'd be pleasant to my face, but the best I could hope for would be benign neglect.
7. Eowyn rocketh mightily.

- - -

1. Hm. To be honest, probably Simon. Rather priviledged upbringing, good schooling and a good brain, and a bit too smart for his own good. Tends to talk using semantically correct vocabulary, which comes off sounding pretentious even though it isn't meant to. Capable of adapting to just about anything, given a little time and a lot of motivation.

2. Tough one. Probably Star Trek, because I remember going to "Star Trek: The Exhibition" when it came to Boston the year I was in grade 2. And I remember the family discussions over whether or not I could watch TNG, b/c Mum didn't approve of cheap knock-offs and had loved the original. Oh, and I met James Doohan when I was 9. Babylon 5 was my first introduction to online fandom, though.

3. In part, I'm in English because I'm a mythology geek. I took "Medieval Myth & Modern Narrative" b/c it was a Tolkien class, back when I was at UMCP, and was surprised by how much I liked the discipline as a whole. It took until now to really end up in the field, as much as anything b/c I'd always been told you couldn't make a living as an English major. The History Major was more an accident - I was originally a media studies minor, and went to my first class and knew I had to drop it b/c it was horrid, but I'd already paid tuition and so I tried to find another course to swap into. The only thing available was History of Modern Britain, and due to my background credits, it would also complete the lower-level requirements for a minor, so I switched it on the spot. Then, last term, I decided that it was only 4 extra classes to get the major, and here I am. The two dovetail very nicely, especially when looking at the evolution of mythology and folklore, and what outside factors impacted it ^_^
4. One half-brother, who's 13 years younger and lives with my father and step-mother in New Brunswick. He's an 11 year old brat who needs better parenting, but he's slowly getting better. Love him anyway, because he *is* my brother, and if I don't look out for him, no one's going to when it comes to the grand scheme of things.
5. Surprisingly, I end up talking to my mum on the phone a lot. Often, I end up tech support, but I've also been doing some relationship counselling for her b/c she started seeing a guy from work and couldn't talk to anyone else about it. She spent 20 years almost completely socially cut-off from the rest of the world, due to my grandmother's lovely interference, and as a result it's been taking her a while to work through both getting back into an active social life and simply dealing with my grandmother's death.

[honeybearbee.livejournal.com]

That's a lot of books! Wolves!

[druidspell.livejournal.com]

That's a very lot of books; I've made it a point to try and read everything I own at least once.

1. Bandom friending meme all the way, baby!
2. German--the language more than the food or arts, but everything German reminds me of you in some way.
3. The way that you write and update almost every day.
4. Being sent fic to beta; I love beta-reading. (Speaking of, the fic should now be sitting in your inbox.)
5. The entirety of Panic remind me of you--you seem happy and relaxed, much like Panic is now that they've had their Jon Walker for a while. You're friendly and sweet, but not a pushover.
6. If you had to live with one of the kids in the bands you like, who would it be and why?
7. is my favorite "am I sure I only want to lick girls?" icon EVER. And then reminds me that yes, yes I do.

[honeybearbee.livejournal.com]

1. Whoot!
2. Sweet! And I'm not even German! Well, not full German.
3. :D Thanks!
4. I got it! Thank you! :D
5. \o/ Whee! :D Thank you again!
6. I'm stuck between saying Patrick, 'cause hi, it's Patrick or all of Panic. D: THIS IS A HARD CHOICE, WHAT?
7. Nngh. I love those too. Naked girls and boys FTW.

[mardahin.livejournal.com]

BTW, relating to the books...

First off, I remember vividly when I first read Tamora Pierce, and your love of her just reaffirms my belief that we have similar tastes.

Second, I want to recommend an author to you. She's a wonderful world-builder, one who really pulls in all of the details and takes the time to think things through - up to and including language(s).

The author is C. S. Friedman, and the book of hers I'd start you on is In Conquest Born, which is about two cultures (both descended of humans) who have been at war for longer than anyone can remember, and each of which embodies opposing ideologies. The book revolves around two generals, one Braxi and one Azean, who push the conflict to its utmost potential, while at the same time being outsiders within their own peoples in various ways. It's long, but it's a great read, and the ending is at the same time what you think is coming, and also completely surprising.

In addition, her "This Alien Shore" strikes me as something you'd like.

[phoenixsansfyr.livejournal.com]

*waves* Me!

[druidspell.livejournal.com]

1. Because when I finally got a livejournal account in 2004, I knew your username, and I loved talking/RPing with you at DF and VI.
2. Starbucks. Every time something awesome happens to me at a 'Bux, I want to text you and tell you about it--for instance, in the last week, I've been surprised and delighted twice by my baristas. :D
3. Your honesty, your willingness to care about me, the way that you're just the right kind of bitch to get along with my bitchiness. Your loyalty. Your you-ness.
4. Sitting up late talking in my bedroom when you came to visit, because whatever we were talking about was clearly far more interesting than sleep. I don't remember the conversation anymore, but I remember being happy that I was having it with you.
5. River and/or Simon Tam. River, because you bear a positively uncanny resemblance to Summer Glau and you're beautifully dangerous in some of the same ways that River is, and Simon because you're both crazy smart and a little old-fashioned.
6. I see the world and think in words and phrases; my claim to art is in how I string words together. I've seen your photography; how do you see the world?
7. (because I was there with you) or (because it makes me laugh like a crazed hyena when I see you using it)



1. Latin or Welsh?
2. Favorite way to be touched?
3. If you had to get all your liquid through only one source, which would you choose?
4. Books or Internet?
5. If you had to die by natural disaster, which one would you prefer?

[duchesspariah.livejournal.com]

Meh?

[druidspell.livejournal.com]

1. Because you're my soulsister, and me in Bardstown and you in Lexington was way too painful without this link.
2. Panthers. Incense. Living together peaceably. Summer. Fairs. Funnel cakes. Those slushies we served at Sue's & Senior's booths. The color blue. UK Wildcat frenzy. Love. Faith. Poetry. Loyalty.
3. Everything.
4. Any of the Thursdays at Mom & Me, before the ceramics lessons, when it was just the three of us.
5. Eric Calhoune, from Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes. (He's the one staying fat, if you were at all curious.) Not because you're an 18-year-old overweight competitive swimmer whose 18-year-old father abandoned his pregnant 18-year-old mom and then went on to teach geology in the Midwest somewhere. But because you'll do anything to protect and help a friend, because you're smart and sarcastic, and you can avoid a direct question like a team of lawyers had coached you at it. Also because you can be passive-aggressive and at times self-defeating, but you still hang in there, all the time, doing what you have to do.
6. Not only do I want to know which Gargoyle is your favorite, but why them and not the other guy who might have been?
7. . I actually kind of hate this one, not because it's a bad picture (because it's really, really not), but because it makes me feel even more homesick for you; your picture's on my screen, but you aren't there.


1. What's your favorite thing about hand-animated Disney movies?
2. Which party will you be voting for in the 2008 Presidential election and why?
3. Right at this very moment, how do you feel about Jason?
4. In the past month, how have you felt about Jason?
5. When's the last time you talked to Jessi and/or Tabitha?