To have and to have not . . . times 5.

[zotz]

Annoying survey meme thing, courtesy of swisstone who got it from major_clanger, and jinty's done one too . . .



Order reversed to fit the wanky title.

Five things I have done :

1. Dismembered a human corpse


2. Held in my bare hands an eight-inch ball of raw opium


3. Sequenced your genes - and consequently been listed as a contributor in three research papers in Nature


4. Run, with friends, several series of club nights - all of which I'm proud of and most of which were financially self-supprting


5. Helped run the first SF con in (IIRC) 27 years to have Michael Moorcock as a Guest of Honour

And five things I haven't done and want to (with estimated chance) :

1. Get more exercise and be fitter(2/5)


2. Move out of Cambridge (5/5)


3. Learn something kulcherul - like a language or playing an instrument (2/5)


4. Do some decent non-factory-style research, and get it published(3/5)


5. Dance on Margaret Thatcher's Grave(5/5)

Comments

[zoo-music-girl.livejournal.com]

Get more exercise and be fitter(2/5)

2/5? Quitter.

You need a Kim. She's dragged me to the gym on many an occasion when I was going to cry off.

Regarding number 1 in your have-done, I trust you were a medical student at the time? Because if you're a psycho killer you might want to make this post friends only.

[zotz]

Absolutely I was. Hence number 2 as well, actually - it belonged to the pharmacology department. And smelled of liquorice, as I recall.

[zoo-music-girl.livejournal.com]

Well that's a relief too. Although it was more worrying that you might be a psycho killer than that you might be a drug dealer.

Interesting meme. I was thinking of doing this one when I saw it in swisstone and green_amber's LJs but I feel like such an underachiever compared to you three. And my have-not-dones read like New Year's resolutions. Item 5. Get some ambitions.

It got me thinking

[original-aj.livejournal.com]

I've done mine, on my journal. It got me thinking. Partly that I have very few simple concrete things I want to do, which has a lot to do with how I got where I am today, following the flow rejecting the choices I don't like rather than heading for any very defined goal. Most of the things I want are either infeasably enormous or ridiculously trivial. And I end up sounding very boring and old.

Thanks, it was interesting.

[lapis-lazuli.livejournal.com]

which language / which instrument would you most want to learn?

[ex-wendles389.livejournal.com]

5. Dance on Margaret Thatcher's Grave(5/5)

and what would you be dancing to whilst doing this? :)

[green-amber.livejournal.com]

Hey my real goal is to be an under achiever. Seriously. I have spent my life trying to be more dissolute (apparently with recent startling success which is also a mixed blessing, ask swisstone..)

zotz reminds me that I should have put on mine that Terry Pratchett bought me strawberry daiquiris in New Orleans in 1988 and I helped run the first con to invite Neil Gaiman and Clive Barker as GoHs (Mexicon 2, god knows when.) Pah, anothet opportunity to show off wasted.

So you're in Canbridge?? (Zotz that is.) I know lots of cambridge sciencey types. (God I probably know you.) We should meet up some time when I'm down,, Were you ever in CUSFS or Jomsborg??

[nickys.livejournal.com]

I think that might be one venue where pretty much no music on Earth would be capable of putting people off dancing until they drop... :o)

[zotz]

I am a very serious underachiever. I got into medicine but bombed out. It was interesting, but not in the same way that "proper" science turned out to be - too much rote learning and not enough attempt at deep understanding (whatever that is). My current job I'm actually very average at, and currently I'm finding it very easy to dodge potential promotion opportunities.

You met Pratchett in '88? We had him as a guest in Edinburgh around then (the royal we- i was in no way involved in organising this). Lovely bloke.

Cambridge. Yes. For my sins - and bloody excellent sins I hope they were. I deserve them to have been.
I wasn't ever involved with anything Universityish, though - I moved down here from Edinburgh a few years back. I know some Uni & CUSFS people, though.
Meet up? Yes - let me know if you'r in town.

[ex-wendles389.livejournal.com]

LOL! However, I am taking a guess that mr zotz would have something particular in mind for the last track of the night.

Re: It got me thinking

[zotz]

I liked your answers a lot. I was thinking about them on the way back from the pub, actually. The people who originally started the Calling, for instance, aren't involved any more because they went on to other things - families, in at least two cases. It's a good choice, although I've not had to consider it myself yet. The world is made a better place mainly by masses of ordinary people working away quietly at things which aren't obviously glamorous.

And you didn't sound boring and old - to me, at least. You sound sorted. And you made me laugh.

[zotz]

At the moment, I'd probably go for Icelandic and either saxophone or guitar.

[zotz]

Well, Mötörhead's "Dancing on your grave" has a certain appeal. Elvis Costello's "Tramping the earth down" is a bit more specifically thematic, though.

[ex-wendles389.livejournal.com]

wot no NMA?

or both at once...

[lapis-lazuli.livejournal.com]

...and then you could play Icelandic guitar music (http://www.eythorsson.com/index.html).

[swisstone.livejournal.com]

I'll be there at your side, yelling the words out of tune ...

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

I probably have some photocopies study notes for Old Icelandic around somewhere. The language really hasn't changed that much in the last 1000 years - might be able to give you a grounding in the grammar. I can dig them out if you'd like.

[zotz]

And providing percussion, I hope?

[zotz]

Any suggestions gratefully received.

[ex-wendles389.livejournal.com]

no rest...

[zotz]

Yes, I think you have a point there.

[fluffymormegil.livejournal.com]

I'd want "1984" to get in the mood, "Archway Towers" to limber up, then "Vengeance" to pummel a suitably-selected friend to :)