Blog Virus Day

Kindness of Marcy, our internet fun of the day. For all those listeners that haven't stopped by Biodegradable today, do so. She's got some heavy stuff going on.

But, without further ado:

1) If you could only excel at one, and had to give the other up forever, which would it be, skating or writing, and why?

Writing. I dearly love to skate, but in the final alaysis it is only a hobby that I have passion for. Writing, on the other hand, is vital to my definition of selfworth.

Most of the old men you see skating today were skaters as children, but then gave it up when they "grew up." Later they realized that they were getting big and lazy and desperately wanted to regain their youth. For better or worse, I grew up on a farm and didn't pick up skating until college. Even though I'm an old skater by any standard, I'm blessed in that my skills are the best that theyhave ever been. I'm not trying to recapture my youth, I'm actually living this way.

But it certainly isn't sustainable. Like every skater, I fall down a _lot_, especially at the park. There is going to come a time when the reward of landing the next trick isn't going to be worth the 30 times I'll need to fall down to make it happen. So while I'm not ready to give up skating now, in the back of my mind I know that I will have to at some point.

But like I wrote above, my selfworth is invested in being a writer, an activity that I hope to sustain through the entire course of my life. Currently this works out especially well, because I can set short term skating goals ("I want to learn XXX trick this week!") and long tern writing goals ("I want to sell a book before I die!"). I manage to stay happy because I can keep meeting the short term goals, and not become dejected when the long term goals seem to be _really_ long term.

If any of this doesn't make sense, just ask. :)

2) Why should WotC give you the next F/W book (no need to give out proposal specifics, just why should they pick you vs. all the other poor slobs submitting)?

(Hehehehehe. Damn, Marcy, you're cutting me to the quick here. There are really good questions.)

WoTC should pick me, damnit, because while I might not be the best writer, or quickest writer, or even the most knowledgeable Realms writer, I can promise to be the most passionate. I've got passion in spades. Sometimes it feels that that is all that I have, but there you go. :)

3) Suffering...a result of attachment which should be purged from our being (a la Zen Buddhism), or a redemptive process we should embrace (a la Catholicism)?

(Hah! Remind me never to get in an argument with Marcey. Sheesh.) But, honestly, I believe that "the purging of attachment is a redemptive process that we should embrace."

Really. I'm not trying to be cute here.

In college (right about the same time I started skating) I started taking classes in Eastern Religions. They were fascinating. Western Religions seemed so boring in comparison. Sadly, I think I was attracted more to the exotic element than anything else, but eventually I ran out of classes to take and was forced to take a class on Western Religions taught by an ex-Jesuit.

Never get into an argument with Marcey, but _really_ never get into an argument with an ex-Jesuit. Anyhow, Doctor Veins introduced his class to Christian Mysticism, and suddenly Christianity was wild and exotic, too (Hah! Find that phrase anywhere else on the net...:)).

Fortunately I matured out of my "oooh neato" phase of comparative religions, but the quality of the classes was enough to scar me for life. To me (and only to me, everyone else can believe what they like) it seems clear that every culture comes up with its own way of dealing with and adressing the infinite. But it's the infinte. Whatever word you want to use for it, it is HUGE, far larger than, say, any one culture's attempts to define it. So Christian's define their "Face" of God, Muslims and Jews do the same for their "Face" of God, Zoroastrians do the same, and on and on.

For my money, the Infinite is like a perfect, faceted jewel with an infinite number of sides, each facet being beautiful and unique unto itself, but still only representing a limited vision.

Note that with this paradigm having the "entire" view of the Infinite is neither particularly valuable or even possible. It seems more important, to me, just to have a passionate relationship with it.

4) What's your favorite fantasy book of all time, and why is it your favorite (and you can only pick one!)?

Ooh. This is really hard. I'll have to pick a couple favorites:

Gene Wolfe, Shadow and Claw
Incredibly poetic prose that I can't even hope to mimic.

Robert E. Howard, Conan the Barbarian
Pulp fiction done right, before the Govenor of California got ahold of it.

Steven Brust, any of the Vlad Taltos books
Even pulpier fiction, but on the meta side.

And of course, who could forget the author of the Engine Alley Project?
Okay, this was me trying to be cute, but seriously, while I do hate my writing, I remain one of my own favorite authors.

5) Are you a Buffy fan? If so, why and if not, why not?

I am not a Buffy Fan, but only because I haven't actually seen any of the shows. At present I don't own a TV, which I have found is its own reward.

RULES

So now it's your turn. Take a ride on the Interview Virus. Send me an e-mail or post a comment and I'll send you 5 questions. It's fun! All the kids are doing it!

1 - Leave a comment, saying you want to be interviewed.
2 - I will respond; I'll ask you five questions.
3 - You'll update your journal with my five questions, and your five answers.
4 - You'll include this explanation.
5 - You'll ask other people five questions when they want to be interviewed.

Writing: Nope. Making Valentines for 1st Graders!
Skating:Yep! Volunteer night! Old man, dropping in! (I landed a nose slide on a _tall_ ledge last night over a gap...fun. Yep, old man, going on 14 years. :)
Today's Soundtrack:Overheard last night in the park and cycling in my head ever since: Snoop Doggy Dog's song with the line, "Stop. Drop, kaboom." Yeah, deep, I know. The song gets worse from there. Good to skate to, though.