5 questions from springbok1
Jul. 9th, 2010 09:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
figmentLeave a comment telling me you want me to ask you questions and:
❶ I'll respond by asking you five questions to satisfy my curiosity.
❷ Update your journal with the answers to your questions.
❸ Include this explanation and offer to ask other people questions.
1. What advice would you give to parents who are raising their children abroad?
I'd never thought about this before you asked. Thanks for asking!
Relax. This will be good for your kids. They'll have challenges, but they'll also learn a lot. Know a good doctor and take the smart, normal precautions. But kids are kids - they'll play, and get in minor trouble, and learn, and so on, just like kids anywhere.
Encourage your kids to learn the local language. Kids will learn what they need to, but no more than that. Make them need to learn the language.
Take advantage of the stuff around you, the stuff that's unique to where you are. Chances are you won't be there forever.
Assuming American parents, if possible, I'd recommend an international school. They tend to be really good schools, and will at least slightly prepare the kids well for the eventuality of returning to the US. Re-entry shock is hard enough (talk to your kids about this!) but if you at least have the right educational background to make the transition, that helps a lot. And home schooling when you're in a context like that seems socially cruel to me - it's difficult enough to get to know kids who are anything like you, and speak your language, but it would be far more difficult without the social place of a school.
Your kids are likely to either turn out quite extroverted or quite introverted. I don't know why, but that seems to be the trend.
2. What book have you lent out to friends and family the most? (Or, if you're an avid library-goer, what is a book that you find yourself recommending often and enthusiastically?)
Lately, I often recommend and lend out Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma. Not only is it a useful explanation of why I eat the way I eat, but it's well written and a fascinating exploration of food, at several different levels, in the U.S.
3. What was your favorite part of running the Bollywood party at CON?
The dancing, I think. Which is funny, because that wasn't "my" part, that was![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
windelina's. But maybe that's part of what made it fun - I got to watch the swift transformation of a group of uncoordinated geeks who'd never done anything like this before into a surprisingly decent group of Bollywood dancers, and I was really not expecting it to be such a dramatic transformation!
Also, I always enjoy having a "job" at CON for at least part of my time there. I don't do well with all of my time being unstructured. So running a room party was (mostly) good for that. (Next year, hopefully we will have more help; I would like to spend a little less of my time in the room.)
4. Is there anything you miss about living in DC?
The public transportation, and how accessible everything was. The Metro was only a few blocks from our apartment, and it was easy to walk to everything. Within about a three-block radius of our place, there must have been 4 coffee shops, 6 restaurants, 3 liquor stores, a grocery store, a Target, etc. And it wasn't just the stuff in our neighborhood - we regularly hopped on the Metro to go to shows, bars, events, etc. There was a lot of fascinating free stuff to do, also, which adds a different dimension to "accessible". Minneapolis/St. Paul has some of that, and we live in a good neighborhood, but improving the public transportation would really help with that. Which is why I try not to complain too much about the fact that our neighborhood in Lowertown St. Paul is under construction, with all the roads torn up, and will be until 2014... when the light rail will come in there.
5. How old were you when you embraced your geeky side, and was there anything that precipitated it?
I've been reading science fiction and fantasy for as long as I can remember, and I think I probably played in my first D&D game when I was all of 6 years old. My father is to blame for the reading (it's what was around, and I liked it) and my brothers are at fault for the gaming (there was a shortage of players, so they allowed me to join the group). There was a gap in high school because none of the guys who did play role-playing games wanted anything to do with a girl... but I got back into it in college. It's been a while, again, since I've played a RPG but that's more because of other things taking higher priority in the limited amount of time I have available.
❶ I'll respond by asking you five questions to satisfy my curiosity.
❷ Update your journal with the answers to your questions.
❸ Include this explanation and offer to ask other people questions.
1. What advice would you give to parents who are raising their children abroad?
I'd never thought about this before you asked. Thanks for asking!
Relax. This will be good for your kids. They'll have challenges, but they'll also learn a lot. Know a good doctor and take the smart, normal precautions. But kids are kids - they'll play, and get in minor trouble, and learn, and so on, just like kids anywhere.
Encourage your kids to learn the local language. Kids will learn what they need to, but no more than that. Make them need to learn the language.
Take advantage of the stuff around you, the stuff that's unique to where you are. Chances are you won't be there forever.
Assuming American parents, if possible, I'd recommend an international school. They tend to be really good schools, and will at least slightly prepare the kids well for the eventuality of returning to the US. Re-entry shock is hard enough (talk to your kids about this!) but if you at least have the right educational background to make the transition, that helps a lot. And home schooling when you're in a context like that seems socially cruel to me - it's difficult enough to get to know kids who are anything like you, and speak your language, but it would be far more difficult without the social place of a school.
Your kids are likely to either turn out quite extroverted or quite introverted. I don't know why, but that seems to be the trend.
