December ramble meme, day 3: trading places with a character
So, um. Today was going to be a long (certainly) insightful (possibly?) ramble on travel, but then this happened:
sysann: *prompts* Is there any character you'd like to switch places with for a week (or longer)? Why or why not? And if you do - who?
hamsterwoman: The answer to the switching places with a character is almost certainly "No", which makes for a not very interesting answer, so I will skip that one :P
sysann: *laughs* Well you could go crazy and explain why you wouldn't want to switch places with character a, b, c, d, e...
hamsterwoman: Haha, aaaactually! XD
So many characters, beloved, unique!
Are there any with whom I'd trade lives for a week?
Wouldn't want to be Astrid -- her work is too bloody,
Plus unicorn-hunting leaves no time to study.
And you couldn't PAY me to trade lives with Buck:
Her family's... challenging, her job and boss suck.
I can aver with the strongest of vows:
I would not be Chase if he's working with House.
Dumbledore: not for all sweets in the world --
He's guilty and lonely as he grows old.
Quirky mentors in general are out, I find:
Elodin is too close to losing his mind.
Wouldn't want to be Fee -- her whole youth is so tragic,
And the magic she uses isn't even HER magic!
Being Gandalf the Grey involves way too much walking,
And I sure wouldn't want to have to try smoking.
Being Holmes might seem great, but then there's the cocaine,
And being so much smarter than all is a pain.
Wouldn't want to be Imri, all moping and brooding,
Plus I'm not the type for "I want to be good"-ing.
I'm too vain to be Jane: sadly, facial scars
Are in no way made up for by captain's bars.
Kincaid is fun, but the Hellhound schtick
And Archive-sitting would get boring right quick.
Wouldn't want to be Londo, like, EVER. At all.
(Just thinking of Morden makes my skin crawl.)
Don't want to be Miles -- who has the endurance?
And think of the bills I'd rack up for insurance!
Being Nick wouldn't do: codependent like whoa,
And trouble with words would be also no-go.
And being Olenna involves too much scheming,
And not much to offer that would be redeeming.
Peter's a dear and his hobbies are pleasing,
But I wouldn't enjoy a career in policing.
No thanks to being Quentin -- too much grind for the power,
And surrounded by assholes -- 't would get old in an hour.
Wouldn't want to be Richard: I haven't the guts
To fight with a sword, and his boyfriend is NUTS.
Simon's a sweetie, and handsome, and smart,
But I so wouldn't want the sib-caretaking part.
I'd turn down being Toph: she's all awesome and such,
But I would miss reading too terribly much.
Would pass on Uhura -- Spock isn't my type,
And the way she is utilized leaves room to gripe.
To be Vetinari sounds awfully stressful,
And as I'm bad at juggling, I wouldn't be successful.
Wouldn't want to be Willow -- the magic addiction
Would be just as much fun in my life as in fiction.
Xavier's mutation's a pain in the ass,
Going bald's a deal-breaker, in other words: Pass.
Here is another I'd turn down in haste:
Yama's a genius, but has TERRIBLE taste.
Zerika has zero personal freedom
And needs more Phoenix with no way to breed'em,
So, like all these others, I'd say, "No, thank you --
I'll keep my own life: much less hassle! Adieu."
(Note: I wrote down a bunch of favorite characters in alphabetical order, then tried to make sure that I didn't repeat any fandoms while filling out the alphabet, thus the final character selection. I admit for some of the harder letters I had to stretch the definition of favorite character (e.g. Quentin, Uhura, Professor X), but they are all at least from canons that I really like. And I didn't cheat: in all cases I went with the name I think of the character by for the purposes of alphabetization, so there's first names, last names, even one nickname.)
The slightly less facetious, not-in-doggerel answer is still No. Characters need to have challenging and interesting problems to be interesting characters -- impossible odds, trauma to overcome, enemies to defeat, that sort of thing -- and the less of that for me to experience first-hand, the better.
The travel ramble I will move closer to the actual travel, towards the end of the month, I think.
*
I was also supposed to be in Oregon today, and got up at 4:45 a.m. for that purpose (after being woken up by lightning and really scary thunder a couple of times during the night). Everything was fine until I got to the Embarcadero, although they did tell us Van Ness station was flooded and trains weren't stopping there. Well, apparently more stuff was flooded than just Van Ness, because my connection to Caltrain wasn't running properly -- I waited over 15 minutes for something to come, where normally there's a MUNI every 4-7 min. It was still just possible to make the 6:24 train I needed, so I hopped on the T when it did come -- but then we were stuck at traffic lights and I missed it anyway. I could take the 6:44, and if all the timing aligned just right, I could maybe still make it to the plane long after check-in ended but before they closed the actual cabin door -- I've done it once. But with the rain, I was sure the trains would be running late, too, so there seemed no point in chancing it, especially when being in Santa Clara today meant that my grandparents have to come and stay late because B has a late class, and if I tried and missed my plane anyway (of which there was a ~85% chance at least, I'd say) it would be for nothing. And the Oregon trip was for a conference, so something I wanted to participate in, but not something where they were counting on me to do something there. So I turned around and took MUNI home (by now it was running just fine, Murphy's Law), canceled my flight (I still had about an hour before my morning one, and have several "free cancels" I can use before the end of the year), and that's that.
sysann: *prompts* Is there any character you'd like to switch places with for a week (or longer)? Why or why not? And if you do - who?
hamsterwoman: The answer to the switching places with a character is almost certainly "No", which makes for a not very interesting answer, so I will skip that one :P
sysann: *laughs* Well you could go crazy and explain why you wouldn't want to switch places with character a, b, c, d, e...
hamsterwoman: Haha, aaaactually! XD
So many characters, beloved, unique!
