They answered my questions with questions

[pauln1964]

As posed by bitofstuff

1. If you could be one historical figure, who would you be and what qualities about them do you admire?
I don't know whether I'd actually want to be anybody, but those who keep recurring in my mind as admirable throughout my life are Augustus, Vespasian and Constantine. Men who took a divided and violent society and created (for a time) a reasonably peaceful and stable world.

2. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be and why?
I'd not let myself get wound up and stressed so much - especially about things that are really not that important.

3. It's your last night on Earth. What do you ask for as your last meal? And who's cooking?
Bacon, new potatoes and beans, smothered in butter. Followed by Chocolate Puddle Pudding and really good coffee. Cooked by my mum.

4. You find out your other half is pregnant. What's your immediate reaction?
Fantastic!

5. What were you most scared of when you were a child, and what are you most scared of now?
When very young, the dark. In my early teens, death and non-existence.
Now, probably not fulfilling promises I have made.




And by westernind

1. Who is your oldest friend?
My grandfather at 89 :-)
The person who's been my friend the longest is probably an early girlfriend, Vikki, who I speak to every other year or so now. The longest one I'm still in regular contact with is Matt Smith.

2. Why is the world down on gingers, and have you ever been a target?
I don't think it's any worse than it is for blondes. I get some good-natured ragging, but that's about it. When it does happen it doesn't bother me, for I know we are evolutionarily superior.

3. What makes someone a grown-up?
I think I just found the answer to lupercal's q about which has been hardest to answer.
Immediate reaction is "when you accept responsibility for yourself and the consequences of your actions", but that's not all of it by a long chalk. This one bears further thought.

4. How does the age gap between yourself and Penny manifest itself?
Musically, if at all. She's into a lot of bands that I've barely heard of; my predilection for "wailing bints" and bebop is alien to her. But then, that's much like yourself and forbinproject with comics.
For something that I worried about quite a lot before we got together, it's amazing how little it features.

5. What would you cook for forbinproject and myself if we came to visit? (you don't have to take dieting into account!)
Beef Stroganoff with oodles of mushrooms.




And lupercal

1) Which question has made you think the most about your response so far? Why? !)
westernind 's about defining what "grown up" is, though jfs ' one about me and the church comes close behind it.

2) At which point did you realise you were in Love? !)
It was a gradually dawning realisation, rather than a thunderbolt from the blue. One day I just knew it to be true.

3) What's your favorite odd word that is difficult to fit into normal conversation? !)
Anti-disestablishmentarianism. And I have managed it.

4) Name a song that every time you hear it invokes a very specific memory? What is this memory? !)
Paper Doll, The Mills Brothers. For a production of Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge that I did sound on for my friend Ian, in our final year at Aber.

5) If you were a dog, what would your owner call you and why? !)
"Trouble". It's what the cats get called a lot of the time.




And finally, from jfs

1. What (if anything) would make you rejoin the Church?
I don't think there is anything that doesn't require drastic change on both sides. The pre-requisites would be a return to Vatican II values (or preferably Vatican III) and the return of my own faith.
For the first, the hypocrisy of much of the church hierarchy and the refusal to drop the blinkers from their eyes sticks in my craw (although I know quite a few members of it through my parents, had a lot of time for Basil Hume and Derek Worlock and still do for Vinnie Nichols). For the second, these days I am mostly agnostic in matters of faith and humanitarian in those of morals.

2. Is there anyone you wouldn't save from drowning in front of you? (ie you have to watch it happen - no nice clean death off camera.)
Up until the weekend, I'd probably have said Idi Amin, but he's gone now. I'd still say Bin Laden, Bush, Sharon. I'm sure there are some individuals I know, but mostly I'm humanitarian and see the good in people.

3. Truth or beauty? (And unlike Simon Manby, I'm not going to allow you the cop-out of one can't exist without the other :-))
"Beauty is Truth, Truth Beauty" applies to the Grecian Urn, not to anything else. I'd go with Truth.

4. What's the best LRP event you've been to? Why?
Two of them. One is The Last Battle for the sense of desparation on the Friday night; for the growing realisation over Saturday that we could do what we came to and make it out; for the pyrrhic "victory" on Sunday.
The other is the F&H linear Gareth Young ran, at the end of which I retired a long-running character.
Those were the times when I've felt the strongest emotions and been the most in character.

5. Money no object, where's your ideal dwelling and what does it look like?
Leez Priory, where we're getting married is pretty good. I'd like it a little closer to the sea, though. You are free for Thursday 10th June 2004, neh?