guenievre

This seemed interesting... and certainly I tend to be sort of conservative about what I blog, not necessarily because I'm conservative but just because it doesn't occur to me that anyone would care.

Everyone has things they blog about. Everyone has things they don't blog about. Challenge me out of my comfort zone by telling me something I don't blog about, but you'd like to hear about, and I'll write a post about it. Ask for anything: latest movie watched, last book read, political leanings, thoughts on religion, favorite type of underwear, random techniques, etc. Repost in your own journal so that we can all learn more about each other!

Did that belief-o-matic quiz wandering around LJ...and here's what I got:
 <td>

1.	Neo-Pagan (100%)
2.	New Age (94%)
3.	Unitarian Universalism (92%)
4.	New Thought (82%)
5.	Liberal Quakers (76%)
6.	Scientology (72%)
7.	Mahayana Buddhism (72%)
8.	Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (70%)
9.	Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (65%)
10.	Secular Humanism (64%)

</td>
I'm dreadfully amused...though, 72% Scientologist? how very bizarre...

I've done this meme a lot, but I enjoy it, so there you go.

1. Leave me a comment saying, "I am shameless attention whore."
2. I'll then respond by asking you up to five questions. You will answer them, because you like talking about yourself.
3. You will update your LJ with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.


Questions from Orla:
1) What got you interested in fighting?
I actually have been interested in fighting for as long as I've been in the SCA, since my "I'm new and I want to do *everything*" days. Not exactly sure what drew me to it in the first place - perhaps it's from seeing Sir Fern at my very-very-first event, she had exceptionally shiny armor and thus...
I do it now for a lot of reasons - to support my Barony, for one; because it's fun of course, and because it's something I'm not naturally good at. There are a lot of other things I *am* good at, forcing myself to actually *work* on something is a different experience (I've avoided such in the past...)

2) If you had to concentrate on one thing in the SCA what would it be?
Anything but that! Honestly, I'm not sure I *could* - or rather, by my standards, I *am* doing so. My research focus is 14th and 15th century French food, and that's what I do the bulk of my A&S "work" in. The thing is though, I still want pretty/accurate clothes, and accessories, etc etc - which is where the sewing research and what not comes in. Almost everything I do, though, is focused on the same persona - a noblewoman from France, living sometime between 1400 and 1420. If I hadn't decided that that was my focus *years* ago, I'd be WAY more all over the map - "Oooh, shiny!" would have been an even better motto than "Nothing by Halves", but didn't sound as good...

3) What inspired your device?
I wanted something simple, geometric, involving both "blue" and "ermine". So I spent quite a lot of time drawing varations on that - the one I registered was just the one that appealed the most. I know, not much of a story...

4) Are you planning on entering the Persona Pent again next year?
Yes - haven't decided what my projects will be yet, but that's very much my favorite A&S competition - in fact, it's really the only one I make a point of entering.

5) What was your favorite event ever?
There are a lot of answers to that question, all with different reasons. Probably most recently the Elvegast Pas d'Armes, for the pomp/circumstance/romance of it... but also KASF (any of them) for the ability to food geek without people's eyes glazing over...

Here's how it works:
You reply and answer these questions in said reply. Then you repost the questions as a journal entry so people can answer them. Because I said so, that's why!


1. Who are you?
2. Are we friends?
3. If we’ve met, when and how did we meet?
4. What social event or place would you like to go to with me?
5.. Would you kiss me?
6. Describe me in one word.
7. What was your first impression?
8. Do you still think that way about me now?
9. What reminds you of me?
10. If you could give me anything what would it be?
11. How well do you know me?
12. When’s the last time you saw me?
13. Ever wanted to tell me something but couldn’t?

But then, that means gratuitious posting of pics of Colin Firth, so I doubt my female readers will complain...

Which Austen\Bronte gentleman suits you best? (+pics - 'cause the mind is sometimes lazy)

Fitzwilliam Darcy from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice is the one. Obviously you cherish his quick mind and his proud stance enough to forget about his slightly superior demeanour and all the other MINOR personality flaws. Furthermore he'll let you refurnish Pemberley, looks gorgeous in nothing but a wet shirt and breeches, cherishes you endlessly and if you're lucky he'll be even civil to your mother. Life with him will bring you a great many of exciting things. Boredom will be definitely none of them. Take this quiz! Quizilla | Join | Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code

The Rule is that you take the best picture you like from the first page of Google Images results.

The city and state of the town in which you grew up, no quotation marks.
Hopefully the picture won't disappear, it's some house for sale up there.  Not one I recognize, but the rhododendrons certainly say "Rural NC".

The town in which you currently reside.
So technically this is the other side of town.  Otherwise, I'd end up with a picture of the mall...

Your name, first and last, with no quotation marks.
Yay for lack of identifiable pictures of me on the web...

Your favorite drink. (Nikulai, does this still mean tea in Hebrew?)
Your favorite food. Yay decadence...

Your favorite smell.
And you thought it would be a flower...

EDIT - Apparently SEMagic tried to layer the links instead of replacing them.  Fixed now! (I hope...)

Standard Question Meme - leave a comment if you want to be interviewed...

