Win or Die

[subitoburrito.livejournal.com]

Name: KJ
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!): Simply through searches and chance
Age: 23
Location: New York
Occupation: I’m currently a substitute teacher, hoping to soon become a high school social studies teacher or get a more permanent position in a local museum




All About You

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!.

I’ve always dreamed of living in a fairly rural area, surrounded by farmland. My actual house doesn’t have to be anything special. As long as there are enough bedrooms from my family, a kitchen where two people can cook without bumping elbows, and enough wall space for my book shelves, I’ll be quite happy.

Ideally, I’d love to have nothing but fields and pastures around my home. While I don’t have much interest in farming as a means of life, I’d like to be a part of an agricultural community. To be able to look out my front window and see rolling hills would be lovely. My own yard only has to be large enough for a vegetable garden and some room to run around in. No busy roads. I grew up next to a major highway and have heard cars in the background all my life. I’d like to escape that and be able to live in a place that is truly quiet, with only the noises of nature.

2. 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!

First, I want the ability to go back in time. There is a 95% chance that I would only use this power for inane little things, like going back in order to prevent myself from burning my dinner, but the other 5% could be spent reliving moments of my life that I never want to forget.

Second, I’d wish for both my family and I to all have perfect health. We’re each plagued by issues that just keep cropping up year after year. It would be a downright miracle if I no long had to suffer from constant nausea, or my father could make it through the day without feeling so horribly drained of all his energy.

Lastly, I’m honestly stuck on what my third wish would be for, so I’m just going to go with the ol’ faithful– Money. I want to have an inexhaustible income. I’d like to be able to live comfortably without worrying too much over finances, while having the option of donating the rest of my fortune to research and educational efforts. Being able to supply schools with updated textbooks, new technology, and musical instruments would be a big deal to me. And with any remaining funds, I could always go on to invest in agriculture.

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. ;)

I managed to earn my Master’s Degree at the age of 23. The education field is fairly difficult to get into right now and it's not uncommon for 1,000+ to apply for a single Social Studies opening, so I made the decision to continue straight into grad school after I got my first degree. I was by far the youngest student in many of my classes and, by the time I graduated, was even younger than the newest grad students entering the program. This is something that truly sets me apart from many people my age who are involved in Education. Not only did I finish my program within only 3 semesters, but I did so with honors and some great research to show for it. I studied hard in order to earn the scholarships that helped me afford it and I'm very thankful that I had the opportunity to go straight through my schooling.

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.

I put Knowledge fairly high up there. My education is important to me and has defined my life up to this point. I even look forward to pursuing a doctorate degree at some point in the future. Academics will always carry weight in my life and I’m working hard to be able to impart knowledge on others as well. Knowledge is something that no one can take away from you, something that you can chase after for no other reason than the sake of having it. Even if the type of knowledge that you possess isn’t scholarly, I fully believe that knowing and understanding the world around you will help you live a better life.

The least important here would probably be Adventure. I’m not an adventurous person. I’d rather live my life comfortably, without risk or danger. If that means staying at home, then so be it. But I am not at all interested in thrill seeking or putting my life in jeopardy. No thanks.

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

“I know not what is coming, but be it what it will, I’ll go to it laughing.” Melville, Moby Dick

I’m a firm believer that everything works out in the end. There is no sense in getting myself worked up or worried over how my life is going. No matter what, you simply have to accept that even if your best plans are ruined, you will be alright. All you can do is enjoy yourself and let life take you there.

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’m very tight fisted. Even if I have enough money to get by, I tend to save up instead buying things that I may want. I get much more satisfaction with knowing that I’m prepared “just in case” than I ever would from freely spending. Sometimes this means that I go without, but that doesn’t bother me very much.

Financial security is important to me, but having an excess of wealth isn’t. Geez, I’m going into teaching, after all. Teachers aren’t exactly in it for the money. I just want to have a stable and consistent income that I can rely on. If I can pay my bills and save up a little at the end of each month, I‘ll be happy. Even if I were to somehow win the lottery, I don’t see myself ever becoming comfortable with being a big spender. It just isn’t how I’m wired.

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

I spend a lot of my free time quilting. It’s a relaxing hobby that allows me to be very creative and imaginative while still concentrating on complex technical work. I honestly think that it’s fun to match up colors and try out new patterns that I found online. I occasionally commission or sell full size quilts in my area, but most of my projects are given away as gifts to my family and friends. It’s really the perfect hobby for winter, since I can do it all indoors and stay warm. It also makes me feel incredibly smug and proud when I manage to finish a project that took me months.

