Describe your style. What is your aesthetic comprised of?
My personal aesthetic is "arcane hobo", coined by![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
korpikuusi. You can see a lot of it at my Tumblr. It's somewhere in the space between wizardcore, forestcore and dark academia, if it had to be pinned down in terms of existing aesthetics.
What is your favourite type of weather? What do you like to do during this weather?
I love snow, but I've come to think that's novelty value more than an abiding liking for it; I suspect that if I had to deal with it for weeks at a stretch every year, I might like it less. I think on the whole, I prefer autumn frosts, and walking in them, or sitting outdoors with coffee, is the preferred activity. I'm also partial to a good downpour, if I can sit inside an open window, again with the coffee, and preferably something to read or write. As long as it's not too warm, where warm is above 23C.
Describe yourself in 5 words.
Calm, continuous, arcane, interested, rooted.
Do you like to read? What sort of books do you read? Do you have a favourite?
I do, indeed, like to read. I read many kinds of books; principally sf and fantasy, although I have verged over into reading other novels a little more in the last year or so. I also read non-fiction on woodsy stuff, climate, food, food history, agricultural history, historical economics, and... loads more stuff. The most recent books I've acquired were an ebook of Snow Crash, which I want to reread, while it was available for small money, and a physical book about urban exploration in New York.
My favourite book is a little in flux at the moment, but in the long term, it probably settles back, as it has done for about 30 years, to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Which I should also re-read soon.
Do you like sweets? What kind do you like? Can you cook or bake? What do you fancy eating?
I like some sweet things. I don't like sweets in the Isles sense - candy, for the Americans - as much as I used to, although fruit jellies are still a thing. Cadbury's new orange chocolate bars are excellent, and I like fairly simple biscuits (cookies); the malted milk with chocolate on being good. Also donuts, but not the weird heavy ones that were in fashion here for the last few years.
I can most definitely cook, and do so a lot; I am a rank amateur at baking. And breakfast foods will always get my attention.
Which time era do you fancy? Why?
I love the high medieval, in a slightly distant wouldn't-want-to-live-then sense; the choice between being the exploited or the exploiter is much too stark then, and even the exploiters are subject to sudden catastrophic change. There are also some fascinating spots in the Early Modern, particularly as worldwide trade got going, but before the advent of anything you could call globalism was around. The Little Ice Age is very interesting. 20th century history mostly bores me; 20th century Irish history is honestly a little bit repulsive, because it's that of an entire nation handed over to the Catholic Church for about 70 years, and the Catholic Church is pretty close to being a purely evil organisation.
A fact about you not many know? Do you have a hidden talent?
I have lived my life online for about 25 years; I don't think there's much that's unknown. But then, very few people have followed me in all the media I've used, so maybe there are some. Possibly: I am not a pacifist. There are a number of things that only violence will solve, and it is incumbent on those of us with the ability to do so to punch Nazis, for instance.
What mythological creature would you be and why?
Merlin.
Are you a night owl or an early bird?
I am a night owl by instinct, nature and biology. Decades of school and employment forced me to develop a habit of waking up at 06:30, but I never liked it. Self-employment allows me to get up a bit after 08:00 most mornings, which is much better. Left to my own devices entirely, I think I'd sleep between 04:00 and noon.
One thing you could spend hours discussing?
Food history. And worldbuilding for RPGs. And honestly, lots of other things too. I find that as long as the person I am talking to is genuinely interested in something, then I can be interested in it as well. Except for men's team sports, which nothing can make entertaining. Even then I can muster some interest in ice hockey and hurling, I suppose. I suspect, though, that I have met very few people who has an actual interest in such sports; the vast majority of people "interested" in them use it as a social/tribal signal or a gender marker - they don't, for instance, read books about it, research it, look into its history, participate in it themselves, or do any of the other things which genuine interest provokes.
Are you afraid of the supernatural? Do you have any scary stories to tell?
I am cautious of it, in the way that many Irish people are. I'm a heathen and a chaos magician, so I also make use of it, but I do treat it carefully. In particular the Nice People; there's a Pascal's Wager-style approach in Ireland where you might not formally believe in them, but you still avoid doing things that might annoy them.
The only genuinely scary thing I have to recount is a visit in my teens as part of a school trip to Loftus Hall, on the Hook Peninsula in Wexford. I went in, I looked around, and I absolutely had to get the fuck out of there as fast as possible. The sense of grim, evil, lonely, impending doom in there was overpowering. I've passed the house a few times since, and it still gives me the cold shudders. At an intellectual level, I'd like to go back and have another look; at the more visceral level, I don't think I'd be physically able.
What makes you infuriated? Do you get upset easily?
Selfish people. The two people in the last... twenty years? thirty years? that I have been genuinely ragingly angry with were both completely and spectacularly self-centred people. One of them is dead, and I am not even a little bit regretful about it. I've had no contact with the other for a long time, and I would strongly prefer it to remain thus.
I do not get upset easily, although I've been known to cry in cinemas and SCA courts.
What do you find beauty in? What is the definition of beauty?
I find beauty in thought and un-thought; things which have been well-thought-out, largely in writing, and things that are not thought-of at all, natural processes. There are spots in-between as well, but mostly things that are part-thought are ugly. I feel that defines it pretty well, albeit kind of in the inverse.
