westerosorting | Win or die

Name: Kit
How did you find out about the community? If it's through an LJ user, please tell us who it is: Through an LJ interests search
Age: 29
Location: New Zealand
Occupation: Currently unemployed due to illness. Hoping to become an early childhood/primary teacher.

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!.

Somewhere cold, where it snows in winter. Maybe not to the point of burying cars or anything, but definitely enough that it settles on the ground. Somewhere that's convenient to other places I need to go, but still feels like it's isolated. Somewhere within visiting distance of family and friends, but definitely not in the same place - I like my solitude. I'd love to live in the UK - I went to England a couple of years ago and really felt like I was coming home. I love the old buildings and the huge weight of history everywhere.

My house would be a medium-sized cottage, with huge grounds and high fences. Lots of overgrown plants and climbable trees, and hidden nooks and crannies. The cottage would be filled with tiny, poky rooms, and would have an attic and a cellar. Lots of exposed brick and polished wood and wrought iron. Heaps and heaps of cupboards and shelves, since I tend to be something of a packrat. One room would be lined with bookshelves, with a huge, squishy, comfy chair right in the middle of it.

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!

a) I would wish to be well. I was diagnosed with CFS/ME a couple of years ago, and it's put most of the things I want to do with my life on hold. I have good days and bad days, but it's a far cry from how things were, and I'd like the rest of my life back.

b) I want to go into space. Not just for the brief however long it's going to be on the commercial spaceflights they're planning, but for a few days at least. I'd really love to do a spacewalk, or walk on the moon, but I mostly just want to see the earth from space, and be surrounded by blackness and stars.

c) An end to injustice and bigotry. It's a huge thing to wish for, I know. And I know that sometimes bad stuff just happens, but when it's caused by other people's greed/selfishness/ignorance/general bad behaviour, it fills me with sadness and rage. I just want things to be better for everyone.

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. ;)

Self-acceptance. I used to feel unattractive and worthless, but over the last couple of years, I've been working more on accepting myself for who I am and what I look like. I've started wearing dresses for the first time since childhood, I'm actually interested in buying clothes instead of looking on it as a form of torture, I'm more confident and more sure of my own worth. It's been hard, and I know I still have a long way to go, but I'm proud of how far I've come.

Also, getting my Masters degree, and most of the way through my PhD, before getting sick put paid to that idea. And finally working out what I want to do with the rest of my life, when I'm well enough to do it.

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.

Knowledge is really important to me. I love to learn, especially random interesting facts that have no relevance to anything. I believe that knowledge can change the world, and generally changes things for the better. Not just scientific knowledge, but knowledge about people. The more you know and understand about the experiences of others, the more compassionate you'll be.

Adventure is probably the least important of these for me. I tend to prefer familiar things, and I'd rather do something educational or interesting than exciting or daring, rather go to a museum than go skydiving. Yeah, that makes me sound kinda boring, but in all honesty, I probably kinda am :)

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

Ok, I have two...

"I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night" (from The Old Astronomer to His Pupil, Sarah Williams)
This is actually the subtitle of my LJ. I love this quote because it not only resonates with my love of space and my desire to go there, but also because I interpret it in a way that describes an important part of my attitude towards life - you have to take the bad with the good. Sometimes bad stuff happens, but through those experiences we grow. You can't have the stars without the night.

"He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me" (Psalm 18:19)
I've often struggled with my self-worth, so the idea of God delighting in me is one that I often find hard to believe, but that I really want to be true. Also, freedom is really important to me, and having my own space, so being in a spacious place sounds really good to me.

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 don't put much effort into managing my money, to be honest. I haven't worked out a budget, and I don't keep exact track of every dollar I spend. I try to keep my spending to a minimum, but still occasionally buy things that I want.

Financial security is important to me, though, because I've spent most of my life being supported by scholarships/benefits. It's definitely scary knowing that the money will stop coming after a certain date, or that your reapplication might be declined. I don't want heaps of money (although I certainly wouldn't turn it down!), but I'd like to make enough to live comfortably off.

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

Reading, mostly scifi/fantasy.
Writing, mostly only read by myself.
Singing - I've been in a number of choirs over the years, and sung worship in church.
Computer games, both casual and slightly more full on, although I'm not into online gaming, and I'm definitely not set up for anything that needs a high-end system.
Board games, not so much the kind you play as kids, but more complicated ones like Settlers of Catan. (I actually played the Song of Ice and Fire board game a couple of times before I read the books, and that was what got me into them.)
I recently taught myself to crochet, which I'm much better at than knitting, since with crochet I can make things that don't just go in straight lines.
And finally, I spent an immense amount of time tootling around the internet, reading blogs, learning new things and talking to other people.

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

a) Doing something wrong. Failing at something, making the wrong decision, letting myself down, or upsetting someone. I'm often reluctant to do things because I worry I'll screw them up somehow.

b) Being dependent on other people. I really value my independence, and I hate asking for help. One of my biggest fears is ending up in a position where I can't take care of myself and I have to rely on others to help me. Despite the fact that I'm happy to help other people, and I'm sure my friends and family would be ok with helping me, I'd rather not be in a position where I need it.

c) Someone I love dying. While I love being alone, if I have a relationship with someone I value it very deeply. I tend to have a wide circle of acquaintances, but a very small circle of family and friends, so the loss of someone I love would leave a big hole in my life.

Honorable mentions: Heights and spiders

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:

Wisdom. That sounds kinda arrogant, but sometimes when people come to me with problems or questions, I feel like I just reach inside myself somewhere and find answers for them. I'm definitely not claiming that I'm right all the time or that I know everything, but I like to think that I help people find the right answers.

I'm always trying to be better. I try to learn from my mistakes, and seek out constructive criticism. I know I'll never be perfect, but that doesn't stop me from trying.

It's important to me to do the right thing. In any given situation, I do my best to make the best decision, not just for me, but for everyone involved. I have a strong sense of ethics and justice. I want to make things better for others, not worse.

Worst:

I can be quite rigid in my thinking. Things are often very black and white, no shades of grey. I'm getting better about it, but I still tend to see things very much as either right or wrong, without a lot of middle ground, especially things that affect me personally.

I'm often unsure of myself, and hesitant to do things that affect other people in case I get it wrong. I even have trouble making decisions about where to go for dinner or what movie to watch, because I don't want to pick something that someone else will dislike. Needless to say, this drives my friends crazy. I'm envious of people who can just go up to someone and start a conversation, or help them out if they look like they need it - if I even think about doing something like that uninvited, I start to drown in my own anxiety.

Pessimism. I like to think of myself as a realist, but I definitely tend to come down more on the pessimistic side of things. I spend a lot of my time imagining worst case scenarios and planning what to do if they happen. I try not to overreact to things, but can certainly be a more negative influence to a situation than a positive one.

A Song of Ice and Fire Related

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

a) Jon Snow - I love how he tries to do the right thing, and when he screws up he tries to make it right. I love his nobility and strength of character, and that honour and duty are so important to him.

b) Samwell Tarly - I love that he's fat and scared and has an incredibly low opinion of himself, and yet he always does his best. Even when he thinks he can't do something, even when he's sure things will turn out badly, even when he's terrified, he does what's asked of him to the best of his ability.

c) Tyrion Lannister - I love his sense of humour, and how he's made the best of some pretty crappy circumstances. He's not perfect, but he's a pretty damn good guy. I particularly love his desire to help people who society sees as worthless, and also his intelligence and strategic thinking.

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

a) Gregor Clegane - Utterly unredeemable asshole. He bashed a baby to death then raped the mother, he burned his brother, he killed Oberyn Martell, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. Do Not Want.

b) Joffrey Baratheon - I normally think that you can't judge a child by adult rules, but Joffrey was well on the way to becoming a self-absorbed little sociopath even at age 12. I feel a bit bad about it, but I cheered when he died.

c) Lord Walder Frey - It's not so much what he did, since there are quite a few characters who've been involved in worse atrocities than the Red Wedding, but that he took such an unholy joy in it :(

Honorable mention: Lysa Arryn, without whom so much would have been different, and probably better.

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

The first chapter, with the execution and the direwolf pups. I love Ned and his insistence that if you condemn someone to death, you should have the courage to do it yourself. I love Bran trying to be grown up, and Jon supporting him. And I really love the scene when they find the direwolves, with the terrible omen, and the number of pups matching up with the number of children, and Jon giving up his own chance to have one and then finding Ghost.

Also, Ned's death scene. I really hate that he dies, but it's the point where I knew that these books weren't going to be like anything I'd read before.

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

Really, I'd just like to see it end, and I'm desperate to see what GRRM has in mind. In a perfect world, I'd prefer that the characters I like stop dying, especially the Starks. A Stark in Winterfell, and all the Stark kids reunited. Jon Snow staying to lead the Watch. Dany coming into her own, preferably without it having too many bad consequences for everyone else. Everyone coming together against the threat of the Others, because I worry that they'll overrun the world while everyone's busy killing each other. And some very bad things happening to the people who deserve it.

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