Questions, we ask...
Taken from
jen_in_japan
Rules:
1. Leave me a casual comment of no particular significance, like a lyric to your favorite song.
2. I will respond by asking you five personal questions so I can get to know you better.
3. Update your LJ with the answers to these questions.
4. Include this explanation and offer to ask someone else in your own post.
5. When others respond with a random comment, you will ask them five questions.
Questions from
jen_in_japan:
1. Tell me a little bit about Mai HiME and your preferred pairing?
2. What would you like your life to be like 10 years from now?
3. What's something that made you happy this week?
4. What has influenced your writing style the most?
5. What was the last book you read?
1. Tell me a little bit about Mai HiME and your preferred pairing?
Mai HiME comes at the top anime genre cliches from all angles. You've got magical girls, lolis, tsunderes, evil shotas, magical mecha, and a shoujo-ai subplot. That said, it's pretty darn good.
My preferred pairing is Natsuki/Shizuru, who it seems are quickly becoming one of the most popular couples in yuri/shoujo-ai fandom. We can all identify with Shizuru's agonizing unrequited love, I think.
2. What would you like your life to be like 10 years from now?
Simpler. It'd be really nice if the planet was still in one piece with some semblance of a livable environment too...
3. What's something that made you happy this week?
I've been with my girlfriend for 8 years. Today, for the first time, her mom gave me a hug. That was nice.
Oh, and I got Rock Band for my birthday so I'm pretty happy right now, I guess.
4. What has influenced your writing style the most?
A desire for economy and efficacy. I write news articles so I have to be concise and make judicious use of wit if I want to entertain without derailing the focus of my piece. This probably shows in my fiction writing (beyond just the AP-style paragraph formatting). I try to write by the maxims 'less is more' and 'show, don't tell'.
5. What was the last book you read?
The Little Friend by Donna Tartt. It seems a lot of people didn't like it. I did.
Questions from
geminiwench
1. I've never heard anything about your early relationships,.. would you tell me about them sometime?
2. What piece of writing/poetry/book/etc do you find inspiring and makes you want to write/wish you could write every time you read it?
3. You have the power to travel in time AND influence thought,.... BUT you can only use it once. Who do you visit? What do you tell them to do?
4. If you had to blame ONE PERSON for the existence of bad music,... who do you blame?
5. What is the most complicated/time-consuming/expensive thing to cook, but you STILL make it at home even though you can buy it?
Note: This took me so long because your questions were so hard. Bitch.
1. I've never heard anything about your early relationships,.. would you tell me about them sometime?
Ummm...sure...if by 'early relationships' you mean junior high... The Reader's Digest version is that I did some stuff with some boys, had a couple of girlfriends, one of which was certifiably insane and made me run away screaming, and spent some time being terribly emo due to crushing on various girls, one of which whom, if she showed up today, it would probably still make me feel all weird and 13 inside due to some embarrassing, 'let's do stuff together and then not talk about it' kind of situation.
Which brings me to why I taught myself to play guitar and started writing music in high school... Feelings are suck.
2. What piece of writing/poetry/book/etc do you find inspiring and makes you want to write/wish you could write every time you read it?
Well that's a tough one. I've done a lot of writing from essays and articles to poems and songs, so I don't really have one set influence.
I can say though, that when it comes to poetry, I do admire the work of Emily Dickinson. I like the compact style of her writing and the way she sweeps quickly and almost tersely through a verse, while somehow managing to linger on tiny details; a sound, a gesture. I like that she uses no flowery language or overly sentimental phrases, but still gives the reader pause to work a lump from their throat. A nice example is her poem, "Death Sets A Thing".
Of course, she was also batshit crazy and terribly depressed, but hey...
3. You have the power to travel in time AND influence thought,.... BUT you can only use it once. Who do you visit? What do you tell them to do?
Oh fuck...let's see... I visit the Nauset Indians and tell them that I recommend strangling those fucking Pilgrims in their sleep down to the last woman and child and burning the ships they came in on. And then I come back and see what the U.S. is like as a confederate of sovereign tribes. I bet it's bitchin' and they don't have any nukes.
4. If you had to blame ONE PERSON for the existence of bad music,... who do you blame?
There are so many people who deserve to be taken to task, it's hard to know where to start. Well if I had to narrow it down I'd say that music was going along great being all interesting and cool and commenting on/influencing society and exploring new soundscapes all the way through...well...Disco in the 70's (not to be confused with Funk, which does not deserve to be blamed for the transgressions of it's retarded half brother). That's when things started to get spotty. So, since it wasn't one person's fault, I'll blame one band: Fucking ABBA.
If I could also blame someone for the current degenerative state that is popular music, I would have to take a two prong attack and finger whiny pseudo boy rockers Linkin Park for pushing so called 'nu-metal' into the mainstream and Coolio for releasing 'Gangster's Paradise' which caused several previously sane radio stations to make 'exceptions' thereby opening the door to a shit torrent of bad rap and watered down, poppy 'neo-soul' which shall absolutely NOT be referred to as RnB. Damnit.
5. What is the most complicated/time-consuming/expensive thing to cook, but you STILL make it at home even though you can buy it?
