Is it that time already?
Feb. 9th, 2004 02:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aberrantangelsIt's interview time again, boils and ghouls.
We're going in reverse alphabetical order by username. First up,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
incandescens. (Sorry, lostfactor, but yours are proving particularly complex.)
(1) What was the first game, and why do you remember it?
D&D, and one reason I remember it is because we played by candlelight (due to a hurricane having recently hit).
(2) If you were the GM, what would your dream campaign be?
A variant Trinity Universe campaign, set in a world where the Nova Age began in 1961. (Think Wild Cards using Aberrant rules and Adventure!'s backstory.)
(3) Why Aberrant, in particular?
As I said toetherlad, because the first decade of the Nova Age Aberrant Era — the runup from N-Day to Slidergate — is happening now, one universe over.
(4) Whatever he welcomes we ought to dread. Give an example.
If you mean Marcus and not Screwtape, Nicole's recent gift to him. I was sickened at the thought of that kitten not getting out of the radiator in time to avoid injury, but I knew as well asdemiurgent that Marcus would just about roll an infernal intervention in his pants.
(5) If something on White Wolf's server possessed your computer, why do you think it did it?
Because it really, really wanted me to buy a copy of Gehenna.
Next up,harukami (she's like Muraki in a way).
1. Where does your LJ Username come from?
It refers to the main purpose for which the journal was originally created — the in-character version of the "This Day in Trinity Universe History"/"Today in the Trinity Universe" material. "Novas" (the metahumans of the TU) develop mutations ("aberrations") if they push their quantum-based powers too far; one of these aberrations is "aberrant eyes" — eyes of a color or size not found in nature, or at least not in unmutated humans.
2. Why are there so many double letters in 'Dezz Staarlinn'?
In "Dezz" because "Zedd" is his good twin; in "Staarlinn" because I wanted a name that'd fit the general naming pattern I'd established when I made them up for the second online incarnation of Illuminati University. (The full names are Zandak Edward and Dezzral William Nahuatl-MacBear y Staarlinn, like you care.)
3. You're lying in bed asleep when you get up and have to use the bathroom. When you get there, you find the toilet missing, damned souls stuck to the wall, and the floor made of a hideous flesh-type material, with a dark hole leading down. As you run around, you find your phone's off, the doors are locked, and you can't seem to get out of the house. And you still have to pee. What do you do?
Since I still have to pee, I'll assume I didn't lose bladder control when I found a gateway to Abaddon in the john (even though the real me probably would). Pee down the dark hole and go back to bed. If I eventually fall asleep and wake up still alive in the morning, go see if things have gotten back to normal.
4. You're given a credit card with enough money to go out and buy an entire TV series from anywhere in the world. What do you buy, and why?
The original 1973 Cutey Honey TV series, because Honey Kisaragi was Japan's first solo superheroine, because she invented the hadaka no henshin that subsequently became de rigueur for magical girls, and because it's never actually been dubbed into English as far as I know. (I strongly suspect that the English voices in that IMDb listing are actually the dub cast of The New Cutey Honey.) If it has been licensed, I'd go for Magical Sally (either original or remake), because she was anime's very first magical girl.
5. What are your views on internet piracy?
I don't do it, but I can understand why people would. Particularly in the case of anime that are enormously popular with Anglophone fans but have never been licensed into English. (If I licensed such a series, as with Cutey Honey above, I'd consider offering a general amnesty to owners of bootlegs.)
Last but not least,black_dub.
1. "What the fuck is it with you and politics, mang?" (hoo ha!) Seriously, you seem to be pretty far-left. Whasupwitdat?
I could be here all day answering this one. To list some of the major reasons:
because I don't believe that shifting the tax burden from the rich to the poor will make it easier for the poor to get rich;
because I believe that corporations should either assume the responsibilities society expects of natural persons or be stripped of the rights they now enjoy;
because, last I checked, there was a marked shortage of books saying the only question about George W. Bush was "whether to impeach or assassinate" (direct quote from your dream woman, Mr. The-Left-Wing-Is-Just-As-Bad-As-The-Right);
because nobody died for Bill Clinton's lies about sex, yet the media seem to be buying into the GOP's claims that the Zippergate lies were at least as bad as, if not worse than, the lies that maneuvered us into what the Onion called "Operation Piss Off the Planet";
and, ultimately, because I believe that "of the people, by the people, for the people" is not just a cool-sounding phrase, or it damn well shouldn't be anyway.
