Five Question Meme
Nov. 23rd, 2009 08:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
slowfoxGacked from glittertine
A meme.
Leave me a comment saying "Resistance is Futile."
• I'll respond by asking you five questions so I can satisfy my curiosity
• Update your journal with the answers to the questions
• Include this explanation in the post and offer to ask other people questions.
1. If you could go on a holiday with Mali, no quarantines and money not an issue, where would you go?
I've thought about this overnight, and, carbon issues notwithstanding, I think it'd have to be Australia and/or New Zealand... I have family in Oz, who would put us both up, I'm sure, and once I was over on that side of the world, I'd surely want to check out New Zealand, too - a place that's always held a fascination for me ever since I read Douglas Adams' Last Chance to See and had my eyes opened to the sheer range of scenery over there.
2. What's your best memory age 20-25?
Ouch, I feel old, now, considering that's almost 20 years back in time, 1990 - 1995. Now, that spans the last of the surgery (not-happy), a flit out to Hong Kong (cool, but not a 'best' memory), graduation (disappointing degree result dampened that) my first job (with the subsequent friendships with both Tango and Dearest), getting married (a good day, even if I left my own wedding reception to wander home for an hour or so {I wasn't missed}) and one holiday (ex and I didn't do holidays, and forwent a honeymoon).
Honestly? Although there must, by definition, be a 'best' memory from that time period, there's nothing that stands out for me. Notwithstanding the fact that I don't like being the centre (or, more correctly, standing next to the centre) of attention, the wedding, 7 August 1993 was a pretty big deal. But like I said, I escaped the evening do for as long as I reasonably could, but yeah, probably that - ex and I had our respective families, obviously, and our best friends, and yeah, it was pretty good having that whole crowd of people around for the day/weekend.
3. Do you write lists? If so, for what?
I was about to reply in the negative, when I remembered that actually, I do - I've been keeping a list of the books I've read this year, with the intention of starting a new list each year so that I have some sort of incentive to read at least 36 books annually (a relatively modest target of 3/month, which should be doable, and allows me to feel good when I surpass it).
4. Do you think flowers are a waste of space, or do you like having them around the house? Or anything in between?
Although I do admire flowers, I'm not really that good at distinguishing one type from another (cf, carnations vs roses - really, they're very similar). I don't have plants about the house partly because, downstairs they'd probably not survive Mali's attention for too long (it was the same when I had cats).
5. If you're in the company of like-minded people, geeks or fannish people, do you get less shy immediately?
If you hit the right subject matter, I loosen up pretty quickly, I think, but it depends on how well I know people, and how comfortable I feel with them. I think I have difficulty with this whole concept of 'moderation', really, and lurch between wallflower and monopoliser. Much of the time, I think, I try to just sit on the fringe and enjoy people being happy and getting along. I think a lot more than I say, even when I'm jabbering (which is rare), so I suspect I'll always be a bit reticent, in general. But, as I said, if you happen to strike a topic that I know something about, I can become quite talkative...
glittertineA meme.
Leave me a comment saying "Resistance is Futile."
• I'll respond by asking you five questions so I can satisfy my curiosity
• Update your journal with the answers to the questions
• Include this explanation in the post and offer to ask other people questions.
1. If you could go on a holiday with Mali, no quarantines and money not an issue, where would you go?
I've thought about this overnight, and, carbon issues notwithstanding, I think it'd have to be Australia and/or New Zealand... I have family in Oz, who would put us both up, I'm sure, and once I was over on that side of the world, I'd surely want to check out New Zealand, too - a place that's always held a fascination for me ever since I read Douglas Adams' Last Chance to See and had my eyes opened to the sheer range of scenery over there.
2. What's your best memory age 20-25?
Ouch, I feel old, now, considering that's almost 20 years back in time, 1990 - 1995. Now, that spans the last of the surgery (not-happy), a flit out to Hong Kong (cool, but not a 'best' memory), graduation (disappointing degree result dampened that) my first job (with the subsequent friendships with both Tango and Dearest), getting married (a good day, even if I left my own wedding reception to wander home for an hour or so {I wasn't missed}) and one holiday (ex and I didn't do holidays, and forwent a honeymoon).
Honestly? Although there must, by definition, be a 'best' memory from that time period, there's nothing that stands out for me. Notwithstanding the fact that I don't like being the centre (or, more correctly, standing next to the centre) of attention, the wedding, 7 August 1993 was a pretty big deal. But like I said, I escaped the evening do for as long as I reasonably could, but yeah, probably that - ex and I had our respective families, obviously, and our best friends, and yeah, it was pretty good having that whole crowd of people around for the day/weekend.
