Questions meme
Questions from ladyaxum
1) I know you went to world con, do you go to any other conventions?
As you know, I tend to be fairly antisocial. I go to worldcon mostly because Earl goes; if not for him, I would probably only think of going when it was really close-by (like in San Jose).
In the past, I used to go to ComiCon, in the beginning purely because of Babylon 5, since Strazinsky would usually have a panel. It was more interesting when I got more into some of the comics like Strangers in Paradise and Usaji Yojimbo. That was more attractive when I lived in the Los Angeles ares, since the drive down to San Diego was short; now that I've moved up to the San Francisco area, it's not so keen.
Also when I lived in the LA area, I went to the Babylon 5 convention, because it was in Monrovia or somewhere astonishingly close. (Yeah, I can be quite the fangirl. Shush.)
I've gone to Wiscon, which was nice since it's so much smaller than WorldCon, but is more close-knit or something so it was almost more awkward. It's easier to be invisible when there's more people.
I go to Stitches West (knitting/yarn) convention, mostly because it's really close.
I've been thinking of going to Black Sheep Gathering (another yarn convention) in Oregon, but have never gotten a round tuitt. Same with the Origami convention that's in San Fransicso (sometimes? always? I don't even know).
There's Lambtown, which is more of a mini-state-fair type thing than a convention, but it's nifty because it's tiny.
2)What was the best Christmas/holiday gift you have gotten?
When I was a kid, I was very materialistic; I remember being really excited about random toys, and the lava lamp and cuckoo clock were big triumphs.
Nowadays, I'm almost happier getting nothing; the present-exchange I find stressful. The best gift now is a big old hug, though i'm certainly happy to be taken out to a fancy dinner or to the opera or to a concert. It's definitely experiences more than things.
Though there's a keen picture I got as a gift - a friend of mine from college (Rich Zitola) has a birthday that's just a few weeks before mine. We're both nerds who love roadtrips, and he's deeply into the book Contact by Carl Sagan, so we went on the Vega Light roadtrip. The main destination was the Very Large Array in New Mexico in the dark of the night, so we could look at the light that left Vega some 27 years ago when we were born arrive at Earth. He took a photo of Vega near one of the antennas, and blew that up into a poster for a present. Very cool, and a keen reminder of a nifty experience.
3)How have all the cats in your family joined your family?
Going back to the beginning, I started begging for a pet cat when I was around 8 years old. My parents said “Your older brother and sister also begged for pets, and we said no to them, and we're saying no to you.” However, when I was 12, they broke down and said okay. The next time the neighbor's cat hid kittens, we went over to pick out two. One of them was orange, so that was an obvious choice. The other three were black, but one had some faint stripes on his butt. We chose that as our second. Those were Butterscotch and Smokey.
Butterscotch had an unfortunate run-in with a car, and didn't make it out of kittenhood. We got another orange kitten as a companion; that was Peachy.
Unfortunately, Peachy never made it out of kittenhood either. He went out one day and never came in again. We don't know for sure what happened, but it's most likely he was eaten by a coyote. At that point, we decided we were a one-cat family, and kept just Smokey. (He lived to be almost 18.)
In college, I didn't have a pet for a while, since i'm allergic to cats and keeping one in my tiny dorm room seemed like a bad idea. I used to go around and visit all the cats around campus (both North and South Houses). One day, someone said “You'd better say goodbye to Cinders.” “Why?” “Nobody wants her. Do you want her?” “No!” “See, nobody wants her. She's going to the pound at the end of the week.” “But someone must be able to take her! Did you make dinner announcements at all the houses?” “Last week.” I ended up adopting Cinders, because I'm such a softie.
Cinders became diabetic, and started having pertty severe health problems when she was 12. She would “collapse”, I would rush her to the vet, they would give her IV fluids & other treatment for a week, then I could take her home. Near the end there was a time when I was pretty darned sick; I'd been running a fever of over 100, which was very unusual for me. I woke up, measured my fever at 103, and said “There's exactly one thing i'm doing today, and that's getting myself to the doctor.” I went into the kitchen to check on Cinders, and she had collapsed again. It changed to “there's exactly one thing I'm doing today, and that's taking Cinders to the vet.” When I got there, they asked me if I wanted them to save her life, and when I said “yes”, they gave me a paper to sign to authorize emergency life-saving procedures on her. This included getting a blood donor kitty from the pound, since her red cell count was very low and she needed a transfusion.
