The Autographed Cat Interview, part three

Part Three of our exclusive talk with the Autographed Cat, featuring questions from bardling, it_aint_easy, spiritdance, maedbh7, and aiela

from bardling:

1) What would be your perfect job/profession?

Something that is fun for me, that pays well enough to support me and my life partner comfortably, and allows me the flexibility of schedule to do the non-work things that I want to do. The job I have isn’t too bad, really, on these points, and short of being independently wealthy so I can focus entirely on creative pursuits, I like what I’m doing now.

2) Is there anything in your life you’d like to “redo” differently?

Sure, lots. There are situations I wish I’d handled better, things I think I could have done differently to save pain and unhappiness. A person who truly has no regrets is a person who doesn’t do a lot of contemplation, I believe.

3) which event/development/moment/decision most made you who you are today?

Finally allowing myself to walk away from the loveless relationship I’d dedicated myself to for over 12 years and giving myself permission to seek my own happiness again.

4) Who’d play in your perfect band?

You, of course! *grin* Hrm, is this the band I’d want to play with me? I’m surrounded by so many wonderful musicians all the time, I don’t know if I could narrow it down to one small group of people!

5) Which instrument would you pick, if you could pick one additional one to guitar & voice, to be able to play real well?

Ah, this one’s easy. I’d love to learn the piano. It’s an amazingly versitile instrument and I’ve always been facinated with it, but I never have taken any time to try and learn to play it.

from it_aint_easy:

1) Describe your perfect vacation (money is no object, but keep it vacation-like, as opposed to saving the world).

If money is no object, then I’d love to take a year off to go and visit every one of my friends, wherever it is that they live. That would mean spending a fair amount of time travelling around the US and Canada and through parts of Europe.

2) You’re given the opportunity to slap two people (one living, one historical) and deliver an accompanying comment, retribution-free. Who, and what comments go with them? (You may skip the actual slap, if you would rather, or if you think it would be more effective that way.)

Gracious, how violent. 🙂

I won’t name the one living person, but he’s someone who I know personally who is frequently casually insensitive to people around him and, I think, completely unaware of the effect he has on folks. I’d love to actually make him realize, not *what* people think of him, but why.

Historical? So many choices. I doubt I could actually find the one person most reponsible for the suffocating zealotry that passes for virtue in today’s society, but he or she certainly deserves a good talking to.

3) Whom do you most envy and why?

I don’t spend a lot of time with envy. It seems like a waste of emotional energy. I could give a pat answer like “Oh, so-and-so for their musicianship because they just make it all look so easy!”, but I realize, honestly, that they make it look easy because they’ve been working their ass off on it for some number of years, and so could I if I could motivate myself to. Envy and jealousy are just emotions that I don’t have a lot of time for.

4) Find your center. Now describe it.

My center is where my loves are. It is not a physical place, but an emotional state. The connections I make to the people I love, and the love they return to me, is what gives me balance

5) What do you think your S.O. would say is the most intriguing thing about you? Now check. What did she say?

Hrm, she’s commented many times that the way I treat other people is exceptional, in that honor is a concept I actually try to live by rather than simply pay lipservice to.

I asked her, and here’s the response she sent:

“heh, I’m writing from work – I’ll keep it clean. Most intriguing… that in so many ways you don’t think like a guy. You know the things I mean, you’ve commented on them yourself. In some ways you do, but in many you don’t.”

This is certainly fair. My mind just doesn’t work the way the “typical male’s” does. I’ve often thought I probably got slotted into the wrong body on the assembly line. 🙂

from spiritdance:

1. So, how and when did you get into filking?

Depends on how you define “get into filking.”

I first became aware of filking as an activity at a RoVaCon, sometime around 1984 or 1985. The con more or less shut down at 6pm, so I was bored and wandering around the hotel looking for something to do. I passed a hotel room with the door propped open and three people inside playing music. I stopped, they invited me in, and listened to them play for a while. Later, I discovered there were filk tapes available and would pick up a couple of random ones here and there.

There was very little filk activity at the cons I was going to, though I would stop through a filkroom if I found one at a con. Then, when I moved to Georgia in 1990, the person I was with was actively *avoiding* filk at cons because she wasnted to avoid a particular person whe had bad experiences with in the SCA. From 1991-1995, we were pretty much gafiated because of money, although I *was* lurking on alt.music.filk even then.

