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This is the old Five Questions meme, but with inflation - now with seven questions! Comment below if you want some questions from me. This set of questions are courtesy of ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sesquepadalia:
1. What cause (if any) would you be prepared to die for?
I always say that I can only ever say what causes I believe I ought to be prepared to die for, because I don't think anyone can tell what they're actually prepared to die for until they're faced with the choice.
Empirically, I'm prepared to put up with a fairly small but definitely significant risk of death for quite a range of things, including family events, LARP events and sometimes just general sociable / holiday type interactions - I refer here mostly to things I'm willing to undertake a longish road journey for, which is probably my highest risk-of-sudden-death activity that I undertake regularly.
Theoretically, I should be willing to die for:
1) A direct exchange for the life of a non-Christian - because I'm going to Heaven, and they aren't if they die at that moment, but might get there later if they have more life to live.
I sometimes think I'm constantly not living up to this one, as I don't immediately give all my money to causes which relieve lethal poverty in low-Christianity areas. I usually rationalise this by maintaining that a) my future lifetime earnings are probably still higher even accounting for my consumption habits than I could realise in immediate cash right now and go on to die; and b) my friends and family would insist on supporting me rather than letting me die of it, so it would actually be massively unfair on them.
2) Probably the conversion of at least one person with assurance that it was going to 'stick', but I'm not sure how I could practically judge this; it becomes more clear-cut further up this stack of reasoning (i.e. mass conversion of a whole community or a deathbed conversion).
3) Some kind of reasonably large-scale poverty alleviation - one which is likely to exceed the probably effectiveness of my expected future lifetime charitable donations. I define 'poverty' quite widely - any serious lack of basic material / health / welfare / education / freedom needs will do.
I note that I often suffer from suicidal tendencies and therefore the list of things I am willing to die for is likely to be much longer than the list of things I am willing to live or suffer for - some days I feel like I would be quite happy to die for just the sheer relief of not being any more, and although those have thankfully been rare lately I don't hold any great value in my continued existence.
So the fact that I haven't dedicated my life to any of these causes (although you might say I have, by ensuring I have a high regular income I can (and do to a large extent) give to people who are more competent at them than me!) doesn't invalidate the possibility of me being willing to die for them, if the situation arose.
2. If you could become suddenly brilliant at one thing, what would it be and why?
I'm not sure it's one thing, really, but my gut instinct says 'people', specifically persuading people to do what I want.
I generally think I have a high level of general intelligence already (specifically the kind of general intelligence that can't necessarily get into depth in a problem but can generally analyse just about any situation and suggest improvements and turn out to be correct) and so if I could just persuade people I was right and they should do what I want, I could usefully apply that to all kinds of things...
I expect I'd actually turn out to do all kinds of terrible things like everyone who thinks they might make a good Dictator Of The World, but that's no reason not to try, right? ;-)
The only other thing I really want (rather than just have a passing fancy towards) is more energy (i.e. to function at the level I function at when I'm manic and Being Awesome all the time rather than only very occasionally), which I don't think is really a 'be brilliant at' thing.
3. If you could spend 24 hours in the company of one person, historical or fictional, who would it be, and what would you do?
I know everyone will find it terribly corny if I say 'Jesus' and 'Listen', and I expect it wouldn't help because I'm technically always in the company of God / the Holy Spirit anyway and I don't seem to always do a good job of listening to them, but I can't think of anything better; I already have the good fortune to be surrounded by a large quantity of intelligent and excellent company pretty much whenever I want...
4. [Obligatory LARP question] What do you feel was your biggest missed opportunity with a LARP character?
There are several possible angles to this question:
The first anecdote that springs to mind contains Maelstrom Spoilers: essentially I missed a highly valuable item that I could easily have half-inched, but somehow I just entirely overlooked its existence in the bag I was relieving of all its currency :-).
Then there's the poor unplayed Maelstrom characters, particularly the Gerosan wemic old soldier turned farmer turned soldier again and the Tenizidi mystic poet, but also the Alkonian professor with her students (retainers) and determination to rewrite the Almanac properly this time (although I reused some of her for an NPC role) and the sneaky Onontakhan terrorist...
