getting back on the horse
Mr. G is home. I also happen to be in the Minneapolis area. (It is a complete coincidence that I was also here last time he returned from a big international trip. I'm not here to assist with the decanting. Honest.)
Mailbag time!
stimpson writes:
Webgoblin, what is your favourite thing about Anthropology?
I loved Cultural Anthropology. Questioning why groups behave as they do and trying to put into words the unspoken rules of social interaction was a hobby of mine anyway. Once I discovered ethnographic fiction, though, and realized that I could turn in short stories instead of research papers, I was completely sold on the major.
My specific area of interest is my circle of friends. It has been one of my life's ambitions to surround myself with interesting people, so they're usually a rich bed to mine. Additionally, I really identify with anthropology's struggle over ethos, in asking what right any observer has to claim to understand a group, and the issues of how much a participant-observer effects the observed by the act of observing. So I wrote about my friends, because I was already hanging out with them anyway and because I really wanted to understand them better.
My most successful paper about them was entitled something like, "The Shared Cognitive Mediated Structures of Dumping Someone". My professor said she wished she'd read it before her divorce.
My most successful non-paper was a memoir written from the perspective of an individual with Repetitive Self-Harm Syndrome, who cut and burned himself. I presented it on the last day of class as a monologue, during which I slowly laid various cutting and burning implements out across the table in front of me. My classmates seemed stunned, to my delight, and one whom I later befriended told me that I had really creeped her out.
Which tells you something of how I measured success.
eowynofithilien writes:
And, if I may add to the above, do you have any anthropological/cultural observations from your time maintaining the blog?
Not particularly, I'm afraid. Mr. G tends to attract very kind fans. Beyond that, the structures of fandom are pretty consistent. I am convinced that you would all find me much less witty were it not for my association with Mr. G, though.
tehlobster writes:
You say you've been participating successfully in NaNo since '05? That's about when I learned of it, though this is my first year and I'm CURRENTLY VERY TERRIFIED HAHA.
What happened with your successes? Did you do anything with them after their respective 30th's?
I haven't had any of it published. I haven't tried much.
My first NaNoWriMo novel was an excellent experience. I completed it. I put everything I'd ever thought to write about into it. And now I know better than to try to put that many disparate elements and themes into a single story, much less attempt to deal with that many different personal issues in a single place. I've revised it since then, and, though the first third is still largely horrid, I'm rather fond of the remaining two thirds.
Don't tell the people in the NaNoWriMo forums (-- seriously, they get all mad and declare jihad if you do --), but every year since then I've written 50k words worth of short stories. This year I'm trying to write a short story a day, each one inspired by a song I heard that morning on the radio.
prettymess writes:
Do you know what's decomposing in my air ducts?
By the time I located it, it was unrecognizable. It appeared to have five paws and two beaks.
queclecumber writes:
What are you going as for Halloween? A goblin?
Guy Fawkes.
skye_princess writes:
Webgoblin, would it be alright if I friend you? Feel free to look over at my profile to get a sense of what I am like as a person. Just to let you know, I don't post that often in my own journal, but I try to be really good about making comments in others' journals, trying to keep up with everything that is going on in their lives. I do like making friends, both in real life and on-line.
BTW, I really like the work that you're doing on Neil's blog while he is away. I especially liked the different journal styles you were trying out. Keep up the good and beautiful work :-)
No need to ask. I really wish social networks would call them something other than "friends".
flawed_karma writes:
Here's a two parter for you.
What is the most fascinating part of doing the webgoblining for Neil Gaiman
And what part do you hate the most?
The most fascinating part is getting a little peek behind the scenes, and the people who show up in my inbox.
The hardest part is dealing with my own insecurity when it comes to emailing Mr. G. I have, on multiple occasions, spent three hours revising an email to Mr. G that was, in the end, maybe four sentences. I know that he is a busy man with many people clamoring for his attention. I don't want to waste his time. This truth extends to all things.
inuki42 writes:
You mentioned a customized G1 - just what sort of customized? :)
For the way I use my phone, the G1 wins over the Cliq too - while I really like the social networking widgets, the G1's keyboard is just more comfortable. The Droid does look shiny, though... but it makes me laugh every time I see those commercials, because they had to pay Lucasfilm to use the "droid" name, and the term brings something very different to my mind!
