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lady writer on the TV
This afternoon I decided to give my sickness issues the finger and went and had my first coffee in almost a month. My stomach is not very happy with me right now, but OH MY GOD, it was worth it.
~
More interview questions.
1. Talk about an interest not many people know you have.
Hahah. Well. This is probably the last thing you think of when you think of me, but...fashion. My own personal style is pretty casual and shitty because I have neither the time nor the money to pay attention to it these days (I have bought maybe TWO items of clothing this year that weren't boring necessities for hospital) but oh. One day. One day I will be able to afford nice nailpolish and giant colourful bags and clothing that isn't from Target. (My sole concession to appearance at the moment is my obsession with jewellery. Seriously. If you are ever tempted to buy me a gift but don't know what to get me: JEWELLERY. OF ANY KIND. I love it when people buy me things I wouldn't have picked out myself, because experimenting with how to incorporate them into outfits is so much fun.)
Anyway, when I was a kid I played with dolls to the extent that I would...dress them. And undress them. And redress them. (I also conducted scientific experiments where I threw them down the stairs and compared their velocities, but we'll stick with the relevant stuff.) I preferred paper dolls, though, because the dressing process was faster. I had a pretty awesome collection of paper dolls, including some amazing Civil War era ones from when I visited America at the age of 12, and a few that I made myself because then I could design the outfits. I loved design. I had sketchbooks full of designs for ballet costumes. I would sketch outfits in classes when I was bored. This is the only area of art I've ever really cared for, and I did very well in Textiles & Design in Year 7, but -- for reasons that will become more apparent in my answer to the next question -- I didn't keep it up because I didn't consider it to be academically useful.
I don't read fashion magazines (those things are EXPENSIVE), I don't go into clothes shops (because not being able to buy anything is depressing), I don't follow fashion blogs* (or, well, any blogs), and I know bugger all about designers and their collections etc. but I DO spend a lot of time just looking at people and what they wear. My ideas as to what looks good probably don't line up with what's 'in' or what a lot of people might think, but I like that fashion can be to a large extent about personal aethetics. If you like the way you look, then GOOD FOR YOU.
So, yeah. When I have money I'm also planning to buy a sewing machine and make an effort at transforming my mediocre cosplay skills into some half-decent sewing ability, because I love the idea of making my own unique items of clothing.
If I had a tripod and a camera with a timer I would probably do a lot of outfit-blogging, and that would encourage me to pay more attention to how I look, but most days my brain only has enough time to think UUUGHGHGH LECTURE WHAT OKAY and I just throw on whatever. Actually, thinking about it, I don't look too bad today. I'm wearing this Threadless shirt, black ankle-length leggings, a black miniskirt from Supre that I've had forever, red flats from Sportsgirl, a black satin bomber jacket that I've had for LONGER than forever (the lining is practically in shreds, but I can't bring myself to throw it out), and silver dangly earrings with double concentric hoops.
*Though if you know of any that are particularly good, or just have a lot of pictures of interesting outfits, feel free to link me!
2. Describe a time when you were wrong.
Well, there's always the eighteen years I spent insisting that I would never do medicine.
In all honesty, I spent a long time mistaking being talented at something for wanting to do it as a career. I found out in about Year 9 that I was not just good at maths, I was very good at it, and I liked (okay: like) being the best at things. So I did a lot of maths and a lot of the other things I could come top of, like physics and chemistry, and assumed that for the rest of my life I would go on being the best at maths and eventually someone would pay me money for it. I ignored the electives that I actually enjoyed for what they were instead of the fierce glow of being-the-best (Textiles, French and IT) and I dropped them all to do a senior courseload stuffed full of difficult physical sciences.