Then there's the characters I played in systems that I never got properly into because I was having a bad weekend for unrelated reasons: Tylda the white rabbit in Winter in the Willows, Nepthys the littlest Temple Guard in Odyssey.
I don't tend to have big missed-opportunity regrets in LARP though - what happens is what happens. Very occasionally I go 'ooh, I could totally have done that if I'd thought of it' (like the theft) but usually I'm much more 'hahaha, that is some great dramatic irony that my poor character missed that' :).
5. You have 1 million pounds sterling deposited in your bank account with the proviso that not a penny can be spent on yourself alone. What do you do with it?
Panic slightly; spend some time researching how to invest it well so that it generates significantly more than the original capital; spend some more time researching various charitable organisations to hand it out to.
(It's not quite enough capital to start thinking about setting up my own charitable organisation, and in any case I would have to be using some of it to support me while I did that, which is skating close to 'spent on yourself alone'.)
I might succumb to the temptation to hand some of it out to friends-and-acquaintances but I would try to resist (as they are unlikely to be the most efficient recipients). As it only says 'on yourself alone' not the stronger 'on yourself' I might do so a bit though, even though this would mostly benefit 'my social capital' rather than 'the world in general'.
(Even spending it on charities of my choice is to some extent spending it on myself, because the act of choosing which causes I find worthy is something I benefit from - see under 'yet another reason why it's important to have tax and government spending rather than relying on philanthropy' - but I think no court in the land would convict me for giving stuff that I couldn't spend on 'myself alone' to charity!)
6. You have the chance to commission a film or TV series based on a book (for the sake of argument, it's being produced by HBO, and thus probably done quite well) - which book do you choose and why?
I don't really do television (or video-format entertainment in general, apart from the occasional 'turn my brain off by watching a bad action flick in good company') but my initial instinct is to say A Fire Upon The Deep by Vernor Vinge, because I think it has a very visual depth and richness of characters and locations, and would therefore actually make a good TV series (there's too much material there for a single film).
Also I really want to see what they'd make of the Tines :-).
(My main desktop computer is called Tyrathect...)
7. You are spending a year abroad; which country would you like to stay in and why? (assume that you can speak, or will be taught the local language before you go).
Japan.
It contains a large concentration of Cool Shiny Things (by which I mean scenery and traditional buildings and stuff as well as technology), I would quite like to be able to speak the language (especially if I got literacy in it too, but even if I didn't), and the culture is quite alien (which is a plus because I get to see something Different) but also seems to have fairly good provisions for 'oh, you are a foreigner, we will make allowances' which make it easier to get by in.
And I can probably eat the food and survive the climate (it might be a bit warm sometimes), which rules out many other interesting destinations.
I don't think I would want to live in Japan long-term - there seem to be some serious societal problems that just aren't as bad over here - but it sounds like an awesome place to spend a year out of the places that I could likely survive a year in...
sesquepadalia:1. What cause (if any) would you be prepared to die for?
I always say that I can only ever say what causes I believe I ought to be prepared to die for, because I don't think anyone can tell what they're actually prepared to die for until they're faced with the choice.
Empirically, I'm prepared to put up with a fairly small but definitely significant risk of death for quite a range of things, including family events, LARP events and sometimes just general sociable / holiday type interactions - I refer here mostly to things I'm willing to undertake a longish road journey for, which is probably my highest risk-of-sudden-death activity that I undertake regularly.
Theoretically, I should be willing to die for:
1) A direct exchange for the life of a non-Christian - because I'm going to Heaven, and they aren't if they die at that moment, but might get there later if they have more life to live.
I sometimes think I'm constantly not living up to this one, as I don't immediately give all my money to causes which relieve lethal poverty in low-Christianity areas. I usually rationalise this by maintaining that a) my future lifetime earnings are probably still higher even accounting for my consumption habits than I could realise in immediate cash right now and go on to die; and b) my friends and family would insist on supporting me rather than letting me die of it, so it would actually be massively unfair on them.