In 1996, we went to Magic Carpet Con, which had several Filk Guests, and I had a great time hanging out in the filk track room, listening to Leslie and Dr. Jane and Timelines and Filthy Pierre and the Creasys who had come all the way over to sell tapes and CDs. Since the person that Kim was avoiding didn’t seem to be active in local fandom anymore, we started making a point of attending the filk events at cons we went to. It was sometime around this time that we heard that someone had moved to the Atlanta area and was starting up housefilks. A few months later we met him at Dragon*Con 1998 and got directions to the next housefilk. I’ve been very active in the filk community ever since.

2. Who’s your favorite performer/musician in filking? outside of filk?

Wow, that’s another one of those that it’s so hard to pick a favourite, and besides, it might change from moment to moment. I’ve probably, for instance, seen more Three Weird Sisters gigs than any other single person. (In fact, I’d almost guarentee this is true). Seeing you and Daniel perform is always a treat. If I start to make a list, I’ll end up leaving out so many people that I’ll later hate myself for not remembering, I’m afraid to start.

If I had to pick one and only one performer, I’d probably say the UK filkband Phoenix, just because a) they are doing something that is not being done much in the filk community, ie: full scale filk rock, and b) they covered one of my songs, which was extraordinarily cool. 🙂

Outside of filk, again, my tastes are extremly wide and varied, but if I had to pick just one, i’d probably pick Screen Door, a local Atlanta band which has sort of become “our band” for me and Larissa.

3. Where would you most like to live (money not being a factor)? Why?

England. I’ve always sort of resented the fact that I wasn’t born there the way i was supposed to have been. Actually getting to go to England this year and spend a week there was an incredible feeling, like arriving at the home I never knew.

4. Since you work in the computer industry: RSI – ever a problem? What do you do to avoid it?

I’ve never had a problem with RSI, though I know many who have. I used to teach typing some years ago, and I always stressed proper typing technique to my students, and I guess I just follow those guidelines myself unconsciously.

5. Name your 5 favorite words in the English language.

antediluvian, widdershins, penultimate, quadratic, luminous

from maedbh7:

1) What’s your favorite swear word?

Bugger.

2) What are you afraid of?

Being alone, I think. I only ever really enjoy solitude as a contrasting thing, but I’d starve on a steady diet of it.

3) Describe one of your greatest joys.

Waking up every morning next to kitanzi.

4) What living thing do you most resemble?

Mrow? *flops on my back and plays with your hair* mrow?

5) If there is a heaven, what would you want to hear God say upon your arrival?

Come in, we’ve been expecting you.

from aiela:

1. In what way do you think filk and the filk community has changed and/or influenced your life and who you are?

The filk community is the family I’ve been searching for my whole life. It’s probably the first community I’ve ever really felt I belonged in. Once upon a time, I joked, half-seriously, that I never joined groups, no matter how long I might hang around them. Finding the filk community was a lot like finding home.

2. Same question, regarding your work on JediMUD. (Although I know part of this answer.)

I’ve made a lot of friends on Jedi, and I’m proud of the fact that we’re actually entering our second decade. Probably the most importantt thing that’s come out of Jedi for me, though, is the relationship I have with Kailyn, who became the sister I never had and my closest confidants through a very dark time in life

3. What has been the most rewarding part of finally finding a fulfilling relationship?

The most rewarding parts are quietly mundane, really. kitanzi is a true partner, and we are extremly well matched on almost every level. Knowing that the person who shares my life on a daily basis has the same goals and aspirations as I do, knowing that she shares the same values that I do…it makes all the difference in the world.

4. If you hadn’t ended up in computers, what can you see yourself doing for a living?

I started college as a journalism major and then shifted to English before leaving school and not finishing my degree. I ended up in computers almost by accident — it was a skill I had by virtue of being a hobbyist, and at a time when people with technical skills were in high demand.

If I had finished my degree, I probably would have either tried to get a job with a newspaper or else gone into teaching. I never decided which since I never was close enough to finishing college to worry about the decision.

5. Tropical Island, IPod with unlimited batteries. Which … ten songs would you put on it?

Heh. These sort of questions are always hard to fathom. I could give a set of answers that would be true today, but probably not true tomorrow. To be honest, as long as I could have my guitar with me, I don’t much care what is on the iPod, since I can always make my own entertainment. But since i’ve got the thing, I’d pick 10 songs by my various friends.