And even in Years 11&12 when I was busy burning out and incidentally discovering that there was such a thing as too much maths, I assumed that I would go into pure/research science because I'd never thought of myself as the kind of person who was...going to work with people. I had made a snap judgement that biology was boring, when in fact what it was (in my head) was less difficult than maths & physics and therefore less worth my time. I had assumed that I would never do medicine because it seemed to be expected of me (never by my parents, who are amazingly non-pressuring and wonderful people) but by everyone else, and I -- do not react well when people tell me to do something, or expect me to do it. Even when I went off to do a (highly research-based) degree, even when I started getting interested in psych and bio, I assumed that I was headed for something technical and pure. I thought I would never be happy working with people.
I was wrong.
3. What do you most look forward to about being a real doctor?
Shamefully: the simple fact of being employed. Being a functioning, contributing member of society with a steady income and financial & social independence and a proper career, and the ability to buy nice things sometimes and cook on weekends and come home in the evenings and watch telly with a bottle of wine and no guilt. I am quite ready to stop being a student. I expect I will be EVEN MORE SO in three years time when I actually can.
Less shamefully: applying my Learnings! It will be good to feel that I haven't spent my entire life up to that point stuffing myself with knowledge for no reason at all, but can genuinely use it to help other people.
4. If you could change one (non-physical) thing about yourself, it would be ...
Lots of the larger things I can think of here (such as actually having a decent amount of experience with sexual and romantic relationships) are things that would probably change who I am to a level that I'm not entirely comfortable with. However, I would really like functioning gaydar. And maybe some small ability to pick up on when people are interested in ME, because I'm pretty useless at that.
OKAY NO. Let's be honest. If I could actually change one non-physical thing about myself, I would give myself the attention span, linear method and motivation required to actually follow through on my ideas for long original fiction.
5. One way you fight entropy.
I believe that symmetry is a small thorn in the side of entropy, and encourage it whenever possible :)
Less literally: I dance. A lot. A lot more than I talk about. It is the best and the only way I know to respond to the rhythm in music, as opposed to the lyrics or the melody (my brain and my voice respond to those) and even if my body can't quite do all the things I'd like it to, it can do enough that I feel like I'm keeping up with the beat of the universe.
And from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bookelfe:
1. What is the very first TV show you remember falling wholly and completely in love with, and why?
HMMMM. It took me a while to pinpoint this, because I watched a fair amount of TV as a child and in high school but I never really grew attached to anything, and it would always get dropped in favour of schoolwork or social outings if need be. Except for two shows, and I honestly can't remember which of them came first, so I'll talk about both.
QUEER AS FOLK (US). My introduction to this was a scratchy VCR with some S1 episodes on it, and I started watching it on TV at the very beginning of S3, so I caught the last three seasons as they aired in Australia. I fell so hard for this show: it was sharp, funny, political, satisfied my desire for soap-opera-like drama, and it had hot music-video-style sex and was something to cling to during my own period of sorting out my sexuality. I hate that my QaF DVDs are all American and keep screwing up my laptop drive, otherwise I would be watching them OVER AND OVER AGAIN. That show, especially the third season, is my (shiny) happy place.
WIRE IN THE BLOOD. My family watches a lot of the British crime dramas that the ABC shows on Friday nights (we're so cool) and this was one that my mother and brother and I became simultaneously obsessed with. I won't talk any more about it because I have a ready-made pimping post about why it's FUCKING AWESOME.
2. Talk about a movie or an activity that you associate specifically with your family.
Birdwatching! This is more my mother than anyone else, granted, and she inherited the tendency from her mother, but I have a lot of childhood memories of going for family outings to the Jerrrabomberra Wetlands or to Tidbinbilla or for walks down at the Durras coasthouse, and having to stop every ten metres while Mum lifted her binoculars to her eyes, and then returning to the house and pulling out the Birds of Australia book to identify any that we were unsure of. As a result, my siblings and I are pretty good with birds, though I still find it incredibly tedious as pastimes go.
3. What is your favorite mode of transportation and why do you like it?
I adore walking in big cities; I like crowds and traffic and bizarre shopfronts and passing people wearing interesting things (see above!) and feeling like a tiny ant in an enormous world made of glass and concrete and steel and lights.
