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1. Elaborate on your default icon.
I think it looks like me. This view is apparently not shared by many other people. It looks a lot like my self-image.
2. What's your current relationship status?
Married.
3. Ever have a near-death experience?
Only the kind of 'oh shit oh shit I am going to die' that occurs from time to time when you do a lot of driving. (I love pulling out of 90 degree turnings onto major dual carriageways to find a lorry bearing down on me that obviously can't stop and having to pull blindly out into the next lane and pray there's nothing oncoming. I am also quite fond of vehicles suddenly appearing in the middle of the road in front of me, or in my rear view mirror as I pull out into what I could have sworn was a totally clear lane.)
4. Name an obvious quality you have.
I am cute. I know that is quite an obnoxiously arrogent claim, but most of my interactions with people seem to be moderated by the fact I look harmless and at least vaguely attractive.
5. What's the name of the song that's stuck in your head right now?
I don't really have anything stuck in my head because I'm listening to music (REM - Me In Honey), although Malathian Gold keeps creeping in around the edges.
6. Any celeb you would marry?
No, I'm already happily married and wouldn't swap him for anyone.
7. Who will cut and paste this first?
I have no idea. Answering sensibly would require me to dedicate thought to the matter. My first instinct was
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naath, as I'd just read her completing another of these things I did.8. Has anyone ever said you look like a celebrity?
Yes. I can't remember who, because they were Obviously Wrong.
9. Do you wear a watch? What kind?
I wear the cheapest watch in the Argos catalog. It is the best kind of analog watch, as it has a huge face with nice clear numbers on and it even has quite an attractive black fake-snakeskin strap. I would have a digital watch, but my mother told me they were unfeminine and I was still listening to her at the time I bought this watch, which was a long time ago (both of the little bits that hold the strap to itself are broken, but the rest is holding up very well).
10. Do you have anything pierced?
No. I have this distinct aversion to putting holes in myself where no holes should be. Possibly this is due to listening to Levi Stubb's Tears by Billy Bragg too much at an impressionable age.
11. Do you have any tattoos?
No. I also have this aversion to doing anything permanent to myself, because I change and I am in fact quite afraid of stagnating and not changing.
12. Do you like pain?
In the vast majority of circumstances, I dislike pain. If necessary, I can take a certain fierce joy in it, but I prefer not to as that kind of lends power to a side of myself I'm pretty sure I shouldn't let out too often. I am paranoid about physical damage, which means I would not voluntarily inflict pain on myself for fear of damaging myself, although I often push myself too far in not directly pain inflicting ways (like continuing to run around when I'm dead on my feet or striding confidently through thick bushes without adequately defending myself) when in character as someone who would.
13. Do you like to shop?
I loathe shopping. Firstly, you have to spend money, which I hoard like a hoarding thing, and feel guilty about spending because I could have given it to a good cause / put it towards getting a house. Secondly, you have to interact with human beings or incompetantly designed websites or badly constructed automation. Thirdly, you often have to get up and go somewhere and do a lot of fetching and carrying. Fourthly, I have no real attachment to Stuff and so I dislike having to buy it. My clothes tend to fall apart and I tend to run out of food because I loathe shopping so much.
14. What was the last thing you paid for with cash?
Dinner tonight at the Carlton, although tbh I just gave the cash to Nicholas and he bought it. The last time I have handed cash to an actual selling person in return for stuff was buying a Bambi burger at Maelstrom, which was probably poisonous but I was starving to death and didn't care.
15. What was the last thing you paid for with your credit card?
Probably food. That or petrol, and I think Nicholas paid for petrol last.
16. Who was the last person you spoke to on the phone?
Nicholas' answerphone was the last thing I spoke to. I don't remember the last person, it was long enough ago. Probably Edith.
17. What is on your desktop background?
Wolves, from a photo that either I or Dom took at Colchester Zoo. (My desktop background underneath that, which is shown briefly during startup, is the Alien City backdrop from a standard set that comes with Debian and/or Ubuntu and/or Kubuntu. My computer is a little screwed up.)
