Interview Meme Yet Again
Jan. 24th, 2008 09:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
talktoolooseInsanely busy day ahead. Must... procrastinate...
The following are interview questions from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mofic. Ask in comments if you would like to be interviewed by me. You must answer in your journal and invite others to be interviewed. Them's the rules.
1. If you got to choose, what would your mutant power be?
My name would The Grasshopper and I would have legs that could propel me great distances. I would hop across the roofs of the city, experiencing both the thrill of the flight and the joy of seeing unexplored places. I already know how to play violin, so the song part is covered.
2. What country have you never been to that you'd like to visit?
Ooh, that would be quite a list. I'm very intrigued by Iceland somehow. I would like to kayak among the glaciers while they're still there.
3. If you could talk to your twenty-one-year old self about your life now, what would he find most surprising?
This is one of the questions that has made me delay getting to these answers. What are the differences between my life now and what I imagined? Well, I was still in denial about being gay and so I'm not sure how TTL21 would react to the knowledge I've been with my partner for almost 20 years. I think he might be more relieved than anything else.
Probably also he'd be surprised or crushed by the fact that I'm not some hugely celebrated success because that burden of expectation has coloured our life. At 21, there was terrible pressure to succeed because I was really starting to explore some of my talents (especially writing at the time). Every success probably made the pressure keener; it was time to PROVE something. Perhaps TTL21 would be surprised that my goals are more modest now. Or maybe I haven't changed as much as I think I have.
4. Tell me your coming out story, however you interpret that.
I'll tell just one small part. In my early 20s, my dad and I fought a lot as I started to think for myself more and more. Every time I got excited about something, especially if I learned it from some new role model, my dad got jealous and claimed I wasn't thinking "for myself" and that I was a "follower". The accurate translation of this was not thinking the way he did. He threw the same line at me when I came out to him and perhaps that was instrumental in me shaking off the hold this accusation had on me. I was thinking for myself -- finally. It took us another five years to get our relationship on an adult-to-adult footing.
5. If you didn't live in TO, where would you live?
NYC if I had lots of money. Increasingly, I'm drawn to the idea of living in Europe; perhaps Amsterdam or elsewhere in the lowlands. Of course, they're about to go under when the icebergs I haven't visited yet melt. Toronto is a strangely provincial and cold place, driven by money and characterized by extremes of alienation and neurosis. It's also a convenient place where you have access to lots of culture and alternatives in eating, transportation, employement, etc. It has beautiful ravines to walk in and a lovely lake beside it. Snake hates it here and wishes we were in Montreal. I don't know; maybe if I'm making a living as a writer in five or ten years, we'll move somewhere and make him happy for ten minutes.
EXTRA LOL NOTE:
I named this entry "Interview Meme Redux', but when I went to save it, I found I had already used that name in 2004. I've been around this block a few times, apparently. Heh, and I just checked and one of the questions and the answer to it is identical!
Okay! Ask for 5 interview questions in a comment and I will provide!
The following are interview questions from
mofic. Ask in comments if you would like to be interviewed by me. You must answer in your journal and invite others to be interviewed. Them's the rules.1. If you got to choose, what would your mutant power be?
My name would The Grasshopper and I would have legs that could propel me great distances. I would hop across the roofs of the city, experiencing both the thrill of the flight and the joy of seeing unexplored places. I already know how to play violin, so the song part is covered.
2. What country have you never been to that you'd like to visit?
Ooh, that would be quite a list. I'm very intrigued by Iceland somehow. I would like to kayak among the glaciers while they're still there.
3. If you could talk to your twenty-one-year old self about your life now, what would he find most surprising?
This is one of the questions that has made me delay getting to these answers. What are the differences between my life now and what I imagined? Well, I was still in denial about being gay and so I'm not sure how TTL21 would react to the knowledge I've been with my partner for almost 20 years. I think he might be more relieved than anything else.
Probably also he'd be surprised or crushed by the fact that I'm not some hugely celebrated success because that burden of expectation has coloured our life. At 21, there was terrible pressure to succeed because I was really starting to explore some of my talents (especially writing at the time). Every success probably made the pressure keener; it was time to PROVE something. Perhaps TTL21 would be surprised that my goals are more modest now. Or maybe I haven't changed as much as I think I have.
4. Tell me your coming out story, however you interpret that.
I'll tell just one small part. In my early 20s, my dad and I fought a lot as I started to think for myself more and more. Every time I got excited about something, especially if I learned it from some new role model, my dad got jealous and claimed I wasn't thinking "for myself" and that I was a "follower". The accurate translation of this was not thinking the way he did. He threw the same line at me when I came out to him and perhaps that was instrumental in me shaking off the hold this accusation had on me. I was thinking for myself -- finally. It took us another five years to get our relationship on an adult-to-adult footing.
5. If you didn't live in TO, where would you live?
NYC if I had lots of money. Increasingly, I'm drawn to the idea of living in Europe; perhaps Amsterdam or elsewhere in the lowlands. Of course, they're about to go under when the icebergs I haven't visited yet melt. Toronto is a strangely provincial and cold place, driven by money and characterized by extremes of alienation and neurosis. It's also a convenient place where you have access to lots of culture and alternatives in eating, transportation, employement, etc. It has beautiful ravines to walk in and a lovely lake beside it. Snake hates it here and wishes we were in Montreal. I don't know; maybe if I'm making a living as a writer in five or ten years, we'll move somewhere and make him happy for ten minutes.
EXTRA LOL NOTE:
I named this entry "Interview Meme Redux', but when I went to save it, I found I had already used that name in 2004. I've been around this block a few times, apparently. Heh, and I just checked and one of the questions and the answer to it is identical!
Okay! Ask for 5 interview questions in a comment and I will provide!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-01-24 02:34 pm (UTC)NYC would be a lot easier to live in with lots of money, I agree!
no subject
Date: 2008-01-24 05:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-25 03:37 am (UTC)Like your friend, Mofic, I find it strange to image you in denial about being gay. I come at this from the perspective that today you seem very YOU and comfortable with who that is. I can only hope to be half as comfortable with myself in 20 years.
What is parking like around your area? Do I need to register my car, call someone about it, or buy a parking pass for the time we will be there? I can't wait to meet Bela!
no subject
Date: 2008-01-28 10:29 pm (UTC)Also, Snake points out, much to my embarrassment, that fjords are in Norway, not Iceland.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-28 10:36 pm (UTC)1. How do German and English "feel" different to you? Do the languages have personalities? Do you feel different when you speak one or the other?
2. What led you into the worlds of yaoi and fanfic?
3. What are you studying at University. I see you've been there since 2001. Have you changed courses a few times or have you been on one clear, happy trajectory all along?
4. Have yaoi and slashfic given you a different political viewpoint or personal viewpoint about queers and queer rights?
5. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?
no subject
Date: 2008-01-28 10:46 pm (UTC)Did you get my email re: parking? and dates? Dates?
no subject
Date: 2008-01-29 10:18 pm (UTC)Btw, I've been meaning to comment on your recent entries about your poor cat, only I just didn't know what to say. I still don't, but ... hang in there.
no subject
Date: 2008-02-02 03:16 pm (UTC)I'm working on DOB today and tomorrow. It feels so good to be home but I leave for SLC next Friday and return on Wednesday.