Wrybread's Cavalcade of Whimsy

...On one of these silly epic memes.  Here goes...

( More than you ever needed to know about your Internet Friend Wrybread... )

Current Location: Wrybread HQ
Current Mood: peaceful
Current Music: Desolation Row-Bob Dylan

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicise those you intend to read
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own LJ so we can try and track down these people who've read 6 and force books upon them.
5) Cross off the books you hated.

Well, supposedly the average adult has read 6 of these books, and I shudder to think of how many of those would include The Lovely Bones, The DaVinci Code, 5 People You Meet in Heaven, Harry Potter, and Bridget Jones.  I'm at 24.  Good to have my claim to being well-read confirmed memetically!  Yoinked from

thewatch

Current Location: Wrybread HQ
Current Mood: mellow
Current Music: Lily the Pink-Brobdingnagian Bards

Thanks to i_chaos_bringer for this one, time for me to be opinionated.

The Controversial Quiz

1 - Do you have the guts to answer these Q's and repost as The Controversial Survey?

Yes.

2 - Would you do meth if it was legalized?

No, I don't like to mess myself up on anything besides booze from time to time, weed once in a blue moon, and 'shrooms one time at Wreck Beach after a Final Exam a few years ago.

3 - Abortion: for or against?

For. Unless they're truly ready for it financially and emotionally after having given it a great deal of thought, people should hold off on having children. Frankly, I think if anything more people should choose abortion or at the very least adoption.

4 - A 2 month old child and a 65 year old man who has the cure for cancer but hasn't had a chance to announce it yet, one of them has to die...who should survive?

The 65-year old man. A shame about the baby, but the cure for cancer would save thousands of people of all ages. Utilitarianism-the idea that what is right is doing the thing that will do the greatest good for the greatest number of people-works 99% of the time.

5 - Would our country fall with a woman president?

Well, yes. If my country-Canada-had a woman president, it would mean we'd finally been invaded and annexed by the Americans. As for a woman Prime Minister/Leader, though, Canada briefly had one (and we technically do have a female Head of State as well of course) and things puttered along as well or ill as ever. I can't stand some feminist types who insist that the world would be perfect if women ran the world-since the type of person who makes it big in politics seems to be the same type regardless of gender, and no one's perfect-but it's equally silly to suggest that women can't lead.

6 - Do you believe in the death penalty?

No, too Old Testament for my liking.

7 - Do you wish marijuana would be legalized already?

I'm apathetic, I suppose if it was more readily available I'd smoke it more, but whether or not that would be a good thing is open to debate.

8 - Are you for or against premarital sex?

For!

9 - Do you believe in God?

No. Nor do I really care to find out whether or not He/She/It exists, and it wouldn't change my view of the universe and/or any of my actions in life if I knew for sure.

10 - Do you think same sex marriage should be legalized?

Yes. See #9. Honestly, there's no good argument against it, especially considering how messed up many (most?) hetero marriages are. I do feel, however, that no religious leader should be forced to perform a same sex marriage against his/her will.

11 - Do you think its wrong that so many Hispanics are moving to the USA?

Considering the way the American economy's going, I question whether or not it's a good idea! Although I've noticed more Mexicans around Vancouver lately, doing Construction work and the like...perhaps they're the next wave of immigration up here?

12 - A 13 year old girl has a baby...should she keep it?

Honestly, considering most 13-year old girls I've known, no. One of the "A" words is the best option.

13 - I guess the questioner has a thing about the number 13...

14 - Should the war in Iraq be called off?

Yes, I don't pretend to be the one who should be calling the shots on that extremely complicated and volatile situation, but if I was, I'd say get the US out of there, send in a multinational UN peacekeeping force to rebuild as best they can.

15 - Assisted suicide is illegal...do you agree?

I think that 9 times out of 10 life is worth living despite the pain, it beats the alternative, but in those situations like a debilitating terminal illness (ALS, say, or worse still something mental like Alzheimer's or Dementia) or a coma from which the patient has no chance of emerging, I think that it should at least be decriminalized so that no one's punished by the law for taking what they think is the best course of action.

16 - Do you believe in spanking your children?

I don´t actually plan on having children, but in general, no, I don't believe in corporal punishment. There are better ways of making it clear to a child that they've done something they shouldn't have without harming them.

17 - Would you burn an American flag for a million dollars?

Yes. I'd burn a Canadian flag too. Hell, I'd burn a-well, you probably don't want to know how far I'd for a million dollars, that's a hell of a lot of money. As long as my health/dignity wasn't overly compromised...