I also enjoy rowing crew. As an undergraduate, I was part of my college’s varsity women’s crew team. I rowed bow seat in an 8 boat and loved the feeling of being part of the team. Being in the same boat was great at keeping me active and meeting people that I never would have talked to otherwise. Not to mention that the feeling of competing in a regatta is a rush, when you’re all racing across the water in perfect rhythm with one another. I’ve been trying to find a local crew team to join during that past few years, but it’ll have to wait until I move closer to a larger body of water. For now, I just watch races online and erg indoors.

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

Death – I think that this is a fairly reasonable fear that everyone goes through at some point. I’ve had panic attacks at the thought of my own death and really don’t enjoy spending much time thinking about the topic. If I had tried to read this book series a few years ago, it probably would have been too much for me to handle.

Getting burnt – When I was younger, I remember helping my mother in the kitchen and having her accidentally pour some boiling water on my arm. I was fine and didn’t even blister from it, but it’s made me very nervous around hot objects. I can appreciate fire from a distance and like having things like fireplaces and incense around, but I can’t stand to get very close to them. I’m especially conscious of when I’m in the kitchen with other people and they are carrying hot pans around me. And using the oven? Forget it, I usually ask someone else to take things out of it for me. But on the plus side, this fear has led me to own quite the collection of oven mitts.

Making telephone calls – This isn’t so much of a fear as an anxiety. I can’t quite explain why I find it so difficult to pick up the phone, but I’m always stuck with the feeling of bothering the person at the other end. I’d hate to force someone into talking to me or answering my questions. I tend to plan out my initial greetings and conversations before I’m comfortable dialing the number. There are days when I just plain can’t do it, when even flipping open my phone makes me feel panicked and scared. But in the end, I can usually force myself to go through with the call. It gets easier when I have to make multiple calls in a row: Once I get into the groove, using the telephone is no big deal.

9. 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:
Patience – It takes quite a bit for my patience to ever wear thin. There are only a few times in my life, that I can remember, where I’ve finally snapped and truly needed the world around me to hurry up. But long lines, hours of car rides, laboring to work with a struggling student: these actions come naturally to me. I’m comfortable with allowing my daily life to move forward slowly and can always stay very calm while it happens.

Intellectually Motivated - I mentioned above that I’m a very academically driven person. My mind is just built that way. I’ve always enjoyed school and will happily work in that sort of environment for the rest of my life. It means a lot to me to bring passion and excitement into the classroom in order to get my students interested in their school work. If I can learn more and stay thrilled by my subject, then I know that I can get others invested as well. This really pushes me to continue learning and studying anything that may catch my attention.

Positive - In the end, I’m an optimistic person. Everything is going to work out eventually. Even if I run into problems or get frustrated at one point in time, I know that I’ll be able to work my way through it. It’s just a matter of staying focused and not allowing the negative things in life to get me down. I try not to worry or get too worked up. The more you dwell on bad situations, the more problems you’re going to create for yourself.

Worst:
Unobservant - I don’t know if it’s because I’ve always had poor eye sight and been forced to wear glasses, or whether I just plain don’t notice the world around me, but I am not the most vigilant person out there. I could walk past a major celebrity on the street and never realize that we stood within inches of each other. My problem is that I can only focus my attention on things that I’m consciously, blatantly thinking about. Sometimes this may mean that I can remember every detail of a speech or lecture, but never see that the speaker isn’t wearing pants. C’est la vie.

Elitist - I know that I can get pretty darn pretentious when talking about literature or the areas of history that I’ve studied. I try my best not to, but there’s a certain amount of snobbery that seems to form whenever I dedicate myself to an interest. I desperately need friends and family to call me out on this when it happens simply because I have trouble seeing it myself. I like to think that I change my behavior for the better, but that darn elitism always seems to come back.

Soft Spoken - I’m a woman of few words. It isn’t exactly that I’m shy, but I never have a lot to say and tend to revert back to silence. In general conversations, I’m much happier listening than I am talking. I’m also very conscious of when I might be bothering or boring someone, so if I question their interest, I tend not to say anything at all. This can lead to a lot of awkward silences. It also means that I’m referred to as the Quiet/Silent Girl. (I won the Most Quiet superlative for a few years in a row in high school and was even given a “Whisper Award” in college.) I’m mostly okay with this, but I wish that I had more words to fill in the gaps.




