win or die

[clonky.livejournal.com]

Name: Anna
How did you find out about the community? If it's through an LJ user, please tell us who it is (individual user if possible, not just a community name!): Through a user :D Smrtcock
Age: 19
Location: Albuquerque, NM
Occupation: College student




All About You

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!.
My ideal home would probably be a house right outside a good sized city. Preferably it’d be near the coast so I would have easy access to the ocean. It doesn’t need to be super large or anything, I just need somewhere cozy and lived in that I can call my own. All I really require is a large comfy bed, a place to keep all my books (I always fantasize about having a personal library) and a decent kitchen. I do however need to be near a city as I require a lot of stimulation and activities to keep me happy. But when I do need my down time I like to have a place away from the hustle and bustle to relax in. When I think of a future home I think of hardwood floors, big comfy furniture and antiques.

Imagine you’re given the classic opportunity: a genie granting you three wishes. What would you wish for? Please be as elaborate as you can. Wishing for more wishes is not permitted! Hm this is a very difficult one for me. My first wish would probably would be to have the ability to travel where I through teleportation. I love love traveling and exploring new places but have the unfortunate luck to also be afraid of flying. So that would be a convenient way to sidestep that part of traveling hah.

My second wish would probably be wealth. I won’t lie, having a bunch of money is pretty great. I don’t know exactly how much I would ask for but it’d be enough for me to live in a simple but luxurious home and be able to pursue what I like while still leading a comfortable life.

My last wish would be to increase my intelligence. I’m often frustrated that I can’t learn as quickly as I’d like. While I don’t want it increased too much a little boost would be nice to help me learn new subjects.

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

Probably doing trail work for four weeks at a national park a couple summers ago. I have a hard time sticking to something and completing it, and being able to finish an entire trail in four weeks and know that it will be there for quite some time was extremely rewarding and humbling. I have never been as strong or mentally sharp as when I was doing 8 hours of manual labor and eating lots of good food.

4. Which of the following is most important to you: Love, Money, Knowledge, Family, Friendship, Adventure, or Pleasure? Which is the least important to you? Please explain why for each choice.
Choosing between Adventure and Knowledge was pretty difficult, but ultimately I think I would consider Knowledge most important to me. Learning and processing information is pretty much what I do. I love college because all you do there is learn :P I greatly value my drive to learn and consider it one of my most important traits.

The least important to me is probably Pleasure I suppose. I could live without Pleasure even if it wouldn’t be the nicest thing, but I couldn’t live without any of the others.

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

“The quest for comfort murders the passion of the human soul/and then walks, grinning, from its funeral/but you, children of space/restless in rest/you shall not be trapped nor tamed” -The Prophet

I mentioned earlier I need constant stimulation. I really thrive in dynamic environments. While comfort is nice, I tend to get stagnant and depressed if I’m not constantly trying something new. I’d rather have a job that challenges me and lets me travel than have a stable home life.

6. How do you manage your money? On that note, how important is money/financial security to you? Go into as much detail as you can. I manage my money pretty poorly. Not super badly but I tend to indulge a little too much. I never spend it to the point where I can’t eat or anything but I also rarely have any wiggle room at the end of the month. Financial security and money are pretty important to me, like I said earlier life gets a whole lot easier when you have money.

Name (and elaborate on) some of your hobbies. What are your favorite things to do outside of school/the office?
Most of the time I’m reading or taking photos for class. I also really enjoy cooking, and often on the weekend plan and cook meals for my roommates and I. I also am into fitness and go to the gym often and do triathlon training.

Name three things you are afraid of. Explain.

Being alone - This is a big one. I constantly am afraid of being alone with no friends or family. I really need a support system around me. This is also why I probably would have trouble living alone.

Planes: I hate flying. I hate the loss of control and I hate knowing that if anything happened or the pilot did something stupid I would be dead. I like my feet on the ground where they belong kthx.

Being boring - Probably ties into being alone. I’m afraid of people perceiving me as boring or me being boring. I’m a bit of an entertainer and like engaging people in interesting conversation, but I also can be a bit pedantic and am afraid people will get bored of me.

