Win or die.

[ender839.livejournal.com]

Name: Carrie
Age: 24
Location: NC, USA
Occupation: Graduate student (and hopefully soon bookseller at B&N... I really need positive cash flow this summer!)




All About You (Warning - may contain strong language!)

1. Describe your ideal house/home. Please go into as much detail as possible, and be sure to include your ideal geographical location in the description!.

There are a few essential features I'd love in a house: there must be a professional-standard kitchen. I love to bake (and cook), and I've been told I could sell my cheesecakes for profit. I doubt this is true, but it's flattering nonetheless. :) But yes, a very nice and modern and advanced kitchen would be ideal - a big flat stove, double oven, eco-friendly refrigerator (with the freezer on the bottom - I have one now and love it), lots of marble countertop space... Wait, you mean there needs to be more in a house than just the kitchen?

Shoot. Okay. Well, there's also got to be a nicely-sized library. Books are my friends, and since I have a lot of them, I'd really like a nice place to keep them, with desks and comfortable chairs and bookmarks everywhere. It would also be awesome to have one of those home movie theater rooms - you know, with the projector and the theater-style seats and the popcorn machine. I am a movie junkie with pretty good taste (if I do say so myself... though I'm certainly prone to loving "Harold and Kumar," among others ;) ), and a high-definition big screen is a must. This must also be hooked up to a nice digital television signal - once you watch (American) football in HD, there's no going back. And "Battlestar Galactica," for that matter.

Beyond those things, I suppose there ought to be a couple bedrooms, one for me and one or two for guests, each with a bathroom. I hate sharing bathrooms with my friends' siblings when I crash at their places, so individual bathrooms are a must. I like grilled food, so there should be a patio/deck, with maybe a quarter screened so as to keep out the bugs and/or rain. That's a surprisingly nice segue into the idea of where this monstrosity of a house should be. I am, with no pushing intended, a complete winter person. I was born and raised in the upper Midwest and I love snow and cold and bundling up - it means you get to come inside by the fire and have a nice cup of cocoa. :) I also lived in the desert for a couple years and really liked the lack of humidity, so if there's a place in the world that gets proper winters, mild summers and has no humidity, that's my choice. There's also got to be some semblance of civilization nearby, as I'd go insane if I didn't have the high-speed internet. Maybe Montana? Back to Wisconsin? Honestly, as long as there's winter (that's not year-round), I'm there.

2. Name three things you are afraid of. Explain.

The dark. I have always held this (mostly) inexplicable terror of the dark, which sometimes makes it awfully hard to get to sleep. I think it's the idea of not knowing what's around me that terrifies me so much, but I do keep a flashlight (or my phone) pretty close to my bed.

Failure. I suppose this is more along the lines of people being disappointed in my failure, but I include myself in "people," so it works. I put a lot of stock in what I do, and if it fails to impress - or even to be up to standard, I get pretty upset.

Bugs. Yeah, yeah, laugh it up. When I was 12 or so, I went to church camp, which was in the middle of some forest. Naturally, there were bugs all around - including ticks. We did (what we thought) were good bug checks before bed every night. Turns out I missed a tick on my scalp, which I didn't discover until a month later on an airplane. When we landed, my mother bustled me off to a bathroom, where she removed it, put it in a bag, and kept the damn thing. It laid eggs a couple weeks later, thankfully in the bag and not in me. Ever since then, I've been severely anti-bug.

3. What is your favorite aspect of your physical appearance and why?

I like my eyes. They're an interesting hazel shade with a bit of green that stands out if I wear a green or teal shirt. I like to think they combine my dad's light blue and my mom's brown, with a bit of pure "me" thrown in - pretty much the way my personality developed (anal from Dad, funny from Mom, and a certain je ne sais quoi from me. ;) )

4. If you could change one thing about your physical appearance, what would you change and why?

My feet. Feet, in general, are horrendously ugly (IMNSHO), and the world would be better off if they were never seen again. I'd find some way to permanently hide my feet from the world, so I never had to see those ugly frakkers again.

