It's like mono except you can only get mono once
The five questions meme returns! Anyone who asks nicely will receive five questions to answer on their own journal.
5 questions from ironymaiden:
1. you read the Faerie Queene so we don't have to. what classic work have you read that we should all read too, and why?
Art is so subjective. I usually try to take a person's taste into account when making recommendations, so this was more difficult than I thought. That said, Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso is The Faerie Queene's polar opposite. It is a rollicking good time with hapless protagonists, sorceresses, and Borgia family geneaology. Bradamant could totally kick Britomart's ass. (Virginia Woolf's Orlando: a biography was my second choice, but they're only about the same person if you believe Alan Moore.)
2. does knowing that you are the sole breadwinner change how you approach work?
Yes, absolutely. My attitude about my job had been evolving over the last year anyway, but southplains's job loss sped up that process. He's had a more dramatic process of rethinking what he wants to do with his life, but I've got to prioritize my career higher than I used to. I've reconciled myself to it for the most part, because I think I'm going to be able to do it without lengthening my work day or having to go into people management. My at-work web surf time is way down, though, and I come home brain-tired much more than I used to.
3. will your child go to public or private school, and why?
Well, bearing in mind that no plan survives contact with the enemy, we're thinking public school at this point. Seattle has a pretty good reputation. Obviously this is all subject to change if southplains gets a job at Lakeside and the kids get free tuition or something, but what I think about when I think about the kid going to school is less public verus private and more about how I can be involved in what's going on in the classroom (and hallways etc) without being too overbearing.
4. do you think marriage equality is going to be achieved, closer, or farther away in 2012?
For Washington state, I think achieved in 2012 is a very real likelihood. Ed Murray has made no bones about the fact that his domestic partnership bills are leading towards it and that the re-election of Christine Gregoire was the last major piece he was waiting for. The bill was filed last week is considered a good candidate to pass and gives domestic partners any rights offered to spouses in the state, and it seems to me like at that point it's just a matter of time before people realize keeping two sets of paperwork is just silly. So we could see that issue coming along in three years. For the federal government, we've got a ways to go. I definitely think we're closer than we were on November 3 (McCain even managed to make a statement opposing gay ADOPTION, and weak-ass retraction or no, it was enough to put him on my dead-to-me list), but the elected leadership will lag behind on this issue just like they have with Don't Ask Don't Tell (I expect they're all going to dither over that for months even though three-quarters of the country and a solid majority of military members think it's bunk). I do still think closer four years from now for all that, though. A lot of people oppose it just because they haven't thought about it, and younger voters support it much more than older voters. Time is our ally on this one.
5. has anyone surprised you by asking to be your friend on Facebook, and why?
I keep getting people from high school asking to be my friend that I have no memory of whatsoever. I have to keep looking them up in my yearbook to see if I was in a club with them or something. Also, one person I'd quarrelled with and was ready to be reconciled with (which was very pleasant), and one I wasn't (which was a little awkward, but hooray for passive-aggressive non-notification). Weirdly, although I consider Livejournal a much more personal style of interaction, I am much more likely to friend a complete stranger here than on Facebook.
5 questions from ironymaiden:
1. you read the Faerie Queene so we don't have to. what classic work have you read that we should all read too, and why?
Art is so subjective. I usually try to take a person's taste into account when making recommendations, so this was more difficult than I thought. That said, Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso is The Faerie Queene's polar opposite. It is a rollicking good time with hapless protagonists, sorceresses, and Borgia family geneaology. Bradamant could totally kick Britomart's ass. (Virginia Woolf's Orlando: a biography was my second choice, but they're only about the same person if you believe Alan Moore.)
2. does knowing that you are the sole breadwinner change how you approach work?
Yes, absolutely. My attitude about my job had been evolving over the last year anyway, but southplains's job loss sped up that process. He's had a more dramatic process of rethinking what he wants to do with his life, but I've got to prioritize my career higher than I used to. I've reconciled myself to it for the most part, because I think I'm going to be able to do it without lengthening my work day or having to go into people management. My at-work web surf time is way down, though, and I come home brain-tired much more than I used to.
3. will your child go to public or private school, and why?
Well, bearing in mind that no plan survives contact with the enemy, we're thinking public school at this point. Seattle has a pretty good reputation. Obviously this is all subject to change if southplains gets a job at Lakeside and the kids get free tuition or something, but what I think about when I think about the kid going to school is less public verus private and more about how I can be involved in what's going on in the classroom (and hallways etc) without being too overbearing.
4. do you think marriage equality is going to be achieved, closer, or farther away in 2012?
For Washington state, I think achieved in 2012 is a very real likelihood. Ed Murray has made no bones about the fact that his domestic partnership bills are leading towards it and that the re-election of Christine Gregoire was the last major piece he was waiting for. The bill was filed last week is considered a good candidate to pass and gives domestic partners any rights offered to spouses in the state, and it seems to me like at that point it's just a matter of time before people realize keeping two sets of paperwork is just silly. So we could see that issue coming along in three years. For the federal government, we've got a ways to go. I definitely think we're closer than we were on November 3 (McCain even managed to make a statement opposing gay ADOPTION, and weak-ass retraction or no, it was enough to put him on my dead-to-me list), but the elected leadership will lag behind on this issue just like they have with Don't Ask Don't Tell (I expect they're all going to dither over that for months even though three-quarters of the country and a solid majority of military members think it's bunk). I do still think closer four years from now for all that, though. A lot of people oppose it just because they haven't thought about it, and younger voters support it much more than older voters. Time is our ally on this one.
5. has anyone surprised you by asking to be your friend on Facebook, and why?
I keep getting people from high school asking to be my friend that I have no memory of whatsoever. I have to keep looking them up in my yearbook to see if I was in a club with them or something. Also, one person I'd quarrelled with and was ready to be reconciled with (which was very pleasant), and one I wasn't (which was a little awkward, but hooray for passive-aggressive non-notification). Weirdly, although I consider Livejournal a much more personal style of interaction, I am much more likely to friend a complete stranger here than on Facebook.