again, I answer interesting questions
Jun. 5th, 2003 12:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mariboumore Shower meme (and I shall take this set of parentheses to note just *how much* I am enjoying all the questions and answers sprouting up all over my friends page. how'd you all get so good at telling us about yourselves?)
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xiadyn:
1. When and why did you decide to start shaving your head?
Eleventh grade, I think. I was So Very Tired of my hair, which was thick and uncooperative and extremely heavy, and I slowly developed the determination to chop it all off as soon as possible. Which ended up being my second year of college, but that's a different story.
2. What are the top books you would recommend to other people at the moment?
Gosh, I don't like to recommend books to "other people in general", because they're such specific things. I prefer feeling people out and then trying to figure out what they'd like. I think _The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay_, by Michael Chabon, has a great deal of universal appeal, and _Grace and Grit_, by Ken Wilber and Treya Killiam Wilber, is one of the best books I've ever read. Recently, I was really impressed by _Reading Lolita in Tehran - A Memoir in Books_ by Azir Nafisi. I find Diane Ackerman's _A Natural History of the Senses_ very restful, like an extended and humorous prose poem. I suspect, though I'm only about a quarter of the way through it, that you might be intrigued by _Aroma: A Cultural History of Smell_ (Constance Classen et al.), but that's a specific recommendation, not a general one.
3. Do you feel like you've accomplished most of what you set out to do
by this point in life? What goals changed over time?
Well, it depends on when I was setting out to accomplish things.
The goals I set for myself 4 years or so ago, I have met and surpassed; I seem to be ahead of schedule. I've a bachelor's degree and a local social circle of whom I'm truly fond and a more stable work situation and I'm less of a pain in the ass to my loved ones and I keep getting better at this marriage thing. I'm even looking at buying a house.
However, the goals I had during the time of life when I was consciously trying to set goals (17? 18?) are mainly irrelevant now (veterinary degree? no getting married until at least 28?) - it's not that I haven't met them yet, I just no longer want to meet them.
Of course, I must sheepishly confess that I once wanted, in my most secret heart of hearts, nothing loftier than "a boyfriend, a cat, and a saxophone" (mm, to be twelve again...) - and being in possession of quality examples of all three, should count myself lucky. (Uh, boyfriend having become husband. I don't have a husband *and* a boyfriend. Don't want to confuse anybody.)
4. If you could have a round-trip ticket to anywhere right now, where would it be?
Whereeeyorerin is. Because I still haven't met her and and I most earnestly want to do so much sooner than I can afford to travel.
Or Seattle, because I want to dive in deeper.
Or Montreal, because I always miss it.
Or Charlottetown, because this is one of Prince Edward Island's 3 best times of year and I want to walk out on the sandbars and play in the orchard.
Or Italy, if I could bring Jay - somewhere green and secluded and full of waterfalls, with excellent restaurants.
Obversely, it's hard to think of a destination I would refuse, were I offered a round-trip ticket.
5. What makes you laugh?
Playful absurdity. Especially when I'm with people I enjoy.
6. How do you feel about where you're currently living (both the
building and the city)?
The building: I'm still in love with it, even as I realize that we don't fit in this apartment any more. It's a 1930's-ish 2 story with a sweeping roof and lots of wood and detailing and it has character. Also, I enjoy the plaid wallpaper in the kitchen and the bay window looking out at the mountains. It has some plumbing issues, but what loved one doesn't have flaws?
The city: Oh, the ambivalence. I like it here. I like my downtown, and I like the surrounding mountains, and I like the abundance of sunshine, and I like the bat-swept riparian area a few blocks away from my apartment, and finding the Cheyenne Canyon area made the rest of the city seem less of a disturbing sprawl of block housing and cookie-cutter subdivisions.
