Win or Die
Name: Jess
How did you find out about the community? If it's through an LJ user, please tell us who it is (individual user if possible, not just a community name!): Someone or everyone at hogwartsishome.
Age: 31
Location: St. Paul, MN
Occupation: I'm an adjunct physics professor, soon-to-be published fiction writer, and often-times simply a stay at home mother.
All About You
1. Describe your ideal house/home. Please go into as much detail as possible, and be sure to include your ideal geographical location in the description!. I have always imagined something very Tudor-esque farmhouse with an enormous kitchen that takes up the entire first level, which is also a bit underground so maybe it's more like a basement? Very homey and filled with dark woods and picnic tables. My husband and I are somewhat domestic in that we make our own stock, can foods, pickle foods, and make out own wine and beer, and I just dream of this castle-esque enormous kitchen. I think the house would be four stories, quaint, with gables and dormers and half-timbering. As for location? I really love Minnesota... if only it had mountains. I love mountains as well. I want to live in the U.S. but as far as the ideal geography I imagine someplace like Germany would have the right mix of lakes and rivers and mountains and cities? I've never been there though. Maybe my Tudor house is just spurring me there.
2. Imagine you’re given the classic opportunity: a genie granting you three wishes. What would you wish for? Please be as elaborate as you can. Wishing for more wishes is not permitted! I think that it's very dangerous to ask for the wishes that would change your life. Part of life is dealing with the tragedies as well as the good things and I can't help but feel that any major wish would naturally come with some catch or price. I might wish for something like that my son would outlive me, but that could mean I die tomorrow, so those things have to be worded very carefully and I would worry that I forgot a catch even if I didn't and I would end up with no peace of mind. I think therefore I'd ask for smaller things: 1.) That my son would no longer be allergic to peanuts. It sucks to have to be vigilant always and stressed about play dates and restaurants. 2.) That our house were larger. It's a nice house and we're happy here but it's way too small. And 3.) World peace? Ha, no, but probably that political opposition to the science climate change would cease because... well at least one wish needs to be selfless, but that's not entirely a selfless wish, is it? It's for the betterment of our planet and all of us.
3. In your life so far, what accomplishment are you the most proud of? Why? You can list more than one if you have trouble deciding. ;) YOU GUYS. I was in ACTIVE labor for 62 hours and I didn't use any painkillers. HELL YEAH. I swear to god, doing that is more freaking crazy and than jumping out of any airplane.
4. Which of the following is most important to you: Love, Money, Knowledge, Family, Friendship, Adventure, or Pleasure? Which is the least important to you? Please explain why for each choice. Most: Family. It's not the concept of family so much as specifically my son. He's my world. But I defy any mother to answer differently. Least: Money. Many amazing people have changed the world without a cent to their names, whereas most people with money are not the sort of people who would change the world for the better.
5. What's one quote (or passage, song lyric, etc.) that effectively describes you and your values? Explain. "Speak what you think today in words as hard as cannonballs and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said today." Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self Reliance
I believe in conviction, in passion, in belief. I believe in change and in growth as well.
6. How do you manage your money? On that note, how important is money/financial security to you? Go into as much detail as you can. I'm currently unemployed. I don't bring any money into the house and I don't spend any either. So I don't manage much at all? My husband makes the money-- and he's also quite good at spending it. I cook dinners, eat leftovers, and go to the free zoo. I only pay for gas and medical co-pays, and of course groceries. But truly I've never watched my accounts terribly closely. I have a lot of credit card debt to show for it because when you're unemployed even $50 a gas is a negative income. Though most of my credit card debt comes from traveling. I took a lot of trips in my early 20's that I couldn't afford. I'd do it again.
7. Name (and elaborate on) some of your hobbies. What are your favorite things to do outside of school/the office? I have a 1.5 year old. When you have a 1.5 year old, your hobby is changing diapers. Truly. I do write or make graphics on the very rare occasion that I can get near the computer without having to fight him off. We go to playdates every day or sometimes twice a day. We go to parks and the zoo. I try to walk with him a lot. I read audiobooks on those walks and driving to playdates. That is my life.
8. Name three things you are afraid of. Explain. Spiders. It's a phobia and I'm not sure there's any explanation. It's irrational. I'm also afraid of watching helplessly as someone that I love died in front of me. Not seeing them already dead, but watching them die, especially from seizures. This has happened to me and it's not something you can forget. My mother dying could be the third? For the idea of being cut loose, of not having a fallback person to run to in the entire cold and angry world.
9. Name (and elaborate on) your top three BEST and top three WORST qualities (personality-related, not physical). Please answer as fully as you can, as this is an important question.
BEST:
ONE. Communication skills. I think I do have a knack for organizing my thoughts into the written word as well as for expressing complex ideas. I've written this application more as a stream-of-consciousness so maybe it's not entirely evident here. If you can't communicate well with others you are forever an island.
TWO. Rational/logical thinking. When I am not IN A RAGE I am actually very rational about tons of things. Usually the path of my thoughts is well-organized, which I think helps with my communication skills because explaining the path of my thoughts is much easier.
THREE. Passion. Sometimes it sends me into A RAGE but I tend to think and feel deeply about things. It's surprising to me even most of the time how deeply I feel about something that, five minutes ago, I would have told you I had no opinion on. It's like my feelings on certain topics possess me rather than me possessing them. I would rather feel too much, however, than feel too little.