But if we're talking transport-transport then I like trains, provided I can get a seat, because I can read on them without feeling the slightest bit sick. And underground train systems are such a big-city thing.
4. Name one fictional character that you love because you identify with them strongly, and one that you love but don't identify with at all. And then elaborate!
I AM SO TORN. Because I identify very strongly with Temperance Brennan (hyperrationality; also, NECKLACES) and you could also apply most of that to Carol Jordan (see the WitB post), but I kind of want to wallow in my current Merlin obsession and talk about Arthur Pendragon instead. Obviously there are some aspects of Arthur I don't identify with at all -- I think my self-esteem is a bit better than his, for one thing, and thank GOD my family situation is better than his, though just as demonstrative ie. not really at all, most of the time -- but I was struck immediately by all the things that spurred me to write this fic. He's immensely Type A, perfectionist and impatient and with a weakness for challenges, and he communicates his affection through the use of sarcasm and gestures. He's very practical. He can work himself a bit too hard. He needs friends who remind him not to take himself too seriously. He takes pride in the things that he's good at, but is never quite satisfied with his own achievements. He's at his worst when he's feeling shamed by an authority figure he respects, or when he's forgetting how to treat people because he's focusing on what they're doing instead of who they are.
I'm a lot like that person. The one that's left when you take away the fact that he's the frigging Once & Future King, and concentrate on the personality beneath.
A fictional character that I love to pieces but don't identify with at all…is harder than I thought! OH. CJ Cregg from The West Wing. I admire her more than almost any other character I can think of, and I think she's amazing, but I couldn't be half as cool as her if I tried. I'm okay with public speaking but would hate to do it for a living, and…I don't know, I guess I just can't really draw any parallels between our personalities except for the sarcasm thing.
5. What is one goal you had when you were Tiny Fahye (say, ten years old) that has stayed the same from then until the present?
I'm pretty sure at ten years old Tiny Fahye wanted to be an English teacher, but she also was determined to get a book published one day. And I'm still determined to make that happen. One day. One far, far, far-off day.
~
More interview questions.
1. Talk about an interest not many people know you have.
Hahah. Well. This is probably the last thing you think of when you think of me, but...fashion. My own personal style is pretty casual and shitty because I have neither the time nor the money to pay attention to it these days (I have bought maybe TWO items of clothing this year that weren't boring necessities for hospital) but oh. One day. One day I will be able to afford nice nailpolish and giant colourful bags and clothing that isn't from Target. (My sole concession to appearance at the moment is my obsession with jewellery. Seriously. If you are ever tempted to buy me a gift but don't know what to get me: JEWELLERY. OF ANY KIND. I love it when people buy me things I wouldn't have picked out myself, because experimenting with how to incorporate them into outfits is so much fun.)
Anyway, when I was a kid I played with dolls to the extent that I would...dress them. And undress them. And redress them. (I also conducted scientific experiments where I threw them down the stairs and compared their velocities, but we'll stick with the relevant stuff.) I preferred paper dolls, though, because the dressing process was faster. I had a pretty awesome collection of paper dolls, including some amazing Civil War era ones from when I visited America at the age of 12, and a few that I made myself because then I could design the outfits. I loved design. I had sketchbooks full of designs for ballet costumes. I would sketch outfits in classes when I was bored. This is the only area of art I've ever really cared for, and I did very well in Textiles & Design in Year 7, but -- for reasons that will become more apparent in my answer to the next question -- I didn't keep it up because I didn't consider it to be academically useful.
I don't read fashion magazines (those things are EXPENSIVE), I don't go into clothes shops (because not being able to buy anything is depressing), I don't follow fashion blogs* (or, well, any blogs), and I know bugger all about designers and their collections etc. but I DO spend a lot of time just looking at people and what they wear. My ideas as to what looks good probably don't line up with what's 'in' or what a lot of people might think, but I like that fashion can be to a large extent about personal aethetics. If you like the way you look, then GOOD FOR YOU.
