Resistance Is Futile
Wednesday, 18 November 2009 12:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kaffy_rI Will, In Fact, Be Late To My Own Funeral
I believe it was sometime early in the spring of 1872 that I askedaibhinn to give me five questions, as part of the then-popular "resistance is futile" meme. And, by god, I have finally answered it. Ahem.
While I doubt anyone is interested in continuing this meme, I've been proven spectacularly wrong on such things in the past. So if anyone does want to play, here are the instructions, and I'll gladly ask them questions. (Well, mostly. One of the cats sat on my keyboard, and erased the original instructions, so I had to reconstruct them.)
Post a comment here with the phrase "resistance is futile" in it. I will give you five questions I've wanted to know about or from you. Repost them in your journal, and answer them.
I've answer the questions under the cut, because I'm obscenely verbose and want to save space.
What do you miss most about living in Canada, and why?
I think the easiest one to think about, besides dollar and two dollar coins (which, perhaps counter-intuitively, make all the sense in the world, and are more practical for me than paper bills) is my ability to "rest my eyes," as my Aunt Peggy used to say.
I come from a semi-rural area of Canada, and when I look out a window during trips back home, the horizon is a long way away, or at least far, far more distant than it is in my beloved Chicago. And there's a certain psychic relaxation that engenders that's really good for my heart's health.
Oh, and I miss grapenut ice cream. And smoked meat. And lobster rolls. And vinegar on french fries. And I miss the CBC nightly news — or CBC in general.
And here's pictorial proof of what I said about resting the eyes.
View from the Look-Off, Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia
What do you love most about living in Chicago, and why?
I love its crowd, because people watching is one of my major pastimes.I love its demographic diversity, because I've been exposed to so many more of my relatives in the human race than I ever would have in the places I lived before.
I adore its museums — no one, but no one, can top the Field Museum and the Art Institute for sheer gloriousness, and we also have fantastic ethnic musuems like the DuSable Museum and dozens of other big and little museums. It has a rough and scrappy artistic energy, and that includes all the arts, especially music and drama.
I love its gorgeous lakefront and the fact that the lakefront up and down the city shore is free for everyone.
I thrive on watching its politics and political fights and the fact that it (just barely) has two daily newspapers in which to document the fights, a rarity in the U.S. these days.
And finally, I love Chicago food. Only here can you can Italian beef sandwiches ("drag it through the garden" means "load it up with tomatoes, dill pickle, celery salt, every condiment and hot sport peppers, please!" Mmmmmm.) The the Chicago hot dog trumps every other dog, even dogs with kraut, which I love. We have a full platter of ethnic dining choices and all of them run the gamut from fast food to high cuisine. And now I'm making myself hungry. Not good.
What's your favorite fantasy novel? Favorite sci-fi novel? Favorite author in each genre? And, of course--why?
This one ended up being the most difficult question for me to answer, largely because of the big soft center of the SF-Fantasy spectrum into which so many of my favorites fall; is it fantasy? Is it SF? Who knows? Who can tell? My favorites also vary day by day, although there are usually a small group of authors who I adore.
Let's see. Alright, for fantasy today, I'll take Tim Powers, and what I consider his top three books: The Stress of Her Regard; Last Call; and Declare. The latter may be his masterpiece, and will change what you think about angels and the Brandenburg gate forever. Of course, after reading Last Call, you won't be able to look at a poker table again without checking nervously to see whether there's cigarette smoke circling above it, and if so, what direction the smoke's going.
For science fiction, I'll take, today, CJ Cherryh, for her ability to work languages, and cultures, into things both strange and realistic, and her ability to draw pictures of men and women under extreme stress, and make their stories beyond readable. Also because I love the Chanur series.
Given unlimited funds and easy travel, what one place in the world would you most like to visit, and why?
I'd love to visit the British Isles (almost said Japan, but it lost by a nose), mostly because I'm an unblinking, unashamed Anglo/Scots/Welsh/Irishphile. Scotland and England would be my first stop, followed by Wales (and if I was able to do it within the next week, I'd try to visit the Who exhibit before it closed. Or is it closed now?)
I want to see London, and I want to go to all the various countrysides and the ancient churches, and revisit Brighton, which I visited in 1979, and I'd be able to contact Whofans I know only online and treat them to various meetings, dinings, as well as cultural and fannish raveups.
Steven Moffatt emails to tell you he'll incorporate one idea of yours into the Who-niverse. One. What do you suggest, and why?
I'd ask him to please explore the TARDIS more; Her intelligence, more of Her interior, and the nature Her relationship with the Doctor. Because I don't think he'd be able to convince Christopher Eccleston to come back as Nine in some hare-brained fashion.
