Meme Answers

[kaitou]

Below the cut are answers to that 5 question meme.

Questions from soranokumo
1) My last question for M-chan will be your first question! What good books have you read lately?

In my quest for a nice fluffy romance novel, I really enjoyed Jacquie D'Alessandro's "The Bride Thief." It wasn't perfect, but there wasn't anything that made me want to throw the book at the wall. The characters were all really nice, and relatively three dimensional.

In nonfiction I've finished two more of Mary Roach's books. "Packing for Mars" about the challenges of space exploration, and "Stiff" about the various things done with dead bodies..medical research, forensic research, organ donation, what happens at the funeral home...all that stuff. Mary Roach is a fantastic author. Very warm and funny and just very human when talking about what are often pretty taboo topics.

2) What is your favorite macaron flavor so far? There are macarons everywhere over here, so I have to wonder. XD

I haven't made so many different flavors myself yet. Though I think the cinnamon macarons came out the best so far. The orange ones had good flavor, but I overmixed them and they didn't come out right. I bought some rose water last weekend, so I'd like to give rose a go sometime soon.

3) Considering your recent post on romance novels... What's your favorite fictional couple? Whether from books, movies, games...

Oh man, that's a very tough question! Um, Beatrice and Benedict from "Much Ado About Nothing," Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane in Dortothy Sayers' mysteries...

My favorite couples always have to have an equality and respect between the characters.

4) If you had the opportunity, where would you really like to settle down? Obviously, not in Ohio! But back home in Michigan, Boston, Portland, or elsewhere? You've been to all kinds of different places, so I'm curious.

I really liked Portland a lot when I was visiting. I would definitely enjoy it there. I'd like to live in a place where there were at least a few likeminded people, and interesting things to do. Someplace with seafood would be nice. Some place not flat. And I'd say some place with 4 seasons. But summer and winter are overrated.

5) What's the thing you miss the most about Japan?

It was a place with interesting things to do, seafood and wasn't flat? XD

Kidding kidding. That's pretty tough. I mean, I don't miss the laundry or the bugs or the lack of central air or the concrete everywhere. But I miss a lot of little things. Like the fancy toilets, the takyuubin, heinz lobster bisque, peach hi-c, the mainichi newspaper, or the really convenient rest stops on the highway.

But I miss the teamwork, and the students. I miss how beautiful Mito was.

Questions from m_steelgrave

1. What knitting feat are you dying to try, but too scared to attempt?

Recently I really fell in love with this pattern, but...wow that looks tough.

2. What book are you listening to at the moment?

I've got two at the moment. One for listening to away from home (lunch breaks and driving) and one at home (cleaning & cooking). My driving book is David McCullough's 'The Greater Journey' all about Americans in Paris between 1830 and 1910. It's really good, and the narrator is one of the ones that's always narrating things on the History channel.

My kitchen one is Richard Dawkins 'The Selfish Gene.' It's a really excellent book about genetics and evolution. I really like his methodical approach in building his arguments, and he's very careful about clarity and making sure the reader doesn't take his analogy and run with it too far. In another book of his, before one chapter he told the reader that the next bit was complicated, and that if it was late and the reader was tired, they ought to put the book down for now. His books are read by himself and his wife Lala Ward (former Dr. Who companion!). It makes it easier to follow with one person reading the text, and the other reading quotes and footnotes.

...................sorry, I rambled quite a bit there.

3. If they were to remake Scaramouche today (heaven forbid), who should they cast?

Oh man...that's really really tough. If I were going for the full blown Hollywood blockbuster with Names! I'd have Ryan Reynolds for Andre, Amy Adams for Aline, Christina Hendricks for Lenore, and...oh let's go Hugh Jackman for the Marquis.

4. If you ever manage to convince your parents to let you cook for them, what will you make?

Braised Lamb Shanks in Red Wine.

5. What was your first foray into fandom?

I actually got into anime through Japanese, my teacher showed us Oh My Goddess in HS and it dawned on me that I could "study" AND watch cartoons. I think Sailor Moon was a gateway. I bought bootlegs of the movies at the local comic con they had at the Knights of Columbus. Then after I graduated I went to Clarion Writing Workshop, where one of the other students had brought all of Fushigi Yuugi, which we mainlined. That was the first time I ever got online and saw a fan website. Michigan State has an anime club (which is how I met Twig which is a good story for another time) and they had Ruroni Kenshin, and there was a website called Tae's Akabeko, which was the first Fanfiction I'd ever read. And that was my doom.

Comments

[soranokumo]

I remember shelving Mary Roach's books and thinking they sounded really interesting. I'm going to have to get me some good books to read here--though right now I admit I'm definitely into more non-fiction about my new home!

Also, I'll bite. XD You should tell us how you met Twig!

[kaitou]

I meant to reply to this, and totally forgot!

Ok, when I got my dorm assignment in college I was supposed to be on the east wing of the 2nd floor of the dorm. But when I actually showed up to move in, I'd been reassigned to the 1st floor of the west wing. This worked out great for me, because my roommate was fabulous and geeky.

For the first few weeks of settling in my roommate and I stuck fairly closely together. But sometimes when I got my breakfast I would see this other girl, and think 'she looks like my sort of people.' If I hadn't had my roommate as a friend I think I would have gone up and introduced myself, but since I was shy and had a her for a security blanket, I didn't.

Then my roommate and I found out that there was an anime club. When we left the dorm I saw that girl rollerblading away. Then when we got to the club, that girl was there! My roommate and I introduced ourselves, and quickly became friends.

I was pretty much in awe of Twig, since I was a good little nerdling, but I'd only just dabbled in geekery before. And she knew all about anime and gaming and just seemed far more tapped into a community than I really knew existed. And she was such a good writer, or course. Her roommate was awful, so pretty soon she was spending most of her time at our room, and after that we made sure that the three of us stayed together.

It turned out that her dorm room was the floor I WOULD have stayed on if I hadn't been reassigned. So I feel like we three were pretty much destined to meet.