On the other hand, it mostly *is* a sprawl of block housing and cookie-cutter subdivisions. Transit sucks. People live in their cars, and not on the sidewalks. There are Scarily Intense and Morally Rigid people of several types who give me the creeps, and there seems to be a superabundance of them. And it's too damn hot in the summer, and too big for its britches. I would've liked to have seen the place 20 or 30 years ago.
Overall though, it's more than acceptable, and I don't want to leave. Not really.
fromeeyorerin:
1) What's the biggest difference that you've noticed between living in
Canada and living in the US?
The average person is much more abrasive to strangers, except in Seattle (so this may be a regional thing, but it holds true over most of the west, including Portland, plus Michigan). Not rude, per se, but harsh. And there are plenty of exceptions. But the median is further over toward the abrasion side. The good side of this is that people seem more likely to be bold with each other.
Also, it's not cold enough most of the time.
The thing I notice most frequently is that people say 'zee' instead of 'zed'. Because I work in a highly alphabetized situation and I still haven't learned that saying 'zed' will only get me stares.
2) If you could live anywhere, where would you live (assuming you could afford it, and bring husband-person with
you)?
Wish-fulfillment? Montreal.
Slightly less wish-fulfillment, but much more subject to change, and still not pragmatic? Seattle or Victoria (B.C.) or Vancouver (also, B.C.) or New Orleans.
If I were in danger of having you make my answer come true? Right here, where I am now.
3) What are the best and worst things about your current job?
Best: the sheer presence of several hundred thousand books. being surrounded by them and able to touch and smell and read them at will (when i'm not too busy!). Also, helping people, especially people who are there out of desire rather than an 'ought to'. And as work environments go, it's a pretty damn fine one; I'm not micromanaged, I like everyone who works there, I feel secure most of the time, praise is forthcoming, and nothing beats an hour paid lunch for making the odd crappy day redeemable.
Worst: I really detest being a manager. I don't like telling people what to do and I don't like dealing with miscellaneous managerial crap. And I don't like having to soothe cranky customers and I don't like having to gently shoo out the people who are overly smelly or liable to turn dangerous. And, it's still a job, no matter how pleasant, when I'd prefer to do whatever I felt like whenever I felt like it.
In my ideal world, I wouldn't work, in any traditional sense. In a close-to-ideal world, I'd have the job I have now without any "people parts" except normal customer interactions. And I'd still get paid the amount I do, and no one would ever tell me what to do, but I'd still get warm fuzzies from my fellow employees on occasion.
4) Would you ever like to go back to school? If you did, what would you study?
I severely severely doubt it. But if I did, I'd either want to get a Doctor of Divinity ( and I'd do transgressive theology to get it, because that's one of my favorite games - use Russian Orthodox theologians to buttress one's arguments that Christians need to get more into their own bodies, use early Cardinal Ratzinger to explain why late Cardinal Ratzinger is Very Very Wrong), or study history not-for-a-degree (because I persist in thinking that I'm not *wise* enough to be a historian, but it fascinates me to study what we've done and why we claim to be/have been doing it). There are a lot of biology things I want to learn, but not in the sit-in-a-classroom way so much as in the tag-along-after-people-whose-work-I-admire-and-whom-I-find-charming-while-pestering-them-with-endless-questions way. I think I'd enjoy being a science writer.
5) What's your greatest regret?
It occurred somewhere between January 1 and September 31, 1998, I can tell you that. But within that time period, I did so many rotten things, and have such a blurry recall of most of them, that I couldn't pick a single one. Also, it's really hard to tell what might have happened if I had acted differently, and I like where I ended up. Whatever it is, it definitely was something cruel that I did to someone I love, and oughtn't to have.
6) What's your greatest joy?
My capacity to be utterly fascinated by almost anything, if I let it happen, assuming that 'greatest' means most pervasive and highest.
My favorite joy? It's about 4 am. I wake up, roll over, snuggle into my husband, share mumbled endearments, accidentally knock my foot into my purring cat, and fall back into whatever happy dream I'd been having. Yup. Mmm.
