(no subject)

[moominmolly]

1. What were the best and worst things about where you grew up?

Best: For someone who grew up and went to a public school in central Maine, I really had a lot of opportunities. It wasn't uncool to be smart, there. Being smart got you more respect than it sounds like people got in other places. I was raised well, and things were pretty crisis-free for me, middle school aside.

Worst: ...That's hard, since I really do like where I grew up. The thing I liked the least was probably the math program at my school, that didn't let kids skip grades. I wasted a lot of time doing random things, like number problems or those spatial ring puzzles, so that I would shut up and not wander off during class. The rest of the school program was pretty excellent, though, all things considered.

2. You seem to have done a lot of weird and interesting things! What's the weirdest of them all?

Weird things, really? I actually think of dilletante as the Keeper of the Weird Hobbies. I'm trying to think of weird things I've done that ten other people on my friends list haven't also done. Well, there was the time that dilletante and I tried to skate to Wisconsin from Chicago (I think we fell down a couple of miles short of the border). That was the summer we started skating, if I recall properly, too. Hmmm. I've had people mail one of my brothers odd little gifts anonymously from around the world. (I believe that nacht_musik sent him a nibbling tool from Prague, for example.) This project, though ongoing, is currently on hold until he gets a permanent address again. I sewed a costume that came to me in a dream, and there was that one time the fire department broke up our backyard barbecue because of all the midgets. But really, I think I'm more "quirky" than "weird" -- I'm much more likely to, say, make fruitcakes for everyone I know than I am to build a dirigible in my backyard.

(I guess I'm probably more likely than most people to build a dirigible in my backyard, to be fair, but it's still a long shot.)

3. (borrowed from cicadabug via istemi, because it's just that good a question) What part of yourself, fundamental to the core of your being, do people most often completely fail to "get"?

I'm not athletic. I was a total lump growing up, basically until dilletante and I had been dating for a while. It's only recently that I've started learning about my body. This shows, if you know anything about any of the sports I'm into and then do them with me. I have the gift of perseverance, not athleticism. :)

4. Name three things on your life to-do list.

Just three? Okay. Fly a plane, raise a child, learn to play the harmonica.

5. What's the purpose of middle names?

To introduce grade-school kids to the concept of personal trivia and chit-chat? I rather like middle names -- each one is like knowing a tiny little open secret about somebody.

Okay -- I'm often bad about getting to the bottom of people asking for interview questions, so I think I have to take harlequinaide's lead and say that I would love to interview the first, uhhm, seven people who ask for questions.

And while there are questions going on, feel free to comment on this post and ask ME a question, even anonymously. Seriously, ask me anything, and I'll answer. I'll round up the questions I get and answer them all in a later post (or two). EDIT: Comments are now screened, etc. etc.

Comments

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

People totally, totally fail to get that I'm an introvert. But I think you can empathize.

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think we're pretty much in the same boat on that one. I understand.

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

And yet, it's true! :) You should see me at work. Or rather, you *wouldn't* see me at work, because nobody does.

People are difficult. They're often rewarding, and sometimes they even laugh at my jokes, but people take energy, and I do not naturally open up to them. Being around more than a handful of known people, or a single person I don't know well, is an energy sink.

Now, that doesn't mean that it's not sometimes FUN to be in crowds, but I have any number of entertaining hobbies that take large amounts of energy. I know folks who recharge around people, and I'm definitely not one of them.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

It's weird, because I see moominmolly as being not-extroverted in *exactly* the same way that I'm not-extroverted; it's just that she gets out more.

P.S. Please don't associate my real name with my LJ name. Thanks.

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's basically how I see me, too.

[chaiya.livejournal.com]

I get that about you, ukelele, but I don't get that about Molly. I think you're right -- she gets out more, especially in my social sphere, so that parses to me as being non-introverted. I wouldn't say she's an extrovert -- she doesn't exactly talk about herself, and that's the real watermark of extrovertism. But I wouldn't have classified her as an introvert without thinking long and hard about it. My gut reaction is to say she's neither.