A Song of Ice and Fire Related

1.How many books from the series have you completed?

All five of them.

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

Bronn – Who can’t love Bronn? Even though he is a sell sword, I admire his complete openness and honesty about what motivates him in life. While others seem to dance around their desires and base instincts, he was fully accepted the harsh life that he leads. I especially admire his relationship with Tyrion (who is my favorite pov character). The two of them are a great fit, balancing one another out with both mind and body. They’re both broken, know that they’re broken, and use each other for mutual benefit.

I live for his black humor. Naming Lolly’s son “Tyrion” was a stroke of genius both from Bronn and Martin. Not to mention that knowing he became Lord Protector of Stokeworth was so fulfilling. He doesn’t necessarily deserve the title, but neither do the many other lords in Westeros. He used his own strengths and influences to earn that position for himself and I really hope that the future books give us a better look at how he manages his title.

Brienne - George RR Martin has some issues with his representations of women in this series, but he struck gold with Brienne. It would have been very easy for her to be raised up as a white knight, the saintly virginal hero among corrupted men, but her character doesn’t follow through with those initial expectations. And I appreciate that quite a lot.

The fact is that many of Brienne’s efforts fail. Renly is murdered right in front of her, she never finds Sansa, can’t even stop Podrick Payne from being hanged, and seems to turn on Jaime. Brienne has a very strong moral code and works hard to live up to the knightly dreams that she has for herself, but she consistently falls shorts. The interesting thing is that, despite how others treat her and view her, she doesn’t fail because she’s a woman. Instead, she fails because of so many different circumstances and people working against her.

I really like seeing an active female character who directly involves herself in the events around her. Yet unlike Cersei, say, she isn’t completely defined by her gender and manages to advance herself without resorting to her sexuality or manipulation. And unlike someone like Arya, her motives aren’t completely built on revenge. I have a lot of respect for Brienne.

Sandor Clegane - Clegane builds such great relationships with the other characters. From his soft treatment of Sansa to his tough love with Arya to the father-son dynamic with Joffrey, his actions constantly contradict each other while still remaining plausible.

After learning Clegane’s backstory, I gained a lot of sympathy for his character. He’s not a good person, not at heart, but his family and environment shaped him that way. Everything about his life built up a rage that he never learned how to handle. In a way, I feel that Arya has the potential to become a person like him. The difference between them is that the Hound has the strength of both Lannister authority and his reputation behind him, which allow him to do a whole lot more damage than he would ever be able to accomplish on his own. Even after he is dead/missing, the simple possession of his helmet allows other bandits to wreak complete havoc in the countryside. That sort of mystique is an amazing thing.

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

Robin Arryn – I don’t quite feel justified in disliking a child, especially since he is only the product of his mother’s decisions, but dear lord I hate this kid. His dependence on Sansa leaves me feeling especially uncomfortable. I feel that all the relationships he develops are inherently unhealthy, both due to the weird family dynamic he’s a part of and his illness. Sadly, the fact that he’s unhealthy means that he’s consistently babied and treated like a much younger child than he actually is. That sort of eternal infancy just makes my skin crawl.

I honestly wouldn’t care if Robin was taken completely out of the book. Replace him with an entirely new character, show Lysa’s madness in some other form, or even just allow Tywin Lannister to have taken him on as a ward. Perhaps I would feel differently about Robin if he was presented in another setting. But as it – Poor kid, but I don’t want to read about you.

Ygritte – You know, I like her as a person. She’s a strong woman who felt no shame in pursuing what she wanted out of life. But I really dislike her for the changes that she prompted in Jon Snow. I feel that meeting her is the point where his character begins to take a drastic turn. She is the one who instilled the wildling desire for rebellion into him. If Jon had never broken his vows with her, I’m sure that his life would have continued in a very different path. He was always fairly idealistic and committed to the Watch. But once Ygritte convinced him to take that first step, his moral compass broke.

I’d like to see what would have happened if Ygritte had lived a bit longer. Watching the two of them battle wits in regards to the Watch and Wildlings would have been much more interesting. But her death also led to Jon Snow romanticizing the Wildling culture in a way that I think went too far. Their quick, passionate affair really made her perfect in his eyes. While I do feel that’s very true to life and follows a realistic maturation of a young boy in love, I prefer the Jon Snow before his faith was corrupted.

