I'm a Dweller on the Threshold
1. Name:
Angel
2. Age:
19
3. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you choose?
Right now, my dream is to live in Vancouver, Canada. It seems like sort of an odd place to want to live, as it isn't exactly exotic, or what people expect to hear from someone my age. You usually think, "oh, I want to live in Europe or NYC, or L.A." when you're 19 and still in college. And yes, I've wanted to live in New York City (and I think everyone should live there at some point in their life), as well as having dreams of living in England, Germany, or Italy. But why Vancouver? I took a trip there with my family last winter break and absolutely loved it there. It has a good mixture of city and nature, and I just think it's one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. Plus, I want to work in the film industry, and Vancouver is sort of a film/television hot spot. Which never hurts.
4. What would your Room of Requirement look like?
There's this coffee shop in Savannah, GA called Gallery Espresso. It's a place I frequent quite often. Stereotypical art house coffee-shop sort of stuff, with worn sofas and chairs and constantly changing artwork on the walls. That's what it'd be for me. A dimly lit hole-in the wall with old furniture and weird artwork up on the walls. Except, I'd also have a film projector and a movie screen. And I'd like to say we'd only screen arty flicks, but I know that's not true, as I have such an...eccentric...taste in movies that I couldn't solely watch movies that make your pretentious-points increase tenfold upon viewing.
There'd also be food aplenty, as I am a big fan of eating.
5. Who is your least favorite Harry Potter character?
This seems like a trite answer, but I'm just not a fan of Hermione. I have very little patience for people who think they know everything about everything and aren't willing to consider alternative viewpoints. It’s probably the narcissist in me that abhors people who are smart and is constantly applauded for it. Not to say that I’ve never been friends with people who are smarter than me, because generally (around people that are fairly intelligent) I’ll admit that I don’t have all of the answers and that I’m not the smartest person in the world. Hermione just doesn’t seem like she’d be willing to truly admit to ever not knowing something. In the early books, she believes that you can only learn by spending hours and hours poring over books that weigh more than she does. And maybe that’s what works for her, but I tend to have way more respect for people who learn by doing.
6. Is the glass half empty or half full?
Well, we could be existentialists and question whether the glass even exists at all, if we wanted to. I tend to be a pessimist, however. That glass is half-empty and the water tastes of sulfur and smells like rotting eggs.
7. Give us a quotation (Can be from a famous person, a song, or even a poem-whatever you want) you feel represents your life or personality.
“I prefer to be sub-cultural rather than mass-cultural. I’m not interested in hitting the vein of the mainstream.”- Jim Jarmusch
A year ago, I was a Republican that thought the size of your bank account was the sole measure of your worth. I envied people with expensive cars and nice things. I told people who asked me what I’d do with my film degree that I wanted to be an Academy-award winning director; that I wanted to be famous. Here I am, a year later, and I could give a rat’s ass about ever winning an award as meaningless as an Oscar. I’d be perfectly content driving a crappy car and living in a small apartment with a roommate or two. So long as I was living where I wanted to live and was making films, I’d be perfectly content to have to struggle. At some point last year was a shift in what I deemed valuable in life--intrinsic rewards became what I yearned for. Everything else, the cars, the lifestyle, the houses, they are things I scorn. And that’s why I love this quotation so much. People like Jim Jarmusch don’t make art for money. They make art for themselves, their friends, and people like them. They make art for art’s sake. Without boundaries, without rules. His movies have made about $10 million dollars total in box office revenue. And he’s been making movies for over 25 years.
I also think that any of the lyrics Tom Waits writes are brilliant, and universally applicable to anyone.
8. In your life, who comes first: family or friends?
Friends. You don’t get to choose your family, and because of this, I’ve come to the realization that most families are pretty screwed up. I was discussing this with an extremely close friend about two weeks ago about how damaged our parents are, and what damage they’re inflicting upon their children as a result of the things they’ve had to deal with in their lives. It’s pretty much a never-ending cycle of despair. I know very few people who haven’t been emotionally scarred by their home life. However, you can choose your friends. And if you choose people like the amazing people I’ve known in my life, you feel as though , despite all the tears and anger, you’re going to be all right. My friends are my therapy, my comedic relief, my inspiration, and my saviors. My family is, for the most part, people I just have to put up with until I can become truly self-sufficient. I love them. But I don't like them.