I believe it was sometime early in the spring of 1872 that I asked
aibhinn to give me five questions, as part of the then-popular "resistance is futile" meme. And, by god, I have finally answered it. Ahem. While I doubt anyone is interested in continuing this meme, I've been proven spectacularly wrong on such things in the past. So if anyone does want to play, here are the instructions, and I'll gladly ask them questions. (Well, mostly. One of the cats sat on my keyboard, and erased the original instructions, so I had to reconstruct them.)
Post a comment here with the phrase "resistance is futile" in it. I will give you five questions I've wanted to know about or from you. Repost them in your journal, and answer them.
I've answer the questions under the cut, because I'm obscenely verbose and want to save space.
What do you miss most about living in Canada, and why?
I think the easiest one to think about, besides dollar and two dollar coins (which, perhaps counter-intuitively, make all the sense in the world, and are more practical for me than paper bills) is my ability to "rest my eyes," as my Aunt Peggy used to say.
I come from a semi-rural area of Canada, and when I look out a window during trips back home, the horizon is a long way away, or at least far, far more distant than it is in my beloved Chicago. And there's a certain psychic relaxation that engenders that's really good for my heart's health.
Oh, and I miss grapenut ice cream. And smoked meat. And lobster rolls. And vinegar on french fries. And I miss the CBC nightly news — or CBC in general.
And here's pictorial proof of what I said about resting the eyes.
View from the Look-Off, Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia
What do you love most about living in Chicago, and why?
I love its crowd, because people watching is one of my major pastimes.I love its demographic diversity, because I've been exposed to so many more of my relatives in the human race than I ever would have in the places I lived before.
I adore its museums — no one, but no one, can top the Field Museum and the Art Institute for sheer gloriousness, and we also have fantastic ethnic musuems like the DuSable Museum and dozens of other big and little museums. It has a rough and scrappy artistic energy, and that includes all the arts, especially music and drama.
I love its gorgeous lakefront and the fact that the lakefront up and down the city shore is free for everyone.
I thrive on watching its politics and political fights and the fact that it (just barely) has two daily newspapers in which to document the fights, a rarity in the U.S. these days.
And finally, I love Chicago food. Only here can you can Italian beef sandwiches ("drag it through the garden" means "load it up with tomatoes, dill pickle, celery salt, every condiment and hot sport peppers, please!" Mmmmmm.) The the Chicago hot dog trumps every other dog, even dogs with kraut, which I love. We have a full platter of ethnic dining choices and all of them run the gamut from fast food to high cuisine. And now I'm making myself hungry. Not good.
What's your favorite fantasy novel? Favorite sci-fi novel? Favorite author in each genre? And, of course--why?
This one ended up being the most difficult question for me to answer, largely because of the big soft center of the SF-Fantasy spectrum into which so many of my favorites fall; is it fantasy? Is it SF? Who knows? Who can tell? My favorites also vary day by day, although there are usually a small group of authors who I adore.
Let's see. Alright, for fantasy today, I'll take Tim Powers, and what I consider his top three books: The Stress of Her Regard; Last Call; and Declare. The latter may be his masterpiece, and will change what you think about angels and the Brandenburg gate forever. Of course, after reading Last Call, you won't be able to look at a poker table again without checking nervously to see whether there's cigarette smoke circling above it, and if so, what direction the smoke's going.
For science fiction, I'll take, today, CJ Cherryh, for her ability to work languages, and cultures, into things both strange and realistic, and her ability to draw pictures of men and women under extreme stress, and make their stories beyond readable. Also because I love the Chanur series.
Given unlimited funds and easy travel, what one place in the world would you most like to visit, and why?
I'd love to visit the British Isles (almost said Japan, but it lost by a nose), mostly because I'm an unblinking, unashamed Anglo/Scots/Welsh/Irishphile. Scotland and England would be my first stop, followed by Wales (and if I was able to do it within the next week, I'd try to visit the Who exhibit before it closed. Or is it closed now?)
I want to see London, and I want to go to all the various countrysides and the ancient churches, and revisit Brighton, which I visited in 1979, and I'd be able to contact Whofans I know only online and treat them to various meetings, dinings, as well as cultural and fannish raveups.
Steven Moffatt emails to tell you he'll incorporate one idea of yours into the Who-niverse. One. What do you suggest, and why?
I'd ask him to please explore the TARDIS more; Her intelligence, more of Her interior, and the nature Her relationship with the Doctor. Because I don't think he'd be able to convince Christopher Eccleston to come back as Nine in some hare-brained fashion.
