Update by meme - again

[elissande]

Want to be interviewed?

Here are the rules:
1 -- Leave a comment, saying you want to be interviewed.
2 -- I will respond; I'll ask you five questions.
3 -- You'll update your journal with my five questions, and your five answers.
4 -- You'll include this explanation.
5 -- You'll ask other people five questions when they want to be interviewed.

My answers to the questions politas asked me are

1. How much mental effort does it take for you to pick up a new, unknown author to read?

Not that much. If I go out to buy new books I usually buy a mixture of known and unknown authors. As I now seem to have a circle of friends who are into sf fandom, I also get recommendations.

2. Are you more likely to start reading a brand new author, or an established author you haven't read before?

I don’t really think that I distinguish between them very much. If I haven’t read them before, they are equally unknown quantities. I’m more likely to go on whether the story sounds as if it will interest me.

3. What keeps you interested in the SCA?

Hmmm, complicated question – there are many aspects to it. People are one aspect, but they aren’t really what make the SCA unique. What I’m enjoying at this stage is all the new skills that I can learn from people who know. And the costumes, of course.

Oh, and I quite enjoy watching people in armour bash each other with sticks.

4. How many electronic gadgets do you normally take with you when you go out of the house?

Only 2 – mobile phone and pda. Oh, and a USB key if I’m going to work. If I’m taking public transport, I’ll also take an mp3 player. Ok, so 4.

5. If a neural interface was available, would you get one? Where on the scale of experimental - everyday would such a thing need to be for you to let people mess with your brain?

Depends on what it would enable me to do, how it gave me the information and how well integrated it was into my thought processes. And probably on how easy it would be to remove without damage if something went wrong. It would have to be well past the experimental phase. Early adoption has its limits. I like my brain intact.

Comments

[i-ate-my-crusts.livejournal.com]

go on, then.

[elissande.livejournal.com]

Okay.
1. You're a geek of many aspects - biochem, computers, sf etc. If you had to concentrate on only one, which would it be?

2. Repeating one of the questions I was asked - if a neural interface was available, would you get one? Where on the scale of experimental - everyday would such a thing need to be for you to let people mess with your brain?

3. What was the first sf or fantasy book you read (or remember reading) and what was your reaction t it?

4. What gadget do you most wish they'd invent?

5. Writing or editing - which is more satisfying?

[wenchilada.livejournal.com]

Fire away...

[elissande.livejournal.com]

let's see now...

1. How did you first get involved with the SCA?

2. What was the last fiction book you read and what did you think of it?

3. What are your best and worst musical experiences?

4. If time, money and sewing ability were no object, what period costume would you like to wear?

5. What is your idea of an ideall way to spend a weekend?

[wenchilada.livejournal.com]

1. How did you first get involved with the SCA?

I was on my very first date with kasiian and he mentioned that he was into wearing armour and hitting people with a big stick. Which got my attention! So I asked if I could come for a look and wound up at Festival 1999 at Tara, the music and singing had me hooked straight away.

2. What was the last fiction book you read and what did you think of it?

The last fiction book I read was Hat Full of Sky by Terry Pratchet. I must admit that I am a bit of a fan of Tiffany and the Nac Mac Feegle.

3. What are your best and worst musical experiences?

Oh wow...man, lemme think here... Ok best musical experience definately has got to be the very first time I ever sang Captain Jack and the Mermaid to an audience. It was the Feast of St. Aphrodesias, which was run by Fruitbat and held in the crypt of a church in Newtown. I had just been newly chosen as the Bard of Rowany and had been learning this song desperately to expand my current repertoire of one song. So unannounced, I got up, stood behind Mr C, who was seated at the table and slowly, people hushed to silence, stopping in their tracks, sitting in their seats or standing still, and before I knew it, they were hanging on every single note and word, listening intently to the story, craning their necks to see where the sound was coming from. And at the end of the song...silence. Never mind that I won the bardic comp that evening or that I enchanted the Baroness (Mouse). The silence at the end of the song was absolutely golden.

Worst? Geez, there have been a few. I've died a few times as a soloist singer and as an instrumentalist. I would think maybe the first SCA song I wrote sucked fairly majorly, which was Battle at Fort Lochac, which I wrote with all good intentions after Caspian, Sihtric and Torg built the Rowany Fort (which is the one you see at Festival, only updated and modified) and a few Rowanites helped out, in our backyard. Alfar had asked me to sing it in his court as Bard of Lochac at a Rowany event and it didn't go over very well with the local B&B/other locals. It was a bit political unbeknownst to me. And to add to my disappointment, I had some all knowing bloody old timer ask me if he could change my song because it wasn't as good as he felt it could be. I've never been satisfied with it and I will never sing it again. It haunts me still.

4. If time, money and sewing ability were no object, what period costume would you like to wear?

Costuming's not really why I play SCA. So I have never really contemplated what I would most like to do and now that I do have to think about it, I'm coming up blank. I guess I'm still figuring out what looks good. But I guess, like most girlies, it would be the biggest most oppulent high Elizabethan I could come across, with all the trimmings. Only because I think it'd look pretty funky...but in all honesty? I really have no idea.

5. What is your idea of an ideal way to spend a weekend?

Away from it all. Somewhere quiet and relaxing near to some vineyards, with great scenery, great food, good wine, a spa bath and Mr C. Just us. Kicking back.

[capnoblivious.livejournal.com]

Eep.

[elissande.livejournal.com]

I'll take that as a yes. :) I'll be gentle, I promise.

1. What was the seed that led to the Gastronomicon?

2. What are your favourite places to eat in Canberra?

3. How skeptical are you? How many flying saucers would you have to sight before you believed in them?

4. Who's your favourite author and why?

5. Will you ever think of fingernails the same way since Contunuum? (you knew there had to be one..)

[capnoblivious.livejournal.com]

1. What was the seed that led to the Gastronomicon?

I'm not sure. It's something that had been rattling around in my head for quite a while; the time was right for me to take on an editing project.

I think the Ticonderoga Online (http://ticonderogaonline.org/main.html) fundraising cookbook, which I picked up at Conflux 1, was an impetus - it seemed like someone would snaffle my idea soon if I didn't move on it, because stories-and-recipes was so obvious, you know?

It's hard to say which publication has the better recipes. :)

2. What are your favourite places to eat in Canberra?

I like Red Sea on Northbourne. Ruchi in Manuka does fabulous Dosai. And I've just discovered that there's an Indian training restaurant across the road from me that does an amazing Mussuman Beef.

I also like Cafe Essen and Milk and Honey; proximity makes choosing difficult.

3. How skeptical are you? How many flying saucers would you have to sight before you believed in them?

Depends. I love weird shit, and if I've nothing invested in a myth or story then I consciously avoid turning the skepticism lens on something, because credulity adds to the storytelling.

But, the lens is there and I use it if something becomes important.

I'd only need to see one flying saucer, but I'd have to be rock-solid sure it was a flying saucer and not, say, swamp gas. :)

4. Who's your favourite author and why?

I hate this question.

Connie Willis, because of "To Say Nothing of the Dog"; Neil Gaiman because of "Neverwhere"; Terry Pratchett because of "Small Gods"; Oscar Wilde because of "The Selfish Giant" and "The Little Prince."

5. Will you ever think of fingernails the same way since Contunuum? (you knew there had to be one..)

Not yours, Corrina, not yours.

[politas.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I missed your answers earlier. Finally decided to follow-up and find them. Anyway, turnabout is fair play, eh?