asked me five questions.

1) Something simple. Favourite colour(s)?
This is so not simple :) In clothes, right now, I'm heavily into red, black, white, and grey, in various combinations. Not sure why. In general, though, I like purple, and I like icy pastels: lavender, periwinkle, and white are the colors I'm eventually painting the guest room and master bedroom in my house. I've always been a fan of teal, and sage green. Moody murky rainy colors, I guess.

2) There's been a spate of superhero's lately. Reworked on the big screen, and the little one. Who is the hero you identify most with, or would want to be. If none, is there a superpower you'd want to have most of all, and why?
When I was eight I had a crush on Superman, and when I was four my aunt and I used to play Batman and Robin, and I was Batman, but I don't really identify with any superheroes. Superpowers, though, would be cool. I'd really like to be able to have ten-second time-looping capabilities, so I could go back, and give different responses to things, or make different decisions. I think that would be too easy to abuse, though.

3) If there was one thing in your past that you could identify that would have changed your whole lifes path to where you are now, would you go back and change it given the opportunity. I think I know the answer to this one, but I'm still curious to know.
Other than finishing college, since I already wrote about that.
I had an abortion in 1996. We'd only been married a year, and we were in no shape (financial, emotional, residential) to have children, and I still believe it was the right choice for us, at that time. But sometimes I wonder how my life, our lives, might have been different if we'd made a different decision.

4) I don't know if you've caught the travel bug. You always seem so grounded in your writing, in a very positive sense. But if the itch ever took you, where is first on your list of travel destinations and why?
Actually I love to travel, it's just that it's a hassle because of having to kennel the dogs or hire a dog-sitter. (My older dog is epileptic, so we can't just have someone feed them and leave it at that – he requires more care). We spent Christmas 2002, in the South of France, for example, and I'd love to go back. Beyond that, I'd really love to see Alaska, the Caribbean side of Mexico, Italy, Australia and New Zealand. Fuzzy's company keeps whispering about opening a site in Sydney, but chances are that the Asian group will own it, and not the American group, and the timing was bad when we had the chance to move to London, a few years ago.

5) I throw the door open to you. What's the one question you'd want an interviewer to ask you?
Do I have to just state the question, or answer it as well? :)
Seriously, I can't pick questions for myself. I like to talk about rain and music and books, more than anything, so…probably something about that.

I asked a bunch of questions. She's taken her turn, as well.

1. As a chick in cyberspace, you know that the guy/girl ratio is huge. If you were single it might be fun, but when you're happily married it can get annoying. What coping strategies have you developed for telling the inevitable comers-on that “that's not what I'm here for”?

Unless you ARE here for that…

Really, I don't have much of a problem, but I think that's because I'm not now, and have never been, a fan of chat rooms. Part of that is inherent guardedness: while my journal isn't friends-only, I don't accept unsigned posts. Period. Even on my OpenDiary site and my personal blogs. I figure, if I'm willing to put something out there – even if it's drivel – and own it, than anyone commenting should be willing to own their comments. Part of it is that I tend to be shy until I warm up to people, anyway, so I'm not likely to flirt with strangers. And then, a lot of it is luck. I've only gotten ONE spam comment on my blog, ever, and only one or two stray chat requests, so I've never HAD to cope.

2. How is Electric Tangerine going, and what direction would you like to see it go in the future?
It depends. If you mean Electric Tangerine: The Forum I'd love to see it more active, and with real discussion. Of course, the only advertising was a post or two here in LJ. If you mean & Etc. the collaborative blog, I'd like to see it also more active, but right now, I'm hand-picking people to write there, because it's very very experimental and I don't want to push people out of their comfort zone. Ideally, I'd like it to be a place where women (mostly, but not necessarily only) feel comfortable posting their favorite pieces, and offering challenges to one another. A virtual writing group, I guess?

3. You have many musical interests. In what way do you feel most musically at home? (i.e., do you like playing an instrument best? singing? dancing to live music? dancing to canned music? playing your armpit?)
Don't knock armpit tunes!
Seriously, I think in vocal music, and when I'm in my house, or even in my office alone, I'm constantly singing – I just don't sing around my friends, because, again, I'm shy. Also, I'm a total geek when it comes to music, and while I like pop, rock, alternative, jazz, blues, and some country (pretty much everything except rap), what I sing /best/ and am most attracted to are showtunes and standards, which most people don't admit to liking, in public. When I was a little girl, I wanted to be Billie Holiday…

4. Are you as active in the world as you are online? How do you feel about that ratio (time spent in meatspace/time spent in cyberspace)?
Yes and no.
I'm in a nesting period right now – I love my house and I love spending time in it, and I've always been very solitary. I think this is leftover from always being the only kid at adult parties, and always being the new kid. I never developed a great love of group activities – I get overwhelmed and feel overshadowed and dull – and yeah, that's all internal, but it's still there. But, I do stuff, yeah. I used to be extremely active in the local pro-choice movement.