So, yeah. When I have money I'm also planning to buy a sewing machine and make an effort at transforming my mediocre cosplay skills into some half-decent sewing ability, because I love the idea of making my own unique items of clothing.
If I had a tripod and a camera with a timer I would probably do a lot of outfit-blogging, and that would encourage me to pay more attention to how I look, but most days my brain only has enough time to think UUUGHGHGH LECTURE WHAT OKAY and I just throw on whatever. Actually, thinking about it, I don't look too bad today. I'm wearing this Threadless shirt, black ankle-length leggings, a black miniskirt from Supre that I've had forever, red flats from Sportsgirl, a black satin bomber jacket that I've had for LONGER than forever (the lining is practically in shreds, but I can't bring myself to throw it out), and silver dangly earrings with double concentric hoops.
*Though if you know of any that are particularly good, or just have a lot of pictures of interesting outfits, feel free to link me!
2. Describe a time when you were wrong.
Well, there's always the eighteen years I spent insisting that I would never do medicine.
In all honesty, I spent a long time mistaking being talented at something for wanting to do it as a career. I found out in about Year 9 that I was not just good at maths, I was very good at it, and I liked (okay: like) being the best at things. So I did a lot of maths and a lot of the other things I could come top of, like physics and chemistry, and assumed that for the rest of my life I would go on being the best at maths and eventually someone would pay me money for it. I ignored the electives that I actually enjoyed for what they were instead of the fierce glow of being-the-best (Textiles, French and IT) and I dropped them all to do a senior courseload stuffed full of difficult physical sciences.
And even in Years 11&12 when I was busy burning out and incidentally discovering that there was such a thing as too much maths, I assumed that I would go into pure/research science because I'd never thought of myself as the kind of person who was...going to work with people. I had made a snap judgement that biology was boring, when in fact what it was (in my head) was less difficult than maths & physics and therefore less worth my time. I had assumed that I would never do medicine because it seemed to be expected of me (never by my parents, who are amazingly non-pressuring and wonderful people) but by everyone else, and I -- do not react well when people tell me to do something, or expect me to do it. Even when I went off to do a (highly research-based) degree, even when I started getting interested in psych and bio, I assumed that I was headed for something technical and pure. I thought I would never be happy working with people.
I was wrong.
3. What do you most look forward to about being a real doctor?
Shamefully: the simple fact of being employed. Being a functioning, contributing member of society with a steady income and financial & social independence and a proper career, and the ability to buy nice things sometimes and cook on weekends and come home in the evenings and watch telly with a bottle of wine and no guilt. I am quite ready to stop being a student. I expect I will be EVEN MORE SO in three years time when I actually can.
Less shamefully: applying my Learnings! It will be good to feel that I haven't spent my entire life up to that point stuffing myself with knowledge for no reason at all, but can genuinely use it to help other people.
4. If you could change one (non-physical) thing about yourself, it would be ...
Lots of the larger things I can think of here (such as actually having a decent amount of experience with sexual and romantic relationships) are things that would probably change who I am to a level that I'm not entirely comfortable with. However, I would really like functioning gaydar. And maybe some small ability to pick up on when people are interested in ME, because I'm pretty useless at that.
OKAY NO. Let's be honest. If I could actually change one non-physical thing about myself, I would give myself the attention span, linear method and motivation required to actually follow through on my ideas for long original fiction.
5. One way you fight entropy.
I believe that symmetry is a small thorn in the side of entropy, and encourage it whenever possible :)
Less literally: I dance. A lot. A lot more than I talk about. It is the best and the only way I know to respond to the rhythm in music, as opposed to the lyrics or the melody (my brain and my voice respond to those) and even if my body can't quite do all the things I'd like it to, it can do enough that I feel like I'm keeping up with the beat of the universe.
And from
bookelfe:1. What is the very first TV show you remember falling wholly and completely in love with, and why?
