stirring the pot
Aug. 21st, 2005 05:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ironymaidenfive questions from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
buhrger - you know the drill.
1. when are you free in the next two weeks?
not as often as i would like. i hope to see you; we can coordinate via email.
2. inre your current move: why leasing instead of buying? (if the question shows how clueless i am about the seattle housing market, feel free to say that)
the outgoing digs are something like 560 square feet, which in its location would sell for more than $130,000. that's no view, no washer/dryer, in the unfashionable end of the neighborhood. when last we looked seriously into buying, we discovered that we can't afford to buy a condo or house with enough space for two people with a load of books in Queen Anne or any location we like. we can rent something very nice in an excellent neighborhood further north. now the pondering will begin over putting savings into a down payment or a great vacation. i expect great vacation is going to win in the short term.
while i'd like to be able to install a gas stove and a dog, i'm perfectly happy not to deal with major maintainence or property taxes. the new place even has a yard and we are welcome to dig a garden.
3. do you ever see yourself having kids? why or why not?
forecast unclear. as a much younger woman, i expected to have a third-grader by now. i was a fascinated and engaged babysitter in high school, and i love individual kids but not groups of them, or children as an abstraction. (but cross my path with a puppy...) my sister had her first child when i was in college, and she became a completely different person. i was horrified. then i started working in theatre and i couldn't afford the time/money/loss of mobility. C and i agreed early on that we both had a distinct interest in children but a nebulous fear of them. we determined that we would not discuss the topic further until we had been married for five years. after our fifth anniversary, we had a long talk and agreed that...we didn't know. i think it wasn't until we settled here that we grokked the possibility of a happy couple with no children and no plans for them (back in PA people actually assumed that there must be a fertility issue; there is definitely not). in some way, though, i feel it's our responsibility to reproduce; while we deliberate, a lot of stupid people are cranking out babies. on the other hand, i feel like in some way our lives as ourselves are over when we do it, and i'm not sure i'm willing to sacrifice myself to someone else's future. it's messy. not having made a concrete decision about it has probably influenced the house thing.
4. seeing as you've mentioned him recently, Heinlein: libertarian visionary or misogynist git? (if he's a combination, explain)
mostly libertarian visionary. (i can feel a few of the people on my f-list bristling right now) having read many of the works of his contemporaries, he's a pretty liberal, forward-thinking guy for his era. (Jim Baen is a real misogynist git.) when i think of Heinlein heroines, i think beautiful, brilliant, horny. i'm pretty happy with the idea of being beautiful, brilliant, and horny.
i'm very much in favor of the idea of national service, being reponsible parents, TANSTAAFL, and more love in the world. Christians practice ritual cannibalism regularly, so whatever.
5. in a recent entry, you mention " recent reading has reminded me of the importance of acting on one's convictions" - what was the reading? and, seeing as you list voting as the first duty, how likely do you think a non-Republican victory in 2008 is?
a deal of it was on lj (i'd do links but i hate to make references to f-locked posts) dealing with body image in advertising (morphing into the nature of feminism and the place of women vs people of color in society, racism, accurate survey sampling, moral relativism, etc.) protesters at a Seattle Planned Parenthood, Cindy Sheehan & co., and a comment thread about emigration possibly creating a liberal drain.
i think there's going to be change in 2008 for sure, but that could be a different kind of Republican. there are people who voted for Dubya disillusioned with deficit spending and a damaged environment; either they'll leave the party or shape a better one. although it might get me lynched in Seattle, show me a pro-choice Republican who recognizes that global warming is a FACT and that straight people have damaged the "institution of marriage" all by themselves; i would consider voting for them. i'm fiscally conservative and socially progressive, so setting up one party as good and another as evil is a distraction when seeking to create my ideal government. i'd like to have a tough choice to make, and i hope it can be voting for instead of simply voting against. (i want the leader of my country to be more Thomas Jefferson, less class president.) 2008 is going to be a rumble...and i can't wait. i want Barack Obama to run, but i think he's too early in his career.
buhrger - you know the drill.1. when are you free in the next two weeks?
not as often as i would like. i hope to see you; we can coordinate via email.
2. inre your current move: why leasing instead of buying? (if the question shows how clueless i am about the seattle housing market, feel free to say that)
the outgoing digs are something like 560 square feet, which in its location would sell for more than $130,000. that's no view, no washer/dryer, in the unfashionable end of the neighborhood. when last we looked seriously into buying, we discovered that we can't afford to buy a condo or house with enough space for two people with a load of books in Queen Anne or any location we like. we can rent something very nice in an excellent neighborhood further north. now the pondering will begin over putting savings into a down payment or a great vacation. i expect great vacation is going to win in the short term.
while i'd like to be able to install a gas stove and a dog, i'm perfectly happy not to deal with major maintainence or property taxes. the new place even has a yard and we are welcome to dig a garden.
