Priori Incantato
Survey
1. Name: Siobhan
2. Age (no one under 13, please): 26
3. Location: Upstate NY. I love my city. I hope to live here the rest of my life.
4a. Three positive adjectives to describe yourself: Geeky (good thing!), intelligent, loyal
4b. Three negative adjectives to describe yourself: Lazy, judgmental (only when I'm with my bestest friends, though), indecisive.
5. If you could live anywhere in the world for one year, where would you go, and why?:
Oh my. Anywhere? Difficult to say. I think, though, I'd want to live in southern Germany somewhere... to have Bavaria so close by would be so magical. Australia would be second - somewhere on the eastern seabord so I could visit New Zealand easily. Edinburgh third. I said I was indecisive.
6. Explain the significance/meaning/origin of your username:
It was a nickname I got in undergrad. I was a biochemistry major, focusing on chemistry rather than biology. My friend started calling me SioBioChem, and I said, "NO! The Chem has to come before the Bio!" And it's been dashed useful as an online moniker.
7. What's your favourite holiday, and why?:
Until about two years ago, it was Christmas because of family, presents, and that special feeling everyone seems to have. Recently, though, I've really started to get behind Thanksgiving. It's such a gracious and simple holiday. There is absolutely no commercialism behind it; it's just family and friends coming together for good food and good company. How wonderful is that?
8. Favourite three books (besides Harry Potter):
Middlemarch by George Eliot. I adore Dorothea. I think she's my favorite female fictional character ever.
A Damsel in Distress by PG Wodehouse. I love everything by Wodehouse - he's my favorite author (yes, over JKR), and the Jeeves and Wooster stories are my favorite series, but there's something about Damsel that sets it apart for me. I really really like both main characters, and the ending is great.
Good in Bed by Jennifer Weiner. Oh my goodness, I couldn't put it down.
9. What is or was your favourite and or best subject in school?
I was one of those obnoxious kids who did well in every subject. The sciences always came very easily to me, and I enjoyed them, but my favorite class was always English. It wasn't my best subject - I was definitely better at math and science - but I really loved English, especially when we did Shakespeare. One of my best assignments in high school was when my English teacher had us make a "fever chart" for Hamlet. I loved it because we had to interpret the text and decide for ourselves when and why and how much Hamlet was crazy throughout the play. Most of the class had partners, but I did it by myself and had such a blast. In college, I was a biochemistry major, but I managed to fit in two Shakespeare classes (Intro and Shakespeare In Film, an independent study between myself and an English professor) among my crazy busy schedule. Those two classes were SO much fun, and I'm glad I took them instead of, say, Biostatistics or some other such subject that would have been "useful" to my major.
10. If you could ask JKR one question, what would it be?
This is tough. I think I would ask about Snape's history. I'd want to know exactly what he did and when - he's such an enigma! I think he's a very well-drawn character, but there's so much tantalizing mystery about him still - we only have one more book to learn more about him!
11. Which of the Harry Potter books thus far was your favourite, and why?:
I'm still digesting Book 6, so I won't count it. (I've read it a couple times and listened to it a couple times, but I've read the other ones so much more that it's still "catching up," as it were). Probably Goblet of Fire. I love the richness of the plot and how everything seems to tie together at the end. I loved Ron being angry at Harry - this made Ron real and human, and it's still one of my favorite parts of the Potter series ever. The ending is insane. I remember vividly the first time I read it, I couldn't BELIEVE everything that happened, and I was on adrenaline, flipping through the pages as fast as I could read.
I've really come around on Order of the Phoenix. At first I didn't like it as much as the others because of angsty!Harry and evil!Umbridge. The more I read it/listen to it, though, the more I'm really getting into it. It's my second favorite now, behind GoF, and it used to be bottom of my list.
12. If you could have the power to perform one spell, and only one spell, absolutely flawlessly for the rest of your life, what would it be and why?
Scourgify. Oh come on, who wouldn't love to be able to clean things up with a flick of the wand? I HATE cleaning the bathroom/kitchen. That spell would be AWESOME.
13. What House do you honestly think you’d end up in, and why?:
When I was in school/college, I would have been in Ravenclaw, no doubt about it. I worked my butt off in school and most of the subjects came easily to me, so I was really working to up an A- to an A or some such thing like that. School was life - classes were life. End of conversation. I still think I'd belong best in Ravenclaw, but I've changed since I started grad school. Grad school is very difficult mentally, and research is a wholly different ballgame than merely taking classes. It requires such insane tenacity, and it's all about breaking you down and building you up again. I spent a year - a whole year - trying to get a mutant protein. That was such an anguishing year. When I finally had it, I cried - I actually cried - more out of relief than happiness. Research has had a profound affect on my personality, and I'm at a bit of a loss as to where I might still belong.
14. Are you willing to accept cross-gendered votes/stamps?:
Absolutely.
15. Anything else we should know?:
Um... Oh, I'm very musical. I've played the clarinet for over half my life. You'll have to pry it out of my cold dead hands, as I'm certain that I'm going to play it for the rest of my life. Classical music is my favorite genre, with the romantics being my favorite composers, except for Rossini. Rossini didn't compose in the Romantic period, but I love his stuff.
16. Please post at least three clear pictures of yourself:
