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A group distraction, presented by nige.
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The first instalment of Interview52 is now complete! It started on Friday 18th July 2008 and finished on 13th September 2009. A little later than expected, but we got there.
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52 mobloggers from around the world...
Some familiar, some not...
Each will publish a unique self-portrait, accompanied by a short interview.
Candid portrait meets candid interview.
The Rules
Every Friday the next interviewee in line will publish a new portrait and interview, consisting of their answers to the ten questions they have been given.
After they have published, the interviewee will then become the interviewer. They will be responsible for finding the next participant, as well as compiling the questions that this next person in line will answer. Interviewers can change as many or as few questions as they like, but they should change at least one before passing them on to the next lucky punter.
Thats it! Simple. More detailed instructions will be given to each interviewee as and when they are approached, so fear not.
The interviewees so far
shitake
spongevid
Salome
FilbertFox
Essitam
harimanjaro
parabolichobo
Viv
Jig along
Caine
factotum
Laszlo Q. V. St-J. Xalieri
arkangel
JokerXL
CHESO
taniwha
PrincessJun
billion
itchymoblog
Jane Doe
kyoob
MaggieD
Spiderbaby / Freakdog
TiliaAmericana
Dhamaka
XelenarendezvousX
George w/Blue Eyes
Rachel
Sprocket
Tori
silar31
Mandy
Puddlepuff
Judo-Jule
OJ
beth
Alfie
Rich
Joe
Steve
Uber-Spy
swamprose
RareAquaticBadger
Euphro
bfish
mara
AmericanFriend
CRAFT
Strange Little Girl
Spike
Toddy
Damage
Posted by Laszlo Q. V. St-J. Xalieri
Really really enjoyed reading this.
You have described yourself as I imagined you which is an incredibly interesting person.
Would really enjoy debating point 10 with you if you ever make it over to Blighty before your moon trip :)
Oh as Carpe says this really expands on what we already know. One very active creative mind!
Excellent read thanks - love that last sentence.
An excellent read indeed! Lots to think about in your answers...
(Did you write your novel in a month as part of NaNoMo? You're not doing it again this year, are you?)
REally great one this. Your writing is very submerging. Last question sums all that up for me.
I was kinda hoping to visit folks in Europe before leaving Earth for a decade or two, at least until the commute is cheaper. And I'd be happy to debate my answer to question 10 with just about anybody, preferably over a pint, before I consider it set in stone. I think I'm on the right track, but it doesn't have the ring of scripture to it yet.
That last paragraph echoes the aims of at least one major religion and several of the more respectable Illumunati-style secret societies. Some people think it's a bit insulting to God, but I think of it this way: What Mom ignores the kids in the kitchen who are saying they want to help cook or clean? If you don't keep 'em busy, they just get into trouble.
If I've managed to convey the better part of this with merely a few thousand snapshots and a similar number of wiseass comments throughout the site, I'm doing better than I thought. There are about as many words here as little dots in the picture of the eye above. Each word -- or dot -- taken on its own is a bit redundant, but the revealed picture is unmistakable. That's kind of what I was going for.
The novel was indeed a (2002) NaNoWriMo project, but the dare was to take it seriously. I still owe my publisher a revised edition, and this time we're supposed to get Amazon involved....
I attempted NaNoWriMo again in 2003, but the subject matter demanded much more research, and the bulk of that research was to be in early Islamic cultures. The current (expiring) administration's policy of spying on its own citizens and incarcerating people for years without charges or due process kinda put that project on indefinite hold. I'm probably still looking at a fatwa from some rural ayatollah somewhere when I finish it, but somehow that seems like less of a betrayal.
For each of the previous NaNoWriMo attempts I was between jobs. As slowly as I write, I'll either need to be jobless again or funded by a generous grant or two in order to pull off any more bulky projects.
I also have long-term goal of founding a collaborative/co-op literary journal and associated "social networking" site (in quotes because the real goal is real project collaboration, not just making and maintaining relationships). I need serious capital or an industrial-strength line of credit to get it moving, but the economic environment is a little unfriendly for that right now....
Thanks, all, for your interest, validation, and encouragement. Some days it's pretty hard to feel like I'm getting any traction. You guys give me a good deal of hope. :)
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wow
thank you for this
I have something to add, though
For me you are one of the hidden gems of moblog. Someone of intellect, empathy and a kind of passionate objectivity. Someone I am proud to count as a friend.
Although it couldn't result in my valuing you more and will certainly not lower the respect and regard with which I hold you now, I look forward to meeting you in the flesh one day and feel bad that I've recently had so little time for you
Wow - what I love about moblog is that you learn something new about the world, yourself or even the way other mobloggers view things every day. As my hypothetical God (even for the week) - thanks for the tools - now stand back!!
Wow indeed, Dhamaka. I'm really touched. You know the feelings are mutual, though your "gemness" is hardly hidden. And I do hope to make it across the ocean soon. To be goofy for a moment, though, I can't help thinking that the inherent contradiction in the phrase "passionate objectivity" means I'm probably due for the existential equivalent of a hernia...
