Behold my greatness!
1. Name: Katie
2. Age: 22
3. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you choose? Of the places I've been, I don't think any of them are quite ideal, so I'll describe a location of my own invention: It would have all the natural beauty and unspoiled areas of New Zealand (I like hills and having water nearby), would have at least one major city nearby (Auckland not withstanding -- somewhere more tantamount to NYC), but it would not be nearly so remote as NZ. At this age, I just wouldn't enjoy being so far removed from the rest of the world and its CD releases. It would be an area much older than NZ, rich with history (Polynesian migratory patterns not withstanding). So, bearing that in mind, I hazard to guess I might find somewhere in the UK ideal (socio-economic and political factors notwithstanding). It's a guess because I haven't actually been to the UK. From what I have seen and heard of the Highlands, they're beautiful and I would love them. No matter where I lived, a large city and some area of wilderness would not be too far (near as I can tell). I expect I would love London. It's an area rich with history but that is always on the cutting edge. While it bears a certain amount of isolation, being an island, it is well linked to the continent and not such a long flight from other parts of the world.
That's only thinking ideally, of course. In reality, I don't know yet. I'll probably move around a bit. As for the particular dwelling, I favor the ideas of a cheerful gothic cottage (bright window boxes, overgrown garden, inscriptions from "Inferno" mounted over front door, tiny gargoyles on the roof...) or a castle with a herd of Basset Hounds and small stable of Shetland Ponies (I loves my midget animals).
4. What would your Room of Requirement look like? Well, that would depend on what I required, wouldn't it? I guess as a general, all-purpose scheme it would be rather like a cozy castle study with good acoustics. Stone walls lined with large book shelves on all sorts of fiction, non-fiction, and reference materials, a wood floor covered in a hodgepodge of thick rugs. Lighting provided by sunlight through stained glass windows, wall sconces, lanterns hanging from the ceiling, and a fireplace or 10. There would be plenty of comfy places to sit, some coffee tables, and a desk. I expect there would be a small kitchen-like corner with necessary items for making tea and snacks. Exact contents may vary, but I think there would be a well-tuned keyboard instrument (usually piano, depending on what I needed), a cello chair, a good cello or two, a variety of bows, and a nice music stand. One section of wall would probably be covered by musical instruments in storage. There would also be many file cabinets filled with music, and some spare chairs and stands in the corner. All the necessary accessories would be stored in a cupboard (rosin, strings, etc) nearby. There would also be some basic but good equipment for recording and listening to music. More unusual instruments, such as a glass harmonica or theremin, might appear as I wanted them.
5. Who is your least favorite Harry Potter character? That would have to be Cornelius Fudge, although I have a lot of distaste for Percy and Peter Pettigrew. Since Fudge is a good guy whose idiocy and fear put millions of lives at risk, he's much easier to hate than petty evil characters, such as the Malfoys. Lucius' evil is perhaps not quite so petty, but people like the Malfoys in general are very easy to dismiss. They're too insignificant to deserve much active emotion. Fudge, however, is the type of person who allows petty evil such as the Malfoys to have power and influence. Not just in the way he indirectly helps evil by pretending it isn't on the rise, but in the way he is swayed by the flattery and lies of those who want influence in the Ministry. He's single-minded, near-sighted, and prefers to believe his own "cock and bull" stories, to borrow one of his expressions. I don't care how hard it is to accept difficult truths, a person in his position has to be prepared to accept them, because it's his job, and at it he fails miserably.
6. Is the glass half empty or half full? Does it matter? I suppose I would tend to see it as half-empty, because it's a little like unreached potential. When you see what's ahead of you, you think more of the emptiness and what can be filled than what you have already. I don't think seeing half-empty is pessimistic at all. I think it's often quite optimistic to look toward what more can be done. It's only pessimistic if you feel it can go no further, or if you dread the stretch in front of you, or you feel you can't do anything with what you already have. (Half of something is better than none.) Incidentally, I'd say that the expanse can never be filled, but I see this more in a positive, limitless improvement sense than in a negative, "I'll never be as good as I could be" sense.
7. Give us a quotation (Can be from a famous person, a song, or even a poem-whatever you want) you feel represents your life or personality. I'm pretty bad at whipping out quotes. There are plenty of witty things that brilliant people have said that express my sentiments on some matter. I tend to gravitate toward Ani Difranco songs at times, depending on how I'm feeling, and I think her song "Joyful Girl" actually is a pretty good all purpose description of me. Generally happy, always doing things because I want to, sometimes dismayed, but always self-reassuring and confident.
Here is a link to the lyrics, as they take up a lot of space: http://www.prism-perfect.net/music/lyrics/Joyful_Girl/
8. In your life, who comes first: family or friends? They come about equally. As my boyfriend said in his application, there is little to no difference between family and close friends. If it's a time when obligations are supposed to be to the family, then family comes first. e.g. on Christmas I would see friends after family, and would not run out on my family to be with my boyfriend first thing in the morning. However, it would be very important to me that the friends were involved on an equal level, preferably along with the family, rather than separately. That said, I really am not that close to most of my family and generally feel my few close friends show me more moral support. I know I can always count on my family, but since our relationship tends to be one more of obligation than volition, I suppose I tend to think a little more highly of friends who choose to show the same care. True, upholding familial obligation is a choice, and I value their choice, but with non-family there are not the same expectations, which makes it slightly different in my mind. Particularly as some of my family likes to make it clear how burdensome the obligation is at times...