I'm running CM4.0.4 with CM Recovery 1.4 and various tweaks picked up along the way.
After playing with a CLIQ, I think I'd miss the scrollball if I got a Droid. What a need is a Droid-like phone with hardware keyboard, scrollball, 1GHz Snapdragon processor, and a lot of RAM.
wineandlemons writes:
Who is Eben?
And what's your novel (tentatively) about this year?
I have no idea who Eben is. I discovered him one day after buying a pair of pince-nez and getting them fitted with my prescription. If you find out, please tell me.
skyeyedoc writes:
What do you drive? Personally, I've always wanted Jack Sprat's Austin Allegro, but with high miles on the odometer...
A Toyota Prius with vanity plates referencing to a certain epic SF series that KJA has done his best to ruin. (Not Star Wars.)
marence writes:
And whatever happened to the decoder rings*?
*and distribution scheme, too. That was what piqued my interest.
I never found a place selling bulk decoder rings cheaply. As for the distribution scheme, I'm not entirely sure if the one that I'm thinking of now is the same one that I had thought of then, so I can't speak on it with any confidence.
rekre8 writes:
When sitting at breakfast at home, what's on the wall infront of you? Please also make up a good lie as to why it's there.
Though it is my favorite meal, I do not eat breakfast.
dianapassy writes:
Webgoblin, what was the last book you read that you really loved? Please mention another if your first answer involves Mr. G.
I rather liked "The Time Traveler's Wife", though its dark turns took me by surprise. It has depths to be considered, and is far less a romantic story than most seem to think. I have not seen the film.
takenbythesky writes:
Do you have a favorite facet / tale of mythology?
As is fitting a puckish hobgoblin, I am rather partial to Hermes, in all of his many forms across mythologies. Among them, I count: Yinepu, Hesus and Esus, Turms, Cyllenius, Robin Goodfellow and Hobgoblin and Puck, Psychopompos, Mercury and Alipes, Anpu and Ienpw and Imy-ut and Anubis, Hermanubis, Hermes, Peter Pan, and even Spock.
Please feel free to ask more questions via LJ-internal email or Mr. G's Site Inquiry line; questions in comments to this post will be answered with further comments of my own.
Mailbag time!
stimpson writes:
Webgoblin, what is your favourite thing about Anthropology?
I loved Cultural Anthropology. Questioning why groups behave as they do and trying to put into words the unspoken rules of social interaction was a hobby of mine anyway. Once I discovered ethnographic fiction, though, and realized that I could turn in short stories instead of research papers, I was completely sold on the major.
My specific area of interest is my circle of friends. It has been one of my life's ambitions to surround myself with interesting people, so they're usually a rich bed to mine. Additionally, I really identify with anthropology's struggle over ethos, in asking what right any observer has to claim to understand a group, and the issues of how much a participant-observer effects the observed by the act of observing. So I wrote about my friends, because I was already hanging out with them anyway and because I really wanted to understand them better.
My most successful paper about them was entitled something like, "The Shared Cognitive Mediated Structures of Dumping Someone". My professor said she wished she'd read it before her divorce.
My most successful non-paper was a memoir written from the perspective of an individual with Repetitive Self-Harm Syndrome, who cut and burned himself. I presented it on the last day of class as a monologue, during which I slowly laid various cutting and burning implements out across the table in front of me. My classmates seemed stunned, to my delight, and one whom I later befriended told me that I had really creeped her out.
Which tells you something of how I measured success.
eowynofithilien writes:
And, if I may add to the above, do you have any anthropological/cultural observations from your time maintaining the blog?
Not particularly, I'm afraid. Mr. G tends to attract very kind fans. Beyond that, the structures of fandom are pretty consistent. I am convinced that you would all find me much less witty were it not for my association with Mr. G, though.
tehlobster writes:
You say you've been participating successfully in NaNo since '05? That's about when I learned of it, though this is my first year and I'm CURRENTLY VERY TERRIFIED HAHA.
What happened with your successes? Did you do anything with them after their respective 30th's?
I haven't had any of it published. I haven't tried much.