18 - A mother is declared innocent after murdering her 5 children in a temporary insanity case...what do you think?

Having 5 kids is insane to begin with. More generally, I think it would be better if instead of "Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity", people were declared "Guilty but Insane." It would take away the sense of being absolved for the actions they committed while still acknowledging that they weren't in their right minds at the time of their offence.

19 - It's between you and a person who is being kept alive by life support machines..one has to die who?

The other guy. What, I like being alive. I'm sure I'll feel different as I get older though.

20 - Are you afraid others will judge you from reading some of your answers?

No. Everyone who reads this LJ's my friend, and since I don't judge my friends for their actions and beliefs, I don't expect them to judge mine. And if they're not my friend, then what do I care what they think of me?

Current Location: Wrybread HQ
Current Mood: okay
Current Music: The Real McKenzies-McPherson's Rant

Yoinked From i_chaos_bringer


According to a LibraryThing survey, these 106 works are the ones most often marked as “unread”, That is, they sit on the shelf to make you look smart or well-rounded.

Bold the ones you’ve read, underline the ones read solely as a curriculum requirement, italicize the ones you started, but didn’t finish.

Final touch: denote (*) the ones you liked, and would (or did) read again or recommend. Even if you did read them for school in the first place.

Current Location: Wrybread HQ
Current Mood: crazy
Current Music: The Dubliners-Four Green Fields

...Yoinked from i_chaos_bringer, who yoinked it from a friend of his named interrobang, who yoinked it from a friend of theirs named hamsterwoman. I bring all of this up only because I think "hamsterwoman" is an awesome name. If years of Weird Al fandom have taught me anything, it's that Hamsters-like Monkeys, Penguins, and Cows-are always funny.


1. The phone rings, who do you want it to be?
Hmm. Let's go with an insanely beautiful woman with lots of money. Or failing that any one of my friends.

2. When shopping at the grocery store, do you return your cart?
Yeah, usually.

3. If you had to kiss the last person you kissed, would you?
Meh. I could take or leave.

4. Do you take compliments well?
Sometimes. I could stand to take them in and value them a bit more though.

5. Do you play Sudoku?
Give me a crossword puzzle instead, especially one of those crazy Cryptic literary ones. Tougher *and* more interesting than Sudoku.

6. If abandoned alone in the wilderness would you survive?
Depends on how Wilderness-y. If it was somewhere *reasonably* close to civilization like Vancouver Island or Whistler I'd stand a chance. If it was *way* out in the Yukon or something I'd be pretty fucked.

7. If your house was on fire, what would be the first thing you would save?
Me! Seriously, I'd make sure I was out of any serious danger, then go back for anyone else who was at home, the cats, the computer, TV, books, my player piano, etc.

8. Who do you text the most?
I'm still a hold-out in terms of getting a cellphone, so no one. Instant Messaging probably my friend K.

9. Favorite children's book?
Tied between Winnie-the-Pooh and The Chronicles of Prydain.

10. Eye colour?
Blue.

11. How tall are you?
5'11

12. If you could do it over again, start from scratch, would you?
Maybe if I could start over from a certain point, say from the age of 9-10 or even just a few years ago. I wouldn't see the point in going back to the *very* beginning though. Oh, and only if I could keep all of my memories/knowledge from this time around, or else what would be the chances of doing things differently this time around?

13. Any secret admirers?
If I do have any, they're doing a very good job.

14. When was the last time you were at Olive Garden?
Never been to one, actually.

15. Favorite ex?
KNN. Always something special about your first GF, even after they've gone from first GF to first ex.

16. Where was the furthest place you traveled?
Vancouver to Manchester, England-4562 Miles according to Wikianswers.

17. Do you like mustard?
Love it! Spicier=better!!

18. Do you prefer to sleep or eat?
Eat, because I'm awake to enjoy that.

19. Do you miss anyone?
Not too badly, pretty much everyone I know is at my fingertips contact-wise.

20. Can you do splits?
Not so much. Maybe after a few more years of stretching and fencing, but don't count on it.

21. What movie do you want to see right now?
It's close between X-Files 2 and Dark Knight.

22. What did you do for New Year's Eve?
Worked, went home, had a couple of drinks then hit the hay. I was tired.

23. Do you think The Grudge was crappy?
Watched part of it on TV once, wasn't too impressed, so yes. The more SMG struggles against being typecast in horror movies, the more it sticks.

24. Do you own a camera phone?
Nope.

25. Was your mom a cheerleader?
Doubt it! For one thing, they don't really have them in England, plus near as I can tell she was more or less a female version as a kid and therefore probably not the cheerleading type.

