(no subject)

[she_homunculus]

• What sort of profession in the wizarding world would you choose and why?
  Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Prophet! I have an interest in everything: biology, politics, history, religion, the arts (visual, literary, and performance), language, philosophy. Everything, and a newspaper woman should know something of everything and they get to write about it. Newspapers and (well-written) blogs can be the best forms of communication: (non-sensational) headlines for summary, article for details, and photos and graphics (charts, diagrams, maps) for further understanding make for the best informative literature.
  
  
• If you could teach one class at Hogwarts, what would it be and why?
  Ancient Runes, probably. I love languages and have formally studied at least four, (including ancient Greek and classic Latin, so ancient languages would be nothing new to me) and informally study several more on my own. I love translation work. It's a unique blend of artistic (nuance and connotation) and analytical (definition and grammar). If I couldn't take the Ancient Runes, post I would like the Arithmancy position. Logic and numbers fall into fabulous systems that can then be manipulated into telling you whatever you want to know. It's abstract without being completely impractical.
  
  
• This year, The TriWizard Tournament is being held once again and you're of age. Do you put your name in the Goblet? Why or why not?
  Probably with a little hesitation but yes. Yes, I would. I love problem solving and challenges and the TriWizard Tournament supplies challenges of all kinds. It's full of physical challenges as well as mental/academic challenges. Not to mention that my competitive streak would never give me any peace until my name was in the Goblet.
  
  
• If you could choose your animagus form, what would it be and why?
  Well, I think if it most accurately reflected me, and that would be best since it wouldn't change my habits much, it would be some sort of large cat, a panther or a leopard or something. I, like large cats, prefer to spend time alone and usually I'm up at night rather than during the day. I'm also not afraid, if provoked, to bat at people but I don't often whip out the claws unless absolutely necessary. Lastly, cats are graceful, and I've also been told a few times that I'm graceful "in my own way". Personally, I don't think it's grace. I think it's an economy of movement.
  
  (I remember my father telling me once, as a child, that wasting my energy was the worst thing I could do with it. I took and ran with this idea. I applied it to everything - including the way that I moved. I never took two steps, if one and standing on my tiptoes would do, you know? I think that what people call grace now is the remanant of that childish self-training. And, as a side note, I wasn't always nocturnal, but about a year ago, I started a new job as an emergency dispatcher on my college campus and as the newbie I had to take the overnight shifts and now I love them - I'm paid to sit and read, draw or write for hours unless, of course, something happens).
  
  
• What HP character do you identify with most and why?
  I know it's cliché, but I really do identify most with Hermione. I'm known to study far too much, and reading is certainly my favourite hobby. I also colour-code notes and draw up study schedules from the very beginning of each semester. I don’t volunteer answers in class - I sit quietly in the back, or along the wall - but I usually have the answers. If there was a quiet, studious character (outside of fandom) to rival Hermione in academics, that would be me.
  
  
• What would you see if you looked into the Mirror of Erised?
  I’m not entirely sure, but I think it would probably reflect something similar to my current living situation. All I really want is to be let alone to study, write, draw and draft (architecture). Given, a large desk to work at, art/drafting supplies, books, and an internet connection I’m content. Perhaps, given my habit of getting absorbed into my work or studies, there’s another person in the picture, but it would be the rare person that could put up with my absent-mindedness on a daily basis and in close quarters.
  
  
• If you won a million dollars, how would you spend it?
  Money. I hate money. I don’t have enough of it to know what to do with it in excess amounts. Maybe then, because of that, I’d get myself a financial advisor and then invest it. It would be wonderful not to live from paycheck to paycheck anymore and not to have student loans hanging over my head. On the other hand, because I’m such a black and white person by nature, I’m always very aware that I lack in compassion, so I make a constant effort to compensate and would probably end up donating to charities on a regular basis (as well as investing and setting myself up in a mansion full of libraries on my personal island).
  
  
• What was your ideal job as a kid? Has that changed? What is your ideal job now?
  I actually remember the night I picked my ideal career. It was just a couple of weeks before I started kindergarten and I was watching television with my father, who is a history buff. So, we’re watching the History Channel and they were showing some program on ancient Egypt. I declared on the spot that that was what I wanted to do.
  
  “What? Dig around in the desert looking for old bricks?” he teased me.
  