2) Probably the conversion of at least one person with assurance that it was going to 'stick', but I'm not sure how I could practically judge this; it becomes more clear-cut further up this stack of reasoning (i.e. mass conversion of a whole community or a deathbed conversion).
3) Some kind of reasonably large-scale poverty alleviation - one which is likely to exceed the probably effectiveness of my expected future lifetime charitable donations. I define 'poverty' quite widely - any serious lack of basic material / health / welfare / education / freedom needs will do.
I note that I often suffer from suicidal tendencies and therefore the list of things I am willing to die for is likely to be much longer than the list of things I am willing to live or suffer for - some days I feel like I would be quite happy to die for just the sheer relief of not being any more, and although those have thankfully been rare lately I don't hold any great value in my continued existence.
So the fact that I haven't dedicated my life to any of these causes (although you might say I have, by ensuring I have a high regular income I can (and do to a large extent) give to people who are more competent at them than me!) doesn't invalidate the possibility of me being willing to die for them, if the situation arose.
2. If you could become suddenly brilliant at one thing, what would it be and why?
I'm not sure it's one thing, really, but my gut instinct says 'people', specifically persuading people to do what I want.
I generally think I have a high level of general intelligence already (specifically the kind of general intelligence that can't necessarily get into depth in a problem but can generally analyse just about any situation and suggest improvements and turn out to be correct) and so if I could just persuade people I was right and they should do what I want, I could usefully apply that to all kinds of things...
I expect I'd actually turn out to do all kinds of terrible things like everyone who thinks they might make a good Dictator Of The World, but that's no reason not to try, right? ;-)
The only other thing I really want (rather than just have a passing fancy towards) is more energy (i.e. to function at the level I function at when I'm manic and Being Awesome all the time rather than only very occasionally), which I don't think is really a 'be brilliant at' thing.
3. If you could spend 24 hours in the company of one person, historical or fictional, who would it be, and what would you do?
I know everyone will find it terribly corny if I say 'Jesus' and 'Listen', and I expect it wouldn't help because I'm technically always in the company of God / the Holy Spirit anyway and I don't seem to always do a good job of listening to them, but I can't think of anything better; I already have the good fortune to be surrounded by a large quantity of intelligent and excellent company pretty much whenever I want...
4. [Obligatory LARP question] What do you feel was your biggest missed opportunity with a LARP character?
There are several possible angles to this question:
The first anecdote that springs to mind contains Maelstrom Spoilers: essentially I missed a highly valuable item that I could easily have half-inched, but somehow I just entirely overlooked its existence in the bag I was relieving of all its currency :-).
Then there's the poor unplayed Maelstrom characters, particularly the Gerosan wemic old soldier turned farmer turned soldier again and the Tenizidi mystic poet, but also the Alkonian professor with her students (retainers) and determination to rewrite the Almanac properly this time (although I reused some of her for an NPC role) and the sneaky Onontakhan terrorist...
Then there's the characters I played in systems that I never got properly into because I was having a bad weekend for unrelated reasons: Tylda the white rabbit in Winter in the Willows, Nepthys the littlest Temple Guard in Odyssey.
I don't tend to have big missed-opportunity regrets in LARP though - what happens is what happens. Very occasionally I go 'ooh, I could totally have done that if I'd thought of it' (like the theft) but usually I'm much more 'hahaha, that is some great dramatic irony that my poor character missed that' :).
5. You have 1 million pounds sterling deposited in your bank account with the proviso that not a penny can be spent on yourself alone. What do you do with it?
Panic slightly; spend some time researching how to invest it well so that it generates significantly more than the original capital; spend some more time researching various charitable organisations to hand it out to.
(It's not quite enough capital to start thinking about setting up my own charitable organisation, and in any case I would have to be using some of it to support me while I did that, which is skating close to 'spent on yourself alone'.)
I might succumb to the temptation to hand some of it out to friends-and-acquaintances but I would try to resist (as they are unlikely to be the most efficient recipients). As it only says 'on yourself alone' not the stronger 'on yourself' I might do so a bit though, even though this would mostly benefit 'my social capital' rather than 'the world in general'.
