a meme! a meme!
I got five questions from ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
osprey_archer!
1. What's a skill that you're proud of having?
... I'm realizing that it's hard to write an answer to this because as soon as I start composing in a direction, I think, Now you really sound like an insufferable asshole.
Am I perhaps proud of the skill of being able to guess when I'm about to sound like an insufferable asshole? ... Mmmm, I am not particularly proud of that. And I'm not even sure if my assessment is correct, so.
So ... skill implies something that you've worked on and honed--so not, say, a one-off accomplishment, and not something that's just part of your personality without your particularly exerting yourself.
Okay, how's this: I don't know if I'm proud, exactly, but it gives me great joy and exuberance to have discovered, in my fifties, that it's possible to learn multiple languages more or less simultaneously well enough to read them and attempt rudimentary communication in them. It literally feels like having developed a new sense, like my brain has changed its shape. ... Other people knew this delight from a young age, but not me. And there's something about coming to it later in life--you can be very consciously grateful, appreciative.
2. What's a treasured memory?
Sleeping together as a family on summer nights in Japan--the tactile-ness. The in-out of our breathing, together; our hearts are beating, together. Our foreheads are touching, or someone has an arm flung this way, or someone's toes are touching someone else's calves. Outside, insects are singing.
3. Do you have any unusual yearly traditions?
Not really; I have a hard time repeating things cyclically. For a while our family did Boston's Walk for Hunger yearly, but that's not a very unusual thing, and anyway, we since stopped. There are certain things I like to forage when the time is right (cattail pollen in June, chestnuts and hickory nuts in September and October), but I'm not consistent.
4. If you could have a telepathic companion animal, what kind of animal would you want?
I waver between something small enough to sit on my shoulder and something large enough that I could drape my arm over its shoulders. Much as it would be fun to have a telepathic connection with a dolphin (hello Ring of Endless Light) and fascinating to have one with a celphalopod, I think I'd prefer to have a connection with a terrestrial animal because delightful as water is, I can't breathe in it or even keep air in my lungs for as long as dolphins and other water-living mammals can. OTOH, if there are some telepathic marine creatures out there who are hankering for a connection, I withdraw that caveat! Come to me, friends!
... I guess not someone really small, like a tardigrade. I want to be able to see my companion. Probably someone adapted to the type of climate I live in--hello coyotes, bobcats, foxes, bear, deer, squirrels, chipmunks, mice. And I don't want to exclude birds, though I think I would want a very friendly type of bird for an animal companion--someone like a catbird or chickadee, or like the starling that drank the last of my sister's wine the other day.
5. Favorite museum?
Without a doubt, the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art.
Anyone else like some questions?
osprey_archer!1. What's a skill that you're proud of having?
... I'm realizing that it's hard to write an answer to this because as soon as I start composing in a direction, I think, Now you really sound like an insufferable asshole.
Am I perhaps proud of the skill of being able to guess when I'm about to sound like an insufferable asshole? ... Mmmm, I am not particularly proud of that. And I'm not even sure if my assessment is correct, so.
So ... skill implies something that you've worked on and honed--so not, say, a one-off accomplishment, and not something that's just part of your personality without your particularly exerting yourself.
Okay, how's this: I don't know if I'm proud, exactly, but it gives me great joy and exuberance to have discovered, in my fifties, that it's possible to learn multiple languages more or less simultaneously well enough to read them and attempt rudimentary communication in them. It literally feels like having developed a new sense, like my brain has changed its shape. ... Other people knew this delight from a young age, but not me. And there's something about coming to it later in life--you can be very consciously grateful, appreciative.
2. What's a treasured memory?
Sleeping together as a family on summer nights in Japan--the tactile-ness. The in-out of our breathing, together; our hearts are beating, together. Our foreheads are touching, or someone has an arm flung this way, or someone's toes are touching someone else's calves. Outside, insects are singing.
3. Do you have any unusual yearly traditions?
Not really; I have a hard time repeating things cyclically. For a while our family did Boston's Walk for Hunger yearly, but that's not a very unusual thing, and anyway, we since stopped. There are certain things I like to forage when the time is right (cattail pollen in June, chestnuts and hickory nuts in September and October), but I'm not consistent.
4. If you could have a telepathic companion animal, what kind of animal would you want?
I waver between something small enough to sit on my shoulder and something large enough that I could drape my arm over its shoulders. Much as it would be fun to have a telepathic connection with a dolphin (hello Ring of Endless Light) and fascinating to have one with a celphalopod, I think I'd prefer to have a connection with a terrestrial animal because delightful as water is, I can't breathe in it or even keep air in my lungs for as long as dolphins and other water-living mammals can. OTOH, if there are some telepathic marine creatures out there who are hankering for a connection, I withdraw that caveat! Come to me, friends!
... I guess not someone really small, like a tardigrade. I want to be able to see my companion. Probably someone adapted to the type of climate I live in--hello coyotes, bobcats, foxes, bear, deer, squirrels, chipmunks, mice. And I don't want to exclude birds, though I think I would want a very friendly type of bird for an animal companion--someone like a catbird or chickadee, or like the starling that drank the last of my sister's wine the other day.
5. Favorite museum?
Without a doubt, the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art.
Anyone else like some questions?
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(1) People talk about how we draw on our experiences when we write, which is to say, our life affects our writing. But in my own case, I think my writing has affected my life, and I know I'm not alone in that. How about for you? How has your writing affected your life? (Take in any direction you want)
(2)What's a food you loved as a child that you haven't had in years (or maybe can't get anymore/doesn't exist anymore: for instance I remember my parents bringing home a certain sort of mint candy when I was little that I'm pretty sure doesn't exist anymore)?
