The Interview Meme
Mar. 5th, 2007 09:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
philmophlegmFrom wellinghall via parrot_knight.
1. What is your favourite animal?
If we're talking about favourite species of animal, then probably servals. Also pretty much any bird of prey. If we're talking about individuals, then any one of my four cats.
2. What is your most vivid memory of Taruithorn?
Very first meeting I ever went to, first week of my first term at Oxford. In, I think, St Hilda's. Being in a team of three with kargicq and some red headed guy who I don't remember seeing again. And singing a love song to Eowyn to the tune of Laurel & Hardy's 'Trail of the Lonesome Pine'.
"In the Golden Halls of Edoras
In the Home of Theoden
I love you my dear, for as
You know we'll meet again..."
3. Who or what was most responsible for Doctor Who ending as an ongoing television series in 1989?
Much as I'd like to say Michael Grade, ultimately, someone else decided to hire Bonnie Langford, approved more silly storylines, moved the show further away from straight SF, allowed poor directing, encouraged C-listers as comedy guest stars and generally exercised poor quality control. Even allowing for budget limitations, it would have been possible to produce a quality SF series instead of the pastiche that DW was for much of the C Baker and early McCoy eras. So I blame the late JN-T.
4. What is the best feature of living in Cornwall?
The views. Admittedly the best views from our house are of Devon (we're about five minutes walk from the River Tamar, and most of what we see out of our front windows is actually Devon (or 'civilisation' as I often refer to it)).
5. If you could bring any discontinued car back into production, which would it be, and why?
Ferrari Dino 246 GTS. If in a couple of years (when my S2000 is paid off) I was a bit richer than I am now, I would want to buy another convertible sports car, and I would want a step up from the S2000. Thing is, there's quite a gap between S2000 prices and what I would think of as a decent step up (say something like a 911 convertible or one of the more recent Ferraris). Wouldn't it be great if Ferrari made a more mid-range model? In the early seventies, they did. It was called the Dino (named after Enzo Ferrari's son) and it was also one of the most beautiful cars ever made.
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! (but not that intimate ;-) )
3. You should update your lj with the answers to the questions.
4. You should include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you should ask them five questions.
1. What is your favourite animal?
If we're talking about favourite species of animal, then probably servals. Also pretty much any bird of prey. If we're talking about individuals, then any one of my four cats.
2. What is your most vivid memory of Taruithorn?
Very first meeting I ever went to, first week of my first term at Oxford. In, I think, St Hilda's. Being in a team of three with kargicq and some red headed guy who I don't remember seeing again. And singing a love song to Eowyn to the tune of Laurel & Hardy's 'Trail of the Lonesome Pine'.
"In the Golden Halls of Edoras
In the Home of Theoden
I love you my dear, for as
You know we'll meet again..."
3. Who or what was most responsible for Doctor Who ending as an ongoing television series in 1989?
Much as I'd like to say Michael Grade, ultimately, someone else decided to hire Bonnie Langford, approved more silly storylines, moved the show further away from straight SF, allowed poor directing, encouraged C-listers as comedy guest stars and generally exercised poor quality control. Even allowing for budget limitations, it would have been possible to produce a quality SF series instead of the pastiche that DW was for much of the C Baker and early McCoy eras. So I blame the late JN-T.
4. What is the best feature of living in Cornwall?
The views. Admittedly the best views from our house are of Devon (we're about five minutes walk from the River Tamar, and most of what we see out of our front windows is actually Devon (or 'civilisation' as I often refer to it)).
5. If you could bring any discontinued car back into production, which would it be, and why?
Ferrari Dino 246 GTS. If in a couple of years (when my S2000 is paid off) I was a bit richer than I am now, I would want to buy another convertible sports car, and I would want a step up from the S2000. Thing is, there's quite a gap between S2000 prices and what I would think of as a decent step up (say something like a 911 convertible or one of the more recent Ferraris). Wouldn't it be great if Ferrari made a more mid-range model? In the early seventies, they did. It was called the Dino (named after Enzo Ferrari's son) and it was also one of the most beautiful cars ever made.
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! (but not that intimate ;-) )
3. You should update your lj with the answers to the questions.
4. You should include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you should ask them five questions.
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no subject
Date: 2007-03-08 11:38 pm (UTC)1. What colour would your ideal sportscar be, and why?
2. Which is the best version of Traveller?
3. Have you ever knowingly drunk alcohol?
4. Which was your favourite subject (paper if you wish) at university?
5. Pick a book you wish you hadn't read when you were younger, so that you could read it now for the first time (improving the experience).
1. That very much depends upon the car. Some cars only ever look right in certain colours. You wouldn't, for example, want a blower Bentley in anything other than British Racing Green. However, you actually asked what colour my ideal sportscar would be, so I suppose I first have to work out what my ideal sportscar would be. And that's a really complicated question. I've never owned a genuine supercar. While the obvious answer would be some kind of Ferrari or Lamborghini or (more exotically) a Pagani Zonda or Koenigsegg, I suspect that the genuine everyday owning experience would actually be very annoying. You'd scrape it on speed bumps, you'd have to fill up with petrol every 80 miles etc. More to the point, because these cars are really built to be driven at speeds far in excess of a) the speed limit and b) what Cornish and Devonian roads can cope with, you would never actually get to drive them hard. I would want a car that I could put my foot down in and have some fun with. I can do that in the S2000, or in our Impreza, and I reckon would still be able to do that with a bit more speed. I might go TVR (but only if you'd let me have a slave mechanic to look after the damn thing) and I might go for an Ariel Atom (assuming you would let me have another car for when it was, like, raining).
Actually sod it - I'll just wear a hat and get wet. I'll have an Ariel Atom. With a slave mechanic. And I'll get my laptop and overnight bag couriered to the hotel when I work away. Colour? Since it doesn't have much in the way of bodywork, it doesn't really matter does it? I'll say 'aluminium'. Oh, and I'd want the 'big brake pack', because as Mr Clarkson says, "If you don't buy it, you won't be here in the spring."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaWoo82zNUA
2. For rules, late Classic (i.e. after Mercenary, High Guard etc). There's a lot to be said for my own version of the rules, which I publish here in their entirety:
Roll 2D6. Referee compares the result to the number which he has just arbitrarily thought of, modified by anything that the players can think of. That's it.
The 'Advanced' edition of these rules adds this extra rule:
The players may gain further modifications to the dice roll by bribing the referee with food.
For setting, I like what they did with the ongoing storyline in New Era (and by extension New Era: 1248, published last year). This makes me a little unusual among Traveller fans generally, and very unusual among collectors. A lot of Traveller fans (the nerdier ones generally - the sort that spend all day creating realistic vehicle designs using Fire, Fusion & Steel) hate the Virus idea because it doesn't fit in with what they know of real-world physics in 2007. I couldn't give a damn about that if it makes for a good story.
3. Knowingly yes, deliberately, no. A chocolate dessert at a chris_maslen dinner party which I didn't know was alcoholic until halfway through. Some medicines contain alcohol too. And I daresay I've accidentally swallowed the odd gulp of Listerine or similar. But that's it (to my knowledge).
4. Not necessarily my best subject (which was probably one of the macroeconomics papers), but my favourite was 'International Politics Since 1945'. Interesting subject matter, lots of sources (I used to hate subjects where there was a standard text to read) and a fun tutor - Dr Ziba Moshaver, a friendly, short, Iranian woman.
5. I did 'To Kill a Mockingbird' for GCSE English Lit. and quite liked it. I haven't re-read it since, but I do think I'd probably enjoy it rather more now. We have a brand new copy in the library, so I may well get around to it this year.