prof_pangaea (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
prof_pangaea) wrote2008-06-04 03:46 pm
prof_pangaea) wrote2008-06-04 03:46 pm
professor pangaea question time!
these are the questions that ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
violetisblue asked me when i FOOLISHLY decided to participate in a meme for the first time since i was knee-high to a remus/sirius shipper. foolishly on account of, er, packing, moving, seeing my guy off to st. louis and myself off to temporary homelessness and crashing with friends and relatives. and some other stuff too, probably.
1. What's one (just one) stereotype, kneejerk assumption or casual piece of ignorance you see a lot of people who "should know better" indulge in regularly, that you would like to dissuade and divest them of immediately?
"anarchism" =! "chaos". anarchy means "without leaders", and thus is opposed to oligarchies and dictatorships and vertically orientated systems of all kinds, but that leaves all kinds of horizontally orientated organisational systems open. you'll have to ask an actual anarchist (or political theorist!) for details though.
also, it's "all right", not "alright", ok guys! (i cheated, yah).
2. You have a single lovely spring day to spend just wandering wherever you like around the city. Assuming cost of activities and physical stamina are no object, where do you go and what do you do?
i live in milwaukee presently, but if i had a day of wandering complete with magical purse of monies i would probably go down to chicago, mostly because i miss it, and also because man sometimes you just have to get the hell away from where you are EVERY DAY. it is close so it works within the day trip constraint (why not?). um. i have never had money, so i'm not sure what i would do with it. maybe i could get a really nice bike, instead of my garage sale deal, and ride around the city early in the morning (this is a nice fantasy part because i am still afeard of downtown biking because of my lack of 1337 skills). if i had monies i know i would go to Shedd's Aquarium and get the big package where i get to hang out with porpoises and cownose rays and otters. i used to go through the free bit of the aquarium every tuesday, and look on enviously at people with erm... ten dollars. or eighteen. whatever. i love the caiman lizards most, though, and i got to see them. they're like scaly otters. also i would hit some galleries what cost funds. also i would get some good vindaloo and such at a tasty place in the indian section of town. and then at night go to some neat art show, like a sound performance or a red moon production (i always wanted to go and was only able once. ;____;). since it is fantasy the weather would be wonderful and it would be an outdoor show. in my dreams there would be a sweet chipmusic show or something and goto80 would play and i would meet him and he would be super awesome. also at some point i would buy a piece of nice brie and eat it, because i love brie but have never bought any that was really, truly good. and to top off the fantasy i guess they would be filming a doctor who special there and i would meet david tennant and he would think i was charming and excellent and we would hang out. and elisabeth sladen would think i was handsome, and she would be there because sarah jane will obviously be the companion for the specials. and then there would be a burst of fantastic magical power, and alan moore would appear, and he would want to collaborate with me and i would agree and we would make The Best Art Ever. with magics.
3. You recently mentioned wanting to be a father. How many children do you want? How do you envision raising them? What things about your life (other than the obvious time constraints of childrearing, etc.) do you think would/will change thanks to fatherhood?
as should be obvious from the essay i have either just posted/or will presently post on the doctor's daughter, yes, i'm rather interested in fatherhood as both abstract concept and also personally. i figure three children is a good number. sort of... triangular. i am morbid a bit but not depressingly, at least i don't think so, but i do think of things like, "if one died then i would still have two, and they could support each other and understand each other in such an event." also you have enough of them for them to have interesting relationships with each other, but not such a huge amount of children so that you don't have time to give them individual attention. four could still work with that dynamic. but a square is not as strong as a triangle so in that event i would arrange them like a trapezoid.
since i am trans i am not sure if i will be able to have biological offspring but i was always really keen on adopting at least one child anyway, because, well, there's lots of kids who already exist. but i have been very much thinking lately about how rather amazing it would be to see my and my partner's genetic codes combined in a wee person, since i sort of realised that it could be possible. i dunno. still working on that bit.