WORST:
ONE. Blunt. I'll say to my husband things like "Sorry, I haven't listened to a word you said in the past ten minutes. But please don't repeat it, I won't listen to it then either." I'll say to a friend something like "You know, I think what you said was really spiteful and misleading and here's why..." I like my friends to be honest and open with me this same way, but I've found the hard way that many other people don't agree with that philosophy. I don't really believe in politesse. Everyone goes through their lives pretending to be someone they're not in order not to offend others, and that offends me XD If my food sucks or you think I said something mean, for God's sake say something! I was raised to treat others as I want to be treated, and this is one case where The Golden Rule just might have failed me. Upon seeing a white elephant in the room, my first instinct is to say, "Hey, there's a white elephant over there! Let's discuss THAT!" Worse, if I see it annoys you to discuss it, I'll discuss it twice as hard.
TWO. Teal Deer disorder. I usually can't be bothered to read the three or four paragraphs of an LJ post unless I put my mind to it (or unless I'm genuinely interested in the subject matter). I do know how to read but I just don't have the attention span. It's gotten worse since I switch to audiobooks. FOREVER AUDIOBOOKS.
THREE. Flippant. I prefer to think of this as being laid-back, but what it in effect means is that I don't take things as seriously as maybe they should be taken at times. This is particularly harmful on-line where the errant flippant remark can start a three-month flame war. And nowhere is more dangerous to the flippant than Twitter, where you can make a smart-arse comment in 2 seconds and everyone will see it in 3 seconds. Wait 10 seconds and you've made the internet explode. To me it seems like people on-line take things too seriously, but to them it probably seems that I don't take things seriously enough. But it's true that in real life I often speak and act with little impulse control and do not give the expected seriousness to serious issues.
A Song of Ice and Fire Related
1.How many books from the series have you completed? I finished A Feast for Crows yesterday.
2.Who are your favorite three characters in the series? Why?
~ Jon Snow. I think because I identified with him very early in the series. My first step-mother hated my guts and was very verbally abusive to me. The things she said had a very lasting effect on me and took me a long time to get over. I also really respect his view of his vows and on honor. He has some issues regarding pride but overcomes them to be a good leader who can do what is best for the greater good despite the pain of individuals. I respect it.
~ Brienne of Tarth. She is so herself. She knows who she is and doesn't let the thoughts and feelings and prejudices of others stop her. She is also true to her vows and honorable.
~ Jamie Lannister. He is trying hard to also be honorable, or as honorable as the low expectations of others will let him be. He was my least favorite character until A Storm of Swords when he stood up for Brienne and we discovered why he killed King Aerys. He betrayed his vow to protect the king in order to live up to his vow to protect others. I respect that he made a hard decision and I think he made the right one, yet he has had to live with the prejudice caused by the consequences of that decision. I would rather have Jamie Lannister at my back than Barristan the Bold.
3.Who are your least favorite three characters in the series? Why?
~ Cersei Lannister. As a mother myself, I do understand her motivations, but I cannot condone her lack of empathy for people who are other people's children or parents. She is manipulative when often being cooperative would achieve the same goals. I cheered when she was confined. I felt like I should throw a party! It made up for Brienne's death.
~ Catelyn Stark. I should have put her first because there is honestly no one in this series that I despise more than her. I know a lot of people love her but again, as someone who identified with Jon, I found her behavior unforgivable. It also shows a lack of basic empathy. At the time I started this series, I had a newborn son. If my husband had come home with another newborn baby I am 10,000% positive I would have been angry at my husband but not the baby. Never the baby. It can never be the baby's fault for being born. Imagining how she felt when she saw baby Jon made me sick as I held my own baby son. Babies are helpless and pure and so so trusting, more so than any puppy. Anyone who can betray the trust of a baby is... You can see this bothers me XD I was not surprised that she turned out to be an equally horrible Stoneheart. I prefer Cersei to her. She has a lot of good loyal, intelligent qualities, which to me makes her crimes more egregious.
~ Theon Greyjoy. I get that he had pressures on him, but so does everyone. Lots of people managed to rise above their pressures to stand by their vows or to do the right thing even when it meant breaking their vows. Not Theon.
4.#1 Favorite moment in all of ASOIAF so far? Why?
~ It's difficult to choose. I was pretty damn elated to discover that Bran and Rickon weren't dead. I was pretty excited when Jon was elected Lord Commander. I was happy when Tywin was killed, when Cersei was imprisoned, and when Geoffrey was killed. I even enjoyed Lysa's death because she's creepy. I liked Jamie freeing Tyrion, and Jon and Tyrion's awesome friendship. I'm going to go with Bran and Rickon being alive.
5. In your dream-world, how would you like to see the series end, and why? Well, I guess I hold with everyone else(?) that Jon must be the son of Rhaegar and Lyanna. I know he is stabbed at the end of A Dance with Dragons. Having just started A Dance with Dragons today, the beginning is about Varamyr Seven Skins and his true death. I think this is meant to give us the example of the true death of a warg in anticipation of Jon's? But his is the royal blood that Melisande needs. So he'll probably come back to life. In the end I want him to be awesome, that's all. I want Sam to be awesome also, and Brienne to come back to life and marry Jamie. I don't love Danaerys so I don't really care what happens to her but it's obvious what probably will happen to her. In my dreams, Gendry and Arya would rule the Seven Kingdoms as King and Queen with Jon as Hand. Tyrion and Sansa would have a million cunning babies. Very little of my pipe dreams would happen to so I try to stick with more realistic scenarios. I think Jon and Danaerys will probably end up together because Targaeryens, yeah?
P.S. I mentioned it but I want to say, I read these books by Audiobook. I tried to check all my character spellings, but there may be cases where I went with what it is phonetically and the spelling could be wrong. This isn't from ignorance of the series, but from having listened rather than read.