Name (and elaborate on) your top three BEST and top three WORST qualities (personality-related, not physical). Please answer as fully as you can, as this is an important question.

Best:
Knowledgable - I know a lot of things about a lot of stuff. People tend to remark on the sheer amount of information I collect and store. I consider this one of my best traits and highly value my intelligence.

Loyal - If you earn my loyalty I will stick with you. I like being there for friends and doing favors for them. I’ve been told I’m a good listener and good for problems and that’s something I value in both myself and others.

Passion - When I get into something I get into it fully. I like excelling and have a bit of a competitive streak. I love learning anything I can about a given subject before moving on to a new passion.

Worst:

Social Anxiety - I am pretty socially anxious in that I’m constantly analyzing my own conversations and worrying about peoples perception of me. I have a hard time relaxing around people and often get paranoid and feel people are getting tired of me or not longer want to associate with me, which usually manifests in antisocial or closed behavior around them.

Laziness- I am lazy. I like sleeping a lot and often spend too much time watching How I met your mother instead of cleaning my room like I really should. This also touches the fact that I can be a bit of a slob.

Emotionally Unstable - I struggle with depression and anxiety and have some pretty vicious mood swings sometimes. I consider this a negative trait because I value stoicism and emotional stability even though I have lacked both those things most of my life (slowly building it up now).





A Song of Ice and Fire Related

1.How many books from the series have you completed? All of them!

2.Who are your favorite three characters in the series? Why? Brienne and Arya both because they exemplify strong badass women warriors. Both deviate from the standards of womanly beauty and strength, and both aren’t afraid to get dirty and wield and sword.

Jaime because I have a thing for dark knights, and because I can appreciate his unorthodox sense of morality. I really grew to love his character development and in particular his relationship with Brienne is great.

3.Who are your least favorite three characters in the series? Why? I don’t like Catelyn or Lysa Tully both for their irrational and misguided actions. They both let emotions cloud their senses and both caused far too much trouble from it. I also really dislike Cersei for this reason as well. She acts too hastily and in an overly emotional fashion and is a horrible person to boot.

4.#1 Favorite moment in all of ASOIAF so far? Why?
Oh man this is a hard one. Probably when Cersei had to walk naked through the town. I really, really enjoyed having her finally get consequences for her actions and I definitely hope this trend continues!


5. In your dream-world, how would you like to see the series end, and why?
Hm, to be honest I don’t really have a set way I’d like to see it end. There are so many possible ways the series could go. I would however like to see the Starks retake Winterfell and for all the Freys to die a horrible death :]

Sorry if this is too short, I have a hard time elaborating or talking a lot in general. 

Comments

Re: Lannister

[bluebeard.livejournal.com]

*sigh* I wasn't gonna reply because I cba to explain myself and it will inevitably lead to tl;dr, but I think I'd rather not have anyone in this comm. getting wrong ideas about my person, lol. So here comes the Teal Deer (more like Teal Moose, lol).

(1) I find it hard to accept that anyone thinks that people loving that Cersei scene equals misogyny. I'm pretty sure it has to do with the fact that Cersei's a nasty piece of work, not with the fact that she's a woman. Was that kind of punishment in itself misogynistic? Well, yes, since, you know, most of Westeros is highly sexist and definitely misogynystic. But hey, to each their own (talking about your view here, not Westeros' misogyny; I'm not okay with it at all).

(2) I realize people cannot magically know this about me, but I find it absolutely laughable how many people take me for a misogynist (well, IDK that you did, but this has certainly been the case in other comms). As if I had a problem with women. As if most of my best friends weren't women. As if some of the most important people and role models in my life weren't women. As if in most movies, shows, etc. I watch my favourite characters weren't women.

