Who Am I? Can I conceal myself forevermore?
1. Name: Grace by day, Rai when in front of a computer. Which is when I'm not in school, reading some fantasy novel or other, at a convention, on a bus, at work or sleeping.
2. Age: 19. I'm legal to gamble and drink in Canada. Hah!
3. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you choose?
I wouldn't live in this world at all! I would love nothing more than to be able to live in someplace like Rohan of Middle-earth.
But since I'm assuming it has to be of this Earth, I would instead transcend time and find a place similar to what I want of Middle-earth. Maybe Austria would be a good place, way, way back in time. I just want to live in a time when you can still question why a flower grows to be a flower and not a tree and not be lectured on genetics and evolution. When there was still such a thing as "magic" in the world.
Lacking a time turner though, in third place, I would probably still find myself in Canada, either Toronto, Ottawa or Montreal - somewhere to keep me interested and has a hockey team. Canada may be cold and snowy, but I rather respect and love our politics (what could be loved of politics at least), universal healthcare and the general atmosphere of a Commonwealth country best known for its overly-friendly people and obsession over hockey.
4. What would your Room of Requirement look like?
That would depend on my mood, which are about as fickle as a thunderstorm.
Although the one thing that will never change is that it will never be a room of complete silence, because I'm at my most uncomfortable in silence. I don't mind being alone, but silence in any environment is simply unnatural.
I guess my most common theme would be a room with plain wooden panelling and maps and pictures hanging from them, all of them bright and cheerful of landscapes or nature. There'd be a nice, fluffy blue cotton couch, a fireplace, though not necessarily with a fire inside, and a bunch of bookshelves filled with different kinds of books. I'd have a small table in the middle with a stack of papers on one side and a bunch of pens on the other. There would be at least 2 nice-sized windows leading out to either a large field or a fence and a forest, both of them open, letting in the fresh smell of spring flowers on the wind. It'd be sunny and partly cloudy outside. And something to play music. Lots of music.
5. Who is your least favorite Harry Potter character?
My least favourite character would probably have to be Cormac McLaggen, only because I had to deal with his type of character in real life, and if I have to deal with another ever in my life, it'd be too soon. It's one thing to be good at something, it's another thing to gloat and boast about it, and then use that talent to make out as if you're better than everyone at everything and so everyone else's opinion does not matter.
I have very little tolerance to people who actually DON'T know better make out as if they know everything and it turns out to actually be talking out of their ass. Those are the kind of people who would ditch you in seconds once they've successfully dug you a hole too deep for you to climb out of. If you actually know what you're talking about, fine, but if you don't, shut-up and just tell us you don't have a damn clue.
6. Is the glass half empty or half full?
Neither. It's all based on perception, because truth is nothing, perspective is everything. I'm sure on a day I'm happy, it'd be half full. On a day I'm feeling emo, expect it to be half empty. Realistically though, It'd probably be a little more than half empty based on the shape of a conventional glass. For it to truly be half full, it'd really look like the glass is more full than empty, and so therefore more than half full, despite the truth of the matter. But we tend to take what we see as fact instead of considering what is really there. So what does that leave us with then?
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.
"Truth is nothing. Perspective is everything." - Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind
8. In your life, who comes first: family or friends?
Despite how crazy my family drives me, with a nagging mother, a father with a "McLaggen" complex (and it always gives me a hard time) and a sister who's selfish to the core, my family comes first. Yes, my family gives me a hard time, but if my sister needs something, if my dad needs some help or anything like that, I'd drop anything I have to do with friends and handle it for them. I've broken a meeting once to attend to my sister who was grieving because one of her close friends lost his mother to cancer. I cancelled a date with my boyfriend to help my dad edit a Doctorate translated from Korean to English from family in South Korea for hours of brutal grammar torture.
9. What is your favorite childhood memory?
Umm... I'd have to say when I was in Grade Four and we went to the Royal Ontario Fair, which involved a lot of cows. And if you know anything about nine-year-old city children, we were all pretty immature about having to pick our way through the manure to get from place to place. So eventually my friend Brian said to one of the parent aides: "I paid $8 to get cow poop on my shoes!" I don't know what it was about that sentence, but it killed me then and it still draws a childish giggle from time to time from me even now, a decade later.