18. What is the background on your cell phone?
It is blank, because my phone is old. My phone does have a funky exploding M intro and outro, though.
19. Do you like redheads?
I occasionally find red hair aesthetically pleasing, but hair colour isn't really important to me. I have met some nice redheads, and I imagine there are many of them I wouldn't like much as well.
20. Do you know any twins?
Not that I'm aware of. I might, because I am chronically unobservant and fail to remember people's familial relationships.
21. Do you have any weird relatives?
My grandmother collects garden gnomes and arranges them in little tableaus with the flowers she arranges in order that her retirement bungalow is the most stand-out bright pretty decorated thing you can see on the road. I have a relative with agoraphobia who hasn't been out of their room in double-digit years, although we finally got them to accept a computer and an Internet, so I don't feel so sorry for them any more. My great-aunt and uncle maintain a small tribe of young boys who use their house and garden as a hang-out spot and den. My relatives are no weirder than anyone else's, and generally quite tame and harmlessly insane, or heartbreakingly normal.
22. What was the last movie you watched?
A Scanner Darkly, which I believe I've already wittered about.
23. What was the last book you read?
I have not really been reading books lately, because I have been reading the Internets instead :(. The last actual physical book I read right through was re-reading The Diamond Age; the last novel I read right through was Accelerando, which was Exactly The Kind Of SF I Like, although whenever I read good SF of that kind it leaves me hopelessly depressed because I want the future, *now*, and it makes me cry for the waste of all the people of this generation and countless generations past. (Not usually literally; I'm a selfish bugger and rarely cry for anything that isn't me, although I do occasionally cry for things I identify with.)
24. Is there such a thing as love at first sight, or it is more likely to be "lust at first sight"?
It is more likely to be "lust at first sight", although obviously there's nothing stopping that developing into love, and lust doesn't just have to be about physical things, it can be about mannerisms and little emotional cues as well.
25. What's your favourite novel?
I haven't read Stand on Zanzibar for an awfully long time, so Cryptonomicon and The Diamond Age are currently overshadowing it. Neverwhere is a strong contender just for that "the sound of a switchblade opening" line, but doesn't quite give me the same falling-headlong-into-the-future feeling that I mostly read for.
26. When was the last time you visited the street where you first lived?
A little while before my wedding, when I went to have my hair trimmed so it would fit under the veil.
27. Do you read your horoscope?
No. I used to purposefully avoid it, but now I rarely encounter it.
28. Who's your favourite of the seven dwarves?
It is sad that I do not remember the names of the seven dwarves.
29. When was the last time you googled your own name?
Quite some time ago. It was never very interesting, as I rarely use it online in any consistant manner and there's a minor actress who appeared in the X-Files with it. I haven't tried my new name yet, but I suspect it of being even more common, and I really haven't used it online. As I'm not an academic and don't use it habitually online, I suspect I'll never personally be very high on Google under my real name.
30. What was your favourite subject at school?
At primary school, I mostly liked maths, because I could go at my own pace and the school would buy me new textbooks when I ran out. Science was quite good too, because I got to find interesting solutions to problems. And I did a lot of creative writing and a lot of listening to teachers being trained how to use computers so I knew how to get into all the admin modes.
At secondary school, I liked history, because the textbooks were the most interesting, but was generally qutie an information sponge and anyone telling me things was good, especially if they'd let me read my books once I'd got it. Maths began to get actually difficult and hence not fun any more at the end of sixth form.
31. What was your least favourite subject at school?
PE, because nobody would believe me when I claimed I couldn't do things. I have a weird assortment of Total Unfitness, which was even worse back then because I couldn't breathe properly as the doctors had yet to diagnose my Not Quite Asthma.
32. Do you like having your photograph taken?
I enjoy having my photograph taken and search obsessively for photographs of myself, even though the results tend to range from indifferent to hilariously awful.
33. What time were you born?
I seem to remember something along the lines of 'just in time for tea', and the time 5:45pm springs to mind, but I have no idea how accurate this information is, and it may in fact refer to someone else.