From
xiadyn:1. When and why did you decide to start shaving your head?
Eleventh grade, I think. I was So Very Tired of my hair, which was thick and uncooperative and extremely heavy, and I slowly developed the determination to chop it all off as soon as possible. Which ended up being my second year of college, but that's a different story.
2. What are the top books you would recommend to other people at the moment?
Gosh, I don't like to recommend books to "other people in general", because they're such specific things. I prefer feeling people out and then trying to figure out what they'd like. I think _The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay_, by Michael Chabon, has a great deal of universal appeal, and _Grace and Grit_, by Ken Wilber and Treya Killiam Wilber, is one of the best books I've ever read. Recently, I was really impressed by _Reading Lolita in Tehran - A Memoir in Books_ by Azir Nafisi. I find Diane Ackerman's _A Natural History of the Senses_ very restful, like an extended and humorous prose poem. I suspect, though I'm only about a quarter of the way through it, that you might be intrigued by _Aroma: A Cultural History of Smell_ (Constance Classen et al.), but that's a specific recommendation, not a general one.
3. Do you feel like you've accomplished most of what you set out to do
by this point in life? What goals changed over time?
Well, it depends on when I was setting out to accomplish things.
The goals I set for myself 4 years or so ago, I have met and surpassed; I seem to be ahead of schedule. I've a bachelor's degree and a local social circle of whom I'm truly fond and a more stable work situation and I'm less of a pain in the ass to my loved ones and I keep getting better at this marriage thing. I'm even looking at buying a house.
However, the goals I had during the time of life when I was consciously trying to set goals (17? 18?) are mainly irrelevant now (veterinary degree? no getting married until at least 28?) - it's not that I haven't met them yet, I just no longer want to meet them.
Of course, I must sheepishly confess that I once wanted, in my most secret heart of hearts, nothing loftier than "a boyfriend, a cat, and a saxophone" (mm, to be twelve again...) - and being in possession of quality examples of all three, should count myself lucky. (Uh, boyfriend having become husband. I don't have a husband *and* a boyfriend. Don't want to confuse anybody.)
4. If you could have a round-trip ticket to anywhere right now, where would it be?
Where
eeyorerin is. Because I still haven't met her and and I most earnestly want to do so much sooner than I can afford to travel.Or Seattle, because I want to dive in deeper.
Or Montreal, because I always miss it.
Or Charlottetown, because this is one of Prince Edward Island's 3 best times of year and I want to walk out on the sandbars and play in the orchard.
Or Italy, if I could bring Jay - somewhere green and secluded and full of waterfalls, with excellent restaurants.
Obversely, it's hard to think of a destination I would refuse, were I offered a round-trip ticket.
5. What makes you laugh?
Playful absurdity. Especially when I'm with people I enjoy.
6. How do you feel about where you're currently living (both the
building and the city)?
The building: I'm still in love with it, even as I realize that we don't fit in this apartment any more. It's a 1930's-ish 2 story with a sweeping roof and lots of wood and detailing and it has character. Also, I enjoy the plaid wallpaper in the kitchen and the bay window looking out at the mountains. It has some plumbing issues, but what loved one doesn't have flaws?
The city: Oh, the ambivalence. I like it here. I like my downtown, and I like the surrounding mountains, and I like the abundance of sunshine, and I like the bat-swept riparian area a few blocks away from my apartment, and finding the Cheyenne Canyon area made the rest of the city seem less of a disturbing sprawl of block housing and cookie-cutter subdivisions.
On the other hand, it mostly *is* a sprawl of block housing and cookie-cutter subdivisions. Transit sucks. People live in their cars, and not on the sidewalks. There are Scarily Intense and Morally Rigid people of several types who give me the creeps, and there seems to be a superabundance of them. And it's too damn hot in the summer, and too big for its britches. I would've liked to have seen the place 20 or 30 years ago.