Rolled sugar cookies made with real butter. They are a bitch because you have to use a marble rolling pin and try to keep the dough cool so the butter doesn't melt and separate. Plus it sticks like crazy and it's really hard to get out of the cookie cutter. But not only do they come out lighter, crispier, and full of more buttery num-nums than any grocery store cookie, I make them shaped like cannabis leaves and frost them green. So sweet.
jen_in_japan
Rules:
1. Leave me a casual comment of no particular significance, like a lyric to your favorite song.
2. I will respond by asking you five personal questions so I can get to know you better.
3. Update your LJ with the answers to these questions.
4. Include this explanation and offer to ask someone else in your own post.
5. When others respond with a random comment, you will ask them five questions.
Questions from
jen_in_japan:
1. Tell me a little bit about Mai HiME and your preferred pairing?
2. What would you like your life to be like 10 years from now?
3. What's something that made you happy this week?
4. What has influenced your writing style the most?
5. What was the last book you read?
1. Tell me a little bit about Mai HiME and your preferred pairing?
Mai HiME comes at the top anime genre cliches from all angles. You've got magical girls, lolis, tsunderes, evil shotas, magical mecha, and a shoujo-ai subplot. That said, it's pretty darn good.
My preferred pairing is Natsuki/Shizuru, who it seems are quickly becoming one of the most popular couples in yuri/shoujo-ai fandom. We can all identify with Shizuru's agonizing unrequited love, I think.
2. What would you like your life to be like 10 years from now?
Simpler. It'd be really nice if the planet was still in one piece with some semblance of a livable environment too...
3. What's something that made you happy this week?
I've been with my girlfriend for 8 years. Today, for the first time, her mom gave me a hug. That was nice.
Oh, and I got Rock Band for my birthday so I'm pretty happy right now, I guess.
4. What has influenced your writing style the most?
A desire for economy and efficacy. I write news articles so I have to be concise and make judicious use of wit if I want to entertain without derailing the focus of my piece. This probably shows in my fiction writing (beyond just the AP-style paragraph formatting). I try to write by the maxims 'less is more' and 'show, don't tell'.
5. What was the last book you read?
The Little Friend by Donna Tartt. It seems a lot of people didn't like it. I did.
Questions from
geminiwench
1. I've never heard anything about your early relationships,.. would you tell me about them sometime?
2. What piece of writing/poetry/book/etc do you find inspiring and makes you want to write/wish you could write every time you read it?
3. You have the power to travel in time AND influence thought,.... BUT you can only use it once. Who do you visit? What do you tell them to do?
4. If you had to blame ONE PERSON for the existence of bad music,... who do you blame?
5. What is the most complicated/time-consuming/expensive thing to cook, but you STILL make it at home even though you can buy it?
Note: This took me so long because your questions were so hard. Bitch.
1. I've never heard anything about your early relationships,.. would you tell me about them sometime?
Ummm...sure...if by 'early relationships' you mean junior high... The Reader's Digest version is that I did some stuff with some boys, had a couple of girlfriends, one of which was certifiably insane and made me run away screaming, and spent some time being terribly emo due to crushing on various girls, one of which whom, if she showed up today, it would probably still make me feel all weird and 13 inside due to some embarrassing, 'let's do stuff together and then not talk about it' kind of situation.
Which brings me to why I taught myself to play guitar and started writing music in high school... Feelings are suck.
2. What piece of writing/poetry/book/etc do you find inspiring and makes you want to write/wish you could write every time you read it?
Well that's a tough one. I've done a lot of writing from essays and articles to poems and songs, so I don't really have one set influence.
I can say though, that when it comes to poetry, I do admire the work of Emily Dickinson. I like the compact style of her writing and the way she sweeps quickly and almost tersely through a verse, while somehow managing to linger on tiny details; a sound, a gesture. I like that she uses no flowery language or overly sentimental phrases, but still gives the reader pause to work a lump from their throat. A nice example is her poem, "Death Sets A Thing".
Of course, she was also batshit crazy and terribly depressed, but hey...
3. You have the power to travel in time AND influence thought,.... BUT you can only use it once. Who do you visit? What do you tell them to do?
Oh fuck...let's see... I visit the Nauset Indians and tell them that I recommend strangling those fucking Pilgrims in their sleep down to the last woman and child and burning the ships they came in on. And then I come back and see what the U.S. is like as a confederate of sovereign tribes. I bet it's bitchin' and they don't have any nukes.
4. If you had to blame ONE PERSON for the existence of bad music,... who do you blame?
There are so many people who deserve to be taken to task, it's hard to know where to start. Well if I had to narrow it down I'd say that music was going along great being all interesting and cool and commenting on/influencing society and exploring new soundscapes all the way through...well...Disco in the 70's (not to be confused with Funk, which does not deserve to be blamed for the transgressions of it's retarded half brother). That's when things started to get spotty. So, since it wasn't one person's fault, I'll blame one band: Fucking ABBA.
If I could also blame someone for the current degenerative state that is popular music, I would have to take a two prong attack and finger whiny pseudo boy rockers Linkin Park for pushing so called 'nu-metal' into the mainstream and Coolio for releasing 'Gangster's Paradise' which caused several previously sane radio stations to make 'exceptions' thereby opening the door to a shit torrent of bad rap and watered down, poppy 'neo-soul' which shall absolutely NOT be referred to as RnB. Damnit.
5. What is the most complicated/time-consuming/expensive thing to cook, but you STILL make it at home even though you can buy it?
Rolled sugar cookies made with real butter. They are a bitch because you have to use a marble rolling pin and try to keep the dough cool so the butter doesn't melt and separate. Plus it sticks like crazy and it's really hard to get out of the cookie cutter. But not only do they come out lighter, crispier, and full of more buttery num-nums than any grocery store cookie, I make them shaped like cannabis leaves and frost them green. So sweet.