34. Ever seriously questioned your sanity?
...this question was obviously written by people who are vastly unlike the set of people I am capable of meaningfully relating to.
35. How many phone numbers do you have remembered and can say off the top of your head?
My mobile phone number. My parents' home number. My grandparents' home number. It is a source of endless inconvenience that I cannot remember this place's landline number or Nicholas' mobile phone number.
36. Can you Limbo?
I have not tried for a very long time. I was always spectacularly bad at it, which I believe to be a symptom of not posessing much, if any, of a sense of balance.
37. Have you ever killed your own dinner?
No. Not that I wouldn't, but it's vastly impractical.
38. How long have you been living at your current residence?
Three months now. (The spare room is still full of boxes.)
39. What phobias do you have?
I am irrationally afraid of earwigs and of mold. I am also irrationally afraid of rejection, ridicule and faliure to do anything useful with my life, but those are pretty common and not really phobia material. I am quite rationally afraid of dogs, for I have been attacked and bitten by them in the past, and they aren't very fond of me.
40. What's your ideal breakfast?
Cereal with chocolate hazelnut spread in.
41. Where are you right now?
At my computer, in my flat in Cambridge.
42. What book or movie title best summarises your personality?
I have no idea. I do not know enough books or movies, especially not offhand.
43. If you could suddenly get the skill to play any single musical instrument, which would you choose?
If I can't cheat and go for singing (you can do it anywhere without equipment or much preparation), probably the guitar (if I have to be specific, the acoustic lead guitar), because you can make a lot of good tunes out of it and it doesn't need a power source so you can carry it around LARP events. I don't really like the sound of anything you blow into, which is the traditional carryable instrument.
44. Why do you blog?
It provides an outlet where I can get lots of sympathy and useful advice, where I can witter on about myself (I *love* wittering on about myself, I think that I am very interesting :-) ) and share my opinions with the world (and boy, do I have a lot of opinions), and where I can spend time where I want my brain active but have no energy filling in daft memes. Also, I wish everyone would blog so I can keep up with their lives without having to ask and so that I can look back on their lives and see if something interesting or important has happened to them lately, so I feel I ought to.
45. Do you have any prejudices you're willing to acknowledge?
I have so many prejudices I don't know where to start. For instance, I'm dreadfully racist and think that black people are likely to be cliquish (sticking together with other black people) and more violent and in my face, Indian-style asian males are likely to be salesperson-like and have a huge network of contacts and be misogynistic and get stuff done with their asian buddies (and the females are likely to be quiet and feminine until married with children and terrifying materfamilias types afterwards), that oriental people are likely to be quiet and studious and orderly. I think girls are less likely to be interesting than boys. I think that watching soap operas and wearing makeup on a daily basis is likely to make you entirely alien to me. I think non-hetrosexual people are likely to be more interesting. I think the vast majority of right-wing types (with a possible exception for considered liberatarians and similar small-government proponents) are utterly irrational. I am deeply concerned that people on welfare with few qualifications are outbreeding people who seem to be more like me. And this is barely the surface of the seething mass of prejudices I embody.
46. What would you call your autobiography?
The more I think about it, the more I'd lean towards not calling it anything - it would just have my name on the front and the spine.
47. What's the longest time you've stayed out of the country/where?
I can't remember whether some of my sojourns out of the country were a week or a fortnight, but no longer than a fortnight, certainly. It would be Portugal or the Rhineland, most likely.
48. Do you use ICQ, AOL Buddy list etc..?
I use ICQ, AIM and MSN Messenger, as well as the LJ Jabber server, through GAIM instant messenger.
49. Do you have nightmares frequently?
I do not have actual nightmares too frequently. I often have dreams which people might term as nightmares due to the high terror content, but they are what I call 'good dreams'. I sometimes have entirely or almost entirely mundane dreams about something bad I am afraid of at the moment, which are awful and what I normally called nightmares. I once had an entirely traditional nightmare in which the most terrifying part was that I was entirely aware that I was dreaming but I couldn't wake up, and everything was absolutely crystal clear reality-spectrum all of my senses and all of the detail of the real world.