Queserasara: Go get your t-shirt first:
People need warning so they can give you some room. :)
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I'm glad this interview is being received so well. Thank you, SLG, for having the patience to slog through it. :)
For my next trick maybe I'll translate portions into my native Southern....
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Plastic apron - check. Lab goggles - check. Ventilation hood - check. Place to hide under sturdy desk - check.
Go nuts!
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Such a great interview. I've had to read it through several times before I could even comment. Really enjoyed your answers to questions 4 & 9 in particular, and the title really makes me grin.
Really glad you took the time to include the detail as well as you have. Makes for a great read!
On another note, Facto, I think these questions are superb.
Very,very interesting interview!Of course because you are very interesting person.:)
I have just skim read this, I am going to come back to it and give it the attention it deserves over the next day or so (I am on half term holiday this week) ....
Factotum did come up with some awesome questions. I'm not above joking my way out of a tight spot, but these questions really were cherry-picked to make me stretch to hit them rather than duck them. Factotum's a helluva pitcher.
The senses issue really is a big deal to me. I could write books just on that--not that I have any credentials that would give me any credibility in that particular nonfiction market. But those senses, when functioning at their fullest, are what allow us to build our internalized Big Picture models, the accuracy of which directly influence our success and survival nearly as much as ... well, blind luck. But any edge is an edge, right?
You can see I didn't completely get it out of my system.
Thanks again, everyone, for thinking this was interesting enough to be worth your attention. It''l be a few years before I'm noteworthy to enough to be invited to give a TED talk, so, until then, this is probably my only outlet. :)
MaggieD: I can give you a test afterwards if you think you can convince your academic advisor this is worth course credit. ;)
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Hahaha! ..... well thank you for the offer, but my student days are long gone .... I am on the other side of 50 and the other side of the dais :)
Oh, come on... one of the biggest incentives for a position in academia is the employee discount on tuition, right? And odds are I'll be long past 50 by the time I finish my own education, at this rate....
Oh, nevermind. There's no digging your way out from under a bad assumption. I owe you a few hours helping grade papers next time I'm in the neighborhood.
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Hey, learning has no limits, it's a lifelong adventure, so no worries there .... and as to be mistaken for an undergraduate/high school student, well, you have given my children such a belly laugh and me such a moral boost that you are forgiven all ...
I'm certain I was picturing something closer to graduate student. And how many students are there per teacher/professor? Surely the odds were on my side. :) By the law of averages, every teacher is better than 95% student and every student is a few percent teacher...
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It's great to be asking the questions! Most of the new ones were prompted by ideas that I wasn't able to explain or work into my own answers. For example, I mentioned in passing that I realize that kinaesthesia and that physical, spatial experience of things are very important to me.That's why I asked question #4 about the senses. I'm not sure that I could have answered it , and now I'm still thinking about it myself.
Those are great, undervalued senses. It's kind of important to know what space you're occupying even when your eyes are closed. And then there's the sense of self, something people who meditate in certain ways seek to turn off or temporarily numb (the way your vision goes gray when you stare unblinking at the same thing for a really long time). And then there's the sense of someone else being in the room which we get for free when someone is in the room with us, but that can be triggered with a magnetic field delivered in the right way to the right place, both of which have strange religious connotations.
And then there are people like my wife, who are synaesthetic, having crosstalk between a couple of their senses, and typically don't know how odd that is until they finally compare notes with someone....
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I was going to ask if anyone in the Moblog community was synaesthetic! My twin is colour-blind, so I grew up with a constant reminder that people literally see the world quite differently.
My wife gets a colored light-show with touches and textures. She can't abide the touch of neoprene and some microfiber fleece-type-stuff. Her oldest daughter has similar problems with deep pile velvet, though I believe she actually hears textures instead of seeing them.
I'm kinda jealous. If I have any crosstalk going on in my circuitry, it's on those more esoteric and harder to define senses. Less spectacular.
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Laszlo - I've come to this very late but I enjoyed getting to know you better. Very thought provoking too - like your description of the multiplicity of senses most of all.
Hey Nige - is there a schedule of who is to participate? I don't think I ever got one.
All the instructions are on the sidebar, t. Laszlo chose the next interviewee, and they in turn will choose the next etc. We changed the set-up because it was too much work for me to find the interviewees and change the questions every week. It works well - this is the first hiccup.
I've been in touch with the next victim; next interview will be along shortly. Meanwhile I'll enjoy my extended publicity.
And also I'll drop a link to a place where you can induce a limited kind of synaesthesia in yourself in a kind of disturbing fashion.
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A bit late to this, but thanks for a really good read, and all the comments too. Got me thinking :) (that can take quite a lot sometimes)
(Consider him prodded. Since he's posted already. :) )
Thanks, Spiderbaby. For me, making people think is a really close second to making them wonder. :)
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I tried the induced synaesthesia experiment with a minimal effect. I guess I'm the true introvert, but I'll try again in the morning.
It worked just a little smidge for me, but I saw the effects two days running....
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