Oh, indeed.
Aug. 22nd, 2003 01:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
akujunkanRemember how I kept harping on what an example of human excrement my predecessor was? Well, I have more proof - turns out the guy skipped town without paying any of his bills. Now his collectors are dunning me.
On the upside, I mistakenly received a call at work today for him (he owes hundreds on his AU bill) and talked to the guy on the other end for about five minutes, in Japanese, explaining that Jon Swindell had gone back to the US and as far as I knew had no plans to return to Japan.
One of the sensei heard me, realised that I really can speak Japanese, and next thing I knew I was talking to about five other sensei in Japanese. It was the coolest thing ever. I love the feeling of speaking in a foreign language and not having to work for words or grammar because you're actually speaking the language, and not translating everything out of English before it leaves your mouth.
With that said, on to some cut tag business.
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tuanda13: About pennywhistle
Unfortunately, you can't play the whistle without using both hands. If your friend wanted to know because she can't use one hand, send her to this link. It's about an instrument called the tabor pipe, which is playable one-handed (and a pretty cool instrument besides).
And, courtesy ofbloody_american, it's time for
1) Name one famous person that you lust over? (preferrably a current lust, if none then past is fine)
Obviously Alan Rickman, for the voice. People that old just should not be sexy any more, but he manages it. Michael Wincott and Michael Stipe are runners up.
2) What is it you like about Severus Snape?
Let's travel back in time to the day when only the first book was out, and people were making a huge fuss over it. Now, I am a reader of books. I read several hundred each year. I picked up PS, and found not something to be raving over, but a book that was an obvious derivative of other, better fantasy works. The writing was uneven and juvenile and very one-dimensional.
Characterwise, we had:
HarrySue Potter - the protagonist with main character syndrome,
The stereotypical evil adoptive family,
Neville, whose function was to create humorous classroom mishap,
Hermione, the annoyingly stereotypical know-it-all girl,
Ron, the sidekick,
Draco, the student rival, rich snot,
Dumbledore, the wizened Gandalf rip-off,
etc. etc.
Of course, looking at these characters in hindsight, they're all right, but most, if not all of their character development happened from PoA on. They were pretty much 2D in PS.
PS did have Snape, who, 2D as he was, pushed all of my buttons: sarcastic, dark- and long-haired, mysterious, someone who was annoyed by Harry Potter as I was, and who asked a question - What's the difference between wolfsbane and aconite - that I as an herbalist knew. Too cool! He was also the only professor who spoke out against the set order, which I can appreciate, and was a social outcast, which I can relate to. Then, at the end of the book, we find that he was trying to save, not kill, Harry. Finally - several hundred pages and we've got a character with a little depth! It was love from that point on.
3) What is your favorite book and why?
It's a toss-up between Tolkien's The Lord Of The Rings and Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon. Both authors are unparalleled at world building. The atmospheres, characterisation, use of language (both descriptive and dialogue), and attention to detail in both books are amazing. For books that top a thousand pages, I have a hard, hard time putting them down once I start reading them. Everything else pretty much pales in comparison.
I've always been a big fan of mythology, and both of the above books take European mythological cycles (Norse for Tolkien, Celtic for Bradley) and flesh them out into novel form. They added the meat to stories which pretty much had to be bare boned in nature, thanks to the fact that they were transmitted orally.
Tolkien gains points for being the progenitor of modern fantasy fiction. He loses points for having a cast of all-male characters, and for giving the minor female characters very gender-biased roles.
Bradley gains points for being the progenitor of modern Arthurian fiction, for telling her stories with a feminist and pagan slant, and for chosing very interesting characters as narrators. She loses points by writing a series of crappy cash-cow prequels.
4) Have you ever been to a S&M club?
Yup. Four times, in two different cities. (Very cool question, btw. I wasn't expecting it at all.)
5) What language (other than the ones you know) would you like to learn to speak and why?
Ooh, I can only chose one?
Okay, I can't only chose one:
Chinese - Mandarin or Cantonese (or both), because I love kanji and I'd like to try learning a tonal language.
Korean - because its grammar is so similar to Japanese that learning both is a piece of cake.
Lakota - because I'm a sucker for minority languages and I'd love to learn at least one Native American language.
French Creole - Because it's the language of voudoun, and it just sounds so cool.
Welsh - because I'm already learning two languages from the Q-Celtic family, and I'd like to learn a P-Celtic language. It also just sounds damn cool.
And the fine print
Rules & Regulations
1. Leave a comment saying you want to be interviewed.
2. I'll respond and ask you five questions.
3. You'll update your journal with my five questions and your answers.
4. You'll include this explanation, as I have done here, so that others can take part.
5. You'll ask other people 5 questions when they want to be interviewed.
On the upside, I mistakenly received a call at work today for him (he owes hundreds on his AU bill) and talked to the guy on the other end for about five minutes, in Japanese, explaining that Jon Swindell had gone back to the US and as far as I knew had no plans to return to Japan.
One of the sensei heard me, realised that I really can speak Japanese, and next thing I knew I was talking to about five other sensei in Japanese. It was the coolest thing ever. I love the feeling of speaking in a foreign language and not having to work for words or grammar because you're actually speaking the language, and not translating everything out of English before it leaves your mouth.