1. If you could have any career *outside the home*, what would it be?

I've actually struggled with this question a lot, ever since I realized that I was NOT cut out to be a research scientist (that particular career track requires a lot of passion and self-sacrifice that I didn't have and didn't want to give). I've dabbled with the ideas of several careers since then - various permutations on cooking for a living come to mind. But I was afraid I'd hate it if I did it that much, so I dropped that idea. About the only thing I'm flirting with now is the idea of going into marriage counseling - it seems like there's a lot of people out there that have these potentially good relationships and can't see how they're destroying them, who could be helped. So yeah, if/when I go back to school that'll probably be my goal.

2. What is one garment from *outside* the period of the SCA that you would like to make/wear (can be a movie costume, designer dress, whatever)?

Hmm, one garment is tricky. Civ war stuff (ball gowns, not really day wear) fascinates me, as do certain styles from the 30's and 40's (ie some of the vintage ball gowns that Vogue's re-releasing patterns for now). Oooh, or regency stuff... see, there's a reason I try not to think about this - it's similar to the reason I try not to get intrigued by pretty things outside my chosen SCA time-slot - because if I do, I'll go off in ten zillion directions (channelling my inner ermine here...)

3. What's with the no-veggies thing? Are there any veggies you like?

The no veggies thing pretty much stems from having a very Southern mother who cooked vegetables until they literally fell apart. So most veggies are associated with having no taste - combine that with having overactive tastebuds / olfactory receptors for certain things (the odor of cooking cruciferous veggies) and having textural issues with other popular fruits / vegetables (tomatoes, strawberries, etc), it's no wonder I don't like them. I *have* started trying to teach myself to like properly cooked vegetables - I like certain stirfried things - snow peas and green beans - and I like corn... I'm working on the rest...(I pretty much agree with theferrett on all points here...)

4. In the past while we've had long-ish (and fruitful!) discussions on the peer/apprentice relationship. If time travel allowed for it, who in the Real Middle Ages would you have liked to be associated with, and why?

As a cook, I'd want to apprentice to Chiquart - as I've mentioned before, I really like his attitude towards food - he's so... fussy! it's fabulous. However, I'm not sure that's what I'd do if I had that time machine - I think I'd rather be a lady-in-waiting at the court of some powerful noblewoman - Isabella of Portugal, perhaps. She had an interesting life, and being a lady-in-waiting in her court/entourage/whatever would let me be part of it. Because, really, the thing that fascinates me about the Real Middle Ages is how the rich and powerful lived...

5. What is one thing (outside of SCA awards) that you would like to accomplish as an artisan that you could look back on as a crowning achievement, as it were?

Cooking wise, I'd like to be able to improvise a meal, using seasonal/appropriate ingredients and appropriate techniques (wood-fire, etc) that would be recognizeable to a person from 1400/France as "good food" - ie survive an "Iron Cook" type challenge. That, and I have vague plans for a medieval cooking wiki - that's more a research project than really an "artisan" project, though...

Clothing wise... I don't know what I'd choose for that - a lot of the projects I could do (ie a hand-sewn fur-lined gown) are more tedious than purely technically challenging, though an embroidered, hand-sewn, furred houppelande would be a lovely thing to do - and if I went that far, I'd of course want to do all the underlayers / hats / accessories (shoes, jewelry, belt, pouch, etc etc) to go with...ok, so maybe that is a project. :-)

At least I'm Buttercup...

Buttercup Inconceivable! You scored 85!

A respectable score. This movie is probably nestled in your dvd collection, and its not gathering dust either. You are a big fan, if not yet utterly devoted. A few of the questions may have stumped you, but instead of being annoyed, this just makes you want to watch it again to find out the answers. Well done!

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 83% on pbpoints

Link: The Princess Bride trivia Test written by spiceymonkey on Ok Cupid

Real post later....

There is a huge chunk of you that I don't even have a clue about your first name. I don't know how old a lot of you are, or where you live, or basic normal things. This is the problem with LJ, we all think we are so close, and we know nothing about each other.

I want you to ask me something you think you should know about me. Something that should be obvious, but you have no idea about. I promise, I will not make fun of you, or say who asked what.

I then invite you to do the same. Remember, seriously basic stupid questions, don't be embarrassed, you would be really shocked what I don't know about you.

Lately I've been feeling... hmm... like an intellectual slacker, in a lot of ways. Too many people I know are hip deep in their doctorates or masters or trying to go to law school or... yeah, etc etc etc. And in many ways, though I'm good at tests or what have you, I've always felt academically inferior to a lot of my friends, mostly because I'm somewhat lazy/shallow in my pursuit of knowledge - while there are a few things I "geek" on, and I'm good at trivia, I'm more like a very large very flat puddle info-wise rather than a well of knowledge on anything.

I need to fix this at some point.

But at any rate, I found this on alphasarah's journal while reading my "friendsfriends" page (having a paid LJ is quite nice!), and thought I'd do it.

These are the 101 "most influential" books as chosen by the College Board - the people who do the SAT and such - and while they're not the most authoritative people in the world, it's still interesting. So anyway, the ones I've read are in bold, the ones where I've only seen the movie are in italic (shame on me!).

( 101 Books )

Hmm, I'm not sure whether this entry came out as more snobby or pathetic - I guess that's up to y'all. It's just interesting - maybe I should read less fluff and fill in the list a bit. Any suggestions as to what I *really* need to read, on or off the list?