eller | Entries tagged with five questions

This time from

ursula. (If you want five questions from me, just say so in the comments!)

1. What about you--do you have a scar with a good story?

Not really. I have some scars, like, burn scars on my shoulders from when my hair caught fire (pretty much invisible now after all those years, the area just feels different), and a knife scar on my leg from (unsurprisingly) an inexpert knife attack, but none of that has any kind of interesting story attached - just freak accidents (I'm very prone to those) and, in the knife case, a typical schoolyard conflict, but nothing out of the ordinary. My probably most interesting freak accident (falling into a pond of cyanobacteria in the wadden sea) was gross (and led to washing salon workers being very upset with me and getting me banned from that place) but did not leave a physical scar.

2. What's your favorite bog plant?

Sundew! I mean, is there any question? Standing in a carpet of sparkly carnivorous weeds is fun and SO PRETTY!!!

3. Any interesting memories involving zoos?

Also, not really. My parents didn't like to take me to the zoo because the idea of wild animals in captivity upsets them, so my interesting memories involving animals typically involve animals in the wild. (Plus, of course, the wolves from the wolfcenter in Lower Saxony, which is technically not a zoo because it's a home for native wolves who can't survive in the wild. Interacting with wolves is always interesting.) I mostly went to the zoo when the parents of other kids went as a family or as a birthday celebration and brought me along. My memory is... looking at foreign animals from a distance?!? I mean, I suppose it's good I got to see them, from an educational standpoint, but it was never particularly interesting though I liked to feed the elephants (who took apples, bread, and raw pasta from visitors and were enthusiastic about kid visitors; I suppose the elephants thought we were cute?!?) when that still was allowed.

4. Favorite style of jewelry?

Tenntrad. I mean, I don't wear much jewelry (beyond my portable sundials because I collect any and all sundials including shitty nonfunctional sundials), but when I do, it's tenntrad bracelets. That's leather (typically reindeer though there are some exceptions) with embroidered patterns from tin wire (hence the name LOL), as well as sometimes leather bands, silver beads, or other materials (like, say, fabric bands - it's rare but it happens when an artisan decides it should happen). The button is usually reindeer antler (again, with some exceptions).

Tenntrad-kl

They're very comfortable to wear - reindeer leather is one of the most comfortable materials imaginable, and as a result, these are the only bracelets I will tolerate - and also, I have a deep appreciation for interesting geometrical patterns. (A scientist friend of mine called them my "math bracelets" and I suppose she wasn't wrong.) As a result, I have these bracelets in any and all possible and impossible colors, including but not limited to my favorite color combination, pink-and-yellow. Or (decidedly nontraditional) rainbow flag tenntrad. (They just accumulate!) Which reminds me, I should probably make a separate tenntrad post at some point, because it's such a lovely technique.

5. Is there an age of child you find particularly entertaining?

Entertaining? When it comes down to it, children are just... people who happen to be younger than I am. The age that's most interesting to interact with is probably from 8-12 because they're old enough to be reasonable and think for themselves (and not need supervision for stupid stuff) but still young enough to profit the most from conversation with adults with more knowledge and life experience, but I find that neither cute nor entertaining nor anything else of the sort. They're just people.

This time, the questions are from

ilyena_sylph. As always, the readers can comment if they want to continue the meme five questions from me. (Also, I think I still owe questions to someone; will do those later.)

1. What well-known person do you think does the most good for the world?

Um. That's kind of loaded, because what's good for the world is not necessarily good for people, so I suppose I'd have to name some genocidal war criminal type of people here?!? After all, anything that kills people is technically good for the planet... Also, plenty of worthy candidates. ;)

Kidding.

If I take the question as "does good for people", that would be those who do important research, like for example Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna, who came up with a fun method that can be used to heal millions of people and fight world hunger; what's not to like? But I'm also very optimistic about the potential of AI - of course, it's impossible to name one single famous person when that's the work of thousands.

2. What’s your favorite way to spend time outdoors?

Interesting question. XD But I guess I have to give the adrenaline junkie answer: take a ~~walk~~ crawl in the bog. A while ago, someone told me she'd never seen a will-o'-the-wisp in real life, so, uh, we took that trip. Just for fun. And it was fun. But then, the North German bogs are my favorite landscape type anyway, you all knew that, right?!? It's kind of difficult to describe, but everything feels different in the bog - the air pressure, the humidity, the way sound travels - and I guess I just feel at home there. It's where I'm calm and relaxed.

