westerosorting | Win or Die (Reply)

Name: Bobby

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!): Was suggested by user madri, a close friend.

Age: 27
Location: California
Occupation: Writer

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!.

When I was a kid, my big dream was to buy an island and live on it. Once I realized what a pain in the ass it would be to go to the movies or check out restaurants while seperated from civilization by an ocean, I reevaluated.

Right now, I'd love something big with a lot of rooms. I always have a lot of projects going, and I'm constantly dreaming about "project" rooms. A little home recording studio for podcasts or music, a D&D room, a home gym, etc. Basically all of my living dreams demand that I'm a millionaire, which is obviously a wee bit tough for a freelance writer. Still, if we're talking dream-home, that would be mine.

I need a lot of space, because I do tend toward seclusion and hermity vibes. Something surrounded by forest would be ideal, or at the very least enough grounds that I could surround my home with trees and the like. I do like being close to civilization though, because I've grown up in cities / suburbs my whole life. Basically, I need something secluded and private but not too far from the delights of civilization. Maybe something in the mountains - I've always been a polar bear, and I love the cold. I'm the guy that cranks the air conditioner to 50 degrees and is constantly complaining about how hot it is.

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!

Wish 1.) I wish for the ability to teleport, at will, to any location, instantly, ala the movie Jumper (although that movie sucked.) I wish this because I hate travel time - I've got this thing about wasting time, and I can't stand just sitting and marking time between locations.

Wish 2.) I wish that all of my family and loved ones would remain in perfect health and mental condition until the end of a natural but lengthy lifespan, something like 100 years. I thought about wishing them immortality or something, but the more I think about the consequences of living forever the more I think it's probably a bad idea.

Wish 3.) Veto power over the Earth. Lemme explain - I have no desire to run or control the world. That sounds like an awful, thankless, pain-in-the-tukas gig. However, I would love the ability to hear about a proposed law / regulation / idea on the news, teleport to the location of the decision with the power from my first wish, and flash my "Ultimate Veto" badge. I would then shake my head and go, "Nope, nope. Bad idea. Canceled." and teleport home in time for dinner. This power would only apply to government/law. I don't want to mess with people's personal lives or artistic decisions or anything. Maybe George Lucas's.

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. ;)

Far and away my most exciting accomplishment is that I finally had one of my novels published this year. I've been slogging away at a long-houred job that I have no terrible interest in, just to pay the bills and afford to propose to / marry my fiancee, writing on the side whenever I could fit the time in.

Actually having the book attract an agent, and then shortly thereafter a publishing company, will probably be the defining experience of my life and I couldn't be more proud and humbled.

The second thing I'm most proud of I mentioned above: my fiancee, our upcoming wedding, and our relationship in general. She's a great gal, a hero for putting up with my shenanigans, and the reason for most of the things I do. I'm lucky to have met her and to have made it work for so long.

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.

Most important – Love. It's probably the reason we're all here, not to get too Beatles on everyone. I think the connections we make, be they romantic, familial, or deep friendship, all have their basis in love. Everything we do seems in some way circle back around to it. We all seek the art/science/profession we can love forever and try to do that. We all feel lonely without another person to share are feelings and fears with. The opposite of love (or maybe just love turned on it's head) is hate, and hate acts like a poison that can ultimately ruin lives. If hate is so damaging, and love so healing, I'd go with love as the most important thing.

Least important – Adventure. It's the only one of those concepts listed that I don't think anyone really needs. Adventure is what you do to seek out the other things on the list - which makes it important, but by far the least. You can obtain all on the list without adventure. I enjoy a good adventure, but the problem with adventure is that it never looks like the movies. Adventures are hard, painful stuff that don't always end well. Most adventurers aren't happy people, I'd say, being eternal seekers of something they probably can't define.

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

"It is never too late to be what you might have been." George Elliot

This is a big one for me. All of my parents and grandparents all had some amazing talent that always floored me when I learned about it. Some were fantastic writers, musicians, or painters, but it felt like discovering some hidden gem in a dark mine. Everyone I know has an amazing talent, and many are terrified of using it. I was, and sometimes I am too. I understand working the job to pay the bills, and I've been there before and probably will be again. But I think fear is the worst thing that can happen to a person, and most importantly the fear that you're not good enough. "Life is short" is a tired cliche, but so is working a crappy job and sitting on an unfinished manuscript or a half-written song.

