you thought I'd forgotten, didn't you?
01. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
02. I will respond by asking you five questions of a very intimate and creepily personal nature. Or not so creepy/personal.
03. You will update your LJ with the answers to the questions.
04. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the post.
05. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.
questions a la m-dawg
1) If you could be any bug, what would you be?
=> of the bugs I can think of, I'd most like to be a praying mantis. they are totally funky and strange, plus, it would be great to know what having grace and balance feels like. I always get the sense from them that they are wise, and they are powerful but they are more fascinating than frightening. plus, it's illegal to touch them, and that is just hardcore.
2) What is the most absurd fabric you could imagine having sex on?
=> I am so not the queen of fabrics, but I'd think burlap would be pretty fucking weird. or at least insanely unpleasant.
3) If you could make a leather suit out of another person's skin, whose would you choose?
=> yours, sweetie. that way I could keep you with me all the time. but I'd probably have to add in some skin from my other victims if I wanted a whole suit that would fit me.
4) If you to be stuck on an island for 46 years with one of your (Goucher) friends, who would it be?
=> definitely robyn, seeing as she's the only one of us that I can picture surviving 46 years on a deserted island. and hell, you know I'm not going to survive on my own, so it's up to her. in return for shading her from the skin cancer giving sun, I think she'd help me not die. then again, you didn't specify deserted, so maybe I should pick a pal for an island vacation...
5) What is the weirdest thing you've ever wanted to wear in public but haven't?
=> well, between my pirate hat and the blood shirt, I think I do alright with wearing weird things in public. but I've always kind of wanted to sew an outfit that was cut down the middle and stitched together from two different outfits - one of them being really hardcore slutty punk with a plaid mini-skirt, fishnets, ripped tank top, tattoos, peircings, the whole deal, and the other being super preppy good girl. maybe with a side ponytail. but between laziness, lack of funds, lack of sewing ability, and more laziness, it hasn't happened and probably won't.
questions a la sarahhh
1) You have said you are specific about the usage of the word “friend.” In your own words, what is your definition of a friend? A good friend?
=> calling someone a friend is a big deal to me. maybe it's just an issue of self-confidence, but I tend to think that I am also very aware of who means what to me, and willing to distinguish that in my mind.
a friend is someone I feel safe and comfortable going to if I need or just want to talk - someone who will put themselves out there for me when I need it, and someone for whom I will always be willing to do the same in return. he or she is someone that I consider an equal intellectually, creatively, and passionately. he or she is someone I respect completely, even if I don't agree with him or her and even if we don't share the same interests and passions. and just as importantly, a friend is someone who respects me completely. friends are people who constantly amaze me, people who I am unforgettably grateful to know. I know that I really care about someone as a friend if it breaks my heart to see them feeling sad and brightens my day to see them feeling wonderful. I've had many relationships like that in my life, but I have also known them to be a lot less common than is the general usage of the word "friend". in my opinion, anything much less is an acquaintance - and there is absolutely nothing wrong with being that, because you can only share so much of yourself with so many people - but there is a big difference.
the line between a close friend and just a friend is less simple. I think it mainly entails being all those things to a higher degree. there's also probably a variable of chance - they are often those people that for whatever reason just become the most comfortable people to be around. they are the sort of people, for me, with whom I share that bond by which we can discern each others' moods or thoughts when other people can't, without needing words or signals. those relationships I can't really explain.
2) What do you think is the most admirable trait to have - why? It can be a trait you do or don’t have.
=> I think the best thing any person can strive to be is honorable. everyone has their own opinion of what is good and what is bad, but I think it's our responsibility as human beings to strive to embody a code of honor that allows us, no matter what we define as right and wrong, to acknowledge other humans, animals and plants as living things and to respect them as such. to be honorable, in my opinion, is to transcend the intangible and to truly be human.
3) What is your favorite thing about yourself?
=> I love that I am able to feel deeply. whether it's happiness, love, anger, sorrow or anything else, and whether or not it is lasting, I feel very, very deeply. it's not something of which I have always been capable, and so I really treasure it about myself now.
4) If you could trade one of your traits for another, what would be the exchange?
=> I would like to be more experienced or wise, but those traits are earned and they may well come to me, but the experiences by which a person earns them aren't ones that I think anyone should wish for, particularly, so in general I try not to.
for all the trouble it causes me, I value my introspection and perfectionism, but I think that if I could, I would exchange some of my self-doubting nature for a little more ability to love myself. I think it's impossible to love another person unless you really love yourself, and I think my past has programmed me not to allow myself to do that. it's something I'm working on changing every day, but it's hard.
5) What is the thing you try and mask about yourself the most? Why, and how do you try and mask it?
=> for almost as long as I can remember I have, in a strange way, envied people who have seen a lot of the world. I've never seen my own experiences as being unique or strong enough to warrant the amount of emotion I feel, or think I feel. I've never quite felt that I've been through enough or done enough to be a really interesting or knowledgable person, and I'm always trying to hide how little I think I've experienced.
in the past I've been really horrible about it, making up whole scenarios or grossly exaggerating my life to the point at which I could not longer distinguish what the exact truth was, much less clarify it for anyone else. I'm not proud of that at all.
of late I have promised myself not to sell myself as anything other than what I am and to be honest about my experiences. I don't lie anymore, but I think I do still, barely consciously, try to mask my inexperience by giving the impression that I know more than I do about the world, and I'm still not entirely certain that I am honest with myself.