Are there any with whom I'd trade lives for a week?
Wouldn't want to be Astrid -- her work is too bloody,
Plus unicorn-hunting leaves no time to study.
And you couldn't PAY me to trade lives with Buck:
Her family's... challenging, her job and boss suck.
I can aver with the strongest of vows:
I would not be Chase if he's working with House.
Dumbledore: not for all sweets in the world --
He's guilty and lonely as he grows old.
Quirky mentors in general are out, I find:
Elodin is too close to losing his mind.
Wouldn't want to be Fee -- her whole youth is so tragic,
And the magic she uses isn't even HER magic!
Being Gandalf the Grey involves way too much walking,
And I sure wouldn't want to have to try smoking.
Being Holmes might seem great, but then there's the cocaine,
And being so much smarter than all is a pain.
Wouldn't want to be Imri, all moping and brooding,
Plus I'm not the type for "I want to be good"-ing.
I'm too vain to be Jane: sadly, facial scars
Are in no way made up for by captain's bars.
Kincaid is fun, but the Hellhound schtick
And Archive-sitting would get boring right quick.
Wouldn't want to be Londo, like, EVER. At all.
(Just thinking of Morden makes my skin crawl.)
Don't want to be Miles -- who has the endurance?
And think of the bills I'd rack up for insurance!
Being Nick wouldn't do: codependent like whoa,
And trouble with words would be also no-go.
And being Olenna involves too much scheming,
And not much to offer that would be redeeming.
Peter's a dear and his hobbies are pleasing,
But I wouldn't enjoy a career in policing.
No thanks to being Quentin -- too much grind for the power,
And surrounded by assholes -- 't would get old in an hour.
Wouldn't want to be Richard: I haven't the guts
To fight with a sword, and his boyfriend is NUTS.
Simon's a sweetie, and handsome, and smart,
But I so wouldn't want the sib-caretaking part.
I'd turn down being Toph: she's all awesome and such,
But I would miss reading too terribly much.
Would pass on Uhura -- Spock isn't my type,
And the way she is utilized leaves room to gripe.
To be Vetinari sounds awfully stressful,
And as I'm bad at juggling, I wouldn't be successful.
Wouldn't want to be Willow -- the magic addiction
Would be just as much fun in my life as in fiction.
Xavier's mutation's a pain in the ass,
Going bald's a deal-breaker, in other words: Pass.
Here is another I'd turn down in haste:
Yama's a genius, but has TERRIBLE taste.
Zerika has zero personal freedom
And needs more Phoenix with no way to breed'em,
So, like all these others, I'd say, "No, thank you --
I'll keep my own life: much less hassle! Adieu."
(Note: I wrote down a bunch of favorite characters in alphabetical order, then tried to make sure that I didn't repeat any fandoms while filling out the alphabet, thus the final character selection. I admit for some of the harder letters I had to stretch the definition of favorite character (e.g. Quentin, Uhura, Professor X), but they are all at least from canons that I really like. And I didn't cheat: in all cases I went with the name I think of the character by for the purposes of alphabetization, so there's first names, last names, even one nickname.)
The slightly less facetious, not-in-doggerel answer is still No. Characters need to have challenging and interesting problems to be interesting characters -- impossible odds, trauma to overcome, enemies to defeat, that sort of thing -- and the less of that for me to experience first-hand, the better.
The travel ramble I will move closer to the actual travel, towards the end of the month, I think.
*
I was also supposed to be in Oregon today, and got up at 4:45 a.m. for that purpose (after being woken up by lightning and really scary thunder a couple of times during the night). Everything was fine until I got to the Embarcadero, although they did tell us Van Ness station was flooded and trains weren't stopping there. Well, apparently more stuff was flooded than just Van Ness, because my connection to Caltrain wasn't running properly -- I waited over 15 minutes for something to come, where normally there's a MUNI every 4-7 min. It was still just possible to make the 6:24 train I needed, so I hopped on the T when it did come -- but then we were stuck at traffic lights and I missed it anyway. I could take the 6:44, and if all the timing aligned just right, I could maybe still make it to the plane long after check-in ended but before they closed the actual cabin door -- I've done it once. But with the rain, I was sure the trains would be running late, too, so there seemed no point in chancing it, especially when being in Santa Clara today meant that my grandparents have to come and stay late because B has a late class, and if I tried and missed my plane anyway (of which there was a ~85% chance at least, I'd say) it would be for nothing. And the Oregon trip was for a conference, so something I wanted to participate in, but not something where they were counting on me to do something there. So I turned around and took MUNI home (by now it was running just fine, Murphy's Law), canceled my flight (I still had about an hour before my morning one, and have several "free cancels" I can use before the end of the year), and that's that.