interviewed by tchwrtr

[acroyear]

1. What do you do to unwind from this insane work schedule you have?

If I don't have reasons to stay busy in the evening, I just have classical music and a wee dram of scotch upstairs in the comfy chair, whilst reading a book (which is generally non-fiction).  Within seconds (and we demonstrated it yesterday), the cat (the black one in the icon) will be in my lap purring.

Update: since I haven't had that kind of time, instead the last week has been Muppet Show season 3 any chance we can glance at the TV for more than 10 minutes at a time.

And actually, the work schedule has been kinda normal - I'm 10-7 most days, no problem.  It's the weekend schedule that, in spite of everything I've tried to stop it, has gotten utterly out of control with no weekends without *something* going on until, yes  I'm about to say this: December.

2. I was there when you and faireraven were engaged, and again when you married. How was it that you met?

Invasion.  After having met some of the California crowd at MDRF's invasion '98, I decided to spend a little cash and join the RPFS invasion in California, memorial day '99.  She was there from Jersey, we kinda met among the crowds during the wench walk (with my bells I was kinda hard to miss), and we were talking on and off all weekend, particularly at the Irish Bar.  Most of the Sunday and Monday, I followed like cute puppy dog, to the point of coincidentally being next to her when the Poof kiss-in happened behind the Brassy's Booth (r.i.p.). :)

3. Why Morris Dancing?

The Beer. *

4. You have an amazing music collection and quite the ear for it. And yet, I do not know if you play an instrument. Do you, and if not, why?

Played Clarinet and Bass Clarinet in middle/high school, but never seriously enough to make it to the top-notch.  I never practiced, as it was "good enough". I was always more interested in the music and its complexities more than just my part in it (plus even being lazy it was still an easy 'A').  I'd like to think I'd make a good conductor and music teacher, if I didn't need to actually be good at playing anything as part of the process...and If I didn't find the current mechanisms for teaching theory to be insanely boring and pointless. **

I've never had the discipline/patience to get terribly good at anything unless I'm a natural.  Most things I never practice at.  I even hate it conceptually. "If it doesn't come naturally, leave it." -- Al Stewart.

I do have the Tambourine for Cat & Fiddle sets, out of necessity, and the whistles for kid-entertaining up close and for when she breaks a string.  I have several other instruments I likely will take more seriously when the legs stop and go "ok, that's it; you're done.", and have been using them, particularly the whistles, more actively in Morris practice nights.

I sing as well, but though I know the musical innards of complex works like Rite of Spring and Close to the Edge with incredible detail and depth, I have a severe handicap with remembering lyrics.  Whatever I'm doing, the 3rd line of some verse will simply "vanish" and nothing I can do aside from the paper in front of me will allow me to recall it.  Hence, as much as I want to add songs, Cat & Fiddle has remained a strictly instrumental act.

5. You have been given an all-expenses-paid vacation to wherever, for three weeks. Where will you go, and what will you do?

I have two vacations "in my head" that I have no idea when I'll get to them.  In 3 weeks, I could fit them both together, however, each is better in the right time of year...

1. Return to Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia.  Best done in the end of July, in order to catch the Broad Cove concert and dance.  I haven't been back since '97 and it kills me every year that something else comes up to keep me/us from going.
   
   
2. Driving Across California.  Better done in February or March.  Fly into San Francisco to see old friends (and the city itself for the first time), then drive across to Sacramento to see capi (you'd understand I'm sure!).  Drive south and over into Redwood Forest country and then into the LA & San Bernardino area to hang out with the other California friend set, along with a day in Disneyland.  If there's time, continue south back through San Diego and catch the things we didn't on our one-day pass-through in '06, like the San Diego Zoo and Coronado Island.
   

My company gives a "5 year splash" (5 days instant vacation, which you can combine with your regular vacation build-up, and $2000 cash to help pay for it) when we reach that employment milestone, and I'll cross that line in January of '09.  If faireraven can travel, I'll want to try a subset of #2 over, say, 8-10 days.  Frisco, Sacramento, Redwoods, San Bernardino/Arrowhead, and finally Anaheim/Disney.  That should cover most of our LJ friends out there that we rarely see nowadays, and a good part of the state that I've never been through...

* I've been told by thatliardiego I should stop there, so I did, but you can read more here.

** This is a long-standing problem with me since freshman year college.  Much of "theory" is taught as rules without reasons, simply "it's the way Bach did it so that's what you'll regurgitate back to me" and while that might work for teaching 2nd graders arithmetic, it doesn't do a damn thing to inspire me as a mathematical expert university student with 6 years of "proofs" under his belt.  I don't take "rules" anymore except as philosophical axioms (which themselves are still debatable), so without the "why", I quickly became bored and depressed with the class and the concept.  ESPECIALLY when I was an experienced enough listener to be able to pick out an exception to every "rule" they showed me.  I could probably respond to a different way of teaching it, one that showed the evolution of these rules more historically and how the exceptions to those rules in the 20th century developed, but nobody bothers that way since I'm in such a minority for my attitude.

Comments

[thatliardiego.livejournal.com]

I've never had the discipline/patience to get terribly good at anything unless I'm a natural. Most things I never practice at.

This explains your dancing.

[wilhelmina-d.livejournal.com]

My company gives a "5 year splash" (5 days instant vacation, which you can combine with your regular vacation build-up, and $2000 cash to help pay for it) when we reach that employment milestone

Man, that is so much cooler than our $50 check and a pin.

[aliastaken.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's awesome!

