What is best in life?

buhrger asked me five questions. if you would like me to ask you five questions, request them in a comment, then post with the same offer so that the best meme may roll on.

1.if ten-years-ago you saw your current level of engagement with Sounders FC/MLS, how surprised would she have been? (asking because ten-years-ago me would have been a little surprised.)

i think she would be more shocked that i could afford to be a season ticket holder than anything else. but perhaps sad that i couldn't escape sports - in 2005 i didn't have to know anything or pretend to care about any sports. the only time i saw any game of any kind was southplains's annual Super Bowl party.

but there's also a certain inevitablilty. my family has always watched sports. while i never was thoroughly passionate about any of them, i always liked the in-stadium experience of football and basketball (and to a lesser extent, baseball).* my brothers played football when they were in highschool (and i was a charming toddler). my family had Penn State football tickets. i was in marching band, which meant that i was at all the football games when i was in high school. i always loved the crowd dynamic and anything involving singing or call and response.

there is part of me that is hardwired to love night games in crisp cool weather. the boiling hot summer day games? 2015 me is still surprised that i can stand that.


2.do you have a memory of first realizing that you are a dog person? or has it always been part of you?

no. there have always been dogs, or an aching hole where the dog should be.

i have no memory of learning to love dogs. (my father had a well-trained black Lab when he married mom. so when i was born, Buck was already there.) i have memories of being told to be more careful, that not every strange dog is my friend. i also remember a time when mom suggested that i give the dog some of the cookie i was eating: i held it out and let the dog take a bite, then i finished it. no dog ever bit me (other than puppy nips) or chased me or gave me a bad experience (other than dying in my presence). in this i'm pretty lucky since i accidentally mostly did things right - i only really started researching the science of dog body language and behavior when we were ramping up to adopting Molly.

3.if, for reasons of notional security, you were required to move out of ballard to some place on the east side (the horrors!) where would you go? money is no object. notional security, yunno.

security? like, i'm building a fortress? The Snoqualmie Tunnel as a starter tunnel for my hollow mountain fortress. it has two defensible access points and a lovely view. (hey, we should do that hike some August.)

4.regarding star wars the force awakens, where do you fall on the spectrum from "SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY" to "it better not suck"? (to, i suppose, "i'm not even going to bother")

i fall solidly in "i've been hurt before". C and i occasionally say "hey, we should buy tickets for that sometime" and then we fail to go order them. i have avoided most spoiler chatter and i suppose i will need to see it before Christmas if i want to visit the internet. Pirates A and E are passionate about it and we *are* playing the Star Wars RPG right now, so it's more of a social obligation than an actual desire at this point. i don't need more Star Wars at all, but it would be nice for it to be good.

5.while we both read charlie stross, we seem to prefer different books of his. which are your favourites, and which are your least favourites?

favorites are the Laundry books, but i think they're most successful as shorter stories. so i love The Atrocity Archives, and the short about working over Christmas, and the short with the unicorns.

i adored the start of the Merchant books, but for me they fell off the rails when <redacted /> died and i think i gave it one book after that and then walked away.

i liked Singularity Sky.

thought the ones with the crime in the MMORPG were already dated when they were published and terribly twee. "Web 3.14" *rolls eyes*

loathed Accelerando. the reviews were so good, and then it turned out to be a collection of short stories that i didn't like when i read them the first time in their magazine publication. (i was really into reading short fiction magazines at the right time.)



*hockey was something i watched on tv sometimes. i think Penn State had an ice rink? i know i tried ice skating indoors approximately once somewhere and my ankles were too weak to function. i actually had an Edmonton sweatshirt at one point - it was in a bargain bin and i loved the colors. i had a passing interest in the Pittsburgh Penguins, who were very very good when i was in high school - i loved the mouth-feel of saying Jaromir Jagr (for the uninitiated, it sounds like yommer yagger. yommer yagger yommer yagger yommer yagger!)