2. What book have you lent out to friends and family the most? (Or, if you're an avid library-goer, what is a book that you find yourself recommending often and enthusiastically?)
Lately, I often recommend and lend out Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma. Not only is it a useful explanation of why I eat the way I eat, but it's well written and a fascinating exploration of food, at several different levels, in the U.S.
3. What was your favorite part of running the Bollywood party at CON?
The dancing, I think. Which is funny, because that wasn't "my" part, that was
windelina's. But maybe that's part of what made it fun - I got to watch the swift transformation of a group of uncoordinated geeks who'd never done anything like this before into a surprisingly decent group of Bollywood dancers, and I was really not expecting it to be such a dramatic transformation! Also, I always enjoy having a "job" at CON for at least part of my time there. I don't do well with all of my time being unstructured. So running a room party was (mostly) good for that. (Next year, hopefully we will have more help; I would like to spend a little less of my time in the room.)
4. Is there anything you miss about living in DC?
The public transportation, and how accessible everything was. The Metro was only a few blocks from our apartment, and it was easy to walk to everything. Within about a three-block radius of our place, there must have been 4 coffee shops, 6 restaurants, 3 liquor stores, a grocery store, a Target, etc. And it wasn't just the stuff in our neighborhood - we regularly hopped on the Metro to go to shows, bars, events, etc. There was a lot of fascinating free stuff to do, also, which adds a different dimension to "accessible". Minneapolis/St. Paul has some of that, and we live in a good neighborhood, but improving the public transportation would really help with that. Which is why I try not to complain too much about the fact that our neighborhood in Lowertown St. Paul is under construction, with all the roads torn up, and will be until 2014... when the light rail will come in there.
5. How old were you when you embraced your geeky side, and was there anything that precipitated it?
I've been reading science fiction and fantasy for as long as I can remember, and I think I probably played in my first D&D game when I was all of 6 years old. My father is to blame for the reading (it's what was around, and I liked it) and my brothers are at fault for the gaming (there was a shortage of players, so they allowed me to join the group). There was a gap in high school because none of the guys who did play role-playing games wanted anything to do with a girl... but I got back into it in college. It's been a while, again, since I've played a RPG but that's more because of other things taking higher priority in the limited amount of time I have available.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2010-07-09 04:50 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-07-09 05:16 pm (UTC)And sometimes there will be examples of both in the very same family - not that I've ever seen that happen. :-)
(no subject)
Date: 2010-07-09 06:22 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-07-09 08:10 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-07-10 12:28 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-07-10 07:04 am (UTC)2. What do you find most engaging and fulfilling about running a game?
3. What was the first thing you remember making you fall for
4. No-holds-barred cage match between Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax - who wins & why?
5. What's your favorite recipe to share with people? Where did you get the recipe from?
(no subject)
Date: 2010-07-10 01:19 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-07-10 02:46 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-07-10 03:04 pm (UTC)2. How do you think spending a year on a boat in the South Pacific changed your life? Would you do that again, with your (hypothetical) kids, if possible?
3. What was the first thing you remember making you fall for
4. What was the best reaction you got to your BP costume?
5. Do you think you will do another marathon, or a shorter distance race? If so, what makes you come back to running?
(no subject)
Date: 2010-07-10 03:11 pm (UTC)2. If you could be a character in a movie, which one would you choose, & why?
3. Would you rather work at a job that you enjoy but pays little or work at a miserable job that pays a lot?
4. What makes an ideal visit to Minnesota, for you?
5. What piece of media - book, movie, youtube video, visual art, etc. - have you enjoyed recently?
(no subject)
Date: 2010-07-10 03:16 pm (UTC)2. What is your favorite thing your sons did recently?
3. Have you ever consulted a psychic? If so, what method of divination did they use - and did their predictions come true?
4. Are you finding the process of purging stuff so you can move therapeutic, stressful, ...both, other?
5. If you could master one skill what would it be?
(no subject)
Date: 2010-07-10 03:34 pm (UTC)2. Would you rather stay within academia, and change it from the inside, or leave it entirely, degree in hand?
3. What was your favorite moment from CONvergence this year?
4. If you could assemble your own mega-panel, what four people (alive, dead, fictional, real) would be on it? Would you want to be on the panel, moderate it, or just be in the audience?
5. What's the most interesting place you've ever visited?
(no subject)
Date: 2010-07-11 06:07 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-07-30 06:15 pm (UTC)1. If I recall correctly, your English BA (like mine) had a concentration in creative writing. Since college, you have taken your career in a strongly technical direction. Do you ever miss purely creative writing? Do you find that poetry is enough of an outlet?
2. If you were going to become a super-hero/ine for a day, who would you pick?
3. What's been your favorite bento lunch so far?
4. Imagine you were handed the funding and time to take a 2-week trip anywhere you wanted. Where would you go & what would you do?
5. What do you do to clear your mind, meditate, think, process? You probably have several things in your repertoire; I'd like to hear a brief pro/con for each.