26. What's the last letter of your middle name?
"H"

27. Are you Hispanic?
I sure am, Mang! Latinos Forever! Yeh Yeh! No, not really, I'm as white as they come.

29. Do you like Care Bears?
I liked Grumpy Bear, he was pretty cool. And what was the deal with the Care Bear Cousins anyway? They were, what, an Elephant, a Lion, and a Lamb or something? And they were all the "Cousins" of a bunch of irritatingly sweet bears?

30. What do you buy at the movies?
Occasionlly, movie Nachos with that viscuous molten cheese stuff. MMM, viscuous molten cheese stuff...*drools*

31. Do you know how to play poker?
Not too well, I know the basics but would be pressed to play in a really competitive game.

32. Do you wear your seatbelt?
Sometimes.

33. Anything big ever happen in your city?
Expo 86, X-Files, Stargate, BSG, Most of My Life (which is pretty damned important to me), and I think there's going to some sort of Games held here in a little while.

34. Is your hair straight or curly?
Straight.

35. Are your ears pierced?
No

36. Do you like liver and onions?
I like onions...with pretty much anything EXCEPT liver. Just last year I tried liver, thinking that after all this time had passed and I was now an adult I wouldn't mind it, and...still tastes as disgusting as ever.

37. Do you like funny or serious people better?
Funny. People without a sense of humour annoy me to no end.

38. Ever been to L.A.?
Yep, trip to Disneyland as a kid.

39. Who is on your mind right now?
A swack of fictional characters, as usual.

40. Any plans for tonight?
Sleep sounds good.

41. What’s your favorite song at the moment?
"Iron Man" by Black Sabbath thanks to its' badass appearance in the trailer for the movie Iron Man, combined with the fact that I love that song anyway. Duh-Duh-Duh-Duh-Duh, Duh-Duh-Duh-Duh-Duh-Duh-Duh-Duh-Duh...

42. Do you hate chocolate?
Of course not.

43. What do you and your parents fight about the most?
Space and chores, for the most part.

44. Do you need a boyfriend/girlfriend to be happy?
Absolutely Not.

45. How do you feel about your most current ex?
Meh, I hope we both find what we were looking for and didn't find with each other.

46. Easy to get along with?
Depends.

47. What is your favorite time of day?
Mid-to-Late Morning, once I'm already up but there's still a lot of potential day left.

48. Are you generally a happy person?
Sometimes. Not really, but maybe I have grandiose ideas of what happiness is.

49. What’s your favorite card game?
52-Pickup

50. What book are you reading right now?
I'm congenitally incapable of reading just one book at once, so currently it's Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold after years of people nagging me to try her stuff, Ghost Story by Peter Straub, and Shakespeare: The World as Stage, a bio by Bill Bryson.

Current Location: Wrybread HQ
Current Mood: dorky
Current Music: Monty Python-Bruces Philosopher Song

Thanks to i_chaos_bringer for this one:

The rules are: The people who have been tagged should post their answers and replace any question they dislike with another question they made up all by their little selves. Tag people. If tagged, don't feel you actually have to do the meme. But if you do, state who you were tagged by, and you cannot tag the person who tagged you. And, of course, change the fandom question to "fandom of your choice".

You just died. What happened?
I forgot to duck.

What is your most guilty pleasure?
Pro Wrestling, especially if Midgets and/or Women are involved. *Misses Trish Stratus and Super Porky*

What was your favourite childhood cartoon?
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

What goes on your hotdog?
EVERYTHING with extra onions, sauerkraut, hot peppers, pickles, and cheese. Yeah, I like cheese on hot dogs. I have even been known to forego the weiner entirely and just slather a lot of ketchup onto a cheese sandwich. Good eatin'.

What was the last movie you saw for pleasure and would you recommend it?
10,000 BC, and it's definitely worth a rental to watch in the comfort of your own home whilst adding your own smartass remarks. Just check your brain at the door and have fun. DO NOT EAT ME!!!!

On balance, are you happy with your life as it is, would you change it a little, or would you change it a lot?
Not too happy at the moment. Changing it a lot by changing it a little at a time.

What’s the one possession you used to have, but don’t any more and wish you did? What happened to it?
My original, black-and-white Game Boy. I might still have it somewhere, but I don't think it works anymore. I sure could go for some Super Mario Land right now...

You (as you are now, not a fictionalized you or fictionalized a bit, if you like) are a guest character in an episode of Heroes. What’s your role?
An amazing new character whose special genetic powers involve the ability to memorize and recite episodes of The Simpsons.

