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The Interview:
Apr. 1st, 2005 10:02 pmin which questions are asked, answers given, and a tenuous link alleged between the two
If anyone was curious, Bill Bailey was very, very funny. And a post about the festival and Necro is coming.
Well, anyway,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
boojumlol asked me some questions, five in fact, and I would like to take this opportunity to apologise to her for the fact that I seem unable to give straightforward answers. If anyone would like me to interview them in the same fashion, please ask, as I believe that is how this thing works.
Onward!
1. Why did you choose your lj username?
Is it disappointing that I have no real answer to this? It just popped out of my head without a reason when I needed a screen name. Not for LJ originally. For something else, I can't even remember what. My main previous online name (for ICQ and one or two other things) had been fluffy, of which there are approximately one billion trillion online, so I came up with puddlesofun mainly as a name that wasn't shared by anyone else on the internet.
It stuck I guess because I like its ambiguity. It could mean the random clean fun of splashing about in gumboots (which is generally the way I see it), or if you like, something dirty. It's also easy to tie in with my interest in urban exploration. And it's cutesy, which seems to be a prerequisite, starting with my afore-mentioned ICQ name, which was from when I was about 15 and everyone else seemed to have some sort of tough, cool sounding name. So I took the piss, of course, but also liked having a cute name for its own sake. It's nice to be cute online, even if you're not so sure about real life.
So essentially the name means nothing, with the result that it could mean anything, which I like.
2. If you could change one thing about yourself what would it be?
I've never been a very motivated or driven person, and a near infinite amount of time so often seems to pass between me intending to do anything and its actual fruition. So a bit more natural aptitude in the self discipline stakes would be good, without losing any patience or perspective. I'm also very indecisive a lot of the time and tend to get carried along by life, which is sort of related. It would be really really nice, just some of the time, to know what it is that I want.
Oh, and I'm slow. I'm pretty smart (err, in the top 1% of the population or something like that, according to culturally biased tests that don't really mean anything), but I don't think too quick, and it takes me ages to get anything done. So some swiftness maybe.
Also, I've noticed that I lack the ability to convey emotions and ideas directly into peoples brains with the powers of telepathy. Nor can I fly. Did I mention I was indecisive?
3. If there were no obstacles (including talent/skill) what occupation would you choose?
An interesting one, this. For some large part of my life I would have said, without thinking, musician. At others writer. But if talent is no obstacle (meaning I just automatically get the talent and skill as part of the fantasy), perhaps I should list something useful, like a world leader. I could solve a whole bunch of problems, maybe.
Ah, screw it. It is a fantasy. Probably some sort of writer/musician guy. I like making shit up and I like attention (but also fear it, see that's what makes it exciting). So that's me.
Failing that, who wouldn't want to be David Attenborough?
4. What is your biggest fear and how do you cope with it?
I don't have any serious phobias as such. When I was a kid I was scared mainly of aliens, and of the impending environmental apocalypse. I coped with the alien thing by keeping a steady eye out the window, checking under the bed, and assuring myself that it was unlikely I would be one of the ones taken. The environmental thing, well I didn't cope, really. I cried a lot.
I was also quite scared of people for a long time. Less so these days, but still a little. I'm not sure how I coped with that, but it seemed to work out eventually.
My biggest personal fear nowadays I can feel sometimes but I'm not sure how to articulate. It's that the meaning I search for will be lost, and that what meaning I know now will turn out, in the end, to be nothing. That nothing I ever do will make a difference and that everything I could have done instead would have. That I'll never really know someone, that nobody really knows anyone. That I will fail. That I will get to the end of my life and have made no-one happy, least of all myself. That it's too late even to stop that, because already I've ignored what gifts I had too many times in favour of sitting in front of the telly, watching something I don't even like just because it's easier than moving. That I'm useless, and I could have chosen not to be.
Coping: Well, I don't watch american sitcoms any more. I'm serious when I say that watching too much of that shit actually gives me a sense of impending doom. I try to be nice to everyone. And sometimes, I try and get stuff done.
Oh wait, I forgot: I had a phobia of dogs for a while, because they kept attacking me. I gradually got over it, though. Faced with an actual angry dog, I would still probably be more nervous than the average person.
