Pep Potion? No thanks, I'll take a double espresso instead!
Name: AJ
Age: 28
AIM Screename ( if you have one ): fable2112
Who referred you here - username and house, if possible: I have quite a few friends here, but I suppose I'll let realdartagnan (of Ravenpuff) take the blame, er, credit.
1. Which of the Harry Potter books have you read? Which did you enjoy most?
I've read them all, including the two textbooks. PoA is still my favorite. To me, it is where the Wizarding world really becomes a place beyond just Hogwarts, and where we get our first real glimpses into the lives of adult wizards and witches. Not everyone can work for the Ministry or for Hogwarts, after all, and I think PoA is the first book that does a good job of showing that. I also loved the Marauders and their Map, of course. :) And hey, I love cats, and having Crookshanks the extremely intelligent cat as a major plot point just made it all the better. I even named one of my cats Crookshanks. *points to icon* *grin*
2. How do you feel about Voldemort as a character? (Not as a person.)
Sometimes I wish JKR had read the Evil Overlord list - Voldemort really does seem to make too many easily avoidable mistakes, and blunder around in stereotypical Evil Overlord fashion. The entire prophecy subplot in OotP is certainly a big part of why I feel that way, but there are plenty of other examples.
That said, one thing I do appreciate about Voldemort's characterization is how consistent it is. His fear of death/desire for immortality is clearly what drives him, what motivates just about everything he does. Even his prejudice against Muggles and Muggle-borns can be seen as an aspect of that - Wizarding lifespans are, after all, clearly longer than Muggle lifespans, if one survives the day-to-day dangers of the Wizarding world. That would make it make sense that he sees Muggles and Muggle-borns as inferior and thus worth destroying, I think.
I love the plot device of the Horcruxes, though - it fits with Voldemort's obsession and with JKR's overarching theme that there are, indeed, fates worse than death.
3. Which Harry Potter character can you most relate to? (In the sense of personality, intelligence, character traits, etc.)
Cho Chang.
*puts on the asbestos raincoat and waits for the flames*
Seriously. I lost someone very dear to me when I was not much older than Cho in OotP (more about that in Question 5), and attached myself to her ex-boyfriend in much the same way that Cho attached herself to Harry - we never actually dated, but I spent a lot of time with and around him, and could never honestly say if it was for himself or because I wanted Tina back and he was the next best thing.
I can also relate to Cho's wish to stand by Marietta even after Marietta betrayed the DA. When I was younger, I stood by friends in the face of considerable opposition, even when I understood very well where the opposition was coming from and even if I privately agreed that the friends in question had done some pretty screwed-up things - one of the incidents that comes to mind concerns a "friend" who owed people in our circle of friends inordinately large amounts of money and who made no plans to pay it back. I thought that continuing to stand by her was part of being a good friend, even when it cost me several other friends and a romantic relationship, and even when she started owing ME money to the point that it screwed with my credit.
I don't do that sort of thing anymore (the way I see it these days, if you've screwed up you've screwed up, and I'll probably be one of the FIRST people on your case about it), but I understand the impulse, and I was a lot older than Cho before I learned that there are some things friendship does NOT require of a person.
4. Who is your favorite Harry Potter character? Least favorite?
I love and look up to Minerva McGonagall. She is an even-handed enforcer of rules without favoring her own house, but understands when exceptions need to be made, like putting Harry on the Quidditch team in his first year. She also does not believe in rules for their own sake - "It unscrews the other way!" and all of the other scenes in which she undermines Umbridge's authority make that clear. She has high expectations of her students, yet is willing to help those who need help, and encourages them to develop their own talents regardless of what others expect of them - for example, see the scene where she discusses Neville's schedule with him in HBP. She is obviously talented in her own right (one of six legally registered Animagi, which I think says something) but uses those talents to aid younger generations of wizards and witches. And she lets nothing - not even multiple Stunning Spells to the chest - get in the way of doing what she feels is the right thing to do.
My least favorite character? That would be Rita Skeeter. My undergraduate major was communication with a concentration on broadcast journalism, and it's because of people like Rita that I decided I could never make a living that way. She has to have the story that will sell papers, regardless of how hurtful or even patently untrue it is. There is nothing consistent or logical about the stories she writes - she doesn't seem to have a political agenda, which I could almost respect if she did - except for "what will sell and make me money." If she were actually a prostitute, at least she'd be honestly selling herself for money to buy expensive clothing, rather than pretending to be respectable as well. I wish someone would squash that bug- I can't stand her at all.
5. What thing, event, or person has had the most impact in your life? (Please don't use yourself because you can't think of someone/something else. Think hard!)
Easter weekend, 1995. I had started college early; this was my second year at SUNY Geneseo, and I was 17 at the time. One of the things I was part of there was a student activists' group, where I met a girl named Tina. That year, she also lived in my dorm, one floor above me and next door to one of my best friends. Tina, her on-and-off boyfriend Dan, and I had always gotten along fairly well - in addition to having the activist group in common, we were also all interested in theater and liked to listen to similar music, and well, all the other stuff that seems to cement college friendships. I had recently ended a relationship, Tina and Dan had split up again, and Tina had just recently admitted to me that (like me) she was bisexual. I was developing a considerable crush on her, probably as a rebound from the relationship that had just ended.
Saturday night, I was out at a party (I belonged to a co-ed fraternity), but had this nagging feeling in the back of my mind that I should go talk to Tina. I left the party to go to the all-night donut shop and get a snack, where I ran into a very distraught Dan who told me that Tina had taken 90 Zoloft and chased them with a glass of wine, then called him and a few other people. She was on her way to the hospital, and she had said, "I guess you'll have to come visit me in the hospital, won't you?"