[ladyaelfwynn.livejournal.com]

Did Driving through California the summer of 1983; I was 14. It was the summer after my mother died and my grandmother thought the family could use a big vacation. We flew into LAX (I was disturbed by the smog and wide-eyed at the punk band getting into the limo.) and stayed with family friends in Lancaster. Did LA, Hollyweird, and the beach (nothing like Nags Head) and then down to San Diego to see friends and family. Went to the zoo, Sea World, and Tijuana. Then it was back up through Lancaster (to pick up luggage accidentally forgotten and to get stuck in the bathroom) and then we were off to Disney. Then it was up to Fresno to see more family and then the Redwoods and we finished things up in San Francisco. If you want a real Chinatown, S.F.'s the place to go.

It was a crazy three weeks (during which I was reading the Dragonriders of Pern.) and although it was a lot of fun, it took away the mystery that was California. I've been there, seen that, and only want to visit friends around S.F. Though the kidlet totally wants to see redwoods. She's all about the big trees! ;-p

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

Hollywood and Beverly Hills is the least on my list. The closest I might get is if I were to go back through the San Fernando Valley over to Thousand Oaks, where my former company has an office, to have a quick lunch.

To me, California had great beach sunsets but lousy beaches. You can see some really nice ones from the cliffs in Point Loma, but that just about does it for me for the specifics of the coastline. :)

Driving tours today are a bit different, when you throw in digital cameras and being able to take shots while on the road.

[ladyaelfwynn.livejournal.com]

We did the total touristy teenage thing. Saw Gruman's, Universal, and the Hollywood sign.

Our next trip, to take the kidlet, will be up north. More of the coast, definitely redwoods (poss. my favorite part of the trip), Santa Carla (or whatever the city is really called ;-p) and greater San Francisco.

Don't really need to do down south again.

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

For us, the main reason for going south is friends.

[cyberkender.livejournal.com]

What is it that makes them lousy? Never been to Nags Head, so I have no idea what the comparison is.

[tchwrtr.livejournal.com]

It's warmer water in Nags Head, for one thing. ;-)

[ladyaelfwynn.livejournal.com]

The sand in Santa Monica (?) was dirty (sort of regular sand color mixed with an black, it reminded me of an ashtray) and once you got in the ocean, it was rocky, like wading in a river.

Nags Head has lovely, clean, fine, sand that's hard packed as you go out in the water, nothing to hurt your feet on and no rocks.

The waves in California were bigger, good for surfing, not so good for playing in. Nags Head is much more conducive for splashing around in. I'm only 5 ft. tall and I can walk way out into the ocean at Nags Head and it never get over chest high (unless there's a wave). In California, the waves were huge all the time.

[thelongshot.livejournal.com]

You forgot to mention that the water is about 50 degrees. Yeah, going to the beach on the west coast isn't like going to the beach on the east coast. I'd still like to go back to live, tho, if it wasn't so darn expensive.

[ladyaelfwynn.livejournal.com]

I don't remember the water being cold because it was too rocky for me to want to be in at all. Plus, I'm crazy enough to go in the North Sea and the English Channel (that one in Oct.) so cold isn't a huge deterent. ;-p

[cyberkender.livejournal.com]

50 degrees? Were you there in Fall/Winter? Or North of Santa Barbara?

[thelongshot.livejournal.com]

No, I was living in Ventura County, and the water was cold. There is a reason why surfers in CA wear wetsuits.

[cyberkender.livejournal.com]

Gotcha. I grew up in Orange County. :>

[cyberkender.livejournal.com]

Ah! I understand, then. The thing that's special about the beaches in Santa Monica/Manhattan Beach are who's at them, not so much the beach itself. There are much nicer beaches around. If you get a chance to come back, I'd suggest heading South to Laguna or North to Santa Barbra county. The former is warm, lazy, and more artistic, while the latter is cool, with sweeping vistas. Catalina's really nice too, but I've got a childhood bias for it.

[capi.livejournal.com]

*wheeeeeeeee*!!!!!

*bounce bounce*!!!

Cali

[spicyapplegirl.livejournal.com]

As a former 10-year resident of Del Mar, California, I can tell you that the beaches are MUCH BETTER in the north San Diego suburbs than what you're describing in the Los Angeles suburbs. Not as warm as the shallow Atlantic, but better. And the beach sand is fantastic in its fine white homogeneity.

In fact, Solana Beach/Del Mar/La Jolla used to be consistently rated as some of the best beaches in the entire state. (Not sure about current ratings: I don't follow it anymore because I don't live there.)

I could go on and on playing pitchman, but I will end with one thing: GO TO THE SAN DIEGO ZOO and the Wild Animal Park! They are two of the finest zoos in the world! (no kidding) No cages/fewer cages than most zoos, and cleverly designed habitats that are good for the animals' physical and psychological needs. Each also has a world-class reproductive program, so there are often baby animals on display in the nursery! :)

~Apple
(wishing I could go with you and show you all the cool places in North San Diego. Just ask if you want to know more!)

Re: Cali

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

I lived in San Diego for 2 years ('79-'81). I can even still drive it well (having been back in '96 and '06) even though I never drove there as a kid.

Both Zoo and Park rock and I certainly want to go see them again, but my new fav north county landmark right now has to be the new Stone Brewing brewery, where they make Arrogant Bastard on tap. :)

I'm not a beach person, so aside from catching on good Pacific sunset, I can do without the coastline. Point Loma has the best sunsets on a good day.

Re: Cali

[spicyapplegirl.livejournal.com]

I'm NOT a beach person either, as demonstrated by the fact that I lived 2 miles from some of the best beaches in California, yet I only went there perhaps 10 times in 10 years, and then, only when asked by friends who were having a party. I think I've swum in the ocean 5 times. Maybe.

I guess the only reason I mentioned it was because the rest of the posts seemed to be discussing beaches; having an Arrogant Bastard ON TAP sounds MUCH more interesting! LOL