5. How easily do you trust?
I'm very trusting.
If anyone was curious, Bill Bailey was very, very funny. And a post about the festival and Necro is coming.
Well, anyway,
boojumlol asked me some questions, five in fact, and I would like to take this opportunity to apologise to her for the fact that I seem unable to give straightforward answers. If anyone would like me to interview them in the same fashion, please ask, as I believe that is how this thing works.Onward!
1. Why did you choose your lj username?
Is it disappointing that I have no real answer to this? It just popped out of my head without a reason when I needed a screen name. Not for LJ originally. For something else, I can't even remember what. My main previous online name (for ICQ and one or two other things) had been fluffy, of which there are approximately one billion trillion online, so I came up with puddlesofun mainly as a name that wasn't shared by anyone else on the internet.
It stuck I guess because I like its ambiguity. It could mean the random clean fun of splashing about in gumboots (which is generally the way I see it), or if you like, something dirty. It's also easy to tie in with my interest in urban exploration. And it's cutesy, which seems to be a prerequisite, starting with my afore-mentioned ICQ name, which was from when I was about 15 and everyone else seemed to have some sort of tough, cool sounding name. So I took the piss, of course, but also liked having a cute name for its own sake. It's nice to be cute online, even if you're not so sure about real life.
So essentially the name means nothing, with the result that it could mean anything, which I like.
2. If you could change one thing about yourself what would it be?
I've never been a very motivated or driven person, and a near infinite amount of time so often seems to pass between me intending to do anything and its actual fruition. So a bit more natural aptitude in the self discipline stakes would be good, without losing any patience or perspective. I'm also very indecisive a lot of the time and tend to get carried along by life, which is sort of related. It would be really really nice, just some of the time, to know what it is that I want.
Oh, and I'm slow. I'm pretty smart (err, in the top 1% of the population or something like that, according to culturally biased tests that don't really mean anything), but I don't think too quick, and it takes me ages to get anything done. So some swiftness maybe.
Also, I've noticed that I lack the ability to convey emotions and ideas directly into peoples brains with the powers of telepathy. Nor can I fly. Did I mention I was indecisive?
3. If there were no obstacles (including talent/skill) what occupation would you choose?
An interesting one, this. For some large part of my life I would have said, without thinking, musician. At others writer. But if talent is no obstacle (meaning I just automatically get the talent and skill as part of the fantasy), perhaps I should list something useful, like a world leader. I could solve a whole bunch of problems, maybe.
Ah, screw it. It is a fantasy. Probably some sort of writer/musician guy. I like making shit up and I like attention (but also fear it, see that's what makes it exciting). So that's me.
Failing that, who wouldn't want to be David Attenborough?
4. What is your biggest fear and how do you cope with it?
I don't have any serious phobias as such. When I was a kid I was scared mainly of aliens, and of the impending environmental apocalypse. I coped with the alien thing by keeping a steady eye out the window, checking under the bed, and assuring myself that it was unlikely I would be one of the ones taken. The environmental thing, well I didn't cope, really. I cried a lot.
I was also quite scared of people for a long time. Less so these days, but still a little. I'm not sure how I coped with that, but it seemed to work out eventually.
My biggest personal fear nowadays I can feel sometimes but I'm not sure how to articulate. It's that the meaning I search for will be lost, and that what meaning I know now will turn out, in the end, to be nothing. That nothing I ever do will make a difference and that everything I could have done instead would have. That I'll never really know someone, that nobody really knows anyone. That I will fail. That I will get to the end of my life and have made no-one happy, least of all myself. That it's too late even to stop that, because already I've ignored what gifts I had too many times in favour of sitting in front of the telly, watching something I don't even like just because it's easier than moving. That I'm useless, and I could have chosen not to be.
Coping: Well, I don't watch american sitcoms any more. I'm serious when I say that watching too much of that shit actually gives me a sense of impending doom. I try to be nice to everyone. And sometimes, I try and get stuff done.
Oh wait, I forgot: I had a phobia of dogs for a while, because they kept attacking me. I gradually got over it, though. Faced with an actual angry dog, I would still probably be more nervous than the average person.
5. How easily do you trust?
I'm very trusting.