With that said, on to some cut tag business.
tuanda13: About pennywhistle Unfortunately, you can't play the whistle without using both hands. If your friend wanted to know because she can't use one hand, send her to this link. It's about an instrument called the tabor pipe, which is playable one-handed (and a pretty cool instrument besides).
And, courtesy of
bloody_american, it's time for 1) Name one famous person that you lust over? (preferrably a current lust, if none then past is fine)
Obviously Alan Rickman, for the voice. People that old just should not be sexy any more, but he manages it. Michael Wincott and Michael Stipe are runners up.
2) What is it you like about Severus Snape?
Let's travel back in time to the day when only the first book was out, and people were making a huge fuss over it. Now, I am a reader of books. I read several hundred each year. I picked up PS, and found not something to be raving over, but a book that was an obvious derivative of other, better fantasy works. The writing was uneven and juvenile and very one-dimensional.
Characterwise, we had:
Harry
The stereotypical evil adoptive family,
Neville, whose function was to create humorous classroom mishap,
Hermione, the annoyingly stereotypical know-it-all girl,
Ron, the sidekick,
Draco, the student rival, rich snot,
Dumbledore, the wizened Gandalf rip-off,
etc. etc.
Of course, looking at these characters in hindsight, they're all right, but most, if not all of their character development happened from PoA on. They were pretty much 2D in PS.
PS did have Snape, who, 2D as he was, pushed all of my buttons: sarcastic, dark- and long-haired, mysterious, someone who was annoyed by Harry Potter as I was, and who asked a question - What's the difference between wolfsbane and aconite - that I as an herbalist knew. Too cool! He was also the only professor who spoke out against the set order, which I can appreciate, and was a social outcast, which I can relate to. Then, at the end of the book, we find that he was trying to save, not kill, Harry. Finally - several hundred pages and we've got a character with a little depth! It was love from that point on.
3) What is your favorite book and why?
It's a toss-up between Tolkien's The Lord Of The Rings and Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon. Both authors are unparalleled at world building. The atmospheres, characterisation, use of language (both descriptive and dialogue), and attention to detail in both books are amazing. For books that top a thousand pages, I have a hard, hard time putting them down once I start reading them. Everything else pretty much pales in comparison.
I've always been a big fan of mythology, and both of the above books take European mythological cycles (Norse for Tolkien, Celtic for Bradley) and flesh them out into novel form. They added the meat to stories which pretty much had to be bare boned in nature, thanks to the fact that they were transmitted orally.
Tolkien gains points for being the progenitor of modern fantasy fiction. He loses points for having a cast of all-male characters, and for giving the minor female characters very gender-biased roles.
Bradley gains points for being the progenitor of modern Arthurian fiction, for telling her stories with a feminist and pagan slant, and for chosing very interesting characters as narrators. She loses points by writing a series of crappy cash-cow prequels.
4) Have you ever been to a S&M club?
Yup. Four times, in two different cities. (Very cool question, btw. I wasn't expecting it at all.)
5) What language (other than the ones you know) would you like to learn to speak and why?
Ooh, I can only chose one?
Okay, I can't only chose one:
Chinese - Mandarin or Cantonese (or both), because I love kanji and I'd like to try learning a tonal language.
Korean - because its grammar is so similar to Japanese that learning both is a piece of cake.
Lakota - because I'm a sucker for minority languages and I'd love to learn at least one Native American language.
French Creole - Because it's the language of voudoun, and it just sounds so cool.
Welsh - because I'm already learning two languages from the Q-Celtic family, and I'd like to learn a P-Celtic language. It also just sounds damn cool.
And the fine print
Rules & Regulations
1. Leave a comment saying you want to be interviewed.
2. I'll respond and ask you five questions.
3. You'll update your journal with my five questions and your answers.
4. You'll include this explanation, as I have done here, so that others can take part.
5. You'll ask other people 5 questions when they want to be interviewed.
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no subject
on 2003-08-22 12:52 pm (UTC)Haha, I can see why it is you like Snape now, he's just a great character.
I've heard good things about the Mists of Avalon but never had the opportunity to read it.
(Very cool question, btw. I wasn't expecting it at all.)
Heh, just thought I'd throw that one in there to mix things up. ;D
About the languages, more than one is fine wasn't sure you'd want to learn so many. Wow. I think you're right about the Lakota, it would be cool to know a Native American language.
no subject
on 2003-08-24 06:12 am (UTC)Man, go read Mists...you won't regret it.
Yeah, I'm a sucker for foreign languages - I've studied about 5 formally. I wish I was fluent in many, many more.
no subject
on 2003-08-24 10:40 am (UTC)Yea, I think I will. ;D
That's way cool, I've always wanted to learn different languages. Especially Italian, for some reason I've got a fixation on Italy. I've always wanted to go there. One day I will for sure. ;o)
Just FYI
on 2003-08-24 08:16 pm (UTC)Oh, I'd studied Latin formally for 6 years, so I never really wanted to learn Italian. Then I went to Italy...
Re: Just FYI
on 2003-08-25 12:53 pm (UTC)Latin? Another language I'd love to learn. I plan on taking it in college. ;D
Re: Just FYI
on 2003-08-26 10:32 am (UTC)And Latin is the easiest language to learn, ever. You don't have to worry about speaking it, and it's so amazingly logical and uniform. I say go for it.
Re: Just FYI
on 2003-08-26 12:51 pm (UTC)Cool beans, I think I will definitely go for it. ;D