5. Imagine you’re given the classic opportunity: a genie granting you three wishes. What would you wish for? Wishing for more wishes is not permitted!

Oh, wow. I haven't thought about this question since my first answer was "Ice cream for life!" ;)

First wish - to be imbued with the desire to finish my current degree.
Second wish - to be imbued with the ability to finish my current degree.
Third wish - to set the genie free. ;)

6. In your life so far, what accomplishment are you the most proud of? You can list more than one if you have trouble deciding. ;)

Getting my MA in two years. It was technically a two-year program, but my friend and I were the first two people to complete the degree in the allotted timespan in three or four incoming classes - and much of our class is still in the program, a year later. We fought through a pretty divided and openly antagonistic faculty, poor courses, and some really crazy fellow students, and we got our degrees and moved the hell away from there - and on with our lives, unlike most of the other poor souls there.

7. Which of the following is most important to you: Love, Money, Knowledge, Family, Friendship, Adventure, or Pleasure? Which is the least important to you?

Most important - knowledge. It can get you several of the other things on the list (money, friendship, adventure, pleasure), so it effectively trumps and encapsulates those, making it the most cost-effective choice. :D And I really enjoy learning.

Least important - adventure, I guess. I enjoy reading about the grand epic quests to find lost treasure or to defeat the armies of evil, not going on them. My idea of "adventure" is more along the lines of "If we turn left here, we'll get to *place* sooner, right?"

8. What's one quote (or passage, song lyric, etc.) that effectively describes you and your values?

"What about aliens?" from Carbon Leaf's song "What about everything?" What about aliens? Why shouldn't we believe in them? For that matter, why shouldn't we keep open minds about everything? Why do we consistently let societal norms dictate our thought patterns? Is the truth really out there? I believe in the suspension of disbelief and all the wonder and marvel and original thought that comes from it. "What about aliens?" pretty much sums that up.

9. How do you manage your money? On that note, how important is money/financial security to you?

Very carefully and very important (security, that is), respectively. I like being able to provide for myself and to live comfortably, and part of that is controlling my money carefully. Let's face it - I don't get much, being a grad student, which makes it all the more important for me to be careful with that which I do have. That's why I really need that B&N job. :)

10. Name (and elaborate on) some of your hobbies. What are your favorite things to do outside of school/the office?

I mentioned it above, but I love to bake. It's funny, I actually don't remember the last time I ate one of my own cookies; I send them to my friends in various parts of the country or give them to local friends. It's nice and fun and relaxing (baking, that is), and it makes me feel like I've accomplished something. I also knit (albeit somewhat poorly), but mostly in the winter. I can do scarves, and that's about it... and those aren't exactly summer material. :) I play computer games (working my way through the CivIV mods at the moment), but I'm also not terribly good at those. I'm a recreational "gamer," definitely not a serious one. I have fun with them and sometimes play to lose. I watch movies (currently working my way through my collection - I think it's Tarantino next), read comic books (going back through the Ultimates, thanks to RDJ and "Iron Man"), and listen to music (I'm on the world's biggest Queen kick - it's been since August). Sometimes I'll meet up with friends and enjoy beverages of the beer variety or meals of the delicious sort. Ooh, and I like to sleep. A lot.

11. Name (and elaborate on) your top three BEST and top three WORST qualities (personality-related, not physical).

Best:
I amuse people. I've never been the smartest or the hardest working, but I make up for that by being among the funniest and quickest-witted. One of my life philosophies is "If they're laughing at you, they don't hate you." It's worked so far!

That said, I'm pretty smart. It would be impossible to claim to always have been "the smartest" (because such a claim is entirely false), but I test well and I know a lot.