50. If you were another person, would you be friends with you?
Yes. I have spent a lot of time and effort finding people as similar to myself as possible in order to be friends with them. Deep down, I truly love myself, I think the world would be a better place if everyone was me, and I am still rather attracted to the idea of being cloned. (I am also quite aware that I am deeply awful and a terrible friend and whine all the time and am not particularly proud of my mile-wide sadistic streak, but I still consider myself intrinsically superior to just about everyone else, which is probably also a character flaw.)
#1
Date: 2006-09-22 07:54 pm (UTC)From: (Anonymous)I have so many prejudices I don't know where to start. For instance, I'm dreadfully racist and think that black people are likely to be cliquish (sticking together with other black people) and more violent and in my face, Indian-style asian males are likely to be salesperson-like and have a huge network of contacts and be misogynistic and get stuff done with their asian buddies (and the females are likely to be quiet and feminine until married with children and terrifying materfamilias types afterwards), that oriental people are likely to be quiet and studious and orderly. I think girls are less likely to be interesting than boys. I think that watching soap operas and wearing makeup on a daily basis is likely to make you entirely alien to me. I think non-hetrosexual people are likely to be more interesting. I think the vast majority of right-wing types (with a possible exception for considered liberatarians and similar small-government proponents) are utterly irrational. I am deeply concerned that people on welfare with few qualifications are outbreeding people who seem to be more like me. And this is barely the surface of the seething mass of prejudices I embody.
^^^
Interesting. I think there is always a certain degree of truth to all
stereotypes, which went some way to making them emerge in the first
place... but it's also important to check them out yourself, to back
up your opinions with the knowledge gathered from actual close hand
experience. My parents have suggested I travel a bit, for this very
reason. While it would really awesome, in terms of pure cultural
stimulation, to do so, I didn't think other cultures could be *that*
different to those I live, or have read about. Different food, clothes
& passtimes maybe, but nothing major. In fact, there is a *whole lot*
that is wildly new from what I know - societies that have completely
different value systems. For example, Indian society respects the
young and elderly. On a practical basis... they are always
acknowleged, and treated as individuals with something to give. Here
in the UK I can easily walk up a street and old people will not even
register on my radar, although I'm sure they must exist! Also, here,
we tend to tell kids to shut up, and get amazingly upset if they cry
in public. In India, no one bats an eyelid, as "that's what kids do".
Similarly, old people are treated with respect and have *far* more
authority than UK.
Re: #1
Date: 2006-09-22 08:23 pm (UTC)From:Re: #1
Date: 2006-09-22 08:31 pm (UTC)From: (Anonymous)How did you get to meet and interact with them?
Re: #1
Date: 2006-09-22 08:47 pm (UTC)From:I don't know more details of the ethnic background of the Indian/asian people I have mostly based the prejudices on, except for one family who are urban Indian one generation in this country. The ones I met in an education setting I mostly just saw in lectures although I worked on a group project with two of them; the family has one member who is a friend of my husband.
Re: #1
Date: 2006-09-22 09:05 pm (UTC)From: (Anonymous)backgrounds, is limited, like my own. :p So we cannot generalize,
because such generalizations become the 'stereotypes' and
'prejudices' which get continuously built upon, as time goes by.
Quite dangerous really, and based on ignorance.
Don't you agree?
D6 x
Re: #1
Date: 2006-09-22 09:36 pm (UTC)From:But yes, that's why I noted them as 'prejudices' rather than 'conclusions'; they aren't correct, they are simply partial pictures and reactions built up of a handful of interactions.
Re: #1
Date: 2006-09-22 09:52 pm (UTC)From: (Anonymous)^ true.
the distribution of people walking out in front of my car in London,
^ what do you mean?
(people walk differently if in a crowd? and more so, if out in front
of a car, than on the sidewalk?)
But yes, that's why I noted them as 'prejudices' rather than 'conclusions'; they aren't correct, they are simply partial pictures and reactions built up of a handful of interactions.
^ indeed you did. I respect that you acknowledge that, as many do not.
I for one, have to go and re-think my own opinions.