If that seems far-left to you, it's only because the center of our political discourse has been steadily towed to the right since before you were born, so you've been dragged with it your whole life.
2. What works of fiction (poetry included, as well as plays) do you feel are required reading?
The Lord of the Rings, the Canterbury Tales, and The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.
3. Same question, but with nonfiction.
For data, The People's Chronology by James Trager. For facts, Lies My Teacher Told Me and Lies Across America by James Loewen.
4. You've got a chance to permanently ex-pat to any locale of your choice and live comfortably for the rest of your days, at least until CIA assassins storm your beachside (or maybe mountaintop) villa to open a can. Where do you go and why?
New Zealand. Beautiful landscape, I'll understand the language, and I get no sense from Snotters that the Murdochization of the media has proceeded as far as it has in Australia (my next choice apart from being Rupert Murdoch's birthplace).
5. What's the second most shameful thing to happen to the 20th century? I think most people would say HOlocaust first, hence the "second most."
The CIA's removal, under the guise of "fighting Communism", of democratically elected leaders who showed signs of wanting to run their own countries rather than act as sockpuppets for US corporations (such as Mossadegh in Iran and Allende in Chile).
Remember, you can respond to this or any other interview post with your questions.
We're going in reverse alphabetical order by username. First up,
incandescens. (Sorry, lostfactor, but yours are proving particularly complex.)(1) What was the first game, and why do you remember it?
D&D, and one reason I remember it is because we played by candlelight (due to a hurricane having recently hit).
(2) If you were the GM, what would your dream campaign be?
A variant Trinity Universe campaign, set in a world where the Nova Age began in 1961. (Think Wild Cards using Aberrant rules and Adventure!'s backstory.)
(3) Why Aberrant, in particular?
As I said to
etherlad, because the first decade of the (4) Whatever he welcomes we ought to dread. Give an example.
If you mean Marcus and not Screwtape, Nicole's recent gift to him. I was sickened at the thought of that kitten not getting out of the radiator in time to avoid injury, but I knew as well as
demiurgent that Marcus would just about roll an infernal intervention in his pants.(5) If something on White Wolf's server possessed your computer, why do you think it did it?
Because it really, really wanted me to buy a copy of Gehenna.
Next up,
harukami (she's like Muraki in a way).1. Where does your LJ Username come from?
It refers to the main purpose for which the journal was originally created — the in-character version of the "This Day in Trinity Universe History"/"Today in the Trinity Universe" material. "Novas" (the metahumans of the TU) develop mutations ("aberrations") if they push their quantum-based powers too far; one of these aberrations is "aberrant eyes" — eyes of a color or size not found in nature, or at least not in unmutated humans.
2. Why are there so many double letters in 'Dezz Staarlinn'?
In "Dezz" because "Zedd" is his good twin; in "Staarlinn" because I wanted a name that'd fit the general naming pattern I'd established when I made them up for the second online incarnation of Illuminati
3. You're lying in bed asleep when you get up and have to use the bathroom. When you get there, you find the toilet missing, damned souls stuck to the wall, and the floor made of a hideous flesh-type material, with a dark hole leading down. As you run around, you find your phone's off, the doors are locked, and you can't seem to get out of the house. And you still have to pee. What do you do?
Since I still have to pee, I'll assume I didn't lose bladder control when I found a gateway to Abaddon in the john (even though the real me probably would). Pee down the dark hole and go back to bed. If I eventually fall asleep and wake up still alive in the morning, go see if things have gotten back to normal.
4. You're given a credit card with enough money to go out and buy an entire TV series from anywhere in the world. What do you buy, and why?