HMMMM. It took me a while to pinpoint this, because I watched a fair amount of TV as a child and in high school but I never really grew attached to anything, and it would always get dropped in favour of schoolwork or social outings if need be. Except for two shows, and I honestly can't remember which of them came first, so I'll talk about both.
QUEER AS FOLK (US). My introduction to this was a scratchy VCR with some S1 episodes on it, and I started watching it on TV at the very beginning of S3, so I caught the last three seasons as they aired in Australia. I fell so hard for this show: it was sharp, funny, political, satisfied my desire for soap-opera-like drama, and it had hot music-video-style sex and was something to cling to during my own period of sorting out my sexuality. I hate that my QaF DVDs are all American and keep screwing up my laptop drive, otherwise I would be watching them OVER AND OVER AGAIN. That show, especially the third season, is my (shiny) happy place.
WIRE IN THE BLOOD. My family watches a lot of the British crime dramas that the ABC shows on Friday nights (we're so cool) and this was one that my mother and brother and I became simultaneously obsessed with. I won't talk any more about it because I have a ready-made pimping post about why it's FUCKING AWESOME.
2. Talk about a movie or an activity that you associate specifically with your family.
Birdwatching! This is more my mother than anyone else, granted, and she inherited the tendency from her mother, but I have a lot of childhood memories of going for family outings to the Jerrrabomberra Wetlands or to Tidbinbilla or for walks down at the Durras coasthouse, and having to stop every ten metres while Mum lifted her binoculars to her eyes, and then returning to the house and pulling out the Birds of Australia book to identify any that we were unsure of. As a result, my siblings and I are pretty good with birds, though I still find it incredibly tedious as pastimes go.
3. What is your favorite mode of transportation and why do you like it?
I adore walking in big cities; I like crowds and traffic and bizarre shopfronts and passing people wearing interesting things (see above!) and feeling like a tiny ant in an enormous world made of glass and concrete and steel and lights.
But if we're talking transport-transport then I like trains, provided I can get a seat, because I can read on them without feeling the slightest bit sick. And underground train systems are such a big-city thing.
4. Name one fictional character that you love because you identify with them strongly, and one that you love but don't identify with at all. And then elaborate!
I AM SO TORN. Because I identify very strongly with Temperance Brennan (hyperrationality; also, NECKLACES) and you could also apply most of that to Carol Jordan (see the WitB post), but I kind of want to wallow in my current Merlin obsession and talk about Arthur Pendragon instead. Obviously there are some aspects of Arthur I don't identify with at all -- I think my self-esteem is a bit better than his, for one thing, and thank GOD my family situation is better than his, though just as demonstrative ie. not really at all, most of the time -- but I was struck immediately by all the things that spurred me to write this fic. He's immensely Type A, perfectionist and impatient and with a weakness for challenges, and he communicates his affection through the use of sarcasm and gestures. He's very practical. He can work himself a bit too hard. He needs friends who remind him not to take himself too seriously. He takes pride in the things that he's good at, but is never quite satisfied with his own achievements. He's at his worst when he's feeling shamed by an authority figure he respects, or when he's forgetting how to treat people because he's focusing on what they're doing instead of who they are.
I'm a lot like that person. The one that's left when you take away the fact that he's the frigging Once & Future King, and concentrate on the personality beneath.
A fictional character that I love to pieces but don't identify with at all…is harder than I thought! OH. CJ Cregg from The West Wing. I admire her more than almost any other character I can think of, and I think she's amazing, but I couldn't be half as cool as her if I tried. I'm okay with public speaking but would hate to do it for a living, and…I don't know, I guess I just can't really draw any parallels between our personalities except for the sarcasm thing.
5. What is one goal you had when you were Tiny Fahye (say, ten years old) that has stayed the same from then until the present?
I'm pretty sure at ten years old Tiny Fahye wanted to be an English teacher, but she also was determined to get a book published one day. And I'm still determined to make that happen. One day. One far, far, far-off day.