Cinders stayed at the vet for a whole week; my fever broke the next day. I took her home on Friday, had one last weekend with her, and she collapsed again on Sunday. She didn't make it.
I went to the vet on Monday to cancel her follow-up appointment. They asked if I wanted to see the kitty who had saved Cinders's life. I said “sure”, they brought out this grey kitty. I took one look at him and wailed “I don't want him!” They took him away and comforted me; they would keep him forever. He had been at the pound for a month and was up to be put down, since nobody wanted to adopt him and they needed to make room for new cats. They had had a contest for naming him, and “Phoenix” won. I could come and visit him anytime I wanted.
When I was ready for a new cat, I visited the rescue societies and the pound, but ended up going back to the vet and adopting Phoenix from them. (It turned out they were “holding” him for me, in case I changed my mind.) I still have Phoenix.
Madeleine was one of the cats we saw in out backyard. She has very long and silky hair, and it was amazingly matted. She would have mats as big as my hand on her flank. I made it my goal to bring her in, clean her up, and adopt her out, since she obviously wasn't suited for unowned outdoor living. I did succeed in catching her, we did put her up for adoption, but when someone finally showed a bit of interest in her, Earl and I decided to keep her for ourselves.
Seeker is all Earl's fault. Last year this owned female Siamese cat had kittens, and Earl found her with them (not newborn, but still small) in our backyard. The kittens stuck around and got bigger, and Earl decided to befriend one - putting out food, moving the food closer and closer to the house, sitting out with the food, having the cat sit on his lap. It got to the point that this cat would sit and look in the (glass-paned) door at us all the time in the evening, begging for food or lovings. I finally broke down and told Earl this was unsupportable, it was ridiculous to go outside every 15 minutes to play with the cat, and that we had to bring him in. So, we brought Seeker in right after Thanksgiving this year.
1) I know you went to world con, do you go to any other conventions?
As you know, I tend to be fairly antisocial. I go to worldcon mostly because Earl goes; if not for him, I would probably only think of going when it was really close-by (like in San Jose).
In the past, I used to go to ComiCon, in the beginning purely because of Babylon 5, since Strazinsky would usually have a panel. It was more interesting when I got more into some of the comics like Strangers in Paradise and Usaji Yojimbo. That was more attractive when I lived in the Los Angeles ares, since the drive down to San Diego was short; now that I've moved up to the San Francisco area, it's not so keen.
Also when I lived in the LA area, I went to the Babylon 5 convention, because it was in Monrovia or somewhere astonishingly close. (Yeah, I can be quite the fangirl. Shush.)
I've gone to Wiscon, which was nice since it's so much smaller than WorldCon, but is more close-knit or something so it was almost more awkward. It's easier to be invisible when there's more people.
I go to Stitches West (knitting/yarn) convention, mostly because it's really close.
I've been thinking of going to Black Sheep Gathering (another yarn convention) in Oregon, but have never gotten a round tuitt. Same with the Origami convention that's in San Fransicso (sometimes? always? I don't even know).
There's Lambtown, which is more of a mini-state-fair type thing than a convention, but it's nifty because it's tiny.
2)What was the best Christmas/holiday gift you have gotten?
When I was a kid, I was very materialistic; I remember being really excited about random toys, and the lava lamp and cuckoo clock were big triumphs.
Nowadays, I'm almost happier getting nothing; the present-exchange I find stressful. The best gift now is a big old hug, though i'm certainly happy to be taken out to a fancy dinner or to the opera or to a concert. It's definitely experiences more than things.
Though there's a keen picture I got as a gift - a friend of mine from college (Rich Zitola) has a birthday that's just a few weeks before mine. We're both nerds who love roadtrips, and he's deeply into the book Contact by Carl Sagan, so we went on the Vega Light roadtrip. The main destination was the Very Large Array in New Mexico in the dark of the night, so we could look at the light that left Vega some 27 years ago when we were born arrive at Earth. He took a photo of Vega near one of the antennas, and blew that up into a poster for a present. Very cool, and a keen reminder of a nifty experience.
