(no subject)

[winterbadger]

Rules
1. Leave a comment saying you want to be interviewed.
2. I'll reply and give you five questions to answer.
3. You'll update your LJ with the five questions answered.
4. You'll include this explanation.
5. You ask other people five questions when they want to be interviewed.

questions from shy_kat

1. What was the happiest moment of your life?
It would be terribly romantic to say the time Chris and I got engaged or the day we got married, but the first I was hanign onto a cliff face for dear life and the second was such a welter of confusion, worry, and anticlimax (we both got to the hotel after the reception and were totally paralyzed by the sudden realization we didn't knwo what to do--it was the middle of the afternoon and having sex seemed oddly in approprite.)

Probably the first night Chris and I slept together (even with the exploding toilet) or the first night Liz and I slept together. Each had had such a lead-up and was the culmination of so much love and desire and excitement... :-) They are two of the loveliest women in the world, and I love them both so much, even if we're not together any more.

2. What's the most difficult thing you've accomplished?
Persuading Chris to marry me? ;-) No, because I didn't really persuade her to do anything she didn't want to do.

Accepting that the dream job I wanted for years was never going to happen? No, because, 15 years later, it may actually be available if I still want it after all this time (whether it turns out to be a dream or not is a different matter).

Getting onto the Foreign Service Register. I had to do that all by myself, starting with taking and passing the written exam, taking and passing the oral exam, and then getting through all of the hurdles of getting a clearance just out of college and getting the medical certification (which was in some ways the hardest part). Yep. And then, after I accomplished all that? They never offered me a post, because it was the Reagan years and American didn't want a Foreign Service.

3. If you could visit any one time and place, what would it be?
There are so many! And one can always fall into the trap of thinking one would learn about specific events; but, of course, if one were in Dealey Plaza on November 22, 1963, one might see nothing at all of the shooting of President Kennedy, or nothing more than all the other witnessess saw. Be present at the signing of some great document or the entry of some famous person itno some famous place, well, there it is, it's happened, you saw it, now it's time to go home.

And stories always show that one can't *change* the past when one goes back. So trying to save Charles I (was he even worth it, really, the pig-headed git?) or persuade the Council at Derby that if theey just pushed further south into England the Hanoverians would flee (would Britain really have been better under Catholic Polish kings than GErman Protestant ones?

So I'll go with a vantage point overlooking any of the pivotal battles of the English Civil Wars, the American Revolution, or the Napoleonic Wars. I've spent so much time studying these, I'd really like to see one actually unfolding where I could see it and find out if it's anything like all the guesses that historians have made over the years.

4. What drew you to redactrice (way back when...)?
She was part of the circle of friends I hung out with in college, and she was always cheerful and friendly (as she remains to this day). She was also very pretty (as she also remains :-) She was kind to me. :-)

5. What percentage of the games that you own have you actually played?
Overall, probably less than half. Of the historical boardgames, 10-15% I've probably played many, many times; probably about another 15-20% I've played once or set up multiple times but either not played or played only part of them. Of the CCGs I've only played L5R and the ACW one more than once; you and I played Dune and 7th Sea and LBS once each, IIRC; the others (Mythos, Buffy, LOTR, B5, Holy Grail, ??) I've not played yet. Of the "German" games I've probably played a much hihger percentage than any other group, because so many more people are interested in playing them

If I had untold wealth, among the many things I'd do with be share it with several of my friends so there would be other people who only worked when they wanted to, so I would have people to game with :-)

Comments

[azbound.livejournal.com]

And we're off.

1) How many games do you own?

2) Do these pants make my ass look big? ;-)

3) Just what is your fascination with dressing up in period clothes and going out to reenact battles?

4) Name 5 books you'd take to a desert island and why.

5) Are you seeking a monogamous relationship the next time around or a poly relationship?

[winterbadger]

1. Just a rough approximation, but I'd guess between 300 and 350, counting just board and card games. Count potential *decks* of cards, and it's probably closer to 400. Add in RPGs and miniatures rules and it's probably like 450 or so.

2. Yes, but(t) that's a good thing. :-P

3. It lets me get away from the rest of life and concetrate on a very small subset of it, with readily identifiable and acheivable goals. And it lets me pretend I'm in the military, even if we're all conscious of how fake it is, for a little while. And it puts me in tough with history in a way I can't get by reading books. You meet some damn interesting people. You get some exercise and spend a weekend in the great outdoors. I get to yell at people (just a little :-). Always opportunities for singing. Used to be a regular booze-up too, but less so as I get old and creaky. And, not least of all, it gives me a chance to talk to the public and do a little educating (and a little learning).

4. The Christian Bible, the Torah, and the Koran, because I've never read any of them all the way through, and that's pretty sad considering my track record with religion :-) King Hereafter, because I would have to have at least one Dorothy Dunnett book, and that's the longest and most complex. And the Riverside Shakespeare, because that's all his plays in one volume ;-)

5. I kept thinking that I'd try monogamy this time. But I can't seem to find any monogamous people where their's mutual clickage (chemistry, call it what you will) and I keep meeting poly people that I do click with. So I'm thinking that it's going to be poly for the moment.