Question Time?

[theodosia]

Originally from turps33, most lately from estrella30:

There is a huge chunk of you that I don't even have a clue about your first name. I don't know how old a lot of you are, or where you live, or basic normal things.

This is the problem with LJ, we all think we are so close, and we know nothing about each other.

So, I'm going to rectify it.

I want you to ask me something you think you should know about me. Something that should be obvious, but you have no idea about. I promise, I will not make fun of you, or say who asked what.

I then invite you to do the same. Remember, seriously basic stupid questions, don't be embarrassed, you would be really shocked what I don't know about you.

So go ahead. If there's any details of my life you're all desperate to know, ask away!

Comments

[estrella30.livejournal.com]

I know you've been involved in fandom for a long time, but what was your very first fandom? And what was the very first fannish thing you wrote?

[theodosia.livejournal.com]

I never did manage to find much of anyone during college to be fannish with, so it was sometime after that I went to Noreascon 2, where I attended a discussion about Marion Zimmer Bradley's fiction and heard there was a local club with get-togethers once a month. Which is where I met friends (readsalot and bachdrych, actually) that I have to this day and ended up involved in a whole bunch of fannish activity, including joining X-APA (this is in pre-Internet days) which was an APA devoted to the X-Men comics which was still in its Claremont/Byrne glory days. Later I would write "Kid Dynamo" which ran in bi-monthly installments for over two years there (bachdrych essentially beta'd it). But the first fiction I wrote there was a short parody called "Pigeonriders of Pern."

[stephl.livejournal.com]

What do you do for a living? (If you're a spy and don't want to give away your identity, feel free to vague it up....)

[theodosia.livejournal.com]

No -- not a spy. (Though I used to put "international terrorist" on nosy stupid quizzes, at least until it stopped being funny.) My job title is "Database Application Architect" which actually means I design, program, and support in-house sales and marketing for School (grammar school-level textbooks) and other divisions of A Very Large Publishing Company. It's definitely the non-glamor side of publishing that I'm in, but the people are very nice here and are dedicated (with varying success) to creating and selling good textbooks that help children learn and teachers teach.

Most of my programming is done in Notes, but I've worked with C and various flavors of SQL.

[serenada.livejournal.com]

Brothers or sisters? Got any?

[theodosia.livejournal.com]

Yep -- two brothers who are 2.5 years younger than me. They're identical twins! Which IMHO does strange things to family dynamics, because they've always been a united front. They're actually really great guys, married to nice wives whom I quite like, excellent fathers and all that. They're also both cops, in two different small towns in NJ.

[septembergrrl.livejournal.com]

I love this meme! My question for you is:

Have you always lived in New England?

[theodosia.livejournal.com]

It just =seems= like forever! I came here originally for college (Boston University, which I did not finish a degree in Communication & Journalism after four years and a slight nervous breakdown) and decided that I'd much rather stay here and struggle than go back and live in Mom's house in New Jersey. So I've been here long enough to kid myself I feel like a native.

[lysana.livejournal.com]

What kind of car do you drive?

[theodosia.livejournal.com]

A 1994 black Honda Civic EX, which I bought used in 1996 with about 23K on it. It's now got 64K, and is a little bit dinged here and there, but mostly it is holding up well. Its biggest virtue is that it's paid off. If I had a garage or even a driveway, I might be tempted to buy a newer nicer car, but as I park on the street, I might as well drive something that's not worth so much.

My car before this was a 1987 Audi 5000, which I got for a song, and that was a model designed to compete with BMWs and so on, so it was way better in general. Alas, it developed some serious trouble with the brakes which would have necessitated a complete replacement, so I gave it up. Someday I'll have a really nice car again!

All my cars have been standard transmissions, because I like shifting, and the degree of control it gives me over the car, as well as having to be more aware of the road conditions ahead so that I can make the decision whether to coast in neutral or downshift or whatever..

[e-juliana.livejournal.com]

What's your favorite thing about yourself?

[theodosia.livejournal.com]

Eee! This is the hardest question so far! After some thought, I'd say that it is my ability to think up stories and characters, which I've done since I was old enough to talk. I've wanted to be a writer since I was very small... unfortunately, my ability to put these stories into words has had to be practiced a whole lot before I've managed to write stories that other people praise. And even then I'm not necessarily really pleased with them.

[christymarx.livejournal.com]

Who do you live with -- pets and humans both.

[theodosia.livejournal.com]

I've had Rosemary as my roommate for... um, a real long time, actualy kind of longer than I want to think about! We get along pretty well. She's a kind of library assistant in the MIT libraries, and has been working on her MLS parttime for like the last 8 years or so.

The cats are Yum Yum who is the little while Himalayan in my icon, who doing well on a Renal Failure diet, and Muppet (bossy female calico, our "social" cat) and Chumley (stripey many-toed boycat, the bane of Yum Yum's existence). Chumley will be visiting my mom for a spell again later on this year, since Yum Yum got a whole lot bolder when we tried that for six weeks earlier this year!

[christymarx.livejournal.com]

I was wondering which cat was in the photo.

[jenlp.livejournal.com]

Where have you traveled (or if the list is too long, just some favorite places), and where do you still want to go that you haven't yet been? (See what I did there, with the two questions in one?)

[theodosia.livejournal.com]

Not all that much compared to some: I've been to Spain (school trip with aunt for a week when I was 14), England (twice on my own), Canada (Toronto and Ottawa, for SF cons), and Mexico (Baja Norte) for an Earthwatch expedition which was really cool.

There are so many places I haven't been that I'd really like to see -- Pompeii, I think, is the first on my long list. Also, I'd like to hike the back country in Yellowstone and get to see some of the geysers that are only accessible by foot. I'd like to see the Arctic in summer, and volcanos in Hawaii, and Lechuguilla (sp?) cave near Tucson.