Name one person for whom you’d definitely take a bullet, and one for whom you definitely wouldn’t.
Would take: My great-grandfather, assuming it was that thing where someone had traveled back in time and was going to kill him so that I wouldn't exist. Of course, then I'd be stuck in a time loop where I constantly died going back in time to make sure that I existed at all...*head explodes*

Wouldn't: Pretty much anyone else, unless I was assured of surviving and being richly rewarded. What? I'm not that altruistic.

Worst case scenario?
Nothing but pain and boredom for the next however-many years.

What do you consider your greatest accomplishment?
Tossup between getting my shit more together academically and socially/personally during the last two years of high school after a rough few years before that, and having lost a fair amount of weight and gotten in better physical shape than I've ever been in during the last two years.

What’s your greatest frustration?
Frustration itself. That and Fear.

For you only, not as a broad political statement: life imprisonment or death sentence?
Life Imprisonment. Better than no life at all, and the mind can always achieve some level of freedom.

Jury duty. Ever done it? What was it like? Wanna do it? Thoughts at all?
Nope, wouldn't mind trying it sometime. I certainly don't understand why some people get so bent out of shape about having to do it.

You've discovered you've been drafted into military service (to a country to which you hold a citizenship). What do you do?
Use the training to get in really good physical shape and toughen up, be sure to learn as many ways to kill a man as possible (you'd be surprised how often it comes up in conversation, really you would...), be sure to get at least one book out of the experience. Either that or try to convince them that my contributions on the home front are more valuable ("if someone doesn't have all 300+ Simpsons episodes memorized, then the terrorists have won damnit!")

Which fictional character could you see yourself marrying?
Let's go with Princess Eilonwy from the Prydain Chronicles.

Describe the flag of your personal utopia.
A Book sitting next to a bottle of good Beer.

Do you have a motto? If yes which one?
It changes constantly, usually with whatever wise saying I've heard most recently. Here are a couple of good ones I just read on a friend's Facebook Profile:

"Always remember others may hate you but those who hate you don't win unless you hate them. And then you destroy yourself," Richard Nixon. I'm as shocked as you are by the source of that quote. Now if he'd just taped himself saying *that*...

"I feel sorry for people who do not drink. When they wake up in the morning it is as good as they are going to feel all day," Frank Sinatra.

What's in your pocket right now? Conversely, if you have no pocket, what are the three items closest to your right hand, excluding computer hardware?
A CD, a random book, and the DVD-ROM containing the entirety of WrestleCrap.com on it.

What place(s) most speaks to you?
Any place where there's water.

Current Location: Wrybread HQ
Current Mood: indescribable
Current Music: The Beatles-Eleanor Rigby

Also ganked from the good people at usagivindaloo. This one really appeals to me somehow, partially because of the whole wacky randomness factor ("they'll play THAT at my funeral?") but also because I love the opportunity to show off the typically eclectic playlist I've accumulated over the years, something that's so integral a part of my use of this computer but that I rarely get to share with the outside world, ie my Friends List.

If your life was a movie, what would the soundtrack be?

So, here's how it works:
1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that's playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. No cheating!

opening credits: Doug Kershaw-Jambalaya (Sweet!)
waking up: Corb Lund and the Hurtin' Albertans-Roughest Neck Around
first day at school: The Beatles-Happiness is a Warm Gun
falling in love: The Oyster Band-Star of the County Down
breaking up: Weezer-My Name is Jonas (Well, if she keeps calling me "Jonas")
prom: The Dubliners-Whiskey in the Jar (Hmm...so I'd rob a cop on the way there, then my prom date would turn me in for the reward? That would have been a lot crazier than my actual prom was)
life's okay: The Beatles-Julia
college: The Chieftains-The Squid Jiggin' Ground (Well, I probably could find a pretentious English major way to connect this song back to College life...)
mental breakdown: Rock the Casbah-The Clash (So my mental breakdown will involve a Sheik trying to outlaw Rock n' Roll...?)
career: Loreena McKennit-La Serenissima (So my career will take me to Venice? Or maybe just involve me watching Serenity a lot.)
flashback: Warren Zevon-Things to do in Denver When You're Dead (Some sort of weird past-life thing?)
final battle: Jimi Hendrix-Voodoo Child (Slight Return) (It's not so much the song as the part where I actually get to have a final battle that's awesome. A final motherfrackin' battle! Unless it's something lame like a "brave battle with cancer" or something that you read about in obituaries)
death scene: The Beastie Boys-Intergalactic (So I'll be dancing around in a giant robot when my time comes? Cool.)
funeral song: Jeff Buckley-Hallelujah
end credits: (Oh lord) Weird Al Yankovic-Canadian Idiot (C'mon, that's a bit too harsh. Canadian Guy Who's a Little Slow in a Few Areas, Mostly Math and Spatial Relations, maybe.)
bonus track: Star Wars-Imperial March (Best. Bonus Track. Ever.)