  “Yup,” I replied with complete conviction.
  
  I was to be an archaeologist. I wanted to dig up ancient cities and read ancient literature that no one had ever seen before. It lasted years, right up until I was introduced to ancient philosophy and (modern) politics. For a while I wanted to work as a speech writer and policy maker in D.C. (not an elected official but someone with enough job security to accomplish something). That died when I met art history and through it: architecture. Architecture is the perfect profession for me. I love to solve problems and creatively organise things - anything. Working out systems and plan and coming to the best solution to a complex problem is actually a part of my job description and my psychological profile. I love it. It’s logical, problem solving, and artistic and best of all it can’t be art that has no purpose because buildings inherently have a function.
  
  
• If you were able to invent one spell, potion, or charm, what would it do, what would you use it for or how would you use it, and what would you call it?
  I think I’d want to invent a potion. I’m an abysmal cook (for all things but desserts), so having invented a successful potion would be double dose of achievement for me. Given that I can’t cook I think that I’d like my magical potion to, in each drop, be a full meal - like Willy Wonka’s gumstick! You could tell each drop what kind of meal you needed it to be: breakfast, brunch, lunch, tea, coffee, snacks, dinner, fabulous dessert or anything else you want to eat, and it would create gourmet foods and over time get to know your tastes so that it makes your favourite foods. Then, I’d never have to cook or get take-out again. Since all spells and a lot of potions have Latin names shall call it nutriem.
  
  
• If you were to face a boggart, what would it turn into? And what does it turn into when you throw the counter-spell, Riddikulus?
  Okay, this is an awkward question for me. My fear is that I don’t have the potential and ability to live up to my ambitions and aspirations. How do you embody that? And once you do, how do you make it ridiculous? I know that doesn’t answer the question, but if a boggart does become whatever you fear most, then it’s gotta figure that out somehow.
  
  
• What do you look for in a friend?
  I am paradoxically ridiculously picky and completely laid back about my friends. On one hand, I can maintain an acquaintance and casual friendship with almost anyone and on the other, I am close to very few and I’m insanely particular about who these people are. In close friends, the three or four I have, the common traits are high intelligence, a willingness to let me be when I want time to myself, common interests (books, philosophy, school, music, art, theatre, etc) and a distaste for large loud parties and lots of social engagements.
  
  
• What trait most annoys you about other people?
  Without a doubt it’s incompetence. I can’t stand incompetence in anything. If you don’t wanna be in class, leave. If you don’t know what you’re doing, ask or figure it out without imposing the process or any of the attempts that fall flat results on the rest of us.
  
  
• What do you think are your top five abilities or qualities?
  I hate this question. It’s ‘trumpet your own horn in 500 words or less.’ I can answer it though.
  
  1. Concentration - I concentrate to the point of absentmindedness. I can work through any noise and any distraction. I actually enjoy the process: studying, reading, etc. This combined with my natural bent for quiet, solitude and study makes for great concentration when I’m working on something analytic. When doing something artistic I go “right-brained” (the whole right-brain/left-brain thing is a vastly over-simplified version of neurological temperament, but I won’t bore you) faster than other because not only am I interested in whatever it is I’m working on but I’m concentrating on it as well.
  
  2. Artistic talent - I do all things art. Not equally well, of course; my tap dancing, the only kind of dancing I do, rivals that only of beginner level five year olds, but all things artistic nonetheless. I draw/draft, paint, have sculpted, work in theatre (all things technical: sound, lighting, set design/construction, etc.), and sing.
  
  3. Analytic ability - I analyse before I can help it sometimes. Often people stop me and tell me they weren’t looking for a solution to a problem or an encyclopaedic response but just a little sympathy (which is often forsaken for sake of analysis in my thought process).
  
  4. Organisation - (I’m a little OCD). I’m not only organised in my personal life and living but I’m good with logistics and event planning. Everyone always asks whether or not I’m a big picture person or a detail person - but I’m both really. I don’t quite know how you can be one without the other. The big picture is made up of all the details and the details don’t make sense out of their big picture context.
  
  5. Retention - I know that this one is pretty strange for a person to list, but it’s true. Once I learn, hear, or read something I’ve pretty much got it forever. I’m a wealth of useful and useless knowledge. It makes classes easy though.
  
