Five questions thingy

[serene]

Here are the rules:
1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I will respond by asking you five personal questions so I can get to know you better. If I already know you well, expect the questions may be a little more intimate!
3. You will update your lj with the answers to the questions [or just answer in comments].
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in a post on your LJ [if you want to].
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

[Note from Serene: The normal disclaimer applies -- skip whatever you want to skip, do or do not do, as pleases you, make up new rules if you want. Whatever. Also, I'm only promising to interview the first five people who ask me, but I'll try to get to everyone.]



1. What's your favourite baseball movie? Why?

I have to say Bull Durham, because it's sexy, funny, smart, and features Susan Sarandon in outrageous clothes. It's the only thing I've ever liked Kevin Costner in, and even before I was queer, I had a crush on Annie Savoy. (For the longest time, my LJ blurb said "Annie-Savoy-wannabe".)

2. We've just been discussing outing oneself at job interviews. What's
the most disastrous reaction you've ever gotten to that?

I suppose some people might think not getting the job is a disaster, but I'm not aware of that being an issue, and since I've been employed nearly continually since I came out, I don't think it's held me back much. Certainly no one's ever reacted overtly to the dropping of "my ex-wife" into the conversation.

3. How about the funniest?

See #2.

4. Why are you a reluctant vegan?

I'm not a vegan at all. If I lived entirely by my ethical standards, I wouldn't eat animal products; I think they are avoidable harm, and I try to avoid avoidable harm. However, I healed myself of an eating disorder many years ago, and how I did that was to stop making food rules for myself, because as soon as I make a food rule, whatever I'm not "allowed" is instantly the thing I will kill for. Also, I'm extremely very superlatively anti-dieting, and being vegan strikes me as nearly impossible (for me) to separate from the diet mentality.

So I end up eating vegan foods more than other foods, and maybe one day it will be all I eat. I was vegetarian for 20 years (2 of those years vegan), and the whole time, I told myself that if I woke up one day wanting meat, I would eat it. I did, and I did. I felt healthier and ethically happier when I was a vegan, though, and if it wouldn't cause all kinds of other junk in my life, I would force myself to go back to eating that way.

Why I *call* myself the Reluctant Vegan is that even when I'm not eating animal products, I feel all kinds of cultural baggage around that, and I have never been one of those vegetarians who thinks meat and dairy are gross, or that people who eat them are murderers (or whatever), so I'm reluctant to be painted with that brush.

5. What's your favourite happy poly experience?

I could get flip and say "every day is my favo(u)rite happy poly day", but one of my favorites was the email I got from loracs before my first overnight visit to see stonebender. She said, essentially, "You're staying at our place, and I won't take no for an answer." We had never met, she and I, and she's an *incredible* hostess, so I have never gotten over the sheer selflessness of that act.

Comments

[micheinnz.livejournal.com]

Me, please?

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

1) Tell about a happy KAOS memory, but only one you can tell me and not have to kill me after.

2) Do you tell Agent Weasel about the time before/during/after she was born? What do you tell her?

3) What's the hardest emotional work you have to do these days?

4) When you were little, you probably didn't want to be an engineer, did you? What did you want to be?

5) You, d_h, Agent Weasel, and three other people (living or dead, real or fictional) on a deserted island for the rest of time. Who?

[simplykimberly.livejournal.com]

Not sure I'll get to this in my own LJ, but I'd love to be interviewed :)

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

1) Did you always want to be a parent?

2) Which of the kitties you've adopted out do you think about most often?

3) Do you even like cake? :-)

4) What first drew you to Aidon?

5) Let's say D is 30 years old, and he's talking to some friends about his childhood in your home. What do you hope he says?

[kake]

Interesting interview, thank you! Could I have some questions, please?

Regarding outing yourself in a job interview — this is likely a cultural difference, but I don't know if it's due to geography (I'm in the UK, as I think you possibly know) or to field (pretty much every job I've interviewed for has been a programming one, and you're a writer or something similar, aren't you?). I don't remember my personal life ever coming up in a job interview, other than along the lines of "yeah, I live in Fulham, so it'd take me about an hour to get here", or "I'm interested in knitting, so I wrote this software to help me keep track of my stash".

