(no subject)
If you could change one thing about the world, what would it be?
The world needs more respect. People don't respect others or themselves enough. If you don't have self respect, how can you be expected to have respect for anyone or anything else? Seems like there are a lot of forces out there, such as schools (schools in the US in real life, not Hogwarts), tv shows, and magazines that are designed to rob people of self respect. A lack of self respect leads to most of the damage we do eachother.
What makes a person respectable?
Someone who is honest. No two-faced, mealy mouthed, talk up one side and down the other politician wannabes on my list! No people who are elliptical in their accounts and tales, either. Also someone who is hard working and uses their resources wisely. I lump these two together because working hard in a wasteful and foolish manner is NOT respectable. An example of this is picking up a huge pile of rock piece by piece and moving it when there is a Catterpillar scoop next to you that you know how to operate. What are you doing? Going for someone's sympathy? Use that scoop!
Another respectable trait is someone who has respect for themself and others. People who work hard in a nonwasteful manner who take advanatage of others, or use them, or exploit them are not respectable.
A person who will help his/her fellow man. This can range from basic politeness to Mother Theresa.
Someone who is self sufficient and self reliant. this doesn't mean that this person doesn't need help from anyone, but this person doesn't wait for someone else to tell them what to do. It also means knowing when and how to ask for help when they need it.
What do you look for in a friend?
Someone who accepts me for who I am. Someone who has the ability to follow through on things, even if they don't always do it on every single project. Someone who is fun to be around. Someone who can cheer me up. Someone who I can cheer up. Someone who is enough like me so we'll have something in common. Someone who can find a friend in me.
And of course, the honest, respectful, person.
I want my friends to tell me when I'm being dumb. Cause I am being dumb an awful lot. But I want them to be polite about it.
And I don't want to be afraid to tell them they're being dumb, and not be my friend anymore.
What are your hobbies?
I love aikido, which is a martial art. It's supposed to be one of the more defensive ones. We learn to defend ourselves against attacks. We only learn enough punching and kicking to give a good attack to defend against. Most moves end with either a throw, or the attacker immobolized on the mat. Nothing gets out frustrations like throwing and being thrown around with enough energy to bounce right back up.
My other major hobby is working with my hands. I love sewing, knitting, beading, stuff like that. I am getting into dyeing. Recently I've been helping a friend with one of her outfits by offering to dye her fabric. I LOVE colors! I love creating things, to see my work pay off with a finished product. And this is something I can do in front of the TV, which brings me to my next hobby:
I enjoy watching movies and anime. There are so many movies out there that are SO BAD they BEG to be mocked. Mock them I do, preferably with my friends, all of us crafting and loudly booing the tv. There are a very few good movies that cause me to think about the answer to life's biggest question, "Why?" Those I like to watch in solitude, because the movie speaks to me individually. Those movies speak to each person individually.
Anime is just fun. I do not like all of it, just some. My favorite series so far is Excel saga. Vampire Hunter D suffered from the Literal Translation Disease. Very pretty, silly sounding dialog. Lately I've been enjoying Otogi Zoshi, Peacemaker, Samurai Champloo, and Koi Kaze.
I also enjoy reading. Sadly, most of my reading is online, but I also read books, such as the Harry Potter series. About 70% of what I read is non-fiction. Right now I'm reading "Lady Nijo's Own Story", which is a translated diary which starts in the 1270s in the Japanese courts. I like Japanese history, Heian Era and Kamakura is what I'm reading now.
I also like books like "The 48 Laws of Power", and "The Art of Seduction". Both of these are fascinating books about the nature of power and human nature and how to use both to your advantage. They use historical antecedents to illustrate principals.
And, of course, I like updating my LJ and reading my friend's pages to keep up with what's going on in their lives.
Have or would you give time and money to a charity?
On occasion. I prefer to give to charites that help people who I feel are victums. The last thing I gave to was a school supply fund for po' kids. It's not the kid's fault that their parents can't budget $10 for school stuff. And it's not a good thing to show up the school with last year's peeled crayons when you have snotty brats whos parents buy them new stuff every year.
Our card auction site donated $1500 to some 9/11 charity. The money came from a major card tournament. Part of the entry fee went towards this fund. The fund was originally going to go to us to pay for our website fees. With two websites, that would have been about 1 year of fees. We all thought that the Red Cross needed it more. None of our pocket money went to this, since none of us were able to travel to this tournament, but we donated money that would have gone to us.
What is the one thing you would most like to accomplish?
I would like to earn a living working only for myself. I have an anti-desire to enter corporate America. Our country was founded with folks with individual livlihoods, and I'd like to help recapture some of that glory.
Who is your role model?
I don't have one role model. I admire several people for different reasons. My mom, for her never ending ability to put up with crap to raise me. I admire my friends for reasons I will not go into here because most of them will read this, but yes, in some way, you are my role models.
What trait most annoys you about other people?
Arrogance: If you HAD power/smarts/money/whatever you are trying to impress us all with, you wouldn't HAVE to flaunt it. And you know what? most of us don't care, and someone can do it better than you. Arrogant people really like to build themselves up, often at the expense of someone else. While talking themselves up, they're ignoring someone else's work and accompolishment. Generally when someone is arrogant, I figure they can't back it up, or their results would speak for themselves.
What do you want to do for a living?