Oh man...I'm really tempted to write this all out as a script.

Current Location: Wrybread HQ
Current Mood: nerdy
Current Music: The Last Saskatchewan Pirate-Arrogant Worms

Thanks to usagivindaloo for this one, right up my alley. In hindsight I should perhaps not have split it between movies that everyone on my friends list would know and ones that no one will know.

1. Pick 15 of your favorite movies.
2. Go to IMDb and find a quote from each movie.
3. Post them here for everyone to guess.
4. Fill in the film title once it's guessed.
5. NO GOOGLING/using IMDb search functions.

1. "Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter."-Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, guessed by i_chaos_bringer
2. "Boy, it sure would be nice if we had some GRENADES, don't you think?"-Serenity, guessed by i_chaos_bringer
3. "Perhaps I can find new ways to motivate them." i_chaos_bringer had the right series but the wrong movie.
4. "Oh! Had enough, eh? Come back and take what's coming to you, you yellow bastards! Come back here and take what's coming to you! I'll bite your legs off!" Monty Python and the Holy Grail, i_chaos_bringer strikes again.
5. "I ain't gonn' be moved on this. Right or wrong, you gonn' mind me. Like Jesus Christ said, "Imma suffa' you. IMMA SUFFA' YOU!" Get yo ass back in my house!"
6. "I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?" Stand By Me, enough already i_chaos_bringer!
7. "I doubt they'll kick up any fuss. Not for an old crook like me. PS: tell Heywood I'm sorry I put a knife to his throat. No hard feelings, Brooks." The Shawshank Redemption, also i_chaos_bringer
8. "I'll go with you, and I won't whine, and I'll sew your socks, and I'll stitch you when you're wounded, and I'll do anything you ask of me except one thing. I won't watch you die. I'll miss that scene if you don't mind."
9. "We have in effect put all our rotten eggs in one basket. And we intend to watch this basket carefully."
10. "You know, you come from nothing, you're going back to nothing. What have you lost? Nothing!" Life of Brian, i_chaos_bringer
11. "Not remotely! Because iocaine comes from Australia, as everyone knows. And Australia is entirely peopled with criminals. And criminals are used to having people not trust them as you are not trusted by me, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of you." The Princess Bride, identified by i_chaos_bringer
12. "That movie has warped my fragile little mind."
13, "I was thinking about death and all. About seeing how you're gonna die. I mean, on one hand, if dying was all you thought about, it could kind of screw you up. But it could kind of help you, couldn't it? Because you'd know that everything else you can survive."
14. "That still only counts as one!"Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, guessed by [Bad username: i_chaos_bringer/], who decided to show off and note that the line was spoken to Legolas by "Gimli, son of Gloin." Now, for super-bonus geek points, can you tell me the name of Legolas' father?
15. "We all dream of being a child again, even the worst of us. Perhaps the worst most of all."

Man, I have eclectic movie tastes. Just because I like to add to memes I snatch, and because I'm a sadomasochist, I'm throwing in quotes from the five *worst* movies I've ever sat through. Here goes *insane giggles*:

1. "I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere. Not like here. Here everything is soft and smooth." Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, guessed by usagivindaloo, although I try not to think of Attack of the Clones as having *anything* to do with Star Wars. It's just a very bad thing that happened.
2. "Oh my God...she's a boy!!!"
3. "Look at the kids! They just sit around all day watching those ridiculous earth progrems!"
4. "Would you look at Lumpy! He's sure grown, huh? And I think his voice is changing!" (okay, so not a movie per se, but quite possibly the most wretched line spoken in *any* medium of entertainment-especially considering the character who delivers it-and therefore worthy of immortalization)
5. " For you, the day I graced your village was the most important day of your life. But for me... it was Tuesday." (actually a good line, but from a horribly bad movie) Street Fighter, also guessed by usagivindaloo. I probably am due to re-watch Street Fighter sometime, it might be fun and Raul Julia's great. It was disappointing to me at the time just because I was also a huge fan of the games and thought it would be more of a movie version of the game instead of a generic action movie with Street Fighter characters thrown in.

Current Location: Wrybread HQ
Current Mood: relaxed
Current Music: Warren Zevon-The Envoy

"Comment in this post and I will choose seven of your interests I would like you to explain more clearly in your journal."