  
• What do you think are your top five weaknesses or worst qualities?
  Can you have “top weaknesses”?
  
  1. Concentration - Like I said, I concentrate to the point of absentmindedness. Once I’m sucked into whatever it is I’m doing or working on I forget time, space, other people, to sleep, to eat. It’s actually a little dangerous. I’ve developed the habit of setting the alarm on my clock or computer or phone, or even the washing machine if it’s handy, while I’m studying or something so that I come out of it and go to class or whatever it is I have to do that day. Otherwise, I’d sit down to read or draw or whatever and never look up again.
  
  2. Procrastination - It sounds strange to say that someone who calls herself studious, analytical, and logical also procrastinates, but, alas, it is true. Mostly I think it comes from a complete disinterest in whatever it is that I’m supposed to be doing, though sometimes it’s because I’d rather not get sucked into it and end up late to some appointment or worse still to a class. I actually got so wrapped up in research that I worked through lunch and two lecture periods once. After that I put off researching until everything else was done but, of course, ‘everything else’ is never ending, so it’s a big cyclical trap.
  
  3. Analytic ability - I know I’m repeating myself again but strengths and vulnerabilities are often two-sides of the same coin. My impulse is analysis rather than sympathy. This makes me come across as a little heartless. So, when talking with people, particularly very emotional people, I’ve had to train myself into asking questions like “Would it be more supportive if I just listen, or if I problem-solve with you?” It still seems a little cold sometimes but at least no one says to me anymore that they were looking for a shoulder rather than an encyclopaedia. It’s a social drawback to be analytical by impulse, but I’m working on it.
  
  4. Day-to-Day Stuff - I am awful about things that are day-to-day. For example, I’m observant enough that I know down to the day of the month when the electric bill is going arrive in the mail. However, there’s plenty of question as to whether or not I’ll remember to pay the bill. (This is why I have roommates with whom I share the utilities - they’re really good about reminding me to pay my portion to them or write a check before the bill is mailed out).
  
  5. Arrogance/Insecurity - Arrogance and insecurity are combined into one problematic lump in my personality. A childhood full of “You like school?!” and “You’re too smart for your own good!” and, my personal favourite, from my mother no less, “Why can’t you be a little more normal?! We never bargained for having to raise a genius!” had me convinced early on and for a long time afterward that I was more intelligent than those around me, (arrogance) and that therefore, I was an imposition on them (insecurity).
  
  
• Define in your own words the following key traits:
  
  
  
  • Courage: Courage is primarily about making decisions that support your convictions, particularly in areas where it goes against the social norm to do so. It doesn’t mean picking fights or voicing your contrary-to-typical opinions just to stir up controversy but rather when asked or confronted about your positions in life you don’t sugar-coat them to appease someone. If those opinions and convictions call for some kind of action then following through on that is courageous (and wisdom is knowing when to act, picking your battles in other words).
    
  • Loyalty: I know that this loses me points in all sorts of ways but I don’t think I really understand loyalty. I know the standard answer: that loyalty is remaining true to those that you love and admire and all that, but I still don’t think I really understand it. In the sense of near-blind devotion and obedience, I suppose I’m loyal only to truth and logic. Furthermore, I think, though my friends often don’t agree, that by being loyal to truth and logic that I am in a position to best serve my friends since I rarely end up in any sort of drama or fights with them, or take sides when they fight, but also don’t hesitate to point it out to them when I think they’re making some kind of mistake (which is why they sometimes claim I’m not supportive or loyal).
    
  • Intelligence: Intelligence is all too often intelligence is confused with wisdom. Wisdom comes in temperance and self-discipline in life and the careful application of what you have learned through both academic training and experience. Intelligence on the other hand consists mostly of knowledge, but I believe logic plays a part in intelligence as well. It is the ability to learn and to think abstractly; the mental acuteness by which we learn from and adapt to challenges or new circumstances. Logic is the tool that fuels that thought process, since sound knowledge is obtained by analysing an experience logically and extracting what is valuable from it.
    
  • Ambition: This is the easiest one to define. Ambition, in its most elemental form, is not just the wish, but also the drive to accomplish as much as you are capable of doing.
    
  
  
• Name: Aldiarde
  
• Age: 20
  
• Where did you find out about us? Through a search of Potter communities.