The reason I'm not vegan any more is sort of similar to the reason I moved to London from Oxford (a fairly small city) — I felt too constrained, in that new things didn't happen often enough for me. Sure, I get to try a new vegetable food every so often (had my first ever salsify yesterday); and sure, a new restaurant or pub or society would pop up in Oxford every so often; but basically I wanted to live in a bigger world. Does that make sense?

[bastette-joyce.livejournal.com]

Ooo ooo ooo! I love to get asked questions about me!! :)

BTW, simplykimberly's icon is the cutest kitty picture.

[simplykimberly.livejournal.com]

What great questions!

1. Pretty much, although there were several years in my twenties when I had decided I wasn't going to. But I really still wanted to, even then.

2. Probably Bugalu. I talk to his person most frequently, and he was just SO filled with personality. Not that the rest of them weren't, but... yeah.

3. Heh, I do. I don't LOVE cake, but I like it. I often don't eat it after I make it, though - I'm often sick of the big productions and sugar by the time it's ready.

4. Braaaaaaaaaains! And sexy accent... but ... braaaaaaaaaaaains! :)

5. "In the last week of February, the year I was 13, I all of a sudden had a revelation - my parents were fantastic, and NOT dorky after all, and I owed everything to them. I started treating them well after that, did all my schoolwork without any fuss, and talked about my feelings when I had them, rather than being explosively angry. Oh, and my mom was an incredible cook!"

Heh ... I'm dreaming ;) I hope he says that while he didn't really appreciate it at the time, he's glad of all the support and love we gave him through everything. And that he remembers family dinners, and soccer, and all the cats and wildlife, and the food and cakes ;)

[simplykimberly.livejournal.com]

You should 1) look at my icons, and prepare to squee at more cute kitty pics, and 2) look at my LJ ... I take a LOT of cute kitty pics :)

and thanks :)

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

I think you'd like jwermont. Maybe I can lure her to C-cubed one of these times.

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

I think you and simplykimberly would get along. She holds a first-friday craft-and-food night most months, and I'll take you if you wanna go.

[simplykimberly.livejournal.com]

That would be wonderful :)

[jb98.livejournal.com]

Me, please!

[bastette-joyce.livejournal.com]

Sure, I can always use another craft night. Where is it? And what's C-cubed?

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

It's in El Sobrante. C-cubed is, I believe, Crafts/Cards/Cuisine, or something like that. Kimberly puts out a bunch of good food; folks bring more good food; some folks sit and craft, others play cards. She has a big-giant house, so quiet space can be had, and there was a sewing machine set up in one room the time I was there.

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

I'll put the questions at the end of this reply.

I out myself on purpose in job interviews (or on my resume), so it doesn't matter if it comes up per se. If someone says, "And we have a wonderful full-time staff librarian," I say, "Oh, my ex-wife used to be a corporate librarian; how interesting!" and so on. I find that being out from day one means I have never gotten one minute of shit about my queerness on the job. Of course, I also live in California, so I'm starting from a privileged position on that in a lot of ways.

And yeah, the veg thing makes all kinds of sense to me. One of the things I love about food is trying things I've never tried before. I didn't even *try* to be vegetarian in Tokyo -- I might have missed something I never would have gotten a chance to try again. Like tako (octopus) balls. So fascinating! Same with interesting cheeses, quail eggs, etc. I have ethical problems with choosing to eat food that interests me even though I know it involves cruelty to animals. However, I would be lying if I said I always did the things that I think are most ethical. I'm working on it.

1) What made you want to be a mathematician?

2) Current favorite TMBG song?

3) Did you study singing in school?

4) What's something rewarding you've done in the past year or two?

5) You get to eat any meal you like tomorrow, cost and prep time being no object. What is it?

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

1) What made you decide to be a programmer?

2) What's the best thing about being you?

3) How did you meet firecat?

4) When you think of "home", where are you thinking of, and why?

5) You get to populate five houses on your block with any five people or families you want, and those people are dying to come live near you. Who will they be?

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

1) Do you think you'll move again any time soon?

2) If I say "emotionally rewarding", what's the first thing that comes to mind?

3) What's the best piece (or one of the best pieces) of advice you ever received?