(Even spending it on charities of my choice is to some extent spending it on myself, because the act of choosing which causes I find worthy is something I benefit from - see under 'yet another reason why it's important to have tax and government spending rather than relying on philanthropy' - but I think no court in the land would convict me for giving stuff that I couldn't spend on 'myself alone' to charity!)
6. You have the chance to commission a film or TV series based on a book (for the sake of argument, it's being produced by HBO, and thus probably done quite well) - which book do you choose and why?
I don't really do television (or video-format entertainment in general, apart from the occasional 'turn my brain off by watching a bad action flick in good company') but my initial instinct is to say A Fire Upon The Deep by Vernor Vinge, because I think it has a very visual depth and richness of characters and locations, and would therefore actually make a good TV series (there's too much material there for a single film).
Also I really want to see what they'd make of the Tines :-).
(My main desktop computer is called Tyrathect...)
7. You are spending a year abroad; which country would you like to stay in and why? (assume that you can speak, or will be taught the local language before you go).
Japan.
It contains a large concentration of Cool Shiny Things (by which I mean scenery and traditional buildings and stuff as well as technology), I would quite like to be able to speak the language (especially if I got literacy in it too, but even if I didn't), and the culture is quite alien (which is a plus because I get to see something Different) but also seems to have fairly good provisions for 'oh, you are a foreigner, we will make allowances' which make it easier to get by in.
And I can probably eat the food and survive the climate (it might be a bit warm sometimes), which rules out many other interesting destinations.
I don't think I would want to live in Japan long-term - there seem to be some serious societal problems that just aren't as bad over here - but it sounds like an awesome place to spend a year out of the places that I could likely survive a year in...
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no subject
Date: 2012-03-07 05:35 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2012-03-07 06:13 pm (UTC)From:2) You are offered the chance to become an Instant Expert in any one field of academic endeavour. This includes both a knowledge download and a history of publications in the field with a position at a university which specialises in that field. Which field of academic study do you choose, or do you turn the offer down entirely?
3) You receive a letter stating that you have been chosen randomly to have the privilege of being one of the brain scans included in an interstellar probe launch. The letter explains that it is a great honour and the procedure is noninvasive, and the probe will be targetted at an area that the eccentric rich sponsor believes contains an alien civilisation who will be able to revive your copy and interact with you at the other end, possibly long after the human species is extinct. You will be remunerated for your trouble, but not to a massive extent - just enough to cover expenses and compensate for the hassle. Do you accept the offer, and if so why / why not?
4) You wake up in a rather good fascimile of your current dwelling place, except all of the walls are transparent, and there appears to be a crowd of what your brain can only resolve as 'aliens' gazing through one of the walls and occasionally gesturing in your direction. Your house is well stocked with the necessities (which appear to be refreshed overnight, assuming you wait long enough to find out), the internet is provided but appears to be a static copy rather than containing any live services, and every computer game on Steam is unlocked. How do you react?
5) You are commissioned, for more money than you ever expected to be able to make in your life, to create some kind of artwork. The details are left entirely to your discretion, and your sponsor does not provide any information about their tastes, but reserves the right to withhold payment (beyond an initial sum which is enough to support you comfortably for the next five years) if they are not satisfied. What do you create, and how much time and effort do you dedicate to it?
6) You are kidnapped by aliens and instructed that you must name one city of at least one million inhabitants. The city will be removed wholesale from the Earth and taken to be preserved in their museum; the people therein will not be directly harmed but will lose all contact with loved ones etc outside the city. They do not state what will happen if you don't do it, but it is implied that it won't be very pleasant and they will probably just pick someone else until they have an answer. Do you pick a city, and if so which one, and why?
7) You are offered the opportunity to switch places, for one year, with another willing participant. You will recieve their body and memories etc, while also retaining your own memories and mind, for the duration. There are a wide range of participants in various ordinary occupations at about your level or lower (or slightly higher, but no millionaires or famous people) around the world. Do you take up the opportunity? What kind of person do you choose to swap with (or would you choose to swap with, if it was compulsory rather than voluntary on your part alone - they have still volunteered)?
no subject
Date: 2012-03-07 09:29 pm (UTC)From: