More questions and answers...
Oct. 15th, 2007 05:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
johnpalmerThese came from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
saoba:
1) Did you have a hero as a child?
Well, as a child, my heroes were mostly comic book superheroes. I grew up thinking life was a lot like the comic books, with clearly delineated good guys and the bad guys. It's an interesting question, which came first... a lot of comic books were written from that perspective, and I read comic books a lot, so there must have been some influence. But I think I was also drawn to that kind of exciting struggle, the good guys willing to do all that they could to win against the bad guys, thinking that life should be more like that... that heroic folks going in, and doing the right thing at the right time, can make a huge difference.
I still feel that way, but the heroics have changed a great deal... sometimes slaying a few metaphorical demons can be more heroic than the imagined defeat of "real" ones, with teeth and claws and hellfire. It's not as flashy, and not as earthshaking, but sometimes, instead of shaking the earth, you want to shore it up and make it stable, you know?
2) What is the most frustrating thing about online communication for you?
Well, that changes based upon my mood, these days. Sometimes it's the time delay (when there's something that I think would be clarified if folks were sitting across from each other in a coffee shop (or bar, etc.).
And sometimes it's the lack of feedback, where there's no way of knowing if you've gotten it right, or flubbed it, or even if you're getting that tolerant smile of "oh, there he goes again, time to nod and say 'uh-huh' once in a while until he's done."
3) Is there a particular era or school of art that speaks to you deeply?
Alas, I don't know enough about art to say. In high school, well the High School of Engineering and Science didn't have art appreciation classes, and by the time I was through that, I'd developed the techno-geeks belief that art wasn't important. It wasn't until a lot later that I realized that art (by my definition) and attempt to communicate beyond the medium, that it's not what the art *is* but what it's trying to say.
4) What handcraft or skill have you always wanted to learn?
I've always wanted to be able to draw, but I've never really wanted to learn, because I don't really think I can... something seems broken in the way I see things, so I can't abstract stuff to see what lines would capture the image on paper... plus, when I try to put lines on the paper, I can see that they don't do what I want.
As a side note: my handwriting is terrible, and I can't really 'block out' letters so they are all approximately the right size. I don't think I understand proportion right, or something, so I think it really might be something genetic.
Skills... I've always wanted to be able to work on cars, or make things out of wood. The High School of Engineering and Science didn't have wood or auto shop classes either :-). (And, honestly, I wouldn't have taken them if it had... not then.)
5) I know you are a Buffy fan. Which character do you most identify with
and why?
Oh, wow, this stirred up a lot of thoughts. In some ways I identify with Willow, highly introverted and brainy, and excited as all heck to have a chance to do something good and amazing. And in other ways, I identify with Xander, the often confused, frequently frightened guy who knows damn well he's in way over his head, but has to see it through because, hey, his friends need his help. And, you know, horrible evil having to be stopped, to boot.
But thinking of it more deeply, I realize that, if Joss Whedon had met me in high school, and wrote a character based on me, it might well be Jonathan. Brainy but unpopular, never really in the thick of things, yearning for a place in life, and even casting a spell that made him a huge hero (without realizing it would have a high cost). And I'd hate Joss for making him a supervillian in season 6, but I'd shed a sad tear for his well-intentioned death in season 7. And I'd probably get into some flamefest on a Buffy fanboard about how what *really* mattered is that he was *trying* to make amends, and it's not his fault that he died before he had the chance!
saoba:1) Did you have a hero as a child?
Well, as a child, my heroes were mostly comic book superheroes. I grew up thinking life was a lot like the comic books, with clearly delineated good guys and the bad guys. It's an interesting question, which came first... a lot of comic books were written from that perspective, and I read comic books a lot, so there must have been some influence. But I think I was also drawn to that kind of exciting struggle, the good guys willing to do all that they could to win against the bad guys, thinking that life should be more like that... that heroic folks going in, and doing the right thing at the right time, can make a huge difference.
I still feel that way, but the heroics have changed a great deal... sometimes slaying a few metaphorical demons can be more heroic than the imagined defeat of "real" ones, with teeth and claws and hellfire. It's not as flashy, and not as earthshaking, but sometimes, instead of shaking the earth, you want to shore it up and make it stable, you know?
2) What is the most frustrating thing about online communication for you?
Well, that changes based upon my mood, these days. Sometimes it's the time delay (when there's something that I think would be clarified if folks were sitting across from each other in a coffee shop (or bar, etc.).
And sometimes it's the lack of feedback, where there's no way of knowing if you've gotten it right, or flubbed it, or even if you're getting that tolerant smile of "oh, there he goes again, time to nod and say 'uh-huh' once in a while until he's done."
3) Is there a particular era or school of art that speaks to you deeply?
Alas, I don't know enough about art to say. In high school, well the High School of Engineering and Science didn't have art appreciation classes, and by the time I was through that, I'd developed the techno-geeks belief that art wasn't important. It wasn't until a lot later that I realized that art (by my definition) and attempt to communicate beyond the medium, that it's not what the art *is* but what it's trying to say.
4) What handcraft or skill have you always wanted to learn?
I've always wanted to be able to draw, but I've never really wanted to learn, because I don't really think I can... something seems broken in the way I see things, so I can't abstract stuff to see what lines would capture the image on paper... plus, when I try to put lines on the paper, I can see that they don't do what I want.
As a side note: my handwriting is terrible, and I can't really 'block out' letters so they are all approximately the right size. I don't think I understand proportion right, or something, so I think it really might be something genetic.
Skills... I've always wanted to be able to work on cars, or make things out of wood. The High School of Engineering and Science didn't have wood or auto shop classes either :-). (And, honestly, I wouldn't have taken them if it had... not then.)
5) I know you are a Buffy fan. Which character do you most identify with
and why?
Oh, wow, this stirred up a lot of thoughts. In some ways I identify with Willow, highly introverted and brainy, and excited as all heck to have a chance to do something good and amazing. And in other ways, I identify with Xander, the often confused, frequently frightened guy who knows damn well he's in way over his head, but has to see it through because, hey, his friends need his help. And, you know, horrible evil having to be stopped, to boot.
But thinking of it more deeply, I realize that, if Joss Whedon had met me in high school, and wrote a character based on me, it might well be Jonathan. Brainy but unpopular, never really in the thick of things, yearning for a place in life, and even casting a spell that made him a huge hero (without realizing it would have a high cost). And I'd hate Joss for making him a supervillian in season 6, but I'd shed a sad tear for his well-intentioned death in season 7. And I'd probably get into some flamefest on a Buffy fanboard about how what *really* mattered is that he was *trying* to make amends, and it's not his fault that he died before he had the chance!
