Meme: 11 Questions

[black_sluggard]

Rule 1- Post the rules.
Rule 2- Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post and then make 11 new ones.
Rule 3- Tag 11 people and link them to your post.
Rule 4- Let them know you’ve tagged them!

Tagged by violet_eyes.

1. Who would you like to sit down and have coffee or a beer with? (Real or fictional, alive or dead) And what's the first question you'd ask them?
Philip K. Dick. I haven't had the chance to check out his fiction as much as I'd like, but I adore everything that has been adapted to film, and every documentary/article I've ever seen about him is just so fucking intriguing. I would love to be able to ask my own questions about perception and reality.

And actually, because it's him, my first question would probably be, "So, you've been resurrected thirty years after your death to have a drink with some random art student... Is that even weird for you?"

2. Who's been the biggest influence on you, and why?
Uhhhh... Also Philip K. Dick?
No. Greg Weisman, creator of Gargoyles, which was my first real experience with both urban fantasy and police drama (no, seriously) as genres, my first experience with fantasy programming that was intelligently written, my first experience with arc-based plotting, one of my first experiences with Faeries who were serious business (Labyrinth was the real first, and Brian Froud therefore a strong secondary influence, but I didn't really know goblins were part of Faerie when I was a kid), and my earliest example of how historical and mythological themes could enhance storytelling.

Though I don't know to what degree Weisman might have been involved in it, the art of Gargoyles also had a huge impact on my own style. So that could be considered a peripheral influence at the very least.

3. What's your plan in the event of a zombie attack?
Short term plan: Hatchet on my dresser. Not specifically for zombies, mind, I just like having a hatchet.
Long term plan: Greenland.

4. I've come to your house for dinner. What are you cooking?
Fried rice. It's the best thing I make. And because I planned ahead, I made it with beef instead of pork and have proper vegetables Cabbage, snow peas, sprouts, peppers, possibly baby carrots...no water chestnuts, though. It's a long story.

*shudders*

5. Who would play you in a movie?
Stephen Fry. No, I know. I'm not male, middle aged, or British, but he's really good at self-deprecating and sarcastic, so... Yeah.

6. Best book you've ever read, and why.
Raven by S.A. Swinairski. There are probably better books, but this just throws so many of my personal plot kinks it's not even funny:

It's about a man who wakes up in the freezing cold with amnesia, tries to put together pieces of his identity, discovers that he is a private investigator and former cop (who randomly likes to quote Edgar Allen Poe), whose ex-wife was recently murdered, and has to protect his adult daughter while he tries to recover his memory of the past week and solve a kidnapping...

...and a murder? His own murder? Because apparently, he finds out, during the time he's missing he got turned into a vampire. And the rules for vampires in the story are just the perfect balance of supernatural and science, and their powers are way, way unique.

7. Do animals have souls? Discuss.
Flat answer: Humans are animals. If souls exist and humans have them, animals have them to some degree proportionate to whatever souls even are.

Discussion answer:
I'm a Discordian and not a Christian. The former means (in my personal case) I'm like an incredibly irreverent Agnostic. I strongly "believe" in very little, and believe (since all perceptions may ultimately be false) that anything can be "known" even less. The latter means that I'll have to work within my own definitions.

I don't know if I believe in souls, but I know that we all do our best to survive in a "reality" that is a construct of a lot of really weird biological processes we barely understand. That leaf isn't green, after all, it just how our brain interprets the particular a wavelength of light that bounces back at us. Candy isn't just sweet, our brains actually release opiates when our taste buds detect glucose.

Over time, life has corrected itself to respond to the physical world in ways that cross in our brainmeat to read as consciousness. Like a self-programming computer. But just because those perceptions and reactions are programmed doesn't mean that the thoughts and personalities that result aren't real or important. And human brains might have more complex responses to that physical world, and a capability to anticipate them that most other animals can't, but I don't think that makes us anything special.

So yeah, maybe I don't believe in a "soul" as a tangibly intangible thing, but I know I can hurt and want. I've observed evidence that other humans hurt and want. I know my mom's dog cries when his paw gets stepped on, and flinches if he thinks he's going to get stepped on again. I know that he cries when my mom is gone, and cries even harder when he thinks she's going to leave.

If I did believe I had a soul, how could I justify believing he doesn't?
 
8. Money is no object, you can go wherever you want - how do you spend the weekend?
Europe. Not sure where yet, but some place importantly historical. Some place where I can stand there and try to see what someone else saw hundreds or thousands of years ago and think "They were here. Now I'm here. That's awesome."
I live on the West Coast of the U.S. We have our historical sites, but they're...not that old. I want to know what real history feels like.