The thing is, when I'm hanging out on the net, I'm usually at home, and Fuzzy is in the room with me, and we're chatting and stuff, or I'm at work, and doing stuff and interacting with people, so I'm never JUST online.

I freely admit that I tend to do too much internal stuff, though, and not enough interaction with the world.

5. At any time in your life, have you passed up an opportunity that you now regret having passed up (like that time that the then-unknown Bill Gates asked you out)? How does that inform your life now?
Once.
When I was sixteen I had the opportunity to take high school equivalency exams instead of finishing, and then go to Simon's Rock of Bard College – it's a boarding prep school that takes 16 and 17 year-olds, but I felt like there was no way my parents could afford it, so I didn't push hard enough, and I ended up hating high school, and pretty much blowing off my entire senior year (I'd already been accepted to my university) because I was restless and bored and unhappy. That ruined higher education for me, to this day. I keep telling myself that someday I'll go back and finishing college, but the truth is, I don't think it'll happen. I have no patience for classrooms.

Y'all know the drill, and y'all know I tend to be guarded. This is your chance to get behind the guarded-ness.

Rules of Engagement:
1) You comment, requesting an interview.
2) I'll respond by asking you five questions.
3) You'll then post an LJ entry, answering my questions.
4) You'll refer to these rules.
5) You'll come up with five questions, when folks ask you.

Please assume that if you ask me, I want to be asked in return.

If anyone who has seen the movie Better than Chocolate could tell me the name of the song playing in the background during the scene where Maggie and Kim are in Kim's van, as it's being towed…I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks.

Just a quick note to tell you that I managed to remove the image from the archive pages at the blog…which means no more issues with grey-on-dark-brown.

Tucked into a forested valley in the middle of Northern California's Coastal Mountain Range, is the small and little-known village of Idyllwild. History says that it was originally a mining camp, and that after the Gold Rush was over, it became known as a retreat for artists and writers who wished to escape from high society. By the middle of the twentieth century, Idyllwild had become a full-blown artists' colony, boasting an array of shops and restaurants not generally found in such a comparatively small place. Despite this, it has remained largely obscure, and while the population now includes dot-com divas and an assortment of telecommmuters, the general sense is that everyone who lives there is subtly different from the whole of society.

Above the village, perched on a broad plateau just below the peak of the highest mountain, is The School. It's a structure that manages to incorporate many and varied architectural styles without being garish, and it boasts panoramic views of the rugged coastline and the ocean beyond, as well as a more peaceful view of the sheltered village below, though no one is quite certain how this is possible.

Students and teachers refer to the sprawling institution as “The Academy” or ISOMATA. Brochures, should one be lucky enough to come across any, refer to it as “Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts” but some rare people have claimed that this is a cover, and that the real purpose of the school is to serve as the west coast's educational facilty for young witches and wizards of extraordinary talent. The real name of the place, they claim, is Idyllwild School of Magic and the Arcane.

* * *
If you're reading this you've been invited to help do some world building, using the world of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels , but translating them to an American setting without feature characters, as the basis of new MUSH.

I've created a filter called Idyllwild. Those of you who know what it is, have been added. Anyone who wants to know what it is, please ask me or , and if you want to be part of it, I'll add you.

Sorry for the mystery…we're not ready to go public with this yet.

Swiped from .

Your Years at Hogwarts by nevermindless
Name:
The Sorting Hat places you in:	Slytherin (Green and Silver)
Subject you are naturally best at:	All of them.
Your favorite book:	Important Modern Magical Discoveries
Pet you bring to school:	A salamander. He lives in your house’s fireplace.
You are most known for:	Getting atleast one howler a month.
Created with quill18's MemeGen!

Anita~ You are Anita Blake! The entire series
revolves around your complicating life. You
currently have two boyfriends, Micah and Jean
Claude. You are Bolverk for the local werewolf
pack (which means you punish the naughty ones)
and are Nimira of a pard of wereleopards. For a
living you are an animator (which means you
raise corpses for a living) and are a licenced
vampire executioner. You have led a life full
of adventure and danger and truthfully you
would have it no other way.

Which Anita Blake Character are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

And then again, I don't wish, because I really wouldn't want her life for longer than a day or so.

I'm having that feeling of “I don't feel sick, but I really am not in the mood to be at work today, because if I was curled up at home, I could write or listen to moody music, or, or, or…”

It's the grown up version of post-holiday senioritis, I think.

Playing hooky is NOT just for kids.