Yoinked from cimera, who wanted to know more about the following:

Jacqueline Carey: A fantasy/alternate history writer that an ex-girlfriend introduced me to. At first her stuff struck me as a little too girly, plus she's not known for her brevity; her first novel, Kushiel's Dart clocks in at about 700 pages, the first 200 of which are given over to laying out the heroine's background along with the details of her world. I only stuck with it because it was the only thing I had to read during a long plane trip, and I was glad I did as it's a deep, involving story once the plot proper starts up. She's a great, original writer, one of the few fantasy writers today who isn't just writing warmed-over Tolkien. Her style gets a tad repetitive over time (sex, swordplay, swordplay, sex, and repeat), but at least read Kushiel's Dart if you call yourself a fantasy fan. She's also written an interesting albeit derivative series that tells a Lord of the Rings-style story from the perspective of the "evil" side.

Quiz Bowl: The one competitive activity that I've ever been really good at, it's basically team Jeopardy! with longer, more complex questions. Very geeky, very fun. I even played on the team that represented UBC at the 2005 National Tournament in New Orleans, meaning that I got to tour NO just months before Katrina hit. We played pretty well against a bunch of American teams and managed to beat some big-name schools. The Vancouver Sun even did a little article about us, albeit without bothering to take pictures of us. I guess they figured trivia geeks wouldn't be all that photogenic.

Runaways: Umm...that's Runaways capitalized, as my friend T pointed out to me the other week, "runaways" without capitals sounds pretty wrong. Anyways, I only found out about this great comic series when Joss Whedon took over as writer, meaning that I would have to at least give it a look. Soon I was a big fan of Brian K. Vaughan, the series' creator, as well as Joss. Runaways isn't a brilliantly written series because Joss took it over; rather, Joss took it over because it is a brilliantly written series (plus Vaughan's the only writer who treats his characters with as much sadism as Joss; I can just see those two sitting aroung giggling maniacally and going "no, no, have her get shot between the eyes right *after* he declares his love for her, bwahahaa"). Set in the Marvel Universe, the series concerns a group of teens who discover that their parents are evil. Not just in the usual "my parents are evil" way, either. As in a team of supervillains whose meetings together involve human sacrifice. If you're a Whedon fan or a comics fan, why haven't you checked out Runaways?

Shadowrun: Tabletop RPG that I've been playing for almost a year now, set in a cyberpunk world with magic and assorted fantasy creatures thrown in; imagine what a novel co-written by William Gibson and J.R.R. Tolkien would look like. My first character was a Dwarf who could summon water spirits; there's a post on this LJ from back in March mourning his demise after he had holes blown in him by enemy machine gun fire. My new character's a police detective-turned rogue magician, he's currently on a mission in the Brazilian jungle putting the whammy on enemy troops and making them shoot each other. Good times.

Video Games: Loved them as a kid starting with the original NES, which I've rediscovered via the Facebook Nescafe app, and especially the SNES. My friends and I would scorn fresh air and spend hours in my basement playing WWF Royal Rumble, Ken Griffey Baseball, and a bunch of other games. I sort of retired from gaming after the 16-bit era out of plain old lack of interest, until I got a look at a friend's DS, liked what I saw, and am now hooked on the DS, from traditional platformer games like New Super Mario Bros. and Yoshi's Island to really innovative unusual games like Elite Beat Agents (rhythm game where you make these guys dance away people's problems) and Electroplankton, which lets you record yourself singing in time with these cartoon fish. And I might invest in a Wii sometime.

Warren Zevon: Great rock/folk musician, one of those guys who didn't get a lot of mainstream attention outside of "Werewolves of London" because he was hard to classify musically and his subject matter was so offbeat and darkly comical, combining the dark erudition of Bob Dylan with the zany absurdity of Weird Al Yankovic. I only really appreciated him after he was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and, with months to live, appeared on David Letterman, did a terrific rendition of "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner", and when asked by Dave what he'd learned from facing imminent death said he'd learned that you had to "enjoy every sandwich." That's the only attitude to death that's ever made perfect sense to me. Gone too soon, wish I'd've seen him live. Buy/download his stuff now. It's an accquired taste, the sort of thing where you either love it or just don't get it at all, but worth a chance.

whisk(e)y: cimera, you just recently came back from Scotland and you need me to explain Whisky to you? Tsk Tsk. Anyway, it's my hard liquor of choice and a favourite social lubricant. Scotch is my favourite, but I'm also a fan of Irish and Canadian Whisk(e)y and really want to try Penderyn, the Welsh Whisky, I was disappointed that the place I went to on St. Paddy's Day was all out of it. I just love the earthy, peaty taste of Whisk(e)y (a note about spelling; some countries drop the "e" in Whisky while others leave it in, an easy way to remember it is that countries with an "e" in their name-The United States, Ireland-leave it in, while countries without an "e"-Scotland, Canada, Japan-leave it out); I never thought I'd be saying I love the taste of dirt, but there you go. If nothing else, Whisk(e)y has a beautiful name, coming from the Celtic uisce beatha, meaning water of life

Note: All of the above facts about whiskey may just be cover for the fact that I'm a raging lush and/or really pretentious.