(3) The total number of fcks that I give about Cersei's sexual rendez-vous is exactly zero. In fact, if she wasn't such a manipulative /b/, I might have enjoyed it. I certainly delighted myself reading the scenes of Arianne with that knight whose name I can't remember right now. And I was all for Dany and Daario because sex out of wedlock is so not a problem in my book. I am, and have always been, more open-minded in the gender and sex department than most people I know. I also have more friends whose gender or sexuality deviate from the norm, more so than most other folk I know. So trust me when I say that I don't have a problem with her sexual activities. If I were her I'd have fucked a knight or three, maybe even at the same time. Why the hell not? Robert did it with at least thrice as many, and no-one bat an eyelid. It goes without saying that I think that at least in this regard most of us (including you and I) have huge problems with this double-standards that isn't as back-in-the-days as we'd like to think.

(4) I am not adverse to revenge, and I enjoy (in fiction more than in real life) seeing people get what, in my opinion, they deserve. Naturally the way in which Cersei was punished was sexist, but she brought it on herself for letting those religious idiots set up camp in the first place (amongst other things). Needless to say I'd have enjoyed any other kind of punishment directed towards her, because I don't like her character. It's ree-dee-kyu-los to think that it has anything to do with being a woman; that, to me, makes about as much sense as me liking what happened to Theon because he was a man. Logic fail much? Yes, I think so.

(5) I disagree about those 3 being strong women, and it doesn't have to do with them not being warriors. I also disagree with Anna that Sansa is a strong woman. LOLNO. I have Olenna Tyrell, Genna Lannister (Jaime's aunt), and Margaery Tyrell in my Strong Women list as well, if you must know, and Melisandre, though I dislike her greatly. Maybe I am wrong in my assessment of Catelyn, Cersei, Lysa and Sansa as weak, but hey, I don't wanna be right. I don't like their personalities at all, period, so whatever the hell kind of strength they possess is irrelevant as far as I'm concerned, as I dislike them too much to see any redeeming factors in them. I am the same towards many of the male characters (including, but not limited to) pretty much every male Greyjoy (all of whom I obviously hate because they're men, hurr durr), both Clegane brothers, that Illyrio Myopatis imbecile and way more. If you think I equate strength with physical strength and battle prowess, you're just plain wrong, chérie, as most of the chars I hate are male and do well in the battlefield (while some of my faves, including Peter and Varys, aren't warriors).

Re: Lannister

[bluebeard.livejournal.com]

tl;dr - All being said and done, at least I can see why you No Voted this applicant, even if I disagree with the reasoning. After all, you don't know her (whereas I do, so I am very biased). And for what it's worth, in spite of my disagreement with your views I respect you more now for standing up for something that you believe to be right, even if it's not the most popular opinion and/or other people don't/aren't seeing things the way you do/are. We obviously have different approaches to things such as strength and what is/isn't misogynistic, but I can't find fault in your having an opinion and standing by it - I am the same.

trigger warning: discussion of sexual violence

[windfury.livejournal.com]

Sorry for the repost, editing for spelling/typos/general analness ><

Ok I don’t want to have a big argument or make this a personal thing. For the most part I’m going to let this go and chalk it up to personal differences, I suspect we could argue about Catelyn or Lysa forever and not agree anyway. But the one thing I just can’t not comment on is this;

Naturally the way in which Cersei was punished was sexist, but she brought it on herself

It wasn't just sexist it was sexualised, what Cersei experienced was absolutely a form of sexual violence.

So please. Just no. No woman (or any person) ever deserves sexual violence or brings sexual violence on themselves. That’s called victim blaming, and it’s a problematic thing to do, and despite that it’s something very entrenched in our culture, which is why I feel I have to say this.

Plain and simple freedom from sexual violence is a human right. It’s not a right you can waive, or something a person can ask for or ever deserve.

Despite that we live in a society where survivors of sexual violence, women in particular, are often blamed for the violence that was done to them (i.e. told they were asking for it because of something they did, or didn’t do, or wore or whatever else), which is just garbage. So I really have to object to hearing that any woman deserved sexual violence, because no, she didn’t, and it doesn’t matter what she did that doesn’t change. Did Cersei do shitty things and deserve some form of punishment? Yes, but sexual violence isn’t any way appropriate for that.

And before you tell me it’s just a book, it, and opinions about it, don't exist in isolation from the rest of society and social norms, and comments like these reflect some really problematic real world mentalities that should be challenged when they come up.