The original 1973 Cutey Honey TV series, because Honey Kisaragi was Japan's first solo superheroine, because she invented the hadaka no henshin that subsequently became de rigueur for magical girls, and because it's never actually been dubbed into English as far as I know. (I strongly suspect that the English voices in that IMDb listing are actually the dub cast of The New Cutey Honey.) If it has been licensed, I'd go for Magical Sally (either original or remake), because she was anime's very first magical girl.
5. What are your views on internet piracy?
I don't do it, but I can understand why people would. Particularly in the case of anime that are enormously popular with Anglophone fans but have never been licensed into English. (If I licensed such a series, as with Cutey Honey above, I'd consider offering a general amnesty to owners of bootlegs.)
Last but not least,
black_dub.1. "What the fuck is it with you and politics, mang?" (hoo ha!) Seriously, you seem to be pretty far-left. Whasupwitdat?
I could be here all day answering this one. To list some of the major reasons:
If that seems far-left to you, it's only because the center of our political discourse has been steadily towed to the right since before you were born, so you've been dragged with it your whole life.
2. What works of fiction (poetry included, as well as plays) do you feel are required reading?
The Lord of the Rings, the Canterbury Tales, and The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.
3. Same question, but with nonfiction.
For data, The People's Chronology by James Trager. For facts, Lies My Teacher Told Me and Lies Across America by James Loewen.
4. You've got a chance to permanently ex-pat to any locale of your choice and live comfortably for the rest of your days, at least until CIA assassins storm your beachside (or maybe mountaintop) villa to open a can. Where do you go and why?
New Zealand. Beautiful landscape, I'll understand the language, and I get no sense from Snotters that the Murdochization of the media has proceeded as far as it has in Australia (my next choice apart from being Rupert Murdoch's birthplace).
5. What's the second most shameful thing to happen to the 20th century? I think most people would say HOlocaust first, hence the "second most."
The CIA's removal, under the guise of "fighting Communism", of democratically elected leaders who showed signs of wanting to run their own countries rather than act as sockpuppets for US corporations (such as Mossadegh in Iran and Allende in Chile).
Remember, you can respond to this or any other interview post with your questions.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-02-09 08:18 pm (UTC)Re:
Date: 2004-02-09 10:20 pm (UTC)But the real damage was done on the memetic plane. Just as the stupid brutality and brutal stupidity of the Communist regimes did immeasurable damage to the image of leftists worldwide, so did the Third World wars (pun intentional), civil and un, undermine the belief that "America" stands for all the things it says on the label. And, America being a democracy (or, at least, a democratic republic), people in foreign parts tend (again, I gather) to assume we-the-people-of-the-United-States want leaders who will do these things to them.
So, after hearing me spout all that, do you still want to run the risk of having me interview you? (-8
Re:
Date: 2004-02-10 12:35 am (UTC)Re:
Date: 2004-02-20 10:32 am (UTC)Your call.
1) What's the largest stable polyfidelity you know of? The oldest?
2) What book or film got you into SF?
3) Why Wile. E?
4) If you could eliminate either Hitler or Stalin from history, with the price being that the one you leave in existence gets to conquer Europe in the 1940s, which one would you remove, or would you leave them both in place?
5) Which side of the FIAWOL/FIJAGH debate do you fall on, if either?
Re:
Date: 2004-02-21 02:03 pm (UTC)Sorry, I don't file the info that way
2) What book or film got you into SF?
Fredric Brown's Martians, Go Home, in which the aliens come to Earth for no discernible purpose except to be pains in the ass.
3) Why Wile. E?
He was always thinking up cool shortcuts and always being beaten. He couldn't even count on the laws of physics.
4) If you could eliminate either Hitler or Stalin from history, with the price being that the one you leave in existence gets to conquer Europe in the 1940s, which one would you remove, or would you leave them both in place?
Leave them both *sigh*, though I'm not sure that Stalin would have conquered Europe absent Hitler. (The other way would have happened.)
5) Which side of the FIAWOL/FIJAGH debate do you fall on, if either?
FIJAGH. They don't pay me, and if it ain't fun, it don't get done.
no subject
Date: 2004-02-09 10:57 pm (UTC)