I was originally going to use "It's never too late to work nine-to-five," but I thought using a Kiss lyric was in bad form. Heh.

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 not big on financial security. I'm decent at handling money when I have to, and I've been through some lean times were I was able to live off ten dollars for three weeks, but I always hated it. I like spending money. I actually get a little thrill out of doing it, but it's usually accompanied by guilt, so I keep a good handle on it. I don't like shopping, I'm more of a buyer. I won't buy anything for a month or two (outside food and the usuals), then I'll buy something large and expensive.

I'm usually good enough to make whatever money I have last until the next check, but as far as saving any goes I'm abysmal. I can keep things running for a long time, but saving has never been my thing. If I have money, I want to spend it.

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

Writing - Technically it's a job now, but even on my off time I work on the writing that I find fun but won't be terribly profitable. I can't stop writing. It's sort of an illness.

Music - I used to play saxophone, and I still do once in a great long while, but I'm an avid drummer and take every opportunity to play. Even if it's a steering wheel, my legs, or a particularly noisy table I'll beat on it until everyone wants to beat on me. When I can get my drums out, I'm in heaven.

Discussion - Me and my family are incredibly close, and we're all big readers, up on current events and fairly politically savy. We're constantly discussing (sometimes heatedly) anything from presidential elections to movie plot holes to science discoveries. We'll tear anything apart and fight over the minutea like a nerdy pack of wolves.

Movies - I'm a big movie guy. I'm pretty much always down to watch anything and discuss it.

Video Games - Yes. A lot of these. This is where I get my Adventure fix, because as I mentioned above I don't really do a lot of that in my daily life.

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

Time - I have a huge problem with linear time, and how quickly it passes. Since I was a little kid, five or six, I've worn a watch. I'm constantly aware of the time, how much free time I have, how long until sleep, worrying about how much I can get done today. I'm so terrified of time that I do my best to sleep as little as possible because it feels like a big waste to me.

Death - I lost all of my grandparents at a very young age, and I think it introduced me pretty early to loss. I've always had a lot of pets, and they (obviously) always end up kicking. I'm terrified of my mortal lifespan. I hope to do whatever I can to fix it. Robot body, detached consciousness, whatever. I like life, and I have no interest in leaving it.

Zombies - I know, I know. Everyone's afraid of zombies. I don't want to get too hipster, but I've been mortified of the walking dead since I was little. My parents were big on horror movies, and we used to watch them even when we were tiny. I saw the original Dawn of the Dead at a fairly young age, and became obsessed with checking the fortifications of every building I entered. I think I was afraid for so long that it eventually turned into a fascination, but the building blocks are still there and ready to scare the hell out of me.

So really, death by time-zombies would be the worst thing for me. Great band name, though.

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.

1) Empathy - I've always been able to see everyone's point of view, so much so that I have a hard time holding long-term grudges because even when I'm mad I can see where the other person's coming from. I imagine this quality is the main contributing factor to my becoming a writer.

2) Principled - I have a pretty powerful internal code, what I consider right and wrong, what I consider the proper way to treat people, what I believe to be the honorable action, etc. My dad probably instilled this in me, this old fashioned sense of respect, manners, good and evil.

3) Loyal - Friends and family, romantically - I don't stray. If I'm in your corner, I'll stay there. I'll get in a fight with Samoans to retrieve your stolen duffel bag (that happened), I'll lend money when you need it (and I have it), I'll drop everything I'm doing to drive a long-ass distance to get you a new tire. I've never cheated on a spouse / girlfriend / whatever.

WORST:

1) Lazy - I am the master of procrastination. If you think you're the master of procrastination, you aren't. I'm filling out this application mostly because I'm putting off a writing deadline. I'm procrastinating right now. I'm a machine when I'm motivated, but that doesn't happen easily. I can be the biggest lumpiest lump on a log ever. It can take a long time for me to spring to action. I don't like chores - I put them off until someone else does them.