me and my guy do not have resources for children as yet, and also i don't think we've quite got to that stage anyway, so it is a question for the future. maybe we will be settled somewhere and we will give them homeschooling and also send them out to public schools so they will be socialised and exposed to other people's ideas and thus have higher probability of diversity of thought and experience. maybe we'll be travelling and they will learn new things in every place we stay. maybe we'll be in foreign lands and they will have all sorts of neat experiences and friends and learn lots of curse words in languages that i don't know and then say them in front of me all the time and then giggle when i don't notice because i'm a bit thick sometimes. i assume life will change immeasurably, but i do believe that it's important for parents to have their own lives and interests, if only for purely pragmatic reasons: 01: so you don't go crazy, and 02: so your kids will be exposed to the truth that you can do anything that you are passionate about, instead of just telling them they can do whatever they dream of while they actually see you dying the slow, grinding soul death of dead-end job in the morning, mind-numbing TV in the evening. sadly i don't have a magical box that travels through time and space, or i would definitely gather the younguns onboard so we could learn about the universe together. so instead we will go on nature hikes and consult "a field guide to north american plants" when we want to know what kind of tree we are standing under. um, also i think kids like pets and i do and so does my guy, so we would have a dog or some llamas or some chickens, and the kids would learn responsibility by looking after them, i'm sure.
4. Which era of Doctor Who (Doctor, producer/writer, however you define "era") do you think is consistently overrated, and why? Which is consistently underrated, and why?
this is like a trick interview because i thought there would be loads of doctor who questions and there's only this one and i am totally unqualified to comment upon it! i've been watching dw since 2000, but i only got fannish after the new series came out and so i missed out on all the radw and OG back in the day when it was Teh Serious Fanboys and now that it's on livejournal and it's so powerful it killed snarry, you can easily find advocates for any and every era of the show, and they usually even have good reasons, although i will say that despite big finish and evelyn smythe (whom i adore) that i still cannot understand the Cult of Six. HIS FACE, people. but on the other hand i think that sylvester mccoy is hot as fucking hell, so what do i know? i WILL say that i think the old school fandom meme that mccoy is a bad actor is total rubbish. he's a very good actor, he just needs a strong director to reign him in when he gets too enthusiastic. this can happen to even great actors (listen to john gielgud directing richard burton in hamlet. illuminating AND hilarious!) he's fucking fantastic in "death comes to time", and he's playing the same exact character as he is in that BF audio "red", except the director for the latter just lost complete control of the situation about ten minutes into the enterprise and ended up like those dog owners running after their rottweiler on the beach after it grabs the lead in its mouth and decides it's going to go eat all the seagulls ever created. or at least try.
probably the best era of the show, for all around creativity and playfulness and aesthetic sense and all that is The Trought's era, but as to whether it is generally over- or underrated, it probably depends on who you talk to. and colin baker's era has HIS FACE in it, and also peri quite a lot, and neither of those things are so enjoyable to me, but they must be to someone or all those six icons would be Pure Irony and i would have to cry because fandom had been overtaken by hipsters.
5. What do you think is the biggest mistake most people make in their lives, and/or the biggest delusion most people cherish about themselves? What have been your own biggest mistakes/delusions in this regard?
people are generally presented with a very narrow set of options regarding what are the correct goals in life, what are the correct things to want and most of all to expect. that's natural, since any particular society is quite dependent upon people doing the things that are expected and needed to continue that society along, and those expectations are encoded in the culture, and so people somehow end up becoming the manager of a wal-mart because they were pretty good at it and get a nice house in an ok section of town and now they can afford digital cable and high-speed internet and a vacation to south carolina every year, so things are good, right? but then you're 83 and you're like, um. did i just spend my life selling hot dogs and cheap flip-flops to people? i should have got into meth, or hedge funds, and made a little bit more money. but then what the hell would you have been likely to spend that extra money on? probably organic hot dogs and bamboo sandals. but it's too late for hedge funds or meth, or even something with some sort of reason for existing outside of perpetuating the current socio-economic structure, since now you're in a nursing home and the highlight of your day is when that one competent RNA comes in the afternoons and finally changes your large-size adult diaper and turns your TV onto animal planet for you. all the other personal care workers are too lazy to bother more than once a shift, but after all they're only paid $8.00 an hour and they're trying to sell mary kay products to the other employees to earn a bit of extra money so they can pay their electric bill or maybe go out to applebees once a month.
in conclusion: i could always learn how to make my own cheese. i bet that would count as "character-building" with kids, too.
violetisblue asked me when i FOOLISHLY decided to participate in a meme for the first time since i was knee-high to a remus/sirius shipper. foolishly on account of, er, packing, moving, seeing my guy off to st. louis and myself off to temporary homelessness and crashing with friends and relatives. and some other stuff too, probably. 1. What's one (just one) stereotype, kneejerk assumption or casual piece of ignorance you see a lot of people who "should know better" indulge in regularly, that you would like to dissuade and divest them of immediately?
