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castironAug 26: What did you enjoy doing most today? Watching an online improv show.
Aug 27: If you knew 100% that you wouldn't get caught, would you do anything illegal, immoral, or maybe just embarrassing? Tell us about it. Are we talking magical levels of wouldn't-get-caught, in which case infecting certain loudmouthed elected officials with Covid-19 would be high on my list? Or are we talking ordinary levels of wouldn't-get-caught, in which case it'd probably be writing graffiti on some building?
Aug 28: Do you write in cursive? Yes, especially in my journal. My handwriting is hard to read -- sometimes Ihave trouble reading it -- so if I want something to be hard to read, I make a point of writing cursive.
Aug 29: If you could witness any event of the past, present, or future, what would it be? I'm going with a future event: the day that Betelgeuse's going supernova is visible from Earth.
Aug 30: Do you have a favorite painting? (Post a picture?) I have two favorite paintings. One is a painting I saw at a museum in Minnesota in the 1980s. It might be Jean-Léon Gérôme's The Carpet Merchant; I'm not 100% certain this is the right one, because I don't get the same feeling looking at this image I did seeing the real painting, but it's entirely possible that the effect doesn't reproduce in photos. Whichever painting it was, when I saw it it gave me the feeling of being a portal, like I was looking through a window at the scene and not looking at a painting of the scene. If I had touched the painting, well, most likely I'd have been escorted out of the museum, but possibly I'd have ended up in Carlomen.
My other favorite painting is one that's driving me up the wall because I know the name of the painting,Le Roi S'amuse, but not that of the artist. It's a huge canvas depicting a young black man in hoodie and jeans taking a stroll, against a background of flowers and vines. Beautiful work, and moving. (ETA: eller identified the artist as Kehinde Wiley, and the painting is actually called Le roi a la chasse, viewable on the artist's site.
Aug 31: Do you swear a lot? Very rarely out loud, due to living many years with children who weren't capable of judging where it was and wasn't appropriate. I could probably get away with it now, but since I so rarely do it, it now has the magical power of making it very clear that I Do Not Approve -- even raising my voice gets the household's attention.
I can't remember whether I heard this story on the Bujold list, LJ/DW, or the comments on someone's blog, but someone told the story of when they worked in a factory. There was one supervisor who was a woman, very good at her job and well-respected; she had no problem with the general level of swearing, though she never swore herself. One day, everything was going wrong that could be going wrong with a particular process on a tight deadline -- people making dumb mistakes, equipment breaking down and taking a while to fix, people arguing over whose fault a particular problem was, etc.
The supervisor came on the floor, looked over everything that was going wrong, and said, "Well, shit."
There was dead silence, and then the workers set a speed record in getting everything fixed and the line running again.
(See also comedian Jim Gaffigan's reaction to the RNC; part of why this got picked up by so many news sites was because Gaffigan has a reputation for not swearing, so dropping a few curse words in his Twitter got attention.)
Sep 1: What Hogwarts house would you be sorted into? Probably Ravenclaw, though possibly Hufflepuff, and when I do the fancy advanced discussion sorting hat (the one with the Burned Houses and Secondary Houses and such), I can make myself come out as any depending on what I emphasize.
Aug 27: If you knew 100% that you wouldn't get caught, would you do anything illegal, immoral, or maybe just embarrassing? Tell us about it. Are we talking magical levels of wouldn't-get-caught, in which case infecting certain loudmouthed elected officials with Covid-19 would be high on my list? Or are we talking ordinary levels of wouldn't-get-caught, in which case it'd probably be writing graffiti on some building?
Aug 28: Do you write in cursive? Yes, especially in my journal. My handwriting is hard to read -- sometimes Ihave trouble reading it -- so if I want something to be hard to read, I make a point of writing cursive.
Aug 29: If you could witness any event of the past, present, or future, what would it be? I'm going with a future event: the day that Betelgeuse's going supernova is visible from Earth.
Aug 30: Do you have a favorite painting? (Post a picture?) I have two favorite paintings. One is a painting I saw at a museum in Minnesota in the 1980s. It might be Jean-Léon Gérôme's The Carpet Merchant; I'm not 100% certain this is the right one, because I don't get the same feeling looking at this image I did seeing the real painting, but it's entirely possible that the effect doesn't reproduce in photos. Whichever painting it was, when I saw it it gave me the feeling of being a portal, like I was looking through a window at the scene and not looking at a painting of the scene. If I had touched the painting, well, most likely I'd have been escorted out of the museum, but possibly I'd have ended up in Carlomen.
My other favorite painting is one that's driving me up the wall because I know the name of the painting,
eller identified the artist as Kehinde Wiley, and the painting is actually called Le roi a la chasse, viewable on the artist's site.Aug 31: Do you swear a lot? Very rarely out loud, due to living many years with children who weren't capable of judging where it was and wasn't appropriate. I could probably get away with it now, but since I so rarely do it, it now has the magical power of making it very clear that I Do Not Approve -- even raising my voice gets the household's attention.
I can't remember whether I heard this story on the Bujold list, LJ/DW, or the comments on someone's blog, but someone told the story of when they worked in a factory. There was one supervisor who was a woman, very good at her job and well-respected; she had no problem with the general level of swearing, though she never swore herself. One day, everything was going wrong that could be going wrong with a particular process on a tight deadline -- people making dumb mistakes, equipment breaking down and taking a while to fix, people arguing over whose fault a particular problem was, etc.
The supervisor came on the floor, looked over everything that was going wrong, and said, "Well, shit."
There was dead silence, and then the workers set a speed record in getting everything fixed and the line running again.
(See also comedian Jim Gaffigan's reaction to the RNC; part of why this got picked up by so many news sites was because Gaffigan has a reputation for not swearing, so dropping a few curse words in his Twitter got attention.)
Sep 1: What Hogwarts house would you be sorted into? Probably Ravenclaw, though possibly Hufflepuff, and when I do the fancy advanced discussion sorting hat (the one with the Burned Houses and Secondary Houses and such), I can make myself come out as any depending on what I emphasize.