Dudes...I been MEME'D.
This is a meme!
THE RULES:
1. Leave me a comment saying anything random, like your favorite lyric to your current favorite song. Or your favorite kind of sandwich. Something random. Whatever you like.
2. I respond by asking you five personal questions so I can get to know you better.
3. Update your LJ with the answers to the questions. (This is why I don't do memes all that often.)
4. Include this explanation and offer to ask someone else in the post.
5. When others comment asking to be asked, you will ask them five questions.
Here's what happened when I got tricked by
bluesister. And then got really...ramble-y:
1. How exactly does one stumble into teaching?
Mostly with the hands of friends pressing against one’s back. Back in 2000, a friend of mine brought his then girlfriend, now wife, to see a performance of a play I had written. After, she was talking to me excitedly about how she liked it, how creative I was, and how she’d seen and enjoyed my performances with an improv comedy group in Colorado years earlier. She wanted to know, did I have any ideas about a summer course her students could do? She was a teacher/principal at a highly structured non-public school, working with emotionally disturbed high school students. I off-handedly said I’d be glad to come in and teach an improv workshop, if she thought the kids would enjoy it. A few days later she called me, raving about how excited her students were for the workshop. Workshopwhatnow? I’d completely forgotten the offer. Of course I followed through, and each time Patty and I met to discuss her students - what I should be prepared for, how the structure of the school was organized - she would drop little asides like, “You’d make a good teacher…” or “We have an opening for an assistant…” or “You can’t be making THAT much money working at Target…” Indeed. By the time the summer semester and my workshop had begun, and my finger prints and DOJ report had cleared, I was an assistant teacher. Nine months after I started, my classroom’s master teacher left and I stepped into the role. Or should I say stumbled?
2. Why/how did you move to your present metropolis?
The why: Originally, I came to L.A. to persue a career in screenwriting. LOLOLOL!!! Yeah. I don’t have the iron self-esteem or lack of introspection for Hollywood. And I got dicked over by a college chum on my very first spec script. I’m not sure what made me stick around, or why I’ve been here so long. Fear of change, probably.
The how: I drove out to L.A. in a 1983 Nissan with questionable remaining functionability. (This was the same car with a broken cassette deck and no radio reception that got me from Michigan to Colorado… Both trips - MI to CO and CO to CA - when I pulled out of town, I stuck a tape in the deck with superstitious daring, you know, for shits and giggles. BOTH trips, the tape PLAYED. I was terrified to switch tapes or turn off the radio, for fear I’d break the magic spell. I still secretly hate Motown - Big Chill soundtrack from Mich. to Colo. - and will probably listen to Peter, Paul & Mary ever again - greatest hits for two full FULL days, from Colo. To Cali.) Now, what was I saying? Yes…1983 Nissan Sentra. 4-door. Did I mention no air conditioning in AUGUST? Through ARIZONA? One further anecdote from the Colorado to California drive can be found here.
3. You have an above-par understanding of people and how they operate, unencumbered by how things *should* be. Have you always been like this? Did you also have an influence that encouraged it?
Firstly, wow. That’s a very nice compliment. Right? Compliment? I’ve always been a watcher. An observer. As a little kid, like 4, 5, 6…one of my favorite things to do was hang out around the grown-ups and just…listen. This was the seventies. A lot of parties. Like…in a way that doesn’t happen nowadays. And I would mill around the adults while the other kids were outside playing statues or ghost in the graveyard or catching lightning bugs or whatever. I think that’s where I picked up a lot of vocabulary and the nuances of drunken conversation. The freedom and complexity of words. Saw how people stood and heard what people said and then saw whatthey did and tried to always puzzle together how all the pieces fit. I found it fascinating. Oddly, I think it also came of my depression and anxiety, because I was pretty incapable of expressing my emotions verbally. It made me really thinky and frustrated and observant. And I learned by watching and being quiet, and I learned to mimic. That helped me understand people even better, I think. Hm. Really interesting question, blue.
4. Your vibe is much like that of big_pink. I know you guys dig each others' work. What do you think you two have in common and not in common?
I’m pretty sure both of us would eat poutine off Dean Winchester’s chest, if the offer were made.
Wait. Did you mean writerly commonalities?
Well, to be honest, I feel very honored to be grouped with Ms. Bp. I think she’s an exceptional writer, and she puts together an awful damn fine and hilarious e-mail, too. I think what we definitely have in common is a love for the Winchester men, for the complex characters Kripke, et al have created. That love comes across in big_pink’s stories, and I hope I manage to convey the same with mine. Where I think we differ, is in HOW we tell a story. While big_pink’s writing is very lush and broad, I feel mine is more narrow in scope, more mired in small detail. Where big_pink tells a good story? I think I’m a good storyteller - if that makes any sense. We both love words, as is probably pretty damn clear, but I think big_pink is a far more intelligent writer than I am. And I’m probably more emotional and maudlin. I’m still not being very articulate about this, damn me and damn my words.
5. We both have "trees" as an interest! Please expand on what trees mean to you. (be sure to write your name on the cover of the blue book...) First: LOL blue book…oh, man. J Second: Trees rock. I don’t know what more to say. If you’ve never actually hugged a tree (like you’d hug a dear friend or loved one) and thanked it for being an awesome fucking tree, you really ought to go do that. It’s important.
Shit. I suppose this means I have to enable comments, yeah?
ETA: I are so confused by this meme. I had been avoiding it for the week or so it's been sailing around the fandom, because it reminds me of that Faberge shampoo add from the 70's: '...and they told two friends, and they told two friends, and so on, and so on...'