4) You can choose a year of growth or a year of peace, and then afterwards, life will return to its normal random self. Which do you choose?

5) Who is the first adult you can remember being friends with? What were they like?

[stonebender.livejournal.com]

5. What's your favourite happy poly experience?

I could get flip and say "every day is my favo(u)rite happy poly day", but one of my favorites was the email I got from loracs before my first overnight visit to see stonebender. She said, essentially, "You're staying at our place, and I won't take no for an answer." We had never met, she and I, and she's an *incredible* hostess, so I have never gotten over the sheer selflessness of that act.

Yeah, she's a good one!

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

Yep! *smooch*

[eeyore-grrl.livejournal.com]

me!

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

1) Why did you decide to become vegetarian?

2) Who was your best teacher ever?

3) What keeps you here with us these days when it gets really hard? (You totally don't have to answer that if you don't want to.)

4) Tell me a funny student story I haven't heard yet.

5) You get twenty minutes to talk to anyone you want (not fictional, but can be alive or dead). Who is it, and what do you want to talk about?

[cassidyrose.livejournal.com]

Interview me please if you are still taking applications ;)

[eeyore-grrl.livejournal.com]

1)Why did you decide to become a vegetarian?

in tenth grade i was in a speech class. we did a debate unit. (i had already been going to hippy shit like www.clearwater.org since i was a babe in arms...). my topic (team debate) was Against Cosmetics testing on animals. easy. it's an obvious argument. me and this other girl against TWO exchange students. still, being me, i did all my research. a lot of it in ALF and peta and the like magazines. i got info. the scary info. but you can't get, in those magazines, *just* the cosmetics testing is bad. i got hte meat industry stuff to. a little while into it.. iw as eating dinner one day.. and couldn't. literally put my fork down and said, "mommy, i'm gonna be a vegetarian now." no one thought it would last...


2. Who was your best teacher ever?

that's a hard one actually. 3rd grade mrs. cook was awesome. i can't even tell you exactly why.. just she was a great teacher. and YEARS later when i was a substitute teacher (freaky) in her class. she was still an awesome teacher. whatever she did was subtle but instilled a lot of faith and belief in me. she nurtured the desire to know things. it was in her class i discovered poetry! (when subbing -- 15 years later -- she still remembered me and that i liked poetry.) also, back in 1982 she signed me up for a computer class (TRS 80 programming). it didn't settle into my head, but hey, she gave me a chance. :)


3)What keeps you here with us these days when it gets really hard?

the fact that i failed last time i tried to kill myself. it didn't work. and then i had to deal with the aftermath. i don't want to make people cry. so i guess i'm just gonna have to keep fighting.

4)Tell me a funny student story i haven't heard yet.

so i have been wearing one of those rubber CAUSE bracelets for the past few months from theliteracysite.com. it says "open books, open minds"

one of my curent students sees it and doesn't read it or *really* look at it. he asks me, "what's that for." i reply. "literacy." he asks.........
with an almost concerned look on his face, "Do you have that?!"

(kid had no idea what literacy meant and assumed it was a disease... *sigh* i need to be a better teacher...~~~)


5) You get twenty minutes to talk to anyone you want(not fictional but they can be alive or dead). Who is it and what do you want to talk about?

this answer changes rapidly.

but today... i would like to talk to grandma rasmus about how she felt and how she dealt with her changing views on racism (particularly black white). her father was a local KKK leader. she was obviously racist. but she accepted my little half black friends.. etc... i KNOW it wasn't easy. and i REALLY want to know about the man she said, when i found a picture and asked if it was grandpa, "no, that is the man i should have married." and i got nothing NOTHING else out of her. but her sons didn't even get that much... enquiring minds want to know!!!

[bastette-joyce.livejournal.com]

That sounds wonderful - thanks, both of you. Please let me know when it will be happening, I'd like to come.

[bastette-joyce.livejournal.com]

Oh - just re-read it. First Friday. So I guess the next one is a week from tonight?

simplykimberly - I looked at your icons. Great quilt! Do you do a lot of quilt projects? And as promised, lots of cute kitties. (Is it OK for me to be talking to someone else in your journal, serenejournal?