My personal aesthetic is "arcane hobo", coined by
korpikuusi. You can see a lot of it at my Tumblr. It's somewhere in the space between wizardcore, forestcore and dark academia, if it had to be pinned down in terms of existing aesthetics.What is your favourite type of weather? What do you like to do during this weather?
I love snow, but I've come to think that's novelty value more than an abiding liking for it; I suspect that if I had to deal with it for weeks at a stretch every year, I might like it less. I think on the whole, I prefer autumn frosts, and walking in them, or sitting outdoors with coffee, is the preferred activity. I'm also partial to a good downpour, if I can sit inside an open window, again with the coffee, and preferably something to read or write. As long as it's not too warm, where warm is above 23C.
Describe yourself in 5 words.
Calm, continuous, arcane, interested, rooted.
Do you like to read? What sort of books do you read? Do you have a favourite?
I do, indeed, like to read. I read many kinds of books; principally sf and fantasy, although I have verged over into reading other novels a little more in the last year or so. I also read non-fiction on woodsy stuff, climate, food, food history, agricultural history, historical economics, and... loads more stuff. The most recent books I've acquired were an ebook of Snow Crash, which I want to reread, while it was available for small money, and a physical book about urban exploration in New York.
My favourite book is a little in flux at the moment, but in the long term, it probably settles back, as it has done for about 30 years, to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Which I should also re-read soon.
Do you like sweets? What kind do you like? Can you cook or bake? What do you fancy eating?
I like some sweet things. I don't like sweets in the Isles sense - candy, for the Americans - as much as I used to, although fruit jellies are still a thing. Cadbury's new orange chocolate bars are excellent, and I like fairly simple biscuits (cookies); the malted milk with chocolate on being good. Also donuts, but not the weird heavy ones that were in fashion here for the last few years.
I can most definitely cook, and do so a lot; I am a rank amateur at baking. And breakfast foods will always get my attention.
Which time era do you fancy? Why?
I love the high medieval, in a slightly distant wouldn't-want-to-live-then sense; the choice between being the exploited or the exploiter is much too stark then, and even the exploiters are subject to sudden catastrophic change. There are also some fascinating spots in the Early Modern, particularly as worldwide trade got going, but before the advent of anything you could call globalism was around. The Little Ice Age is very interesting. 20th century history mostly bores me; 20th century Irish history is honestly a little bit repulsive, because it's that of an entire nation handed over to the Catholic Church for about 70 years, and the Catholic Church is pretty close to being a purely evil organisation.
A fact about you not many know? Do you have a hidden talent?
I have lived my life online for about 25 years; I don't think there's much that's unknown. But then, very few people have followed me in all the media I've used, so maybe there are some. Possibly: I am not a pacifist. There are a number of things that only violence will solve, and it is incumbent on those of us with the ability to do so to punch Nazis, for instance.
What mythological creature would you be and why?
Merlin.
Are you a night owl or an early bird?
I am a night owl by instinct, nature and biology. Decades of school and employment forced me to develop a habit of waking up at 06:30, but I never liked it. Self-employment allows me to get up a bit after 08:00 most mornings, which is much better. Left to my own devices entirely, I think I'd sleep between 04:00 and noon.
One thing you could spend hours discussing?
Food history. And worldbuilding for RPGs. And honestly, lots of other things too. I find that as long as the person I am talking to is genuinely interested in something, then I can be interested in it as well. Except for men's team sports, which nothing can make entertaining. Even then I can muster some interest in ice hockey and hurling, I suppose. I suspect, though, that I have met very few people who has an actual interest in such sports; the vast majority of people "interested" in them use it as a social/tribal signal or a gender marker - they don't, for instance, read books about it, research it, look into its history, participate in it themselves, or do any of the other things which genuine interest provokes.
Are you afraid of the supernatural? Do you have any scary stories to tell?
I am cautious of it, in the way that many Irish people are. I'm a heathen and a chaos magician, so I also make use of it, but I do treat it carefully. In particular the Nice People; there's a Pascal's Wager-style approach in Ireland where you might not formally believe in them, but you still avoid doing things that might annoy them.
The only genuinely scary thing I have to recount is a visit in my teens as part of a school trip to Loftus Hall, on the Hook Peninsula in Wexford. I went in, I looked around, and I absolutely had to get the fuck out of there as fast as possible. The sense of grim, evil, lonely, impending doom in there was overpowering. I've passed the house a few times since, and it still gives me the cold shudders. At an intellectual level, I'd like to go back and have another look; at the more visceral level, I don't think I'd be physically able.
What makes you infuriated? Do you get upset easily?
Selfish people. The two people in the last... twenty years? thirty years? that I have been genuinely ragingly angry with were both completely and spectacularly self-centred people. One of them is dead, and I am not even a little bit regretful about it. I've had no contact with the other for a long time, and I would strongly prefer it to remain thus.
I do not get upset easily, although I've been known to cry in cinemas and SCA courts.
What do you find beauty in? What is the definition of beauty?
I find beauty in thought and un-thought; things which have been well-thought-out, largely in writing, and things that are not thought-of at all, natural processes. There are spots in-between as well, but mostly things that are part-thought are ugly. I feel that defines it pretty well, albeit kind of in the inverse.
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I enjoy snow, though - even after having lived in the tundra of the Canadian prairies - simply because it's precipitation you can play with. I also genuinely enjoy ice hockey. Interestingly, these things aren't necessarily related.