So, lemme just say, if you tag me back (and you are sooooo not obligated to do that, let's limit it to three questions, max. Because I am verbose, and I think too much as it is, and really, no one wants to know that much about me. 'Kay? :)
THE RULES:
1. Leave me a comment saying anything random, like your favorite lyric to your current favorite song. Or your favorite kind of sandwich. Something random. Whatever you like.
2. I respond by asking you five personal questions so I can get to know you better.
3. Update your LJ with the answers to the questions. (This is why I don't do memes all that often.)
4. Include this explanation and offer to ask someone else in the post.
5. When others comment asking to be asked, you will ask them five questions.
Here's what happened when I got tricked by
bluesister. And then got really...ramble-y:
1. How exactly does one stumble into teaching?
Mostly with the hands of friends pressing against one’s back. Back in 2000, a friend of mine brought his then girlfriend, now wife, to see a performance of a play I had written. After, she was talking to me excitedly about how she liked it, how creative I was, and how she’d seen and enjoyed my performances with an improv comedy group in Colorado years earlier. She wanted to know, did I have any ideas about a summer course her students could do? She was a teacher/principal at a highly structured non-public school, working with emotionally disturbed high school students. I off-handedly said I’d be glad to come in and teach an improv workshop, if she thought the kids would enjoy it. A few days later she called me, raving about how excited her students were for the workshop. Workshopwhatnow? I’d completely forgotten the offer. Of course I followed through, and each time Patty and I met to discuss her students - what I should be prepared for, how the structure of the school was organized - she would drop little asides like, “You’d make a good teacher…” or “We have an opening for an assistant…” or “You can’t be making THAT much money working at Target…” Indeed. By the time the summer semester and my workshop had begun, and my finger prints and DOJ report had cleared, I was an assistant teacher. Nine months after I started, my classroom’s master teacher left and I stepped into the role. Or should I say stumbled?
2. Why/how did you move to your present metropolis?
The why: Originally, I came to L.A. to persue a career in screenwriting. LOLOLOL!!! Yeah. I don’t have the iron self-esteem or lack of introspection for Hollywood. And I got dicked over by a college chum on my very first spec script. I’m not sure what made me stick around, or why I’ve been here so long. Fear of change, probably.
The how: I drove out to L.A. in a 1983 Nissan with questionable remaining functionability. (This was the same car with a broken cassette deck and no radio reception that got me from Michigan to Colorado… Both trips - MI to CO and CO to CA - when I pulled out of town, I stuck a tape in the deck with superstitious daring, you know, for shits and giggles. BOTH trips, the tape PLAYED. I was terrified to switch tapes or turn off the radio, for fear I’d break the magic spell. I still secretly hate Motown - Big Chill soundtrack from Mich. to Colo. - and will probably listen to Peter, Paul & Mary ever again - greatest hits for two full FULL days, from Colo. To Cali.) Now, what was I saying? Yes…1983 Nissan Sentra. 4-door. Did I mention no air conditioning in AUGUST? Through ARIZONA? One further anecdote from the Colorado to California drive can be found here.
3. You have an above-par understanding of people and how they operate, unencumbered by how things *should* be. Have you always been like this? Did you also have an influence that encouraged it?
Firstly, wow. That’s a very nice compliment. Right? Compliment? I’ve always been a watcher. An observer. As a little kid, like 4, 5, 6…one of my favorite things to do was hang out around the grown-ups and just…listen. This was the seventies. A lot of parties. Like…in a way that doesn’t happen nowadays. And I would mill around the adults while the other kids were outside playing statues or ghost in the graveyard or catching lightning bugs or whatever. I think that’s where I picked up a lot of vocabulary and the nuances of drunken conversation. The freedom and complexity of words. Saw how people stood and heard what people said and then saw whatthey did and tried to always puzzle together how all the pieces fit. I found it fascinating. Oddly, I think it also came of my depression and anxiety, because I was pretty incapable of expressing my emotions verbally. It made me really thinky and frustrated and observant. And I learned by watching and being quiet, and I learned to mimic. That helped me understand people even better, I think. Hm. Really interesting question, blue.
4. Your vibe is much like that of big_pink. I know you guys dig each others' work. What do you think you two have in common and not in common?
I’m pretty sure both of us would eat poutine off Dean Winchester’s chest, if the offer were made.
Wait. Did you mean writerly commonalities?
Well, to be honest, I feel very honored to be grouped with Ms. Bp. I think she’s an exceptional writer, and she puts together an awful damn fine and hilarious e-mail, too. I think what we definitely have in common is a love for the Winchester men, for the complex characters Kripke, et al have created. That love comes across in big_pink’s stories, and I hope I manage to convey the same with mine. Where I think we differ, is in HOW we tell a story. While big_pink’s writing is very lush and broad, I feel mine is more narrow in scope, more mired in small detail. Where big_pink tells a good story? I think I’m a good storyteller - if that makes any sense. We both love words, as is probably pretty damn clear, but I think big_pink is a far more intelligent writer than I am. And I’m probably more emotional and maudlin. I’m still not being very articulate about this, damn me and damn my words.
5. We both have "trees" as an interest! Please expand on what trees mean to you. (be sure to write your name on the cover of the blue book...) First: LOL blue book…oh, man. J Second: Trees rock. I don’t know what more to say. If you’ve never actually hugged a tree (like you’d hug a dear friend or loved one) and thanked it for being an awesome fucking tree, you really ought to go do that. It’s important.
Shit. I suppose this means I have to enable comments, yeah?
ETA: I are so confused by this meme. I had been avoiding it for the week or so it's been sailing around the fandom, because it reminds me of that Faberge shampoo add from the 70's: '...and they told two friends, and they told two friends, and so on, and so on...'
So, lemme just say, if you tag me back (and you are sooooo not obligated to do that, let's limit it to three questions, max. Because I am verbose, and I think too much as it is, and really, no one wants to know that much about me. 'Kay? :)