"anarchism" =! "chaos". anarchy means "without leaders", and thus is opposed to oligarchies and dictatorships and vertically orientated systems of all kinds, but that leaves all kinds of horizontally orientated organisational systems open. you'll have to ask an actual anarchist (or political theorist!) for details though.
also, it's "all right", not "alright", ok guys! (i cheated, yah).
2. You have a single lovely spring day to spend just wandering wherever you like around the city. Assuming cost of activities and physical stamina are no object, where do you go and what do you do?
i live in milwaukee presently, but if i had a day of wandering complete with magical purse of monies i would probably go down to chicago, mostly because i miss it, and also because man sometimes you just have to get the hell away from where you are EVERY DAY. it is close so it works within the day trip constraint (why not?). um. i have never had money, so i'm not sure what i would do with it. maybe i could get a really nice bike, instead of my garage sale deal, and ride around the city early in the morning (this is a nice fantasy part because i am still afeard of downtown biking because of my lack of 1337 skills). if i had monies i know i would go to Shedd's Aquarium and get the big package where i get to hang out with porpoises and cownose rays and otters. i used to go through the free bit of the aquarium every tuesday, and look on enviously at people with erm... ten dollars. or eighteen. whatever. i love the caiman lizards most, though, and i got to see them. they're like scaly otters. also i would hit some galleries what cost funds. also i would get some good vindaloo and such at a tasty place in the indian section of town. and then at night go to some neat art show, like a sound performance or a red moon production (i always wanted to go and was only able once. ;____;). since it is fantasy the weather would be wonderful and it would be an outdoor show. in my dreams there would be a sweet chipmusic show or something and goto80 would play and i would meet him and he would be super awesome. also at some point i would buy a piece of nice brie and eat it, because i love brie but have never bought any that was really, truly good. and to top off the fantasy i guess they would be filming a doctor who special there and i would meet david tennant and he would think i was charming and excellent and we would hang out. and elisabeth sladen would think i was handsome, and she would be there because sarah jane will obviously be the companion for the specials. and then there would be a burst of fantastic magical power, and alan moore would appear, and he would want to collaborate with me and i would agree and we would make The Best Art Ever. with magics.
3. You recently mentioned wanting to be a father. How many children do you want? How do you envision raising them? What things about your life (other than the obvious time constraints of childrearing, etc.) do you think would/will change thanks to fatherhood?
as should be obvious from the essay i have either just posted/or will presently post on the doctor's daughter, yes, i'm rather interested in fatherhood as both abstract concept and also personally. i figure three children is a good number. sort of... triangular. i am morbid a bit but not depressingly, at least i don't think so, but i do think of things like, "if one died then i would still have two, and they could support each other and understand each other in such an event." also you have enough of them for them to have interesting relationships with each other, but not such a huge amount of children so that you don't have time to give them individual attention. four could still work with that dynamic. but a square is not as strong as a triangle so in that event i would arrange them like a trapezoid.
since i am trans i am not sure if i will be able to have biological offspring but i was always really keen on adopting at least one child anyway, because, well, there's lots of kids who already exist. but i have been very much thinking lately about how rather amazing it would be to see my and my partner's genetic codes combined in a wee person, since i sort of realised that it could be possible. i dunno. still working on that bit.