Jorah Mormont – I’ve disliked this man from the beginning. His relationship with Dany always felt a bit off to me, while he did not seem to have a legitimate place in Dothraki society. He was an outsider who never seemed to put much effort into truly adapting himself to Dothraki customs. For a little while, I’d honestly put him on the same level as Viserys – Holding tightly to the idea and dream of Westeros in order to feel safe. Knowing that he fed information to Varys only confirmed that.

I do feel that he toys with Dany’s favor and does not acknowledge her as a legitimate queen, or even as a woman capable of making her own decisions. He repeatedly believes that small services, like bringing her Tyrion, will put him back into her favor. I think that this is a huge disservice to her emotions and morals. While she is indeed a young girl and largely inexperienced, I don’t think that Jorah ever sees her as a complete person. It was good to see his rash nature cause him a little suffering in the last books.

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

Tyrion and Sansa’s wedding, specifically the moment when she refused to kneel so that he could give her the wedding cloak.

Their marriage really brings out the best and worse parts of their characters over the course of one night. Both of them dreamt about their ideal romance and how they wanted their ultimate marriage to play out. And they both really wanted the same thing – Someone beautiful (in their eyes) who would truly love them and have their best interests in heart. Once that isn’t an option anymore, we can watch their reactions during the wedding and see how they deal with the new situation.

Tyrion doesn’t even have humor and wit to save him at this point. He starts off with his sights set low, only wanting to be treated like a man on that day. But when Sansa doesn’t kneel and he can’t even begin their marriage without aid, he breaks down. He drinks himself to the verge of oblivion and lashes out at Joffrey and the others. But he uses what little influence he has in order to stop the bedding process and protect Sansa – When he’s lost just about everything and can’t even think straight, that’s what he chooses to save. And I feel that sort of kindness is really the heart of his character.

And Sansa has been all but dead inside ever since her father was killed. She had small rays of hope, especially Ser Loras, but the marriage steals her of the one dream she’d held onto since childhood. She basically blocks out the entire experience and shuts down. She refuses to cave in to the Lannisters, Tyrion included, by showing her own weakness and allowing the ceremony to continue without some passive resistance. But during the meal, she has a grace and courtesy that is so gentle. While Tyrion is outwardly threatening everyone, she has the ability to gloss over insults and continue on with the decorum.

They’re both the perfect balance for each other, they just weren’t at the point of being able to see it.

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

I’d like to see Dany stay in Meereen and establish herself as a force to truly be reckoned with. Her story has moved fairly slowly for the last few books, so I’d like to watch her harness the power of her dragons and set up her own throne. She needs to stop depending upon the alliances and rules of the landed aristocracy. I’d be very impressed to see her unite Meereen, Asshai, and Pentos in order to establish a kingdom that finally suits her. Tyrion has the brains to advise her on this, so seeing them team up would be perfection.

Since I do not believe that Jon Snow survived his last attack, Sam needs to use his family ties and cunning to protect the North. Using what wealth he can gather and as many men as possible, he could sail back to the wall and help to defend the Watch from “Lord” Bolton. This could be the turning point where, even if he doesn’t completely find his courage, Sam finally steps up for the greater good. He could help to end the war and establish Tormund Giantsbane and his Wildlings as a Northern power.

Sansa and Littlefinger could combine their influence in order to win over both the Vale and King’s Landing. I don’t think that she could ever feel at home in Winterfell again, so I imagine that they’ll come to terms with the North separating from the Seven Kingdoms and instead be satisfied by ruling over the southern regions. Cersei will likely find herself killed in some way, Jaime is gone for good, so the only Lannister truly standing in their way is Tommen. After Margaery self-implodes the way that Cersei did, I’d like to see Tommen and Sansa marry. He has the potential to grow into a sincerely good person, away from the influence of his family, so keeping him as King may actually work out.

As for the other bits and pieces: Arya will complete her apprenticeship in Braavos and finally learn to control her violence and rage in a way that benefits both her and the people who seek out her temple. Theon will likely be executed and truly want his own death. Victarion will attempt to court Dany, but end up being killed when her dragons feel threatened by him. The Bolton Bastard won’t even be killed in war, but instead attacked by bandits who don’t know (or care) who he is. Asha will return to Pyke and bide her time there with the other Greyjoys, knowing that they no longer have the strength to seize power during their generation.

Comments

[MARTELL]

[astraeas-world.livejournal.com]

I'm finding it a bit difficult to decide, but I think I'll say Lannister for now. I definitely see where Tyrell is coming from, though.