3. do you ever see yourself having kids? why or why not?
forecast unclear. as a much younger woman, i expected to have a third-grader by now. i was a fascinated and engaged babysitter in high school, and i love individual kids but not groups of them, or children as an abstraction. (but cross my path with a puppy...) my sister had her first child when i was in college, and she became a completely different person. i was horrified. then i started working in theatre and i couldn't afford the time/money/loss of mobility. C and i agreed early on that we both had a distinct interest in children but a nebulous fear of them. we determined that we would not discuss the topic further until we had been married for five years. after our fifth anniversary, we had a long talk and agreed that...we didn't know. i think it wasn't until we settled here that we grokked the possibility of a happy couple with no children and no plans for them (back in PA people actually assumed that there must be a fertility issue; there is definitely not). in some way, though, i feel it's our responsibility to reproduce; while we deliberate, a lot of stupid people are cranking out babies. on the other hand, i feel like in some way our lives as ourselves are over when we do it, and i'm not sure i'm willing to sacrifice myself to someone else's future. it's messy. not having made a concrete decision about it has probably influenced the house thing.
4. seeing as you've mentioned him recently, Heinlein: libertarian visionary or misogynist git? (if he's a combination, explain)
mostly libertarian visionary. (i can feel a few of the people on my f-list bristling right now) having read many of the works of his contemporaries, he's a pretty liberal, forward-thinking guy for his era. (Jim Baen is a real misogynist git.) when i think of Heinlein heroines, i think beautiful, brilliant, horny. i'm pretty happy with the idea of being beautiful, brilliant, and horny.
i'm very much in favor of the idea of national service, being reponsible parents, TANSTAAFL, and more love in the world. Christians practice ritual cannibalism regularly, so whatever.
5. in a recent entry, you mention " recent reading has reminded me of the importance of acting on one's convictions" - what was the reading? and, seeing as you list voting as the first duty, how likely do you think a non-Republican victory in 2008 is?
a deal of it was on lj (i'd do links but i hate to make references to f-locked posts) dealing with body image in advertising (morphing into the nature of feminism and the place of women vs people of color in society, racism, accurate survey sampling, moral relativism, etc.) protesters at a Seattle Planned Parenthood, Cindy Sheehan & co., and a comment thread about emigration possibly creating a liberal drain.
i think there's going to be change in 2008 for sure, but that could be a different kind of Republican. there are people who voted for Dubya disillusioned with deficit spending and a damaged environment; either they'll leave the party or shape a better one. although it might get me lynched in Seattle, show me a pro-choice Republican who recognizes that global warming is a FACT and that straight people have damaged the "institution of marriage" all by themselves; i would consider voting for them. i'm fiscally conservative and socially progressive, so setting up one party as good and another as evil is a distraction when seeking to create my ideal government. i'd like to have a tough choice to make, and i hope it can be voting for instead of simply voting against. (i want the leader of my country to be more Thomas Jefferson, less class president.) 2008 is going to be a rumble...and i can't wait. i want Barack Obama to run, but i think he's too early in his career.
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no subject
Date: 2005-08-22 05:44 am (UTC)sounds like a plan.
i expect great vacation is going to win in the short term.
and where might that great vacation take you?
cross my path with a puppy
the mathgeek is now trying to decide whether a puppy counts as a vector, thus allowing it to be crossed with your path (which i'm assuming does).
it wasn't until we settled here that we grokked the possibility of a happy couple with no children and no plans for them
in retrospect it seems so obvious, but it took me a good long while to notice that too. of course, given that i decided at age 5 that i never wanted to have kids, that meant a good long while with a rilly screwed up 'tude about relationships. (like, screwed-up-er than now... eek!)
i feel like in some way our lives as ourselves are over when we do it
i've seen that happen, yup
i hate to make references to f-locked posts
seen.
show me a pro-choice Republican who recognizes that global warming is a FACT and that straight people have damaged the "institution of marriage" all by themselves; i would consider voting for them
good point. i had intended the premise to be more specifically anit-bush than anti-GOP.
i'd like to have a tough choice to make
be careful of what you ask for - a choice between Loser #1 and Loser #2 is still a tough choice...
i want Barack Obama to run
from the tiny bits i know about him, he could be interesting, yup
no subject
Date: 2005-08-23 07:01 pm (UTC)probably Europe. C's never been to the continent and i've never been to the UK. we've had no vacation of longer than a week since we've been married, and the last few years all of our spare money and vacation days have been consumed by family obligations. we're shortly out of siblings and friends to get married, so assuming everyone's health holds, 2006 is the year of traveling for ourselves.
no subject
Date: 2005-08-22 02:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-23 07:11 pm (UTC)1. i have several Seatown friends who have never/only recently done popular tourist things like visit the Space Needle or take the Underground Tour. what "must see" things (if any) have you never seen/done in Edmonton, and why?
2. what was your first instrument and when and why did you start playing?
3. what's a bit of Canadian pop culture that i'd embrace if i knew about it?
4. what is the ideal venue for listening to live music?
5. if someone tells you that they don't like to read, does it affect your opinion about them, and how?
no subject
Date: 2005-08-23 07:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-23 05:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-23 07:14 pm (UTC)