yet more questions

[jazzfish]

Turns out that Stardust isn't showing at Springfield before noon tomorrow. Feh. There's a show at 1:15, and one at Tysons at 10:25. I'd be up for either of these; express your preference in comments.

Also, more questions.

From pooka798:

1) Of all the places you've lived which was your favorite & why?

Probably here. It's close enough to a big city that there are neat things going on, like concerts and theatre; it's close enough to a real airport that I can travel; it's only miserable for about two months out of the year. I'm not enamored but it'll do for now.

2) Why did you choose running instead of swimming or biking?

I didn't want to shell out the money for a bicycle, and there wasn't a pool nearby when I started. Running has the advantage of not requiring any special equipment (other than shoes). I prefer swimming in general, though; there's less sweat involved.

3) What is your ideal occupation?

Jeez, I don't know. This one's closer than anything else has ever gotten, with the possible exception of the time spent answering phones that never rang. "Freelance writer" sounds really good except for the utter lack of any kind of reliability in income.

4) What sport would you tolerate watching?

For the sake of "bonding with / not offending family" I'm willing to sit on the couch with a book while a baseball game is on. Actually watching? I used to be vaguely interested in college basketball.

5) As a child who was your favorite author?

David Eddings, once I discovered him in fifth grade. Before that, probably Tolkien, based on the battered condition of my Lord of the Rings paperbacks.

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From darkfyre_muse:

1. Is your current career what you envisioned/wanted for yourself at the start of college?

Ha. No. Not in the slightest. I came to college fully convinced that I was going to become a computer engineer in five years and go to work for the company I co-oped at.

2. What are your spiritual beliefs?

I'm more or less a Taoist these days, which I guess means I don't really have a lot of spiritual beliefs. To quote Graydon Saunders, "I believe that [humanity] is the augmentation of dust, and that death ends all but memory. I believe in the sufficiency of chance, the inescapability of time, and the interconnectedness of all things."

3. Have you ever been in love? (not lust, female or male are equally acceptable.)

Gosh yes. Three or four times. It is equal parts delightful and headache-inducing.

4. You are only allowed one game for the rest of your existence. Which one?

In the spirit of the question: Go. I'd get bored by everything else. Looking for loopholes: Magic: the Gathering, because it's constantly evolving, can be played multiplayer, and even has a solitaire component in the deckbuilding.

5. Do you have a favorite book/album/movie/something else that you escape into repeatedly? What is it and why.

About half of Dar Williams's songs are comforting escapism for me. (A handful of the rest drag my soul across hot coals.) Sarah McLachlan does this as well. In both cases it's due to strong associations with times when I've felt very loved.

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From kittenchan:

1. What is that little something that makes a good book so good?

If I knew I'd be writing them myself. I've spent more time than I care to recall in the past few weeks trying to figure out why the Harry Potter books were the ones that kept me up at night and made me late for work. My plaintive "They're not even all that good!" went unheeded in the drive to keep turning pages.

Small touches of awesome. The passage about the fog early on in Strange and Norrell, the picture of Alan Shepherd in Shadow of the Torturer. I fell in love with Brick (a movie, but o the dialog!) at the line "If you're ever looking to get back together . . . I could use you."

2. If you could meet any author, dead or alive, and have a discussion with him/her, who would it be?

John M. Ford, in a shock to absolutely no one who's been paying attention.

(These kinds of questions always remind me of the Pearls strip where Rat asks, "If you could meet one person, living or dead, who would it be?" and Pig replies, "The living one.")

3. We all know you like board games - can you choose a favorite one? What is it and why is it your favorite?

Eep. Um. Go is nice and deep and crunchy, but there are so many other games out there that I haven't given it the study it really needs. I'm always ready to play Attika; I've gotten to the point where I play on a tactical level without conscious thought, making the moves that feel right. Puerto Rico's a beautiful interplay of systems; Power Grid is an exceedingly clunky interplay of systems that make for a really compelling game in spite of that. Et cetera. I don't think I can choose a single favorite.

4. Are you interested in playing cello (more) seriously?

Possibly. I am not wholly disinterested, which is why I keep lugging it around with me. It's conceivable that when I Get Settled I could do some practicing and look into hooking up with an orchestra. Not terribly likely, but conceivable.

5. What artist really speaks to you? Why?

Magritte, and I don't know; isn't that the point of surrealism? Something about his work pulls at me.

Comments

[sometimerose.livejournal.com]

And it certainly isn't the sports aspect, since the game of quidditch makes NO SENSE.