9. When's the last time you cried?
Probably...a week or so ago. Had a panic attack at the train station over school related stress. Didn't really cry-cry though. Other than that I don't really remember. I'm kind of a hold-it-all-in type, which I know isn't great, but it's true.

10. What's your favourite cocktail?
Tossup between a Horny Bull (tequila+orange juice) and what I personally choose to call a "Bloody Screwdriver" (i.e. vodka+orange juice, as a Screwdriver, with tomato juice a la a Bloody Mary). I know I'm odd, but I like the orange + tomato combination, and vodka goes with nearly anything anyway. I've been meaning to try it with tequila, too. I guess I'd call that a "Bloody Bull".

Honorable mention goes to one I've never tried, but nonetheless find hilarious: Irish cream+coffee liqueur, topped with a squirt of whipped cream. Sometimes served in a tall shot glass and traditionally consumed without using your hands, this cocktail is known as a "Blow Job".

(My sister got one of these on her 21st. The shot glass was pink.)

11. Tell me your favourite Horror Movie Rule. (mine is "whenever someone asks if that sound was an animal or a baby, it never is")
Googled rules, just to find a good one...

If you find that your house was built upon or near a cemetery, was once a church that was used for black masses, had previous inhabitants who went mad or committed suicide or died in some horrible fashion, or had inhabitants who performed necrophilia or satanic practices, move away immediately.

Oh, yeah, perfect. I lived this one back in the third grade.

Suspicious cold spots? Check.
Car crash the night we move in? Check.
Animals (vultures, rattle snakes, goats, stray dogs, ants, ducks, gophers, turkeys, friggin' squirrels) behaving unusually/threateningly? Check.
Creepy neighbors? Check.
Weird phenomena (swinging chandeliers, strange lights, noises, etc)? Check.
Close to a Native American gravesite? Uh...check?
Landlords who don't tell you this until you've been living there for several months? Check.
Incredibly stupid landlords who used to go looking around for artifacts in said gravesite before you moved in? Double check.
Younger sibling talking to the old man who lives in the cabin in the woods behind the house...which doesn't exist, but apparently used to? Check.  O.o
An entire wall of your house built out of said cabin, complete with a door that doesn't open? Check.
A walled-in closet...which creepily sits directly opposite the useless door? Check.

Yeah... We were out of there and living with friends with a quickness.

And for those I am tagging, here are your questions:
1. If you could have any single superpower/magical talent/psychic ability, what would you want and why?
2. If you could change one tangible fact about the world or humanity (the color of the sky, the strength of gravity, number of moons, which gender(s) give(s) birth, what Cherry Cola tastes like, where Iceland is located, etc) to try and make the world a better place, what would you change, and why do you think it would help?
3. If you could invite three fictional characters to your next birthday party, who would they be?
4. If you could choose to have become interested in one thing (an activity, a subject, a future, a fandom, whatever) earlier than you did in reality, what would it be?
5. If you could perform a single action or deed with complete impunity (you automatically succeed, no consequences to yourself, no one ever knows it was you) what would you choose to do?
6. Did you believe in the bogeyman as a kid? If you did, what did he look like. If you didn't, was there something else similar you believed in?
7. If you could bring a single animated character to life, who would it be?
8. You and any celebrity. It's a date, they have to say yes. Who do you ask and what do you do together?
9. You have one "Get out of Canon Free" card to change/retcon/rewrite any single plot point of any single show/movie/book. What do you change?
10. If you could gain any mundane talent you don't now possess (dancing ability, singing voice, artistic talent, a knack for language/math/physics) what would you ask for?
11. Aaaand because I've run out of interesting questions... Who is your favorite cartoon character?

Tagging: adja999, roachstar, coffeebuddha, mb_jazz_freak87, cedara, dancingdragon3, game_byrd, ifshadowsoffend, sonophax, cyren_2132, and sillysillykira.

Comments

[game-byrd.livejournal.com]

I see that step 1 is to list the rules. So ... what's the rules?

[black_sluggard]

Rule 1- Post the rules.
>.>

[game-byrd.livejournal.com]

http://game-byrd.livejournal.com/165889.html

[game-byrd.livejournal.com]

And actually, because it's him, my first question would probably be, "So, you've been resurrected thirty years after your death to have a drink with some random art student... Is that even weird for you?"
That's hilarious.

Love your morality, too.

[black_sluggard]

I understand the merit of faith, I just can't help if anything other than a shrug feels arrogant, deluded or dishonest. The world is big and complicated. Who could really wrap their head around all that?