It was the last thing she ever said to him, or to any of us. They couldn't save her - the drugs stopped her heart. I've never been the same since. Among other things, there were points when I was younger that I was depressed to the point of seriously considering suicide (mostly because I was having trouble coping with the idea of being bisexual, thought I was "sick" for having crushes on same-sex friends, etc.) and actually losing someone that way made suicide forever not an option. I can think about the huge, gaping hole that Tina's death left in the lives of everyone who knew her, and realize that I could never, EVER do that to the people I love.
Almost eleven years later, I'm on the verge of tears from writing this. I still have nightmares about it. I know it also made me more committed to the causes Tina worked on, as if I now need to do the work of two people now that she is gone.
6. What makes a friendship valuable to you?
There needs to be a balance between common ground and a respect for differences. I don't want friends who are yes-men and women, or who are exact clones of me - that would be incredibly boring! I cherish the diversity of the human race. That said, if someone holds views that are absolutely abhorrent to me, I will have real problems continuing a friendship with that person.
Another issue of balance is between the willingness to support a friend who is making decisions very different from my own, and to say, "Hey, you're heading for disaster here - please reconsider?" I think that a good friend is someone who can open my eyes to possibilities I may not have considered on my own.
Common interests of some sort are obviously a must - there has to be something that friends can DO together, even if it's as simple and trivial as both enjoying singing along to the radio on a road-trip. :)
7. If you had a hero (real or literary) who would it be? (Please keep in mind that we're asking IF you had one, and again please don't use yourself because you can't think of someone else. Be creative!)
The late Edward R. Murrow of CBS News. There are two major reasons for this. The first is that he was the person who finally stood up to the evil that was Senator McCarthy and put him in his place for good. McCarthy's unfounded Communist witch-hunt ruined so many lives for no real benefit to the security of the United States, and I'm worried that with the current administration, the country I live in and love is headed down a similar road. But that's not really on-topic to this question, sorry about that. :)
The second reason I consider Murrow a hero is his documentary Harvest of Shame. It detailed the often inhumane conditions that the migrant workers, often illegal/undocumented immigrants from Mexico or Central America, endured as they went from farm to farm in the U.S., all in the name of keeping food prices low for American consumers. One thing that particularly upsets me about American culture is the seeming unwillingness throughout history that we've had to pay for honest labor - whether it was slaves in the cotton fields of the South, children in factories in the late 1800s and early 1900s, migrant farmworkers in the 1960s (and even somewhat today), or Chinese sweatshop workers now, the theme remains. I think that Harvest of Shame caused at least some people to take a look at their own habits in ways they might not have otherwise done, and laid the groundwork for more recent anti-sweatshop movements.
8. What are your personal aspirations for your future?
My current plans are to finish my Master's degree in Public Administration, take part in New York's Public Management Intern program (hopefully in the realm of public policy-making), then in a few years go on for a Ph.D. and become a professor. I enjoy teaching and research very much, but I can't bring myself to apply it only to something like the 10,000th research paper on the real meaning of The Merchant of Venice - there are too many things that need to be researched and studied that actually affect people's day to day lives. I'm particularly interested in child and family policy research, and in programs that help people find and keep decent-paying jobs that allow them to support themselves and their families comfortably without going into miles of debt.
9. What are your most prominent personality traits, good or bad? Which one do you feel best defines who you are as a person?
My blessing and my curse is my sense of self-reliance. I am willing to help anyone I can who sincerely needs it, but accepting help from others is another matter - I have to be pretty damn desperate to even consider it. Sometimes this gets me into a lot of trouble because I'll find myself way over my head when, if I had just asked for help at the point I first realized there was a problem instead of letting things get out of control, I wouldn't have anywhere near as big of a mess to clean up. On the other hand, it's driven me to do things that I am very proud of, like giving birth to my daughter early Thursday morning, leaving the hospital on Saturday, and being back in class on Monday. I drive myself hard, and I like to think it shows in what I have accomplished.
Other defining traits on the positive side: I'm a very spiritual person, and stemming from my strong sense of spirituality is a sense of optimism. Despite depressing news articles and such, I do believe that the world is basically a good place and that people are basically decent. I'm confident, creative, apparently a good writer, and I learn new things easily.
On the negative side, I procrastinate to a truly ridiculous degree, then panic and do things at the last minute. I'm also bad about remembering to do "trivial" things like the dishes- there's a mound of mugs and bowls surrounding the monitor right now. I really should fix that. I'm stubborn, and I can be very pushy about getting my own way or about arguing particularly passionately-held beliefs.
10. What house combination do you feel you're most like? Least like? (This is not pushing. It shows whether or not you are self-aware and may not have an influence on the voting process.)
I see myself as a Gryffinpuff, and I see myself as NOT a Slytherdor. Although both of those are Gryffindor-based combinations, I believe there is a critical difference between the two. A Slytherdor, in my experience, believes that there are things worth dying for; a Gryffinpuff believes that there are things worth living for. What use is my dead body to the things I believe in or the people I love? The willingness to "sacrifice all" for a cause certainly sounds romantic, but if every passionate believer in something who was willing to die for it did so, then the desired end results would never be achieved, now would they?
11. Why should we not squib you?
Now, what would be the point of squibbing me? I have a lot to offer whatever house claims me as its own, as well as the community at large. I have followed the rules, and done my best to avoid pushing. However, if you see a reason to call me Squib, I can't stop you. Negative feedback happens. :P