My first NaNoWriMo novel was an excellent experience. I completed it. I put everything I'd ever thought to write about into it. And now I know better than to try to put that many disparate elements and themes into a single story, much less attempt to deal with that many different personal issues in a single place. I've revised it since then, and, though the first third is still largely horrid, I'm rather fond of the remaining two thirds.
Don't tell the people in the NaNoWriMo forums (-- seriously, they get all mad and declare jihad if you do --), but every year since then I've written 50k words worth of short stories. This year I'm trying to write a short story a day, each one inspired by a song I heard that morning on the radio.
prettymess writes:
Do you know what's decomposing in my air ducts?
By the time I located it, it was unrecognizable. It appeared to have five paws and two beaks.
queclecumber writes:
What are you going as for Halloween? A goblin?
Guy Fawkes.
skye_princess writes:
Webgoblin, would it be alright if I friend you? Feel free to look over at my profile to get a sense of what I am like as a person. Just to let you know, I don't post that often in my own journal, but I try to be really good about making comments in others' journals, trying to keep up with everything that is going on in their lives. I do like making friends, both in real life and on-line.
BTW, I really like the work that you're doing on Neil's blog while he is away. I especially liked the different journal styles you were trying out. Keep up the good and beautiful work :-)
No need to ask. I really wish social networks would call them something other than "friends".
flawed_karma writes:
Here's a two parter for you.
What is the most fascinating part of doing the webgoblining for Neil Gaiman
And what part do you hate the most?
The most fascinating part is getting a little peek behind the scenes, and the people who show up in my inbox.
The hardest part is dealing with my own insecurity when it comes to emailing Mr. G. I have, on multiple occasions, spent three hours revising an email to Mr. G that was, in the end, maybe four sentences. I know that he is a busy man with many people clamoring for his attention. I don't want to waste his time. This truth extends to all things.
inuki42 writes:
You mentioned a customized G1 - just what sort of customized? :)
For the way I use my phone, the G1 wins over the Cliq too - while I really like the social networking widgets, the G1's keyboard is just more comfortable. The Droid does look shiny, though... but it makes me laugh every time I see those commercials, because they had to pay Lucasfilm to use the "droid" name, and the term brings something very different to my mind!
I'm running CM4.0.4 with CM Recovery 1.4 and various tweaks picked up along the way.
After playing with a CLIQ, I think I'd miss the scrollball if I got a Droid. What a need is a Droid-like phone with hardware keyboard, scrollball, 1GHz Snapdragon processor, and a lot of RAM.
wineandlemons writes:
Who is Eben?
And what's your novel (tentatively) about this year?
I have no idea who Eben is. I discovered him one day after buying a pair of pince-nez and getting them fitted with my prescription. If you find out, please tell me.
skyeyedoc writes:
What do you drive? Personally, I've always wanted Jack Sprat's Austin Allegro, but with high miles on the odometer...
A Toyota Prius with vanity plates referencing to a certain epic SF series that KJA has done his best to ruin. (Not Star Wars.)
marence writes:
And whatever happened to the decoder rings*?
*and distribution scheme, too. That was what piqued my interest.
I never found a place selling bulk decoder rings cheaply. As for the distribution scheme, I'm not entirely sure if the one that I'm thinking of now is the same one that I had thought of then, so I can't speak on it with any confidence.
rekre8 writes:
When sitting at breakfast at home, what's on the wall infront of you? Please also make up a good lie as to why it's there.
Though it is my favorite meal, I do not eat breakfast.
dianapassy writes:
Webgoblin, what was the last book you read that you really loved? Please mention another if your first answer involves Mr. G.
I rather liked "The Time Traveler's Wife", though its dark turns took me by surprise. It has depths to be considered, and is far less a romantic story than most seem to think. I have not seen the film.
takenbythesky writes:
Do you have a favorite facet / tale of mythology?
As is fitting a puckish hobgoblin, I am rather partial to Hermes, in all of his many forms across mythologies. Among them, I count: Yinepu, Hesus and Esus, Turms, Cyllenius, Robin Goodfellow and Hobgoblin and Puck, Psychopompos, Mercury and Alipes, Anpu and Ienpw and Imy-ut and Anubis, Hermanubis, Hermes, Peter Pan, and even Spock.
Please feel free to ask more questions via LJ-internal email or Mr. G's Site Inquiry line; questions in comments to this post will be answered with further comments of my own.