I'm actually quite nice, once you get through my cynical exterior. ;) I sound mean and tough, but I'm really just a big old teddy bear, waiting to dole out love and hugs. Well, okay, maybe I wouldn't go quite that far, but I do want people around me to be content.


Worst:
I have a gigantic sweet tooth. My uncle once told me that he had two stomachs - one for regular food and one for desserts. Apparently, I grew the latter as well. If I were a superhero, my kryptonite would be a KitKat bar. And I'd never have powers again. :(

Pro-cras-tin-a-tion. If you were to look up the word in a dictionary, you might have found my picture - if I'd gotten it in on time. I get things done, just... barely on time. Example: I've written two papers in four hours each - the afternoon they were due. Each paper wound up being around 13 pages long.

I am easily distrac- oh, look at the puppy! Ahem. As I was saying, I'm very easily distracted. It helps me come up with new and interesting ways to look at my work, but it also makes me take forever and a day to get anything done.







A Song of Ice and Fire Related

1.Which is your favorite book of the series so far? What about your least favorite?

I think my favorite is A Storm of Swords, because I'm a closet Jon Snow fangirl. *ducks the incoming storm of swords stones* But there's also the Onion Knight and his quest for reading, and Petyr finally gets rid of Lysa. I am okay with this. And Tyrion shoots Tywin! And, come on, the Red Wedding is painful, but it's a frakking brilliant scene. The entire book is filled with brilliance, and I love it to death.

If you made me pick a least favorite, it would probably be A Feast for Crows, because it was a bit more confusing than the others with all the nicknames bandied about. It took a while to keep the various Iron Island folk separated. I do love it, though. Just not as much as the others. :)

2.Who are your favorite three characters in the series?

Ned Stark. Oh, Ned, you poor bastard. His death reads (to me) a lot like the end of the age of heroes in Greek myth - after the Trojan war and all the nostoi, the children of the heroes (who were demigods) realized their nature as demiheroes, and the ideals and values of the Iliad generation were entirely lost, save for story. The heroes get to be assiciated with abstract and divine qualities (see the first word of the Iliad - "anger"), but the focus of the next generation is on survival (the Odyssey's first word - "man"). Ned is the last "true" Trojan war-type hero in Westeros; everything that follows him is a struggle to live.
Oberyn Martell. Yeah, my reasons for liking him aren't nearly so philosophical. He just sounds hot. Come on.
Davos Seaworth. There really aren't too many characters that have traversed the spectrum of society the way Davos has, and he's an admirable fellow. I will be very upset if he really died off-camera, as it were. Very upset.

3.Who are your least favorite three characters in the series?

Theon Greyjoy. If he had nuts, I'd punch him in them. Talk about a punk-ass kid with an overdeveloped chip on his shoulder. I mean, he's just a reprehensible little jacktard.
Samwell Tarly. He... bugs me. He provides an interesting foil for Jon, but that's really about all he does. I find his reliance on sheer dumb luck annoying, and I find his overall quiescence obnoxious.
Gregor Clegane. At least he suffered enough for the atrocities he committed. He's pretty much just a truly awful man, with few scruples and a temper to match his stature. Really and truly, I just don't like him at all.

4.#1 Favorite moment in all of ASOIAF so far?

"My name is Inigo Montoya Oberyn Martell. You killed my father sister. Prepare to die."

5. In your dream-world, how would you like to see the series end?

However GRRM wants it to. I have a feeling that few of the characters are going to come out of this alive (or some variation thereof), and I look forward to seeing which ones make the cut. I just hope it's not a terribly cliché ending, but I have little fear of that. :)

Links to at least 3 applications you voted on:

(When things get rolling, I can update this, if you like.)

1 - link
2 - link
3 - link

(This has been edited to include three links to my votes)

Comments

[aikodestiny.livejournal.com]

Your emphasis on security and knowledge made me think of House Tully at once. Not only that, I've got a feeling that out of the great houses they'd be the most likely to enjoy a good meal, don't ask me why xD