For the rest... I don't know. It's one of those things that feels simple, but then so many people just don't get it, and people who can't extend that understanding of "this is a thing that feels" (often even to other people) just... I have a hard time even fathoming it sometimes.

[game-byrd.livejournal.com]

The soul thing on animals ...

I have a friend who thought that people in olden times were just as level-headed and reasonable as people today. They knew how to swim, for example; they understood bathing and hygiene; they knew not to drink contaminated water or spoiled food - any number of things we take for granted about modern society. When pointed out to him that in TODAY's world there are large segments of the population that don't do these things (see the huge swathes of Africa where they do not have clean water), he claims the reports must be lying. When shown the primary historical records showing people's ignorance, he claims it's no more an accurate reflection of day-to-day knowledge than picking up a People or Popular Mechanics magazine today.

I don't want to be that person.

And yet when I look at attitudes towards animals, I so dearly wish to brush off the 'they don't have souls', 'they don't feel pain', or 'they only see in black and white' as a product of the modern age and increasing separation from the reality of animals. Yet the opposite seems true. The further back in history we go, the more people saw animals as animate objects without emotion or full perception. Which is ridiculous! Anyone with any empathy or perception of their own can see within seconds that an animal has an emotional reaction to them - maybe fear as a chicken paces the opposite side of their cage, maybe affection as a dog greets them. These are not insensate creatures!

Yet even today, there are still those who put animals on one side and people on the other.

[black_sluggard]

Yeah, John was complicated and awesome. Though, for a character that barely appeared in the series, his "ghost" does still figuratively linger heavily in the plot of just about every season. The scars he left run deep. And I know he was never a grade A dad, but I do sometimes wish we could see more of him being a dad, even when he was fail at it. Because you know he loved his boys, he was just shit at it.

And on the topic of my merry childhood home, I actually once considered writing a fic about the Winchesters dealing with the place. Though, since the goings on sort of merge into a clusterfuck of ghosts, cult activity, and supposed alien sightings, I was just going to throw my hands up and explain it as "ley lines". It would have included scenes of Dean being menaced by a squirrel, drinking beer with a duck and then getting chased by a turkey...which all happened.

p.1

[adja999.livejournal.com]

1. Who would you like to sit down and have coffee or a beer with? (Real or fictional, alive or dead) And what's the first question you'd ask them?
And actually, because it's him, my first question would probably be, "So, you've been resurrected thirty years after your death to have a drink with some random art student... Is that even weird for you?"
Nice one. It's true it'd be a good one to ask.

3. What's your plan in the event of a zombie attack?
Short term plan: Hatchet on my dresser. Not specifically for zombies, mind, I just like having a hatchet.
Long term plan: Greenland.
Nice.
But... I refer you to 'the list of weapons that would get you killed during a zombie attack'. Now, I still get the hatchet. It's really cool. I do have a dagger on my wall (because my little girly arms couldn't swing a sword more than twice), so same diff. It's just cool.

4. I've come to your house for dinner. What are you cooking?
Fried rice. It's the best thing I make.
Huh. We call it cantoneese rice. Good thing I looked it up, I would have said I didn't know what it is.
Nice. i don't actually know how to make that. I don't think it'd be that complicated, I just never thought of it. Hm. I may keep it inmind for the next time I feel like I wanna cook but my brain is blank.

no water chestnuts, though. It's a long story.
*shudders*
You already know I'm going to say 'do tell'.

5. Who would play you in a movie?
Stephen Fry. No, I know. I'm not male, middle aged, or British, but he's really good at self-deprecating and sarcastic, so... Yeah.
Who cares? That's awesome. John Travolta played a woman and he aced it. I'm sure Fry's done that plenty too, come to think of it.

6. Best book you've ever read, and why.
Raven by S.A. Swinairski.
Didn't read the why you liked it (I stopped at 'former cop'), I just wrote it down to snag when I have a Kindle.

7. Do animals have souls? Discuss.
Flat answer: Humans are animals. If souls exist and humans have them, animals have them to some degree proportionate to whatever souls even are.
Fair's fair. I know so many people that get really (and I mean really) offended when I merely suggest that we're just animals that have (d)evolved to the point of total pandemic habitat destruction or we're getting there pretty fast. I mean, that's painting a dark picture, but they get offended by humans=animals. And yet, they remember from school, and have integrated that humans=mammals. Pssh.

I strongly "believe" in very little, and believe (since all perceptions may ultimately be false) that anything can be "known" even less. The latter means that I'll have to work within my own definitions.
That's it. I love you.