02. I will respond by asking you five questions of a very intimate and creepily personal nature. Or not so creepy/personal.
03. You will update your LJ with the answers to the questions.
04. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the post.
05. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.
questions a la m-dawg
1) If you could be any bug, what would you be?
=> of the bugs I can think of, I'd most like to be a praying mantis. they are totally funky and strange, plus, it would be great to know what having grace and balance feels like. I always get the sense from them that they are wise, and they are powerful but they are more fascinating than frightening. plus, it's illegal to touch them, and that is just hardcore.
2) What is the most absurd fabric you could imagine having sex on?
=> I am so not the queen of fabrics, but I'd think burlap would be pretty fucking weird. or at least insanely unpleasant.
3) If you could make a leather suit out of another person's skin, whose would you choose?
=> yours, sweetie. that way I could keep you with me all the time. but I'd probably have to add in some skin from my other victims if I wanted a whole suit that would fit me.
4) If you to be stuck on an island for 46 years with one of your (Goucher) friends, who would it be?
=> definitely robyn, seeing as she's the only one of us that I can picture surviving 46 years on a deserted island. and hell, you know I'm not going to survive on my own, so it's up to her. in return for shading her from the skin cancer giving sun, I think she'd help me not die. then again, you didn't specify deserted, so maybe I should pick a pal for an island vacation...
5) What is the weirdest thing you've ever wanted to wear in public but haven't?
=> well, between my pirate hat and the blood shirt, I think I do alright with wearing weird things in public. but I've always kind of wanted to sew an outfit that was cut down the middle and stitched together from two different outfits - one of them being really hardcore slutty punk with a plaid mini-skirt, fishnets, ripped tank top, tattoos, peircings, the whole deal, and the other being super preppy good girl. maybe with a side ponytail. but between laziness, lack of funds, lack of sewing ability, and more laziness, it hasn't happened and probably won't.
questions a la sarahhh
1) You have said you are specific about the usage of the word “friend.” In your own words, what is your definition of a friend? A good friend?
=> calling someone a friend is a big deal to me. maybe it's just an issue of self-confidence, but I tend to think that I am also very aware of who means what to me, and willing to distinguish that in my mind.
a friend is someone I feel safe and comfortable going to if I need or just want to talk - someone who will put themselves out there for me when I need it, and someone for whom I will always be willing to do the same in return. he or she is someone that I consider an equal intellectually, creatively, and passionately. he or she is someone I respect completely, even if I don't agree with him or her and even if we don't share the same interests and passions. and just as importantly, a friend is someone who respects me completely. friends are people who constantly amaze me, people who I am unforgettably grateful to know. I know that I really care about someone as a friend if it breaks my heart to see them feeling sad and brightens my day to see them feeling wonderful. I've had many relationships like that in my life, but I have also known them to be a lot less common than is the general usage of the word "friend". in my opinion, anything much less is an acquaintance - and there is absolutely nothing wrong with being that, because you can only share so much of yourself with so many people - but there is a big difference.
the line between a close friend and just a friend is less simple. I think it mainly entails being all those things to a higher degree. there's also probably a variable of chance - they are often those people that for whatever reason just become the most comfortable people to be around. they are the sort of people, for me, with whom I share that bond by which we can discern each others' moods or thoughts when other people can't, without needing words or signals. those relationships I can't really explain.
2) What do you think is the most admirable trait to have - why? It can be a trait you do or don’t have.
=> I think the best thing any person can strive to be is honorable. everyone has their own opinion of what is good and what is bad, but I think it's our responsibility as human beings to strive to embody a code of honor that allows us, no matter what we define as right and wrong, to acknowledge other humans, animals and plants as living things and to respect them as such. to be honorable, in my opinion, is to transcend the intangible and to truly be human.
3) What is your favorite thing about yourself?
=> I love that I am able to feel deeply. whether it's happiness, love, anger, sorrow or anything else, and whether or not it is lasting, I feel very, very deeply. it's not something of which I have always been capable, and so I really treasure it about myself now.
4) If you could trade one of your traits for another, what would be the exchange?
=> I would like to be more experienced or wise, but those traits are earned and they may well come to me, but the experiences by which a person earns them aren't ones that I think anyone should wish for, particularly, so in general I try not to.
for all the trouble it causes me, I value my introspection and perfectionism, but I think that if I could, I would exchange some of my self-doubting nature for a little more ability to love myself. I think it's impossible to love another person unless you really love yourself, and I think my past has programmed me not to allow myself to do that. it's something I'm working on changing every day, but it's hard.
5) What is the thing you try and mask about yourself the most? Why, and how do you try and mask it?
=> for almost as long as I can remember I have, in a strange way, envied people who have seen a lot of the world. I've never seen my own experiences as being unique or strong enough to warrant the amount of emotion I feel, or think I feel. I've never quite felt that I've been through enough or done enough to be a really interesting or knowledgable person, and I'm always trying to hide how little I think I've experienced.
in the past I've been really horrible about it, making up whole scenarios or grossly exaggerating my life to the point at which I could not longer distinguish what the exact truth was, much less clarify it for anyone else. I'm not proud of that at all.
of late I have promised myself not to sell myself as anything other than what I am and to be honest about my experiences. I don't lie anymore, but I think I do still, barely consciously, try to mask my inexperience by giving the impression that I know more than I do about the world, and I'm still not entirely certain that I am honest with myself.