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interviewed by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kitanzi
kitanzi
asked me some questions:
1. Why did you choose caffeine as your default icon?
Whimsy. I used to use a photo of me as the default, but I felt that was a little too public. (I've got photos in the userpics, but at least you have to go look.) I've changed defaults a few times; for a while I was using the mandelbits because they're pretty. I do have a serious caffiene (but not coffee!) habit.
2. For that matter, you have an icon labeled Larissa, and it's even
spelled the same way I do. Who is that Larissa?
A character in a D&D game. I use it when posting in-character
entries in ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif){kind=small}
ralph_dnd. The campaign is over now, but I
still owe the game journal a couple more entries. (The final one
has been planned for years; I have to write the penultimate one
first, though, and I haven't done that yet.)
3. How did On the Mark get started, and how'd you choose the name?
We were all musicians in the SCA and I was looking for a chance to do music with a broader scope. One particular con (Darkover) seemed to be receptive to folk music and had a large SCA contingent, so I thought maybe we could get together and play some stuff at that. I pitched the idea to three other people, who liked it. We were kind of stuck on coming up with a name until one member ("A") observed that our initials spelled "MARK". We played with that until we came up with "on the mark" (I think immediately on the heels of "off the mark" :-) ).
4. When you decide to do a character for the SCA, how do you choose and
develop it?
Different people approach it differently. Some go for the clothing they like best; some build a persona around a particular interest (e.g. someone interested in dance going for Italian Renaissance). I picked a period of history that I thought was interesting and went from there.
It is impossible for me to reconcile all of my SCA interests with a single persona, though when I can make things fit together I do. So my 10th-century Andalusian wears appropriate clothing and has an appropriate dwelling for Pennsic, but plays renaissance music. You win some, you lose some. :-)
My first persona was Viking-age (10th century Denmark), but I found it increasingly dissonant to be doing Jewish stuff (personally) like saying food blessings with a Viking persona. I'm not very good at staying in persona, but that blew any chance I had. So I switched to a Jewish persona.
5. What's the scariest thing you've ever done?
Hmm. Good question.
I've never been a thrill-seeker; I don't hang-glide, climb mountains, ski, do drugs, drive very quickly, or stuff like that. I've been in very scary situations (like near-accidents), but I infer that you're asking about something I did more than something that happened to me.
So I guess it has to be something emotional or interpersonal. I've certainly had scary times -- quitting a job without having one to go to (it was that bad), telling someone I loved him when I strongly suspected he didn't feel the same way, approaching a rabbi for the first time -- but no single incident is standing out. I'm sorry; I feel like I should be able to answer this.
Here's the rules:
- Leave me a comment saying "interview me".
- I will respond by asking you five personal questions so I can get to know you better.
- You will update your LJ with the answers to the questions.
- You will include this explanation and an offer to interview others in the post.
- When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.
Interview me?
Re: Interview me?
2. There is a quirk in the space-time continuum, and you can visit the SCA's first tournament for an hour. What do you talk about with the folks there?
3. How did you find your way to OTO?
4. What music are you listening to these days?
5. What brings you joy?
Re: Interview me?
Re: Interview me?
no subject
(I know, I still owe you questions too...)
no subject
2. If teenaged you met current you, what would most surprise the former?
3. What are the key characteristics of a really good musical performance?
4. You can invite any one person, living or dead, to your house for an evening. A universal translator will be supplied if needed. Whom do you invite, and how do you spend the time?
5. Coffee, coke, tea, or something else?
no subject
no subject
2. How did you get into filking?
3. Why "kitanzi"?
4. What superpower would you most like to have?
5. What technological advance do you most hope for in your lifetime?
no subject
no subject
2. What are the things that it is most important for SCA rulers to know? Is the answer different for kings and landed barons?
3. What is your favorite holiday and how do you observe it?
4. You can use the time machine for 20 hours of destination-time. You can make as many jumps as you like. You'll be an invisible observer with no butterfly-effect fears, and a translator is built into the hardware. Where to?
5. What do you do for fun on an unexpectedly-free evening?
no subject
I knew my uncle was one (although, he told me decades later, it turns out he was practically inactive from the start), and there was this cool building in the next town with no windows (on the street side, anyway) and I was intrigued. Later, when I was a freshman in high school, some friends were members of DeMolay, a youth group sponsored by Masons, and it all looked and sounded neat, so I asked to join. I found that the principles they inculcated gave me a strong philosophical foundation at a time when I (like other teenagers) was thinking a lot about "how to be". So joining the Masons was a natural progression, and I found that a great deal that I learned in that organization both answered a lot of philosophical questions, and simultaneously coincided with my natural innate philosophy. Guys join for a lot of reasons: a desire to do charitable work, the social aspect, the (yes) networking. For me it was the philosophy, and the way that philosophy is taught through ritual. That really appealed to me.
2. What are the things that it is most important for SCA rulers to know? Is the answer different for kings and landed barons?
Understand the rules. And more importantly, understand the customs. Don't make the mistake -- the most serious and most common mistake SCA rulers make -- of thinking you can be ignorant of them, or ignore them, or run roughshod over them, just 'cause you have the hat. I've seen rulers who never bothered to read kingdom law or Corpora, and it wasn't pretty. I've seen more who never bothered to learn the customs, and that's even uglier. Another thing to remember: your officers are there to be (among other functions) a resource for you. Use them! Don't for example, invent a new order without asking your herald first (some, like AElfwine and Arastorm, were great at this; others, um, not so much. As for this advice, no, I don't think it qualitatively differs for baron/esse/s.
3. What is your favorite holiday and how do you observe it?
Interesting question. It depends. Passover is meaningful to me, but I haven't celebrated it in years and I miss it. Hopefully connecting with a new temple may help that. Independence Day, because of its un-messed-with purity of signifance, and simply because it's summer and I love summer. President's Day, because that's the weekend of the Boston SF Film Festival (24hr movie marathon). Okay, I cheated: pick one.
4. You can use the time machine for 20 hours of destination-time. You can make as many jumps as you like. You'll be an invisible observer with no butterfly-effect fears, and a translator is built into the hardware. Where to?
Wow. Tough one. Initial thoughts, subject to change:
Israel, reign of King Solomon: peering over the shoulder of the scribe known as J, writing (major parts of) the Old Testament.
Jerusalem, 33 CE.
The Battle of Agincourt ('cause my persona was there). Crecy, too.
Republican Rome
Meeting of St. John's Masonic Lodge, Boston, mysteriously adjourned early on the night of the Boston Tea Party.
Several coronations: William I, Richard I, Edward III, Elizabeth I and II...not to mention the French and Holy Roman ones. Hmm, only 20 hours, hard to choose.
5. What do you do for fun on an unexpectedly-free evening?
I actually have a lot of free evenings, so I'll assume you mean that Beth and I are both unexpectedly free. In that case, dinner and a movie.