me and my guy do not have resources for children as yet, and also i don't think we've quite got to that stage anyway, so it is a question for the future. maybe we will be settled somewhere and we will give them homeschooling and also send them out to public schools so they will be socialised and exposed to other people's ideas and thus have higher probability of diversity of thought and experience. maybe we'll be travelling and they will learn new things in every place we stay. maybe we'll be in foreign lands and they will have all sorts of neat experiences and friends and learn lots of curse words in languages that i don't know and then say them in front of me all the time and then giggle when i don't notice because i'm a bit thick sometimes. i assume life will change immeasurably, but i do believe that it's important for parents to have their own lives and interests, if only for purely pragmatic reasons: 01: so you don't go crazy, and 02: so your kids will be exposed to the truth that you can do anything that you are passionate about, instead of just telling them they can do whatever they dream of while they actually see you dying the slow, grinding soul death of dead-end job in the morning, mind-numbing TV in the evening. sadly i don't have a magical box that travels through time and space, or i would definitely gather the younguns onboard so we could learn about the universe together. so instead we will go on nature hikes and consult "a field guide to north american plants" when we want to know what kind of tree we are standing under. um, also i think kids like pets and i do and so does my guy, so we would have a dog or some llamas or some chickens, and the kids would learn responsibility by looking after them, i'm sure.
4. Which era of Doctor Who (Doctor, producer/writer, however you define "era") do you think is consistently overrated, and why? Which is consistently underrated, and why?
this is like a trick interview because i thought there would be loads of doctor who questions and there's only this one and i am totally unqualified to comment upon it! i've been watching dw since 2000, but i only got fannish after the new series came out and so i missed out on all the radw and OG back in the day when it was Teh Serious Fanboys and now that it's on livejournal and it's so powerful it killed snarry, you can easily find advocates for any and every era of the show, and they usually even have good reasons, although i will say that despite big finish and evelyn smythe (whom i adore) that i still cannot understand the Cult of Six. HIS FACE, people. but on the other hand i think that sylvester mccoy is hot as fucking hell, so what do i know? i WILL say that i think the old school fandom meme that mccoy is a bad actor is total rubbish. he's a very good actor, he just needs a strong director to reign him in when he gets too enthusiastic. this can happen to even great actors (listen to john gielgud directing richard burton in hamlet. illuminating AND hilarious!) he's fucking fantastic in "death comes to time", and he's playing the same exact character as he is in that BF audio "red", except the director for the latter just lost complete control of the situation about ten minutes into the enterprise and ended up like those dog owners running after their rottweiler on the beach after it grabs the lead in its mouth and decides it's going to go eat all the seagulls ever created. or at least try.
probably the best era of the show, for all around creativity and playfulness and aesthetic sense and all that is The Trought's era, but as to whether it is generally over- or underrated, it probably depends on who you talk to. and colin baker's era has HIS FACE in it, and also peri quite a lot, and neither of those things are so enjoyable to me, but they must be to someone or all those six icons would be Pure Irony and i would have to cry because fandom had been overtaken by hipsters.
5. What do you think is the biggest mistake most people make in their lives, and/or the biggest delusion most people cherish about themselves? What have been your own biggest mistakes/delusions in this regard?
people are generally presented with a very narrow set of options regarding what are the correct goals in life, what are the correct things to want and most of all to expect. that's natural, since any particular society is quite dependent upon people doing the things that are expected and needed to continue that society along, and those expectations are encoded in the culture, and so people somehow end up becoming the manager of a wal-mart because they were pretty good at it and get a nice house in an ok section of town and now they can afford digital cable and high-speed internet and a vacation to south carolina every year, so things are good, right? but then you're 83 and you're like, um. did i just spend my life selling hot dogs and cheap flip-flops to people? i should have got into meth, or hedge funds, and made a little bit more money. but then what the hell would you have been likely to spend that extra money on? probably organic hot dogs and bamboo sandals. but it's too late for hedge funds or meth, or even something with some sort of reason for existing outside of perpetuating the current socio-economic structure, since now you're in a nursing home and the highlight of your day is when that one competent RNA comes in the afternoons and finally changes your large-size adult diaper and turns your TV onto animal planet for you. all the other personal care workers are too lazy to bother more than once a shift, but after all they're only paid $8.00 an hour and they're trying to sell mary kay products to the other employees to earn a bit of extra money so they can pay their electric bill or maybe go out to applebees once a month.
in conclusion: i could always learn how to make my own cheese. i bet that would count as "character-building" with kids, too.
no subject
three kids = the awesome. ;D
no subject
TRIANGLE!