9. What is your favorite childhood memory?
All of my best memories from my childhood occur outside. When I was growing up, the neighborhood I lived into was bordered by a pretty hefty expanse of forest. I knew all of the paths to get to where I wanted to go in the woods, whether those paths were paved, or worn down by kids like me traveling them so often. One of the paths led to a small creek where my best friend and I would catch frogs and talk for hours until it was time for dinner, or it was getting dark. I’d like to say the best memory included my friend, but my best memory was just me sitting on a rock in that small area, with my toes in the water. Just listening to the birds and the wind while watching tadpoles swim around in the cool water. I was ten, had stolen a pocket knife from my dad and I thought “I could live here if I really wanted to.”
Moments like that made growing up bearable.
10. What would you say is your biggest flaw?
I’m selfish. I believe in equality, but only if I’m more equal than everyone else. Sometimes I feel like I’ve been dealt a bad card in life, and that I should be entitled to more than what I have. There’s some part of me that is rational and knows that I could have had things so much worse, but it never stops the inward commentary that says “oh, they should have to do ________ because they don’t know what you’ve been through.” It kind of reminds me of this song that has a part that goes “what’s your story? Well, I don’t even care, I’ve got my own double-cross to bear.”
I have a lot of flaws that all sort of feed each other to make me one giant flawed person. But, I guess we all are. Some people are just more self-critical than others.
11. If you had been at Hogwarts during Harry’s fifth year, do you think that you would have joined the D.A.?
I’m not a brave person. I also have a respect for authority that transcends whether I agree with authority figures or not. I’d have never joined the D.A. I might have hated Umbridge with an ardent passion and have been really interested in learning new spells to protect myself with, but I wouldn’t consider being part of the D.A. an acceptable risk.
12. Describe how you react to difficult or stressful situations.
I hide. I’ve never said I was a brave person who was willing to take things head-on. When something is difficult, I retreat to wherever my sanctuary is at the moment. When something is stressful, I try to forget about it until it culminates into this massive thing that it never had to be, if I had just dealt with it initially. It’s a bad rut that I’ve gotten myself into, internalizing problems and hiding from them, but it’s hard to make changes. I’m pretty much set in my ways now.
13. Which do you value more: compassion or justice?
When I was in 8th grade, I had dreams of being a prosecuting attorney. I think people who commit crimes should be punished, even if they have extenuating circumstances that caused them to commit that crime. I don’t care. There are too many sad stories out there to let everyone off. Being punished equally is the only way to go.
14. Would you say that you’re a child at heart, or that you have an old soul?
Some days I feel like I’m seven and some days I feel like I’m on my death bed. Ultimately, I’m a highly nostalgic person, so I guess I’m an old soul who can’t help but try to relive younger days.
15. Which Hogwarts House do you think that the Sorting Hat would place you in?
At one time I used to be a member of Slytherin house at hogwarts_elite. When I first joined, I had just started college and was still heavily entrenched in my old beliefs. Gradually, as my old way of thinking slowly eroded, I realized I wasn’t a stereotypical Slytherin. I wrestled for awhile with whether or not I was actually a Ravenclaw who had been clever enough to swing her application in favor of Slytherin because that was what she wanted. But I realized that green and silver are my true colors. I may no longer want to get rich and live in a fancy apartment in some big city like New York City or London, but I still have an underlying drive to create, which is probably the greatest ambition of all.
16. If you have a picture of yourself and feel comfortable posting it, please do so! Pictures are fun!
So, I’ve realized that this whole answering questions thing has made me look like I go around with a look like this on my face all the time:
But, I really do like to laugh, joke around, and be random. So, since opaleyes shared her Jack Daniels picture, I thought I’d share mine:
