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fpb1. Leave a comment saying you want to be interviewed.
2. I'll reply and give you five questions to answer.
3. You'll update your LJ with the questions answered.
4. You'll include this explanation.
5. You ask other people questions when they want to be interviewed. And it just keeps going, and going, and going....
1. Is there a particular work (book, song, play, poem, painting, anything vaguely creative) that you can say has influenced you in your life?
2. Are you a day bird or a night owl?
3. How far do you resemble your star sign, if at all, regardless of whether you believe in astrology or not?
4. Is there any one ambition that you can single out which you want to achieve, over and above all the others?
5. Rice Krispies chocolate cakes... good or bad? :p
1. Oh my goodness... many, many. The work of Georges Dumezil, the greatest historian in the twentieth century, determined the direction of my own research; and that of generations of great comics artists, a mountain range crowned by the titanic peaks of Jack Kirby and Hayao Miyazaki, made me a cartoonist. Then there are the great classical musicians: Beethoven, Schubert, Verdi, Mozart, Bach, Haendel, Rossini, Pergolesi, Vivaldi, Palestrina and so on and so forth and so following. Popular music: Louis Armstrong, the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Browne, Francesco Guccini, Edith Piaf. Movies... Oh my God, where do I begin? And then Keats, Virgil, Dante (the greatest poet I ever read), Goethe, Shakespeare, Dickens, Dr.Johnson, Sappho, Aeschylus, Homer, Thomas Mann, Kalidasa, Horace, Rabindranath Tagore.... I do not think that there is a place at which I can stop. I have read and seen and listened to and watched many, many things that I have loved, and I have learned from everything I have loved. And yes, there were Cathy, Ruth, Clare and Debbie, too. They do not count as works of art, except of course from God's hand, but they taught me what life was about.
2. Hard to tell. It depends on how much I ate the previous day, really.
3. Quite a bit, especially if you take in the Chinese year system. I was born in the month of the Lion of the year of the Tiger. Figures, does it not?
4. Depends what you mean. That I would like to achieve and think I can: to become well known as a historian (preferably without prostituting my views or my professionality). That I dream of: to marry the woman I love.
5. Good: for the taste. And bad: they probably have the nutritional value of dirty water.
2. I'll reply and give you five questions to answer.
3. You'll update your LJ with the questions answered.
4. You'll include this explanation.
5. You ask other people questions when they want to be interviewed. And it just keeps going, and going, and going....
1. Is there a particular work (book, song, play, poem, painting, anything vaguely creative) that you can say has influenced you in your life?
2. Are you a day bird or a night owl?
3. How far do you resemble your star sign, if at all, regardless of whether you believe in astrology or not?
4. Is there any one ambition that you can single out which you want to achieve, over and above all the others?
5. Rice Krispies chocolate cakes... good or bad? :p
1. Oh my goodness... many, many. The work of Georges Dumezil, the greatest historian in the twentieth century, determined the direction of my own research; and that of generations of great comics artists, a mountain range crowned by the titanic peaks of Jack Kirby and Hayao Miyazaki, made me a cartoonist. Then there are the great classical musicians: Beethoven, Schubert, Verdi, Mozart, Bach, Haendel, Rossini, Pergolesi, Vivaldi, Palestrina and so on and so forth and so following. Popular music: Louis Armstrong, the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Browne, Francesco Guccini, Edith Piaf. Movies... Oh my God, where do I begin? And then Keats, Virgil, Dante (the greatest poet I ever read), Goethe, Shakespeare, Dickens, Dr.Johnson, Sappho, Aeschylus, Homer, Thomas Mann, Kalidasa, Horace, Rabindranath Tagore.... I do not think that there is a place at which I can stop. I have read and seen and listened to and watched many, many things that I have loved, and I have learned from everything I have loved. And yes, there were Cathy, Ruth, Clare and Debbie, too. They do not count as works of art, except of course from God's hand, but they taught me what life was about.
2. Hard to tell. It depends on how much I ate the previous day, really.
3. Quite a bit, especially if you take in the Chinese year system. I was born in the month of the Lion of the year of the Tiger. Figures, does it not?
4. Depends what you mean. That I would like to achieve and think I can: to become well known as a historian (preferably without prostituting my views or my professionality). That I dream of: to marry the woman I love.
5. Good: for the taste. And bad: they probably have the nutritional value of dirty water.
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no subject
Date: 2006-01-08 11:26 pm (UTC)Except dirty water doesn't have so many calories....
Wanna ask me some questions?
no subject
Date: 2006-01-09 08:00 am (UTC)Depends on whether you count Coca Cola as dirty water or not.
1. You are a remarkably attractive young woman. Does it worry you that this might affect the attitude of patients to you?
2. What are your tastes in music?
3. Do you speak English with any Russian accent at all?
4. Tell me about something really silly that happened to you in real life, or something which made you feel silly.
5. Tell me one dish that you really love, and if you can, give me the recipe.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-09 11:16 am (UTC)Do you mean if I worry I won't be taken seriously? Well, yes, the thought has struck me once or twice, though more for the simple fact of being a young woman rather than an attractive one. Yes, I think there's an extra little bit of pressure to make sure I'm a really good doctor. Because if one patient decides I'm a bimbo, it's all downhill from there...
2. What are your tastes in music?
My musical tastes are quite varied. I spent my teenage years listening to nothing but rock, so there's a fair bit of that, but I later got into a whole lot of other stuff. I'm slowly discovering classical music, and even more slowly starting to get into a bit of jazz.
My favourite bands, which I know I've raved about in my LJ, are not too well-known: there's a jazzy little Aussie band called The Whitlams which I absolutely love. And more recently, I got into Jack Johnson, who basically writes sweet, mellow acoustic songs that always seem to calm me down and put me in a good mood. Highly reccomend his album "Inbetween Dreams".
3. Do you speak English with any Russian accent at all?
Yes and no. If I have an accent, it's very faint and not easily recognisable as Russian. People do tend to notice that I have an accent of some sort, but they can't quite place it. A lot of people don't notice at all. If you heard me speak, what you'd hear most clearly is Aussie. :)
4. Tell me about something really silly that happened to you in real life, or something which made you feel silly.
Hmmm, which story to tell? There are so many. Usually when I haven't quite caught on to the drift of a conversation and say something completely out of place.
For example, quite recently, I was talking to abunch of Mike's friends, and somehow the conversation turned to supermodels and dieting, and how they lose weight. I had tuned out a little, and came into the conversation just as one of the guys was saying "Yeah, and they snort Coke." I didn't hear the "snort" part, and thought they were talking about Coca-Cola, so I made my little correction. "Diet Coke," I said.
They all cracked up laughing. For a few seconds I thought they were all laughing at my joke, which I thought was a bit strange since it wasn't all that funny, but I was pleased all the same. Then finally it dawned on me what they actually had been talking about. I felt like Luna Lovegood or something.
And this is the only tale I'm willing to tell in a public LJ post. :)
5. Tell me one dish that you really love, and if you can, give me the recipe.
My brother made the most awesome curry the other day. Unfortunately, I don't really know the recipe. I don't think it's anything complicated - he just bought the sauce in a jar, and I think followed the recipe on the jar, with a few modifications of his own. But maaaan that was good curry. I wish he'd come over more often.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-09 01:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-09 08:03 am (UTC)1. Tell me what you look like and where you live.
2. How do you feel about your country?
3. Have you ever been at the centre of a really major online row?
4. What are your tastes in music and the arts?
5. Tell me one dish you really love, and, if possible, give me the recipe.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-09 03:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-09 08:14 am (UTC)2. What do you look like?
3. How do you see your future? Do you want to have a profession? Get married? Have children?
4. People you admire and respect and reasons why.
5. Tell me one dish you really love, and, if possible, give me the recipe.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-09 05:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-09 08:17 am (UTC)2. Your child or children are constant presences at the edge of your LJ writing, but I am not clear about him or them. Tell me about them.
3. Ditto your partner or wife.
4. Tell me about your involvement in showbusiness, and if you have any more smutty stories (like the Bennifer one), share.
5. Tell me one dish you really love, and, if possible, give me the recipe.
1. Why Malta?
Date: 2006-01-09 12:19 pm (UTC)I like its small size and population, as well as its quite stable economy.
I like its relationship with the UK and Germany, both places which I would very much like to visit more just a few times.
Based on research, I like its culture and lifestyle. I like the same of several other countries, too. This bit was actually near the bottom of the list.
I am fascinated by old and antique places, and Malta certainly falls into that category. I know I could pick a lot of other places for that, but Malta seems more fun to me, at least for right now. Its proximity to Italy -- another country big on historical features -- is also a hope, skip, and a jump away. Bonus.
Having lived in the USA for so long, I would really like to live somewhere very small. The USA, I believe is too damn big, and I reckon I'm just reacting to that.
(If I think of any more, I'll add to this entry.)
2. About my children (Part One)
Date: 2006-01-09 01:16 pm (UTC)These are, of course, the twins. These days Nicholas has wonderful long, blond hair down to his shoulders. Such is the current rage with their age group and all the way up to college. Like mine was when I was his age, it is long, wavy, and extremely blond. Christopher, on the other hand, likes to keep his close-cropped, not much different from Nicholas' in the above picture.
Christopher is the older of the two, having beaten Nichalas into the outside world by all of two minutes. One of my nicknames for him is "Eldest", for obvious reasons, but I don't use it much at all. It is usually reserved for when his behavior warrants reminding of his age, and that really doesn't happen all that much. Christopher is generally subdued, astute, and usually fairly mindful of others. His sense of humor is no less dangerous, and he is quite silly from switching gears to monumentally silly at the drop of a hat. He is a chip off the old block in that respect. He likes apple juice, Doctor Who, Curious George, is very good at small unit tactics in real-time video games, likes drawing and writing, and one of the things he doesn't like to let on is that he is deeply emotional. He also plays basketball and likes riding his new bike.
Nicholas is a rock star, Mr. Personality. He smiles quite a lot, to the point he is already getting smile lines at the tender age of 11. He is a social animal. In sixth grade now, he is already getting quite popular with not only his classmates but the seventh, eighth, and some ninth graders. Every teacher since third grade has made a remark along the lines of "He tries to hide his intelligence, but it never works." Nicholas is an avid writer, reader, and conversationalist. Again, he's a chip off the old block. He likes cran-grape juice, drawing, puzzle video games, ninjas, broccoli, and is known to have an easily bruised ego (like most class clowns and social animals). Like Christopher, he is deeply emotional but tries not to let on. He, too, likes watching Doctor Who, but for him it isn't a moral entertainment imperative like it is for some in the household.
Both enjoy my love of food, particularly Italian and Chinese foods.
2. About my children (Part Two)
Date: 2006-01-09 01:30 pm (UTC)This is Noah. He is 7 years old and in second grade. He is my sidekick these days, very much a 'Daddy's Boy'. If he isn't involved in some enterprise of his own or playing with his brothers, he is usually loitering around me and asking what I am doing and asking if he can help or just watch. Noah likes to read, draw, and just chat about things in general. One of his favorite things is just to sit down with me and have me ask him questions. One of his other favorite things is just to sit down and ask me lots of questions. Spelling tests are always a favorite, in either case.
Noah is very much a survivor. Growing up with identical twin older brothers, he has had to fight for what he sees as his fair share of things. He learned the art of the deal early on, and he's quite good at it. Like his brothers, deep down he's a big softy, despite the sometimes gruff exterior. Generally, Noah is inqusitive and happy. He is also a big-time Doctor Who fan. He also enjoys Italian food very much, particularly calimari, as well as Chinese food. He is a very deep sleeper, loves swimming, likes animals, and he enjoys computer games moreso than console video games. Noah has had to del with an awful lot for such a little boy, and like his brothers, he has met every challenge admirably and with courage.
3. About my wife
Date: 2006-01-09 01:46 pm (UTC)The next several years were very tough. My health went up and down from 1995 on, often to alarming depths, and things were generally bad financially. Family came through to the rescue so many times it is impossible to recall. By 1998, things had calmed down, and I had finally resumed gainful employment and was doing well. After Noah was born I was transferred to Knoxville, Tennessee and promoted, but after we got there tow things happened. 1) The company organization in Knoxville resented me coming in, and 2) I began having acute liver failure. Three months after moving to Tennessee, we had to move back. Then I had to get another liver transplant, but I had to wait five months in hospital to get it. But I did get it, but as before, things were never the same.
Employment was very hard to get, much less to keep, and I was having awesome bouts with depression. Jan was having a very bad time of it as well. While she was glad I was still alive and still loved me, all the stress of everything over the years really did a job on her. Despite her understanding of what had been happening, resentment built up, and in February, 2003 she said she wanted a separation. It took until November, 2003 for us to actually be able to get to a point she could do it, but it was done. We were separated until September of last year.
Going beyond the historical account is difficult for me, because I'm at the moment quite torn as to how I feel about things. I will relate more later, or at least I'll try.
Re: 3. About my wife
Date: 2006-01-09 01:51 pm (UTC)Re: 3. About my wife
Date: 2006-01-09 01:56 pm (UTC)4. Show business
Date: 2006-01-09 01:53 pm (UTC)Alas, I have very few smutty stories to tell. I may post them later on their own. :)
5. Just one dish?
Date: 2006-01-09 02:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-10 02:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-10 08:31 am (UTC)1. How did you get on Livejournal?
2. What fandoms do you belong to, if any?
3. In your view, is JKR a genius? (Genius being defined as a writer whose work has staying power and will outlive us.)
4. What writers, artists, thinkers, spiritual leaders, scientists, or just good people without professional qualifications, have influenced you the most?
5. Tell me about a dish you absolutely love, and, if possible, give me the recipe.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-11 02:07 am (UTC)1. One of the girls who beta-ed for me gave me a code. At first I just read what she posted, then I fell in love with my Flist, then I got involved with the Witching Hour Harry Potter conference and became hopelessly addicted.
2. Just HP, but some of the writers are so good I'll read whatever they rec or write. Through them, I even met some published writers in real life and read their books. (Roxanne Conrad and Holly Black and Nancy Farmer and Holly Black and George Plitnik.)
3. I define genius differently, as someone who shows the world a different way to see itself. Heroic in the "brought back the elixer" way. I don't think JRK did that, though she did singlehandedly save the independent bookstore and for that she has my undying love. But I don't think HP will survive into the next century. I can't even see fire at FA surviving a decade after the last book is published. I hope it does, but people find the next craze and move on.
4. I could drop a bucket of names - Gandhi, Bowditch, Donne, Descartes, Pythagoras, Feynman, Laughlin - but to be honest Mom influenced me the most and it's her example I try hardest to follow. She taught us to live in the world, but not let it trap us.
5. I'm into comfort food - almost anything tastes great on a saltine cracker (from sardines to peanut butter). But this is the great-great-grandmother-made soup I need when I feel like I'm at Death's Door. It'll grow hair, a new lung, cure blindness - I know this for a fact - and everything else from flu to anthrax (if it doesn't kill you first). The herbs are the basic "Chinese Winter Chest Cold" mix:
LAMB AND LEEKS WITH DAIKONS
· 1/2 lb lean lamb pieces with bones
· 3 large leeks
· 4 slices ginger
· 3 garlic cloves (crushed)
· 1 cup sliced Daikon radish
· 1 tsp black pepper
· 2 tsp sesame oil
· 1 oz Chinese Angelica root,
· 1 oz Rehmannia root
· 1 oz Polygoni Multiflore root
· 2 pieces Dioscorea yam root
· 2 pieces Peony Alba root
· 2 pieces Poria Fungus
· 1 small cinnamon stick
· 1 piece tangerine peel
· 1 oz Astragalus root
· 2 oz Chinese Barley Job’s Tears
Saute the ginger and garlic in the oil until fragrant. Add the leek slices and lamb and saute 5 minutes. Add the daikon, herbs, bones, pepper, and enough water to cover the ingredients generously. Bring to a boil and then cook on medium-low for an hour, adding more water as needed.
This is a winter blood-building soup that fights damp. I love it because it is magic You won't see it next to the cans of Chicken Noodle any time soon.