Current Location: Wrybread HQ
Current Mood: lazy
Current Music: Let Nothing Come Between You-Warren Zevon

About what I have and haven't done, yoinked from

tijnat

Current Location: Wrybread HQ
Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Music: Great Big Sea-The Mermaid

From i_chaos_bringer


1. Do you have a tattoo? No. And I'd have to be pretty bloody drunk before I got one. Actually knowing myself, I'd be a little afraid to see what I'd come up with!
2. How old are you? 24
3. Are you single or taken? Somewhere in between. Officially single, but something/someone's on the horizon.
4. Fish? Good, but not as good as red meat.
5. Do you dream in colour? Yes, I don't think I've ever had a black and white dream, except maybe back when I played so much of the original Gameboy I dreamed about it.
6. Ever seen a corpse? Human, no, Animal, yes.
7. Hipsters or Hillbillies? Hipster Hillbillies, the kind that like to rassle with their coon dogs, eat possum stew, and drink moonshine out of big jugs with "XXX" on them, because it's all terribly ironic and postmodern.
8. How did we meet? Through the Sci-Fi Society at UBC, a club I signed up for on one of my first days as a student.
9. What's your philosophy on life and death? Still in progress.
10. If you could do anything with me, and have no one know, what would it be? Get really drunk/stoned, play some original NES or something, then tape it all and put it on Youtube.
11. Do you trust the police? Sometimes.
12. Do you like musicals? Yes!
13. What is your fondest memory of me? Playing through MegaMan on the NES we had in the Sci-fi Soc. office and making stupid puns on the character's names.
14. If you could change anything about yourself what would it be? I'd be more confident.
15. Would you cheat ? Yes. But only if I could justify it to myself.
16. What are you wearing? Goofy yellow t-shirt and sweat pants, closest I ahve to PJs.
17. Have you ever peed in a pool? Actually no. Never. Honest to God.
18. Would you hide evidence for me if I asked you to? Sure. Especially if I could drink it or smoke it or do other fun things with it.
19. If I only had one day to live, what would we do together? Get really drunk/stoned, play some original NES or something, then tape it all and put it on Youtube.
20. Which do you prefer - short or long hair? On myself, short, on most other people, long. Don't ask me how that works.
21. What's your favorite day of the week? Saturday, everyone's favourite.
22. What's your favorite color? Blue-No, Yellllooowwwww!!!!
23. If you could bring back anyone that has passed, who would it be? Good question...so many great people gone, but I'll say Shakespeare, by which I mean the guy who wrote the plays attributed to Shakespeare. Just to know what he was actually like and who he actually was.
24. Tell me one interesting/odd fact about you? I almost collided with a swordfish while swimming in Greece as a kid. It didn't see me coming, I didn't see it coming, someone alerted me to it just in time. That could have been nasty. Needless to say I was a little nervous in the water for the rest of that trip.
25. What was your first impression of me? Soooooo cute.
26. Have you ever done drugs? Pot, Hashish once, and one ill-advised mushroom trip (I became convinced that the sky was full of Indian art and bacteria, then got scared of the moon).
27. Will you post this so I can fill it out for you? Sure.

Current Location: Wrybread HQ
Current Mood: relaxed
Current Music: Silence

Another fine meme from the good people at i_chaos_bringer

85%The Movie Quiz

FilmCritic.com - Movie Reviews

Current Location: Wrybread HQ
Current Mood: blah
Current Music: Bedlam Bards-On the Drift

tijnat

Current Location: Wrybread HQ
Current Mood: lethargic
Current Music: Jimi Hendrix-Voodoo Child

This one from keirandyl.

$3865.00The Cadaver Calculator - Find out how much your body is worth

Mingle² - Online Dating

keirandyl

Current Location: Wrybread HQ
Current Mood: okay
Current Music: Green Day-American Idiot

Meme time, this one from the good people at samanthadelayed:

Mingle² - Online Dating

Current Location: Wrybread HQ
Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Tragically Hip-38 Years Old

Meme time, this one yoinked from

usagivindaloo

Whew!  That took longer than expected.  A few too many "fannish" questions, I was hoping for more childhood nostalgia-type stuff, but good questions overall. 