NOTE: children, don't do this at home. I'm serious. The areas with enough swamp gases to produce fun light effects are not solid ground, and they're very very very deadly. There's a reason any and all folklores of any and all people from areas with bogs strongly warn against running after those lights, and nope, I'm relatively sure it's not evil spirits. (If you absolutely have to chase bog lights, take a local with you if you find one a) who's not superstitious, and b) ideally, has a degree in geosciences. Also, update your will before the trip.)

3. What was your best vacation?

Vacation, what's that? XD

Um. A good memory was summer holidays back when I was still at school, and one year, Dad and I traveled the Camino de Santiago by bicycle. That was AWESOME though of course we were pretty much the only people around who were not hardcore religious. I really enjoyed the scenery, though! (I understand that cycling in the Pyrenees isn't everybody's idea of fun, either, but...)

4. What was something you thought would be easy until you tried it?

Getting the contents of a first-aid kit back into that tiny red suitcase thingy after taking them out. I'm serious - do these things come with an extra dimension or something?!?

5. What scene in a movie always gives you goosebumps every time you watch it?

With the caveat that I don't watch many movies: every meaningful scene from every Andrei Tarkovsky film?!? I mean, it's not a secret I'm basically a hardcore fan. XD If I have to choose one - the scene in Solaris when gravity is off. But then, I simply love that movie - as far as I'm concerned, it's the perfect movie - so the answer is probably worthless.

If I have to choose a particularly impressive scene from a movie I didn't love that much overall: the one from The Thomas Crown Affair (in the original 1968 version). Like... the film isn't bad but overall mostly forgettable, except for that one scene. You know. If you've seen that movie, you know what I mean. The glider. But then, "The Windmills of Your Mind" is my favorite movie soundtrack song, so... XDD (Seriously. It may even be one of my favorite songs, period, and it's not even a music genre I particularly like... It's just that good.) I remember seeing (and hearing) THAT for the very first time, and yes... Goosebumps.

Questions from

yhlee. :)

If anyone wants five questions from me, just say so in the comments.

1. You can magically make any THREE watercolor pigments lightfast that aren't currently, but you have to GIVE UP a pigment forever that you currently use in your main palette(s). What are your choices?!

Oh, that's easy. I want alizarin crimson, real indigo blue, and aureolin yellow in lightfast versions, please. For that, I'd be willing to give up even my beloved indanthrene blue (PB60), because I'd replace that with the indigo and feel okay about it. Though it would probably even easier to give up my current standard cool yellow (PY184, which is very similar to aureolin in hue and wonderfully intense but unfortunately more opaque than I like) for magically lightfast aureolin.

2. What food/drink local to you confuses foreigners/tourists the most?

Mett. (Wikipedia says: "The name is derived from Low German mett for "chopped pork meat without fat", or Old Saxon meti for "food".") That's raw pork, usually eaten on bread rolls. It's very typical, and very confusing to tourists who can't believe anyone would eat this. Or should I say, it grosses out virtually all tourists?!? Tastes great, though. (Geographical food rule of thumb: the further up north you go, the more likely you are to find cultures willing to eat raw meat. It's possibly related to vitamin D intake?!?) Americans are typically entirely unwilling to even try the stuff, which is unwarranted: it's typically served with onions, which are not only a spice but also pretty good disinfectants... (Also, unsurprisingly, the local food safety rules around meat are really strict when compared to the USA.)

3. You gain the ability to magically talk to one animal species (they can talk to you too) - which one is it?

With my luck, it's probably squirrels. Dumb, noisy, aggressive towards anyone and anything, love to throw stuff... Yep. Squirrels. I'm sure those are going to be some great conversations. (If I get to choose, I'd love to talk to an octopus, please. But if it's the universe that assigns superpowers, um, yeah, I'm afraid it's really squirrels.)

4. You're trapped on a desert island with a chess grandmaster, past or present. Which one and why?

Oh hell no, that would mean something has gone very wrong in my life. I mean, of the present ones, I would have to choose one of the guys I'm personally acquainted with, simply because that's less awkward and would assure at least a minimum of cooperativeness towards mutual survival. Otherwise - I'd really want to play chess against Mikhail Tal, but that's the predictable answer, isn't it? For non-chess issues and general attitude... Probably David Bronstein. He was interesting.

5. What is the most cracktastic/bizarre Nibelungenlied-inspired work of art (opera, novel, poem, artwork, whatever) you've experienced?

I think some Nibelungenlied-inspired Third Reich propaganda fits the bill of bizarre for sure, though the 'work of art' aspect is usually questionable... (Humor is if you laugh anyway.) Otherwise... The Wagner opera stuff is also pretty bizarre on the narrative/fanfic level though at least parts of the music are pretty good. Um. And obviously there's a lot of pretty kinky fanart that's cracktastic but also true to the spirit of the original.