10. What would you say is your biggest flaw?
Actually, it's a number of flaw that builds up to one big character flaw in my personality, but it's one of the pay-offs for what is good about me. Basically, I have very little consideration for myself or what I want, which essentially puts me in this position of having next to no goals or motivations to do something for myself. My entire life, I've had my dad force me to do my homework, or my parents telling what to do or what to be. I just kind of took it all, but this essentially made me depend on it, until I started resisted being told to go here and there. But as of right now, my goals for myself are only because "I can't think of anything better for myself". It really takes me wanting it A LOT to do it on my own whim.
11. If you had been at Hogwarts during Harry’s fifth year, do you think that you would have joined the D.A.?
Yes, because I believe you can't learn to drive a car just by reading the driver's manual. I put a great deal of value on practical learning, because I'm a textile learner and depend on it. When I actually practice and perform the stuff, I remember it better, recall it faster and understand it that much more. This is part of the reason why I tend to think certain parts of learning is rubbish, but that's just my opinion. I'd prefer to learn from experience.
Plus, it'd be a little too much fun to disobey Umbridge secretly and be able to make a snooty little remark to her face as I walk out after acing that DADA OWL practical.
12. Describe how you react to difficult or stressful situations.
I have two reactions, and it would depend on what kind of mood I'm in. One is to not react at all, and just tell myself how to get out of the stressful situation. Think it through carefully, trying to stay calm, because once you lose your cool in a difficult situation, you've already lost half the battle. Rationally figure out a possible solution and then go with it.
The second is to lose my cool completely and blow a fuse. Literally. I've had several friends and my family tell me that when I completely lose control, I'm really umm... scary was their exact word. It's times like these I kind of let my mouth run off without thought or regard, and do stuff that's a bit dangerous. It's a rare occurance, but when it does happen, it kinda throws everyone for a loop, because it's not something people expects from me, but it does happen.
This of course depends on my mood that day and how long I've been stressed and the degree of the stress. My worst explosions happens when I fight with my parents.
13. Which do you value more: compassion or justice?
Justice is overrated, because the definition of justice always changes based on what other people think is right or wrong. For instance, the death penalty. People may think it's justice served to a murderer when they are sentenced to death, but do we really have a right to take away a person's single most valuable possession and right; their right to live and their life? So therefore, is it really justifiable to kill someone for any reason? Killing him won't bring back the life already lost, and people always say two wrongs don't make a right.
However, is it also right to let a known dangerous man alive, give him who does not deserve to live his life when one who deserved to see tomorrow's sun is six-feet under, leaving behind a devestated family?
Compassion, when given, is not something society makes up for you, but is something you yourself feel. And it is our own emotions that should matter in our own world. People should learn to trust their own hearts and follow it. No point in hiding who you really are for the sake of others.
Unless of course you feel you must kill everyone in this world. In which case, I would like to direct you to the nearest psychiatric facility.
Basically, don't follow rules if you think they aren't right. Don't do anything because someone said it was justifiable. Think for yourself! And follow what your own heart is telling you. They're often the ones in the right.
14. Would you say that you’re a child at heart, or that you have an old soul?
I'm more of a child at heart. I can take on responsibility, but I would prefer to avoid it. I love to simply have fun and enjoy what life can give me, because life is so short. Just take a day and run with it, and try to enjoy every second of it you can. This is why I'm such a terrible procrastinator, but that's the truth of it.
I can't say I hate my life, and though I don't quite have the innocence I had as a youth, I'm not ready at all to accept the fact I'm an adult. I'll still spend money on frivilous things, and I'll continue to act stupid - from cosplaying, to running around singing annoying theme songs to pulling pranks on my internet friends. Life is short. Make everyday your last and never regret anything.
Plus, the fact I still play make believe in my own little fantasy world should add to the fact I'm still a kid. :P
15. Which Hogwarts House do you think that the Sorting Hat would place you in?
Two places has declared me a Gryffindor, so I guess I'm a Gryffindor. :) Personally though, I wouldn't have it any other way, being where and what I am.
16. If you have a picture of yourself and feel comfortable posting it, please do so! Pictures are fun!
BEHOLD THE ATTACK OF THE NERDS! Actually no it's just me cosplaying with friends at Anime North. I'm the short Asian one holding the Ice Cap dressed as Rikku.
A rare picture of me not in some cosplay outfit. XD This is from my senior prom with the boyfriend. For once, my hair is not a mess either.
Okay so they're both sucky pictures. I'macameraphobewhennotattentionwhoringasacosplayerkthnxbai!