That leaf isn't green, after all, it just how our brain interprets the particular a wavelength of light that bounces back at us.
Yesterday I was listening to a show on radio that explained what kind of colors bees, dogs, humans, birds percieve (apparently bees can see only yellow, blue and ultraviolets, for instance). And I was looking out the window and imagining how trippy it would be to switch. What's a tomato look like when you can't see red?! Is it light ultraviolet?
And then they went on to say that we're not even sure of the starting assumptions we work with since we don't know that what you and I call the same thing (red, for ex) is percieved the same in our brain's imagery center.
I mean, I may be a total nerd saying that, and I know those things bore people to death or at least to instant narcolepsia, but I find them simply awesome. (quite litterally, too. Awe.)

brainmeat
You've been spending wayyy too much time thinking like a zombie. :P

Re: p.1

[game-byrd.livejournal.com]

I hope you don't mind me butting in here, but about the color frame of reference question, I was talking to a friend last week about how one of the first things brainy character X (Sylar, actually, from Heroes) would do with shape-shifting was test to see how other people saw colors, tasted, felt, etc. and then shift back into his natural form to detect the same things. A sort of compare-and-contrast that you wouldn't get any other way.

Re: p.1

[adja999.livejournal.com]

Indeed, that's what I would do. I don't think everyone would, though, because we're just not all that curious of 'science geek' stuff.
However, I'm pretty sure of male character Y (say... Dean Winchester, for a reference) would do in a case of a perspective switch.... like gender swap. I.e. "I want to know what a chick orgasm feels like.", that specific gay may even try it the 'not solo' route, because, we all know 'It's not gay If I'm temporarily a chick'. :P

And no, I don't mind at all. Feel free to butt in anytime. ^^

p.2

[adja999.livejournal.com]

Huh. What you say about programmed (ergo, ethnocentricity, culture, reference grids, etc..) makes me think of innate/learned, nature/nurture.
Some lgbt rights defenders are offended by the fact that I don't think "We're born this way.". You know me. I think we are who we are (also, by the way 'That's what i am' is a very awesome movie) and we're great whoever that is (mostly, some serial killers definitely do not foot that bill). But I'm not sure I was born bi.
If there hadn't been my parents telling me 'it exists. I don't think it's bad, but some do.', if there hadn't been Joss Whedon at the right time of my early adolence showing me 'Aww... Willow and Tara are the embodyment of 'cute couple'... maybe I would be different.
While some people may have definitely be very close to 'born this way', some may have 'turned out different' and I don't think considering it is offencive at all.
What do you think?

8. Money is no object, you can go wherever you want - how do you spend the weekend?
Europe. Not sure where yet,
Well...
I know some places in Europe you could go and even have a native tourguide. For free. :P

9. When's the last time you cried?
Probably...a week or so ago. Had a panic attack at the train station over school related stress.
Ugh. Sorry. I'm familiar with those. It sucks.

I like the orange + tomato combination
Can't pronounce myself on the alcohol, since you know I don't drink. However... hey, why not?
I do add Tabasco on cakes or things that I find are too sweet. Gives them a much apprciated kick. Also, that and/or lots of lemon juice= the only way to have me have chocolate. (only dark, because I'm like that.)

WHAT?!! That's a Blow Job??!! Aww, that's no fun. In hear it's just called an Irish Coffee. Which I like, incidently. Because I ask them to put just a tiny bit of liquor. However, it's everything I need to have stomach burn (cream=greasy, alcohol, coffee=ow). So, only on occasion. Like when someone else is paying.

11. Tell me your favourite Horror Movie Rule. (mine is "whenever someone asks if that sound was an animal or a baby, it never is")
It's actually a good one.
I think I'd go... "whenever there's a sound and you know it wasn't an animal or a baby... salt the doors and windows, one can never be too careful"

Duuuuuuuuuuuude. I would probably say differently if I actually lived it with you, but I'd have so much fun in that house. :D Creeping people out. :p

Hm. It makes me think that every time there's a car crash on our road, it's right in front of our gates. Well, the ones of my parent's house anyway. (I say gates, to think of a mansion, it's just that it's not allowed not to have fences around one's lawn in France. So every house is somewhat neatly boxed in)
We're lucky to have century old trees that are well rooted into the sidewalk, or else there would be no more gates.

[adja999.livejournal.com]

Also: http://adja999.livejournal.com/168828.html

[cyren-2132.livejournal.com]

You know, I KNOW I've thought about a single thing I'd change in a variety of fandoms before, but now that I'm specifically being asked? NO IDEA. These will take some thought.

[black_sluggard]

Look forward to it. :)