Overall though, it's more than acceptable, and I don't want to leave. Not really.
from
eeyorerin:1) What's the biggest difference that you've noticed between living in
Canada and living in the US?
The average person is much more abrasive to strangers, except in Seattle (so this may be a regional thing, but it holds true over most of the west, including Portland, plus Michigan). Not rude, per se, but harsh. And there are plenty of exceptions. But the median is further over toward the abrasion side. The good side of this is that people seem more likely to be bold with each other.
Also, it's not cold enough most of the time.
The thing I notice most frequently is that people say 'zee' instead of 'zed'. Because I work in a highly alphabetized situation and I still haven't learned that saying 'zed' will only get me stares.
2) If you could live anywhere, where would you live (assuming you could afford it, and bring husband-person with
you)?
Wish-fulfillment? Montreal.
Slightly less wish-fulfillment, but much more subject to change, and still not pragmatic? Seattle or Victoria (B.C.) or Vancouver (also, B.C.) or New Orleans.
If I were in danger of having you make my answer come true? Right here, where I am now.
3) What are the best and worst things about your current job?
Best: the sheer presence of several hundred thousand books. being surrounded by them and able to touch and smell and read them at will (when i'm not too busy!). Also, helping people, especially people who are there out of desire rather than an 'ought to'. And as work environments go, it's a pretty damn fine one; I'm not micromanaged, I like everyone who works there, I feel secure most of the time, praise is forthcoming, and nothing beats an hour paid lunch for making the odd crappy day redeemable.
Worst: I really detest being a manager. I don't like telling people what to do and I don't like dealing with miscellaneous managerial crap. And I don't like having to soothe cranky customers and I don't like having to gently shoo out the people who are overly smelly or liable to turn dangerous. And, it's still a job, no matter how pleasant, when I'd prefer to do whatever I felt like whenever I felt like it.
In my ideal world, I wouldn't work, in any traditional sense. In a close-to-ideal world, I'd have the job I have now without any "people parts" except normal customer interactions. And I'd still get paid the amount I do, and no one would ever tell me what to do, but I'd still get warm fuzzies from my fellow employees on occasion.
4) Would you ever like to go back to school? If you did, what would you study?
I severely severely doubt it. But if I did, I'd either want to get a Doctor of Divinity ( and I'd do transgressive theology to get it, because that's one of my favorite games - use Russian Orthodox theologians to buttress one's arguments that Christians need to get more into their own bodies, use early Cardinal Ratzinger to explain why late Cardinal Ratzinger is Very Very Wrong), or study history not-for-a-degree (because I persist in thinking that I'm not *wise* enough to be a historian, but it fascinates me to study what we've done and why we claim to be/have been doing it). There are a lot of biology things I want to learn, but not in the sit-in-a-classroom way so much as in the tag-along-after-people-whose-work-I-admire-and-whom-I-find-charming-while-pestering-them-with-endless-questions way. I think I'd enjoy being a science writer.
5) What's your greatest regret?
It occurred somewhere between January 1 and September 31, 1998, I can tell you that. But within that time period, I did so many rotten things, and have such a blurry recall of most of them, that I couldn't pick a single one. Also, it's really hard to tell what might have happened if I had acted differently, and I like where I ended up. Whatever it is, it definitely was something cruel that I did to someone I love, and oughtn't to have.
6) What's your greatest joy?
My capacity to be utterly fascinated by almost anything, if I let it happen, assuming that 'greatest' means most pervasive and highest.
My favorite joy? It's about 4 am. I wake up, roll over, snuggle into my husband, share mumbled endearments, accidentally knock my foot into my purring cat, and fall back into whatever happy dream I'd been having. Yup. Mmm.
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no subject
Date: 2003-06-04 11:47 pm (UTC)Cardinal Ratzinger is still my favorite figure that you've introduced me to. What you have there in italics is an awesome-sounding paper topic. ;)
no subject
Date: 2003-06-04 11:51 pm (UTC)