2) Moody - To the extreme. My fiancee has famously said "Coming home to you is like gambling. I could open the door and you're the happiest man on the planet, jumping around, dancing, making goofy faces and being silly. I could open the door and you're slumped on the couch in the dark, talking about how everything sucks and the world oughta burn. I could open it and you're not home because you decided to go lay in the grass and think about stuff for six hours."

3) Self-centered - I think about myself, a lot. My empathy (above) makes me feel really guilty about it, too, because I usually do know what people want and what makes them happy, but it's hard for me to prioritize other people over myself. It's probably my main life struggle, the conflict between my empathy, my sense of loyalty, and my extremely narcisstic nature.

A Song of Ice and Fire Related

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

Four.

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

1) Arya Stark – Come on. COME ON. Arya is a badass, through and through. She is completely undefeatable - you can't break her. No matter how awful the situation gets, Arya will pull herself through with her teeth if her arms fail her. Even when she loses, which is often, she doesn't quit. She embodies everything Stark - tenacity, duty, fearlessness, sense of justice. It's all there. The fact that this is played convincingly by a nine-year-old is incredible.

2) Tyrion Lannister – Obviously. I can respect someone who's main weapon is their brain, with a backup weapon of solid sarcasm. I'm a bit of a cocky smartass myself, and my heart warms for the Giant of Lannister. He's the ultimate bait-and-switch character: he seems like the evil mastermind until you realize he's just the mastermind. His "cleaning up" in the second book is inspired, and everything he went through in the third book only further cemented him as one of my favorites.

3) Daenerys Targaryen – Came out of left field, because originally I couldn't stand Dany. The entire first book I spent asking the same question whenever the narrative shifted to her: "Whyyyyyyyyy?" She seemed boring, and I assumed I knew exactly where her story was headed. However, after everything that "went down" in the first book, I'm convinced that she ought to be the true ruler of pretty much everything. She's a self-made woman, she's honorable, and she don't take no crap from nobody. I almost included Ned Stark in my favorites, and it's pretty much the same reason I picked Daenerys instead. They're both truth seekers, full of integrity, and heroic. In the Song of Ice and Fire, that's a rarity.

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

1) Joffrey Baratheon – A lot of people say Cersei, but I can almost understand Cersei, even if she is the worst human being alive. Cersei is a complicated person. Joffrey is a pile of ass, evil through-and-through. He's the ultimate spoiled brat, which is probably the worst kind of person there is. Someone with power, no wisdom, a chip on his shoulder, no courage, no empathy, nothing. He's a void, a waste of human tissue. He poisons everything around him and worst of all, respects nothing. A person who can't respect anything is a person who has no eyes.

2) Gregor Clegane - He feels like such a Villain-Sue to me that I just can't stand to read about him. I hate this character because he's bad writing, one of the few instances of it in GRRM's books. There's no motivation for his dickishness, there's no reason for any of it. He's stupid, and yet he outsmarts everyone. We see him defeated soundly in combat . . . and yet still wins the fight. He's a bad character and an obvious writer tool to upset the reader.

3) Hot Pie - I'm kidding, I love Hot Pie. My real answer is Theon Greyjoy. This is especially sad because I originally really liked Theon. In fact, he's sort of the opposite of my Daenerys entry above. But after the choices he makes, the complete and utter stupidity he displays, the disloyalty and the brazen lack of gratitude, I can't abide by him anymore. He's a bad person who ought to have bad things happen to him more often.

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

I'll keep it as simple as I can: Tyrion learning first-hand that his father does not, in fact, shit gold. PRICELESS.

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

Dany sits the Iron Throne and shows Westeros what a non-crazy Targaryen can do, Jon Snow defeats the Others in a suitably epic fashion, and the Starks become the Kings in the North. Obviously, there is NO WAY any of this is going to happen. I'm sure the last page will be "And then everyone died. Thanks for playing," but I can dream, right? I'd also like to see a certain vengeful revenant choke Cersei Lannister to death with her own hair.

I also think either Jon Snow, Sam Tarly, or Sandor Clegane is the Champion of Light. Because any of those would be amazing. Sandor would be especially fitting, considering all the flamey fire.