3)How have all the cats in your family joined your family?
Going back to the beginning, I started begging for a pet cat when I was around 8 years old. My parents said “Your older brother and sister also begged for pets, and we said no to them, and we're saying no to you.” However, when I was 12, they broke down and said okay. The next time the neighbor's cat hid kittens, we went over to pick out two. One of them was orange, so that was an obvious choice. The other three were black, but one had some faint stripes on his butt. We chose that as our second. Those were Butterscotch and Smokey.
Butterscotch had an unfortunate run-in with a car, and didn't make it out of kittenhood. We got another orange kitten as a companion; that was Peachy.
Unfortunately, Peachy never made it out of kittenhood either. He went out one day and never came in again. We don't know for sure what happened, but it's most likely he was eaten by a coyote. At that point, we decided we were a one-cat family, and kept just Smokey. (He lived to be almost 18.)
In college, I didn't have a pet for a while, since i'm allergic to cats and keeping one in my tiny dorm room seemed like a bad idea. I used to go around and visit all the cats around campus (both North and South Houses). One day, someone said “You'd better say goodbye to Cinders.” “Why?” “Nobody wants her. Do you want her?” “No!” “See, nobody wants her. She's going to the pound at the end of the week.” “But someone must be able to take her! Did you make dinner announcements at all the houses?” “Last week.” I ended up adopting Cinders, because I'm such a softie.
Cinders became diabetic, and started having pertty severe health problems when she was 12. She would “collapse”, I would rush her to the vet, they would give her IV fluids & other treatment for a week, then I could take her home. Near the end there was a time when I was pretty darned sick; I'd been running a fever of over 100, which was very unusual for me. I woke up, measured my fever at 103, and said “There's exactly one thing i'm doing today, and that's getting myself to the doctor.” I went into the kitchen to check on Cinders, and she had collapsed again. It changed to “there's exactly one thing I'm doing today, and that's taking Cinders to the vet.” When I got there, they asked me if I wanted them to save her life, and when I said “yes”, they gave me a paper to sign to authorize emergency life-saving procedures on her. This included getting a blood donor kitty from the pound, since her red cell count was very low and she needed a transfusion.
Cinders stayed at the vet for a whole week; my fever broke the next day. I took her home on Friday, had one last weekend with her, and she collapsed again on Sunday. She didn't make it.
I went to the vet on Monday to cancel her follow-up appointment. They asked if I wanted to see the kitty who had saved Cinders's life. I said “sure”, they brought out this grey kitty. I took one look at him and wailed “I don't want him!” They took him away and comforted me; they would keep him forever. He had been at the pound for a month and was up to be put down, since nobody wanted to adopt him and they needed to make room for new cats. They had had a contest for naming him, and “Phoenix” won. I could come and visit him anytime I wanted.
When I was ready for a new cat, I visited the rescue societies and the pound, but ended up going back to the vet and adopting Phoenix from them. (It turned out they were “holding” him for me, in case I changed my mind.) I still have Phoenix.
Madeleine was one of the cats we saw in out backyard. She has very long and silky hair, and it was amazingly matted. She would have mats as big as my hand on her flank. I made it my goal to bring her in, clean her up, and adopt her out, since she obviously wasn't suited for unowned outdoor living. I did succeed in catching her, we did put her up for adoption, but when someone finally showed a bit of interest in her, Earl and I decided to keep her for ourselves.
Seeker is all Earl's fault. Last year this owned female Siamese cat had kittens, and Earl found her with them (not newborn, but still small) in our backyard. The kittens stuck around and got bigger, and Earl decided to befriend one - putting out food, moving the food closer and closer to the house, sitting out with the food, having the cat sit on his lap. It got to the point that this cat would sit and look in the (glass-paned) door at us all the time in the evening, begging for food or lovings. I finally broke down and told Earl this was unsupportable, it was ridiculous to go outside every 15 minutes to play with the cat, and that we had to bring him in. So, we brought Seeker in right after Thanksgiving this year.