3. Do you write lists? If so, for what?
I was about to reply in the negative, when I remembered that actually, I do - I've been keeping a list of the books I've read this year, with the intention of starting a new list each year so that I have some sort of incentive to read at least 36 books annually (a relatively modest target of 3/month, which should be doable, and allows me to feel good when I surpass it).
4. Do you think flowers are a waste of space, or do you like having them around the house? Or anything in between?
Although I do admire flowers, I'm not really that good at distinguishing one type from another (cf, carnations vs roses - really, they're very similar). I don't have plants about the house partly because, downstairs they'd probably not survive Mali's attention for too long (it was the same when I had cats).
5. If you're in the company of like-minded people, geeks or fannish people, do you get less shy immediately?
If you hit the right subject matter, I loosen up pretty quickly, I think, but it depends on how well I know people, and how comfortable I feel with them. I think I have difficulty with this whole concept of 'moderation', really, and lurch between wallflower and monopoliser. Much of the time, I think, I try to just sit on the fringe and enjoy people being happy and getting along. I think a lot more than I say, even when I'm jabbering (which is rare), so I suspect I'll always be a bit reticent, in general. But, as I said, if you happen to strike a topic that I know something about, I can become quite talkative...
Resistance is futile...
Date: 2009-11-23 09:43 am (UTC)Re: Resistance is futile...
Date: 2009-11-25 08:03 am (UTC)2: After HP, what fandom would you say most interests you, if any?
3: What destination in the world would you urge people to visit?
4: If - heaven forfend - Grimmauld Place was burning, what single inanimate object would you save?
5: What's your favourite time of year, and why?
no subject
Date: 2009-11-23 02:30 pm (UTC)Also, why did you have a disappointing degree result?
What family do you have in Australia? I, too, would love to make a venture to that corner of the world, someday, and likewise take advantage of both countries in the same trip.
no subject
Date: 2009-11-25 08:17 am (UTC)The House was still there - although we'd graduated the year before, many of us (well, all except for me) had registered for Postgraduate study, so we kept on renting the same student house. This, for starters, was pretty unusual; at the time, York Uni guaranteed University accommodation for all first years and most third years, and it was only the second year that you were expected to fend for yourself in the wild world of private accommodation.
However, The House had certainly landed on its collective feet when renting our house in the second year, such that we unanimously decided to stay there for the final, third year. Post graduation, we decided again to stick around in the house; I was working in the civil service, but the rest of the gang were postgrad students.
Anyway, it got to the summer, and one evening a group of us decided to head out to the coast - Cayton Bay, near Scarborough, to have a bonfire on the beach.
So, a convoy of cars set off one weekday evening, and we trekked eastward to the coast.
I'd never been to Cayton Bay - you park on the road up at the top, and then have to walk down a ridiculously steep track to the beach itself.
When we got there, we had the place to ourselves. It was glorious.
So, we jogged the mile or so up and down the sand as the sun started to set low in the sky, and then set up some BBQs for food, played football and frisbee and chilled out.
As evening fell, we collected driftwood and built a bonfire on the sand, and then, at midnight, a group of us decided to go for a swim: no-one had really thought, when we set off, that there'd be swimming, so no-one had swimming gear or anything.
I decided that this looked fun, so I too stripped off to my boxers, and threw myself into the North Sea. Didn't last long, because it was night-time, by now, and cold, but I swam far enough out to see the lights from Scarborough from the water, which was pretty darned cool.
Yeah, that was a good evening :D
There's a looooong explanation of why I have a disappointing degree result, and a short one. The short one is I got a 3rd, when I was expecting - nay, almost assured - a 2(ii). If I can just queue up my Han Solo impression: It's not my fault! But what little protest I made (I'm a bit wiser these days, and would perhaps have presented more of a fuss were the same thing to happen now) was ineffectual, so I lived with it. It still rankles. A 2(ii) would've been fair, a 3rd's deeply disappointing.
One of my mum's sisters lives in Melbourne - she married an airline pilot and moved out there many moons back, and I've always had an open invitation to go out and stay. Not done it yet, though, and can't really see myself so doing, either...
no subject
Date: 2009-11-25 11:18 am (UTC)Why can't you see yourself going? Is it because of the estranged relationship you generally have with your family? Or can you just not see yourself actually going to Australia, period?
no subject
Date: 2009-11-25 11:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-25 04:57 pm (UTC)