I got five questions from

landofnowhere, thank you! :)

1. Favorite chess opening?

That's easy - my heart belongs to the Ruy Lopez / Spanish opening with white! :D With Black, I'm a Sicilian player, but really, I'm happiest when I can play the Ruy Lopez, which is not just one of the first openings I learned as a little girl, but also frequently results in positions that suit my style well. I have something like a ridiculous 80% win rate in that opening, and I'm just sad I don't get it on the board more often.

2. Tell me about an interesting book that hasn't been translated out of German (or at least not into English)?

Huh... Books... That's an interesting question, since a) I'm not a very bookish person, and b) large parts of my collection consist of political propaganda (of any affiliation whatsoever; I'm just fascinated by the concept) and erotica (which I'm sure you don't want me to discuss here in detail). But I'll combine this with the topology question and recommend - the complete collected writings of Brouwer (yes, the guy with the famous fixed point thingy). I believe his math papers have been translated if they weren't in English in the first place (he published in different languages) but he also wrote some philosophical and personal musings that I read recently, and... Okay, frankly, I concluded the guy was insane or an utter asshole (and that's an inclusive 'or'), but this stuff sure was entertaining - and I don't think anyone ever bothered to translate it. XD

3. What's some interesting wildlife near you?

Wolves. They're cute. :) Interesting, too - some local sheep farmers keep complaining about wolves killing their sheep, and asking for compensation money from the government (which they're getting). The most interesting thing is how many of the sheep carted off to the government show gunshot wounds upon closer examination, so, at some point, the local wolves have learned how to operate firearms! Isn't that fascinating? :D

4. If you could add something to the standard school curriculum, what would it be?

Different techniques for brainstorming / systematic / prompted / assisted thinking and problem-solving. Most school stuff, unfortunately, consists of rote memorization, and even that doesn't work equally well for all learning types, so... Yeah, I'd love teachers to at least mention there are different ways to approach unknown problems, and ideally provide several methods the students can try for themselves. Otherwise? I wouldn't add anything to the school curriculum. I'd remove half the content, though. And that's being generous. Speaking as someone who used to skip a lot of school due to chess: if I return to classes after a two-month absence and haven't missed anything important, clearly, the time of young people is being wasted.

5. A fun topology thing?

All topology is fun... But, since I already mentioned Brouwer's fixed point theorem, let's stick to the historic fundamentals - I'll give a honorary mention to Milnor's Analytic Proofs of the “Hairy Ball Theorem” and the Brouwer Fixed Point Theorem since that's clearly the most amusing math paper in existence. Simple! Elegant! And... I laughed my ass off! :D Definite recommendation.

By way of

yhlee:

Comment below and I'll ask you five questions. Answer them in your own journal, offer to give the first five commenters their own sets of questions, and let the cycle continue!

1. If you could play chess against any chess player, present or past (or even fictional), who would it be and why?

Mikhail Tal, who else? :D I mean, I'm told often enough that my style is as weird as his - unfortunately, that's not the case, because he was brilliant and my chess is just weird but not nearly as good... But, oh, the result would be fun!

2. What is your favorite dulcimer song?

Eh. Are there songs specifically for dulcimer? I'm clueless. XD If it's "song that can be played on a dulcimer", that would be German folk songs like "Es geht ein dunkle Wolk herein" or "Ich hab die Nacht geträumet". They'll work on any type of zither, really.

3. What is your favorite meat dish?

Steak. XD
...okay, that's a primitive answer, but really, I love a good steak. I also like any and all casserole dishes involving ground meat, like moussaka. I love roast wild boar in plum sauce. And I like pizza with salami and bacon. And... I like most meat dishes, really!

4. If you had to use a limited palette of six colors/pigments, which would they be? (Sorry not sorry, my obsession with limited palettes is a DISEASE.)

Oh, that's easy.
PY154, PG7, PB15:3, PV19, PV23, PR254. These are the ones I keep buying and keep running out of. Where does all that PG7 disappear to, I wonder? XDD

5. What is one algorithm that you find aesthetically really pleasing?

This could become a very long list. :D One of my all-time favorites is one I learned as a little kid: the Monte Carlo approximation of Pi by throwing darts at a circle drawn in a square. Soooo much fun, and I remember being very impressed by the beauty of that approach! (It's also one of the first algorithms that nerdy kids learn; every single programming book and course has it as one of the first examples. Guess what? That's BECAUSE it is so neat.)