(3) What's a book you truly love that very few of your friends have read?
(4) What's a startling, unusual, or joyful animal interaction that you've had?
(5) What's a time of day/weather combination that you enjoy?
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I think I'm ready for some questions.
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(1) It's what I asked
(2) What's a food that gets talked up as difficult to make but in your experience isn't that hard to make?
(3) You wake up and realize you're in ancient Crete. What's the first thing you do?
(4) If a fictional character you like could be alive in our present reality, and you could befriend them, who is someone you'd like to befriend?
(5) What's a thing (it important or inconsequential) you've changed your mind about?
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thank you :) I answered them.
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(2) You have lots of strands of heritage that are important to you. What's one personal trait you have that you associate with part of your heritage?
(3) What's something that the average modern-day person doesn't realize or understand about warfare in the past?
(4) What's an animal you love, and what are some of the reasons you love it?
(5) What's a kind of fabric that you love the feel of?
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Your brain does literally change its shape when you learn a new language, and I am so glad for you.
Your treasured memory is lovely.
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Ohhhhhh! Great meme! I wanna play!
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(1) What's a piece of guerrilla nursing wisdom you could share with us--along the lines of "You can use gin to clean out a wound," but not that one, since we all know that from westerns (unless that folk wisdom is wrong and we're actually going to ensure an infection by doing that?)
(2) What's a haunted piece of Hudson Valley architecture/real estate that people should visit?
(3) The revolution has come and you have been tasked with dealing with billionaires Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and Elon Musk. What do you do with them?
(4) The revolution has come and you're being forced at gunpoint to paint your nails--but you get any color you want. What color(s) do you choose?
(5) If you were making a personal time capsule today, which you'd open up in five years' time, what's one thing you'd put in?
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Out of curiosity, are there particular sorts of museums that you like? For instance, some people like fine art museums, others like natural history museums, others like museums on themes or historical subjects--and it's possible to like all of the above (and there are probably some I'm not thinking of).
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If we include this as one of the five questions, I would love to hear about any particular one that you care to describe!
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(1) What is a poem from the Kokinshū that sticks with you even to today?
(2) What's a novel or story from your own childhood that you really want (or wanted, if you've already done it) to introduce your kid to?
(3) If you had to explain the manga Yotsuba to some American parents of elementary school–aged kids who don't know anything much about Japan or manga, how would you explain it?
(4) If you had shapeshifting powers, what's a creature that you'd like to be able to shapeshift to be?
(5) What's a thought/piece of wisdom/whatever that's sustained you in hard times?
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(1) You've been writing Sartorias-deles stories all your life. The characters and events have stayed more or less the same, but your understanding of them has deepened with time. Can you describe that process for a character, tell how your sense of them has changed?
(2) If you could bring just one piece of everyday magic (fire sticks, glow globes, cleaning frame, waste spell) into your daily life, which would it be? (And would you have answered differently if I had asked 20-year-old you?)
(3) What's a recent new-to-you piece of music you can share?
(4) Who's a person from Chinese history that you'd like to talk with, if it could be magically arranged?
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I fear I am not interesting enough for questions, LOL.
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Let me give you some--you don't have to answer them; you can just have and think about them, because it's fun. And then if you want and if you have time, you can put up answers to one or two. Or not! They can be just for you.
(1) When someone says "A rainy day," what do you think of?
(2) What's a childhood fear that you had, and did you get over it? If so, how?
(3) In fiction, characters' flaws can make them interesting. What's one character flaw that's interesting to you, and why?
(4) How did you first get introduced to World of Warcraft?
(5) You are great about rescuing and giving a home to abandoned cats. Have you ever rescued/fostered another kind of animal?
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(1) You're part of the Time Machine Past Eras Research Division. You can put in a request to go back to various time periods. The time machine can only take you to the past in the place you're in, and the nearest time machine to you is Boston, so you'd have to request past eras in the Massachusetts coastal region. However, there is a form you can fill out requesting transfer to the other time machine locations--to date, in addition to the one in Boston, there are time machines in London, Rome, Istanbul, Lagos, Xi'an, and Mexico City, though more are in the works. So! Time period in your local area or in one of the areas with a time machine?
(2) Oh no! Someone from the time period you visited snuck back with you to our present! Who are they (they don't need to be someone we've heard of, though they might be) and what do you do?
(3) An evil being is trying to model their behavior on Narnia's White Witch, but "always winter and never Christmas" has been taken. What misery-inducing weather pattern are they going to settle on instead?
(4) What supermarket item, if you see it on sale, do you buy lots and lots of?
(5) You can choose either a garment bright as the sun, shining as the moon, sparking like the stars, OR capable of folding up and fitting in a walnut shell. What do you choose?
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My dream telepathic companion animal has always been a fox, although I definitely see the appeal of a telepathic companion animal small enough to fit in a pocket. Always worried about how one would feed a large telepathic companion animal, though. Yes, a snow leopard would be badass, but the grocery bills!
The Eric Carle is my favorite museum too! It's just the perfect size for a museum. You can see everything without getting utterly worn out.
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Supermarket, seeing Aster Glenn Gray, proud snow leopard companion, approaching: OMG, have the meat department get ready. SHE'S COMING IN.
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Did you ever see the Netflix cartoon series Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts? It had three seasons--and a tardigrade character.
Would you like some questions?
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I'm afraid that near muteness is my gift to DW, but thanks anyway.