Win or Die! Umm...win, please.

[roman-machine.livejournal.com]

Name: Kris
How did you find out about the community? If it's through an LJ user, please tell us who it is: I searched for ASOIAF-related stuff and there it was.
Age: 34
Location: Hamilton, Ontario
Occupation: At the moment, a very poor freelancer.




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!.

Geographically, my ideal location needs three things:
- The ocean. There's just something very magical about a horizon that ends in water. It's humbling, frightening and exhilarating all at once.

- A real winter. I've lived most of my life in a very hot, dry climate and, having spent the last two years in a place where winter lasts more than two weeks and includes actual snow, I find I'm really liking it.

- Diversity. That hot and dry climate that I mentioned before was also very small and everyone pretty much looked like everyone else. Now, I see differences everywhere I look and that's really had a positive effect on how I define the human condition.

As far as the ideal house is concerned, I don't really have one. I would like it to come with a nice plot of land for a garden and room for my dogs to roam, though. Oh, and one room I can turn into gaming nirvana.

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

- Death. (Not very original, I know.) It's the knowledge that I will cease to exist, that the world will continue and I will not, that bothers me. Logically, I know that I won't be aware of this in anyway, but it still gets me.

- Spending my last moment on Earth alone. When I was younger, I was absolutely convinced that I would die alone and afraid. Now that I'm older, I realize that was silly, but since it was a fear for so long, it's still kind of there.

- Turning into something over which I have no control. This one is difficult to explain. You know the movie The Fly? The Jeff Goldblum one, not the original. Remember how he has to watch himself become someone else and he's completely powerless to stop it? That. Not literally, since I doubt I'll be going through a teleporter anytime soon, but that idea of your mind and body being out of your control.


3. 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!

- Omniscience. This is my one eternal wish, the one I've had since I was old enough to understand. I want to know how we began, how we will end and everything in between.

- Objectivity for everyone. There are so many things that make us different. Those same things also make us alike, but why it is always easier to see the differences? I'd wish that we were able to see each other for what we are, without adding the value judgment that always seems to follow.

- The wife and I want to open a comic shop, hopefully next year. My last wish would be for the business to be everything we hope it will be.

4. 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. ;)

- Hmm, tough question. The first thing that comes to mind is being myself. That's not as arrogant as it sounds, by the way. :) I spent all of my childhood and most of my adult life dealing with undiagnosed clinical depression and, when it finally was revealed to me, I worked through it entirely on my own. So, I suppose I'm proudest of realizing exactly the person I wanted to be and then becoming that person.

5. 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'd have to say Knowledge is the most important because, in my opinion, it can lead to having all of the other choices. How can you have Love or Friendship or even Family without Knowledge of the people who embody those things? The correlation to Adventure and Pleasure are obvious, and while there are stupid rich people in the world, you're more likely to get wealth if you have a bit of brains, I think. :p

Least important is Money. I'd love for money to be no object, but, really, my wife and I live paycheck to paycheck now and we're pretty darn happy.

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

"Maybe I will never be all the things that I wanna be. Now is not the time to cry, now's the time to find out why." - Live Forever, Oasis.

I don't know if this describes my values, but it does describe my mindset - if I can have/be something, then get busy having/being it. If I can't, why not? Ignorance can be a reason, but never an excuse.

7. 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.

Very simply - pay the bills first, then the rest is mine to do with as I wish. :) Financial security is very important in that I want to have as little debt as possible. I don't like owing people. (That's not a plea for House Lannister, by the way.)

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

Well, I like to read anything and everything. I go back and forth between fiction and non-fiction, depending on my mood. I also like to cook, which is a relatively new hobby. I'm no chef, but I can make a mean bowl of brown. Gardening is something I loved to do before I moved and I can't wait until I have a place with some land so I can get back to it. There's something so calming and gratifying about growing your own food.

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 qualities:

- Compassion. I'm a very caring individual and will usually go out of my way to help someone if I can. If I can't, then I'm likely to feel bad that there's nothing I can do for them, until my brain finally processes the fact that "nothing I can do" means "nothing I can do" and beating myself up isn't beneficial to anyone.

- Humor. This one is tough to explain since I don't tend to laugh at my own comments. My wife tells me that no one has ever made her laugh more than I do, though, so I assume that means I'm funny. I do subscribe to the idea that life is just a joke, so take that as you will.

- Self-deprecation. I have no problem realizing and laughing at my own inadequacies. We're all goofy, little weirdos sometimes, right? Might as well laugh about it and invite everyone else to join in, too.

Worst qualities:

- Absentmindedness. I tend to forget things and sometimes those things are important. When the forgotten thing would only benefit me, it's not so bad. When it was something someone else was relying on, though, then it sucks.

- Procrastination. I often put things off until the very last minute, which is very annoying to some people, depending on what it is I'm not doing. This is something that's gotten me in plenty of trouble and probably caused me to miss out on more than a few opportunities.

- Irritability. When I don't get my way, I can get a little cranky. I figure this is because I was a very spoiled child and old habits die hard.





A Song of Ice and Fire Related

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

Just three?? That's damn near impossible. My favorites seem to change with each book!

Jaime Lannister - Over coffee last week, my wife was lamenting the last novel by one of her favorite writers. Her complaint was that the characters she loved were now becoming one-dimensional. I told her that was one thing I didn't have to worry about with ASOIAF and used Jaime as the prime example. He's gone from an arrogant kingslayer who would have taken the Iron Throne for himself if poor, old Noble Ned hadn't knocked him off it to a cuckolded, accidental lefty with no real purpose in life (other than eventually throttling his sister. :p)

Jorah Mormont - Two words describe Jorah perfectly: banal and weak. He's the classic example of someone being pulled through life by the nose. His emotions control him, but never lead to any kind of passionate action. I think it's tough to believably write a character like this, but GRRM has done it. After every Jorah scene, I pity him more and more.

Loras Tyrell - Loras is exactly what I thought Jaime would be. He's arrogant, beautiful, brilliant at everything. The Perfect Knight. Except for one thing - he's incomplete. His heart died with Renly and, because of that, I find myself wondering if everything he does now is a lie.

Honorable Mentions: Everyone else.

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

The only way I can answer this is to say which character I'd like to see (or enjoyed seeing) get what's coming to them.

Gregor Clegane - Anyone who's that much of a sociopath needs to be put down and quickly.

Randall Tarly - He's the Westeros version of an intolerant conservative - only people who conform to his idea of right and wrong deserve any consideration.

Roose Bolton - I wouldn't dislike him if he didn't seem like a coward at heart. He always seems to let everyone else do the dirty work while he takes the credit and, when he does take some kind of action, it's only when he's guaranteed to win.

3.#1 Favorite moment in all of ASOIAF so far? Why?

Ned's death because that's when I knew I was in for a wild ride with these books.

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

I'm not picky about how it ends. I just want it to end before I do so I get to read it. :)

Comments

Targaryen

[rohajavongareth.livejournal.com]

Targaryen.

I started thinking this as soon as I read the second and third question and the impression remained throughout the app. Especially the emphasis on knowledge fits very well.