I want to work for myself producing sewing objects. Right now I make custom kimonos for people based on anime characters, or whatever a person wants. (No, that's not a shameless plea for business. If it was, I'd have included my website). That's a lot of fun, but I don't get enough business just from that to have that as my only source of income. Some other ideas I've had are unique and tacky dice bags, cloaks, and other basic clothes that don't require much fitting. I do NOT want any employees, nor do I want to pay some poor exploited people in India a penny a day to do my work for me. I don't want employees because having someone willing to do mindless labor (how do you think I get so much movie/anime watching done? With the exception of a few steps, sewing isn't rocket science after you get some practice), I am afraid of becoming what I despise: An ogre who will exploit people and get mad when they leave, because to those employees, this job is a stepping stone to something better.
Some secondary appealing things about this are: no work bullshit. No sitting there, watching the clock, begging the time to pass because I feel useless. No watching that clock tick away the seconds of my life when I could be accompolishing something. No idiotic policies. Afterall, whatever I decide HAS to be good, right? No pointless dress code.
Now the REAL reasons this appeals to me: A real sense of self satisfaction when through MY efforts I am contributing to family income. The joy of taking raw materials like fabric yardage and turning it into something wearable. I love creating things. It give me a sense of power. It also hones the problem solving skills: out of something? You can figure out a substitute. Something not quite right? Redo it better! Down on cash and need to support your crafting habit? Your supplies are all there, they are just desguised as something else, waiting to be transformed.
If your friend was attacked (by a person, animal, or (in the magic world) beast), what would you do?
I'd shove them behind me. I have martial arts training, so I'd consider it my duty to protect them. I'd like to think that with my training, I wouldn't panic. Panicing while being attacked is a death curse. My friends aren't so fortunate to have that training, so they might panic. Of course, after the attacker was gone and we were all safe, I'd probably yell at them for panicing to hide my own panicing that would start flowing into my being, but no one's perfect. I'd hope someone would notice I was acting like a creep because of nerves and forgive me later.
Would you ever use an Unforgivable Curse for any reason?
(This is assuming I'm remember what the Unforgivable Curses do, I'm too lazy to dig out the books. If my answers don't make any sense, it's because I didn't look up with the question meant.)
Yes, without a doubt, I would use them. These spells are just tools, like a car, or a crowbar, or a gun. The torture one would be great for giving your friends a few seconds to escape, or buy them some time to disarm the bomb and save the day. It doesn't cause any permenate damage, and used for only a few seconds at a time isn't terrible.
I would not use it to randomly torture people for hours on end. No one deserves that. Or if someone does, I don't want to be the one doing it. That's what minions are for! ;-) There's other magic spell to get information from prisoners, if that's the goal.
I'd also use the Death curse, although probably not on a person in a fight. That would be extremely handy for hunting though. A lot cleaner kill than with a gun or a arrow. The future meal wouldn't have to suffer either. Also if for some reason the choice was between torturing someone with the torture curse and outright killing them, I might go with the death curse (unless I got all squeemish).
What do you think are your top five abilities or qualities?
When I apply myself, I have a good imagination. This helps me get the most out of whatever tools I happen to have around to accompolish my goals.
I am a self starter, and can keep myself putting along. Some days I'm stuck in first, though.
I can use logic, despite sounding like an art-flake. I am NOT ruled by my emotions.
I have the ability to do what needs to be done. Need to save money? Blamo, time to learn how to be a good enough cook to keep us eating at home. Time to stop buying fabric just because it's pretty and it's there. Not too much whining, cause damnit, it needs to be done!
I try hard. I don't always suceed. I try to be the "respectable" person from the earlier question. I try to be the friend I want to be to those dear people. I try to make each of my sewing projects (that I care about) the best they can be.
What do you think are your top five weaknesses or worst qualities?
Uhhh.....erm....well..wait, not that one,...this one?...no...ah yes! I ponder way too much. I can ponder on little things for hours, spirling down the pondering to something's atomic level. While this is an amusing way to pass the time it takes energy I could be using for something productive, like that self employeed paycheck I want.
I am not always there for my friends the way I should be.
I am way too down on myself sometimes, to the point of almost arrogance about it. What am I going for, the sympathy ploy? I am fine. I am not a total loser.
Sometimes, I am the annoying know-it-all. I don't even want to be around myself when I'm like that.
Sometimes, although I'm getting better, I'm not very tolerant of other people. Why can't they think and act like I do? Then we'd ALL be perfect. Oh yeah, cause I'm NOT perfect, and they have a point and their own reasons.
I tend to go on and on and on and on, long after I should have stopped.
Define in your own words the following key traits:
Courage: To do what you think is right, even when you are scared, or in a very small minority.
Loyalty: Sticking by your beliefs and ideals above everything else. Now, if your personal moral compass is "off", then you're not going to look like a good person or a good friend, but you loyal to the person you have to face every day.
Intelligence: using the situation to your advantage, whatever that situation might be. Efficeint use of tools, and the ability to learn from past mistakes. If you can learn from OTHERS mistakes, you are very intelligent indeed.
Ambition: You have a goal. You do whatever is necessary to obtain that goal. Nothing gets in your way. The goal doesn't change, that would be compromising yourself! You make the world change to accomodate your goal.
Name: Kate
Age: 30
What house do you think DOESN'T fit you? (This question is optional for those who feel they just DO NOT fit in a house. Please explain WHY.)
Where did you find out about us? Live Journal User kaurikat