Current Location: Wrybread HQ
Current Mood: rejuvenated
Current Music: DVDA-Now You're a Man

In honour of the 30th anniversary of Star Wars hitting theatres and changing movies and fandom forever comes this survey from spacepug, originally designed for this week's Star Wars party at BIFF (group of sci-fi/fantasy-type fans I hang out with most Friday nights), I'm really curious to see what my flist (and my flist's flist, go ahead and spread it around) has to say about it, here it is with my typically hypergraphical answers:

How old were you when you first saw Star Wars (Episode IV A New Hope)? 9, I think. Although I actually saw the Original Trilogy out of order, the first one I saw was Empire, followed by Jedi, followed by A New Hope.

How many times did you see Star Wars in the theatre? *chuckles* Born six years too late, damn it!

How many copies of the movie do you own? Two of A New Hope, One of Empire, One of Jedi, None of the prequels.

What was the first Star Wars toy, game or "collector's item" you got? This old Star Wars board game and a couple of comics, got them from a neighbour of mine whose kids were too old for them. Don't know if I still have them anywhere.

How many Star Wars toys do you still have? Just two actually, I wasn't really into the toys. A Luke figure from A New Hope that I found at a yard sale and Lego Star Wars II for the DS.

How many of the books have you read? All three of the OT novelizations, some comics, and a couple of the other novels, most recently Truce at Bakura. Haven't brought myself to read the New Jedi Order yet *sob*, but I know the basic story.

Who is your favourite Star Wars character? So many to choose from when you're a pretty hardcore fan and thereforfe know the names/bios of all the minor characters. Tossup between Darth Vader, Lando, and Wedge Antilles. I'm also fond of some of the minor Jedi characters from the prequels, among them Kit Fisto (the smiling squid-type guy), Plo Koon, and Ayala Secura (the female twilek).

What is your favourite Star Wars toy or "collector's item"? Hmm...probably this old storybook of A New Hope that I found at a flea market when I was 8 or 9, I read that thing to death. Notable in that it included the scenes with Luke meeting Biggs on Tatooine at the beginning that were cut from the final version, including photographs. Years later I read that a lot of fans who had read the storybook misremembered the Biggs scene as having been something they saw in a movie, leading to an urban legend among Star Wars fans that the original release included the Biggs scenes. I no longer have it, but as a kid I also had this little Return of the Jedi book on tape, of the kind Disney used to put out where you had a little picture book version of the movie and then said book on tape, complete with sound effects and quotes from the movie. Anyways, my brother and I wore that thing out during a family trip to Greece, we'd just listen to it over and over again. It's still the main thing my mother remembers from that trip, and even though he's never seen the movie my dad can still quote dialogue based on that tape.

What is your favourite memory of Star Wars? Man, so many to choose from, but I'll go back to where it really all began for me: watching Return of the Jedi on TV at my grandparent's house, Christmas (or maybe Easter, I'm not sure which, this is England where they roll out all of the big movies on TV for the holidays), 1992. And taping it so I could watch it again and again and again. It wasn't my first exposure to Star Wars, as a cousin of mine had shown me Empire a little while before, but as a kid Empire's downer ending and less action-based plot didn't really appeal to me. Jedi, on the other hand, was like nothing I had seen before, especially that final space battle. These days, I can recognize Jedi's flaws and agree with the fandom's concensus that Empire is the best movie, but at the time Jedi embodied for me that feeling of overwhelming freedom and excitement that you can really only have as a kid and that, perhaps, you're always trying and failing to recapture as an adult (prequels, anyone?). From there on in, I was hooked.

There we go, looking forward to seeing some responses to this one, and...May the Force be With You.

Current Location: Wrybread HQ
Current Mood: pleased
Current Music: John Williams-The Imperial March

...From tijnat.   

Current Location: Vancouver, BC
Current Mood: drunk
Current Music: The Raggle Taggle Gypsy-The Chieftains

Thanks to samanthadelayed

Looked forward to doing this one since I love to blather about all the eclectic obscure music I listen to:

Current Location: Vancouver, BC
Current Mood: geeky
Current Music: When I am King-Great Big Sea

From i_chaos_bringer , with additional smartass remarks, Simpsons references and a rant about Ewok movies thrown in by me. 

i_chaos_bringer

Current Location: Vancouver, BC
Current Mood: nostalgic
Current Music: The Foggy Dew-The Chieftains