9. What is your favorite childhood memory? I suppose one general memory I look back fondly at is how I used to dance to everything. (Well, actually, I still do.) I took ballet for a year when I was 6 and always wanted to take more dance classes, but never really got the chance. I had the general habit of memorizing my favorite movies and always acting them out while watching it, but I was especially keen on movies with dance numbers. I would watch "Nutcracker: the Motion Picture" incessantly and try to learn all of the dances, and would perform them along with the movie. At the beginning of 'The Temple of Doom", I learned the chorus routine (complete with costumes and props) and even tried to memorize the Chinese lyrics and sing along. When Pee-Wee Herman danced to "Tequila", so did I. You get the idea. I had a lot of fun doing that, and I just enjoy the memories of it. I think it's also my mother's fondest memory, because she got a kick out of watching me.
10. What would you say is your biggest flaw? I'm having difficulty describing it, so please bear with an analogy: Think of a bamboo tree. You can pull it over a little bit, but it springs right back up. Say you catch it before it springs all the way back up and pull it down the same amount, several times in a row. So while it keeps springing back up a little, it's still getting pulled lower and lower. It takes way more than this to break it, but it's still under some strain and struggling to right itself. It can't do anything about its condition, it has to wait for you to let go to right itself.
I'm a pretty resilient person, I think, but I'm only human and even petty things can knock me down a bit. I sort of feel like I go through cycles, where sometimes I can easily roll with the punches, and other times I just can't take anything. If it's just one thing, I might be annoyed for a little while but quickly bounce back and move on. But when a bunch of negative things happen in close succession -- whether big problems that would stress anyone out, or little things that just get to me that day -- I sometimes get easily overwhelmed. I get into bad moods or slumps and feel like I just can't shake it. It's frustrating because I know that it's entirely within my power to just get the hell over it, but sometimes it's too hard. So I just continue making myself miserable and behaving in ways I'd rather not, all while being distantly aware that I should be able to do something about it.
11. If you had been at Hogwarts during Harry’s fifth year, do you think that you would have joined the D.A.? Definitely. Anything to spite Umbridge's effort at control. I'm sure I would resent having my education meddled with, so I'd be eager to take up opportunities where I could actually learn something and fight the good fight. It would be nice to spend time with people who were on the same page and to practice. I think I would enjoy the independence. Yeah, and anything to stick it to Umbridge.
12. Describe how you react to difficult or stressful situations. In prolonged difficult times, I suppose I often feel as if I'm hanging by a thread, but still hanging. Sometimes the thread snaps, but I manage to mend it and keep hanging. I just try to make the best of things and keep pushing through to the other side, doing what I can to make the passage easier. In more urgent stressful situations I can feel a bit panicky, but I keep my wits pretty well. If other people are panicking and not as sure what to do, I tend to take the lead. The panic serves as energy for responding quickly. I think I can probably thank stage fright for helping me train those instincts.
13. Which do you value more: compassion or justice? I suppose justice, but there is no true justice without compassion. JKR uses Crouch Sr. as a good illustration of that (authorizing unforgiveable curses against DEs, etc). As the expression goes, "two wrongs don't make a right." I'm really not sure about this question, because compassion does not have to come at the expense of justice. They are equally important. Dumbledore is there to illustrate that. I suppose one can be unwilling to assign punishment to someone who appears to be truly sorry, in which case justice may suffer for compassion. So, there is my answer: justice and compassion must be well balanced and equally served.
14. Would you say that you’re a child at heart, or that you have an old soul? I would say that I have an old soul but -- wait for it -- that can come with the ability to be child-like. (Are you catching on that I don't so much see things in black and white? ;) ) All my life, people have told me that I seem mature for my age. All throughout school, I typically felt more mature than many of my peers. My teachers were often as much my friends as my classmates. When I joined groups where elders were supposed to mentor people my age, I gave a lot of advice and almost never asked for any, simply because I never felt the need. Not that I never acted my age, just that I wasn't limited by my age.
But as I get further away from my childhood, I find I'm the same as I ever was. I'm really quite silly, and I still have many of the same tendencies I had when I was little. After all, old doesn't have to mean weary. Dumbledore, for example. I feel like he was probably pretty mature and wise from the start, but he has a lot of playful and child-like qualities. He's serious, but not exclusively. Youth is carefree, and age brings the wisdom to behave as if you're carefree. So, if you're old from the start, I guess you never really change, you just accumulate experience. ;)
15. Which Hogwarts House do you think that the Sorting Hat would place you in? Well, over at sorting_elite I was put in Ravenclaw. I think that's appropriate. Many of my ideals are pretty Hufflepuff, so I was almost put there. I tend to feel like my behavior teeters between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, but that the Ravenclaw aspects are more dominant more of the time.
16. If you have a picture of yourself and feel comfortable posting it, please do so! Pictures are fun!
You can peruse my small selection of personal photos in my LJ gallery if you'd like.
Here's a simple, shiny snapshot:
