Five questions, from ![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ladyperegrine
Feb. 8th, 2007 05:19 pm1. In cooking/food chemistry, what are the most unlikely two flavors that
you've come across that actually worked well together?
I once built a chili lime version of Diet Pepsi that was excellent, though no one took me up on it. Once I developed a sparkling drink made out of champagne, rosewater, and red zinger tea which was actually beautiful. And I'm a fan of lavender and chocolate together.
2. What was the atmosphere like at an Ivy League school and did you
thrive there?
I miss college a lot. :) The atmosphere at Yale was pretty complex. There were a lot of really driven people, whom I mostly didn't spend that much time with, and then there were a bunch of really smart slackers, whom I spent more time with. You could tell some people were there because they'd worked hard to get ahead, and they were going to keep at it, but a lot more of us were kind of there as a reward for doing well in high school, and once we were there we didn't care all that much. I remember often having the feeling of "Wow, look at what he can do, and that's with being stoned 75% of the time. Imagine if he actually gave a shit!" in relation to a lot of my friends. I did well at the things I knew how to do, and not that well at the things I needed to do that weren't my strong points. I got the first C's in my life there. I didn't learn how to do things that were hard for me, and really, I still don't know that well how to go from bad to competent at something, though I know how to go from good to better. Yale's very insulated from the rest of New Haven, so we didn't go out off campus very much at all, except when I was brave enough to visit grad student friends.
Did I thrive? I guess so. I had a close group of friends, some of which I still am in touch with occasionally. I sang a lot, laughed a lot, did theatre, learned biology and Irish literature and ancient science. I was heavily involved with a group that read children's stories to each other while eating milk and cookies, every Thursday night. (Gods bless John, the man who brought me into that right after I arrived, by climbing with an invitation into my dorm room window.) Life in the dorms there was cozy – everyone ate together, hung out in a very small number of places. It felt like a big family, which I understand 20 years later really isn't the case so much. I had a serious relationship with someone that went wrong in a way that turned me into something of a stalker and ruined a lot of friendships and at least a good year of my life. My senior project was very haphazardly done, and I didn't understand it at all, really. (I mostly took tadpoles apart and glued them back together again.) Nevertheless, I got into a really good grad program, and did really poorly there. I miss meeting people the way you can in college, always someone new there. I should have kissed more of them.
3. If you could travel to any other country within the next year, and
money/logistics were no object, which would you choose and why? (Up to
you if this is a family or solo trip.)
It depends exactly how far money/logistics would be no object, I think. If we were just talking me, and the time and budget to do it, I'd go take some sort of a short course or theme-organized tour in Greece, in which I'd be able to meet people and learn something as well as see the country. I've always wanted to go to Greece, and I'm really in a mode now where being on my own and meeting the kinds of people who do things like that would be really wonderful. Actually, some of the members of my High Priestess' dance troupe are taking a Greek tour in March, and if logistics were no object, I'd go with them, though I'm not sure hanging around with dancers would be that great for my self-esteem.
If money and logistics were really no object, in a grander sense, I'd takelediva on a tour of Italy. I've promised her this at some point, and I still intend to do it. In reality if this happens it won't be for a few years at least, though.
4. What is your most tender hope for the mothra?
“Tender” is an interesting word. I had to think about this for a while. He's an exceptional person, already, at three, and it's clear he's marching to his own drummer, or possibly to the sound of the woodwinds. I wish him a comfortable balance of groundedness and dream, an ability to function with feet in the both the world of ideas and in the world of manifestation. I wish him love that inspires but does not smother. I wish that he has all the people he could ever want in the world to support him and bring him joy, but that in the end, he be a person who can be satisfied by his own mind and his own company, yet who is always driven to learn and grow.
5. Paper, rock, or scissors? And why?
Well, this is an easy one. Paper. It's the one with the hope of opting out of the conflict and just finding a better solution. You can write poetry on it, you can make paper airplanes, you can craft a letter of apology, you can paint.
you've come across that actually worked well together?
I once built a chili lime version of Diet Pepsi that was excellent, though no one took me up on it. Once I developed a sparkling drink made out of champagne, rosewater, and red zinger tea which was actually beautiful. And I'm a fan of lavender and chocolate together.
2. What was the atmosphere like at an Ivy League school and did you
thrive there?
I miss college a lot. :) The atmosphere at Yale was pretty complex. There were a lot of really driven people, whom I mostly didn't spend that much time with, and then there were a bunch of really smart slackers, whom I spent more time with. You could tell some people were there because they'd worked hard to get ahead, and they were going to keep at it, but a lot more of us were kind of there as a reward for doing well in high school, and once we were there we didn't care all that much. I remember often having the feeling of "Wow, look at what he can do, and that's with being stoned 75% of the time. Imagine if he actually gave a shit!" in relation to a lot of my friends. I did well at the things I knew how to do, and not that well at the things I needed to do that weren't my strong points. I got the first C's in my life there. I didn't learn how to do things that were hard for me, and really, I still don't know that well how to go from bad to competent at something, though I know how to go from good to better. Yale's very insulated from the rest of New Haven, so we didn't go out off campus very much at all, except when I was brave enough to visit grad student friends.
Did I thrive? I guess so. I had a close group of friends, some of which I still am in touch with occasionally. I sang a lot, laughed a lot, did theatre, learned biology and Irish literature and ancient science. I was heavily involved with a group that read children's stories to each other while eating milk and cookies, every Thursday night. (Gods bless John, the man who brought me into that right after I arrived, by climbing with an invitation into my dorm room window.) Life in the dorms there was cozy – everyone ate together, hung out in a very small number of places. It felt like a big family, which I understand 20 years later really isn't the case so much. I had a serious relationship with someone that went wrong in a way that turned me into something of a stalker and ruined a lot of friendships and at least a good year of my life. My senior project was very haphazardly done, and I didn't understand it at all, really. (I mostly took tadpoles apart and glued them back together again.) Nevertheless, I got into a really good grad program, and did really poorly there. I miss meeting people the way you can in college, always someone new there. I should have kissed more of them.
3. If you could travel to any other country within the next year, and
money/logistics were no object, which would you choose and why? (Up to
you if this is a family or solo trip.)
It depends exactly how far money/logistics would be no object, I think. If we were just talking me, and the time and budget to do it, I'd go take some sort of a short course or theme-organized tour in Greece, in which I'd be able to meet people and learn something as well as see the country. I've always wanted to go to Greece, and I'm really in a mode now where being on my own and meeting the kinds of people who do things like that would be really wonderful. Actually, some of the members of my High Priestess' dance troupe are taking a Greek tour in March, and if logistics were no object, I'd go with them, though I'm not sure hanging around with dancers would be that great for my self-esteem.
If money and logistics were really no object, in a grander sense, I'd take
lediva on a tour of Italy. I've promised her this at some point, and I still intend to do it. In reality if this happens it won't be for a few years at least, though.4. What is your most tender hope for the mothra?
“Tender” is an interesting word. I had to think about this for a while. He's an exceptional person, already, at three, and it's clear he's marching to his own drummer, or possibly to the sound of the woodwinds. I wish him a comfortable balance of groundedness and dream, an ability to function with feet in the both the world of ideas and in the world of manifestation. I wish him love that inspires but does not smother. I wish that he has all the people he could ever want in the world to support him and bring him joy, but that in the end, he be a person who can be satisfied by his own mind and his own company, yet who is always driven to learn and grow.
5. Paper, rock, or scissors? And why?
Well, this is an easy one. Paper. It's the one with the hope of opting out of the conflict and just finding a better solution. You can write poetry on it, you can make paper airplanes, you can craft a letter of apology, you can paint.
