lexa

What other names did your parents consider for you?

My mom is Greek, and considered Theodora only because she wanted to nickname me "Teddy."  My original due date was Valentine's Day, so she secretly played around with the name Valentina.

Both of which I would have hated, so I guess it's a good thing Dad was there to say, "Choose a normal Greek name."  ;D

Have you been affected by the pet food recall?  Has it changed the way you feed your pets?

WTF?

SERIOUSLY?  WTF?

What's your musical horoscope?  (Put your player on shuffle and write down the first 10 songs that come up.)
Inspired by Stephanie.  

Well... this is sort of depressing:

1.  Iris - Goo Goo Dolls

2.  The Breaking of the Fellowship - Howard Shore (LotR OST)

3.  Music - Madonna

4.  Everybody Out of the Water - The Wallflowers

5.  The Legend Spreads - Braveheart OST

6.  Someone Else's Life - Joshua Radin

7.  Sway - The Perishers

8.  Belle [Reprise] - Beauty and the Beast OST (... LOL...)

9. Lullaby (Goodnight my Angel) - Billy Joel

10.  Evacuee - Enya

I have no idea what this means...

What is one of your favorite poems?
Submitted by marvel is my pen name.

I've just found it recently, but I loved it so much that I printed it out and have it up by my desk:

LAPIS LAZULI

By W.B. Yeats
(For Harry Clifton)

I have heard that hysterical women say
They are sick of the palette and fiddle-bow,
Of poets that are always gay,
For everybody knows or else should know
That if nothing drastic is done
Aeroplane and Zeppelin will come out,
Pitch like King Billy bomb-balls in
Until the town lie beaten flat.

All perform their tragic play,
There struts Hamlet, there is Lear,
That’s Ophelia, that Cordelia;
Yet they, should the last scene be there,
The great stage curtain about to drop,
If worthy their prominent part in the play,
Do not break up their lines to weep.
They know that Hamlet and Lear are gay;
Gaiety transfiguring all that dread.
All men have aimed at, found and lost;
Black out; Heaven blazing into the head:
Tragedy wrought to its uttermost.
Though Hamlet rambles and Lear rages,
And all the drop-scenes drop at once
Upon a hundred thousand stages,
It cannot grow by an inch or an ounce.

On their own feet they came, or on shipboard,
Camel-back, horse-back, ass-back, mule-back,
Old civilisations put to the sword.
Then they and their wisdom went to rack:
No handiwork of Callimachus,
Who handled marble as if it were bronze,
Made draperies that seemed to rise
When sea-wind swept the corner, strands;
His long lamp-chimney shaped like a stem
Of a slender palm, stood but a day;
All things fall and are built again,
And those that build them again are gay.

Two Chinamen, behind them a third,
Are carved in lapis lazuli,
Over them flies a long-legged bird,
A symbol of longevity;
The third, doubtless a serving-man,
Carries a musical instrument.

Every discoloration of the stone,
Every accidental crack or dent,
Seems a water-course or an avalanche,
Or lofty slope where it still snows
Though doubtless plum or cherry-branch
Sweetens the little half-way house
Those Chinamen climb towards, and I
Delight to imagine them seated there;
There, on the mountain and the sky,
On all the tragic scene they stare.
One asks for mournful melodies;
Accomplished fingers begin to play.
Their eyes mid many wrinkles, their eyes,
Their ancient, glittering eyes, are gay.

What is your favorite kind of bagel and what do you put on it? 
Submitted by Nacwolin.

I LOVE everything bagels with either veggie cream cheese (with cut up cucumbers and/or celery) or potato salad on them. 

Yes, I enjoy 10,000 calorie breakfasts. 

What are five books that changed your life? 
Inspired by Ms. Genevieve.

Oh!  What a great question.  Let's see if I can come up with five...

1)  The BFG - Roald Dahl

I remember reading this when I was in second grade and thinking that I wanted to be an author.  I blame Roald Dahl for most of my dark humor, actually.  The man was screwing with us, I swear.

2)  Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë

Ohhhhh my god.  I know people have a love/hate relationship with this book, but I read it in one sitting on the beach and was absolutely infatuated with it.  The plain, generally miserable girl getting the guy who loses his vision and has a crazy ass wife stuffed up in the attic?  LOVE IT.  It gave me hope, even if it was a slightly depressive hope.

3)  The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold/ The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger/ The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

I know I'm cheating, get off my back.  The reason I grouped these three together is because I read them at about the same time (TTW a little before them), and they made such an enormous impression on me stylistically and emotionally.  These are three of about five books that I've actually cried while reading.  How they handle life, the good and the bad, is so telling about what the world is like today.  I think people automatically see a question like this and feel like they have to point out some "classic," one that they think will make them look intelligent.  But I've always thought that once something becomes a "classic" it runs the risk of becoming too out-dated, and the one people reading it are the ones that are forced to, or that want to look back wistfully on that time.  SO THERE.  I LIKE MODERN LITERATURE.  EAT THAT BRITISH LITERATURE COURSES AND GO BLOW YOUR OWN CRAPPY POETRY AND WANNABE NOVELS.

4) The Things They Carried - Time O'Brien

I LOVED Marsh for making us read this book, because this one, more than any other book, has affected the style I write in.  And that sounds like BS to most of you, because I didn't write my story in anything that remotely resembles The Things They Carried... but I don't show you a fairly large portion of what I write.  ;)  It was such a disjointed way of telling a story that became more and more seamless as you read on.  It's told with "manly sensitivity," too, which I think a lot of male authors are afraid to write in.  Memory, honesty, life.  Perfect.

5)  The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho 

I'm not even done reading this book yet, but it's already had such a profound effect on the way I see life, destiny, and the pursuit of happines.  The translation of it is really well done and it reads like an old folk or fairy tale, with all of the morality of a fable or allegory or some other literary term that I can't think of right now because it's past my bed time and I'm too in love with this book to care.  This is the book I needed to come across at this point in my life.

"Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself," the alchemist replies. "And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second's encounter with God and with eternity."

What is the greatest compliment you've received?
Submitted by Maraschino.  

I think my greatest compliment was when the senior class voted me Most Sincere.  You all know that I don't really put a premium on beauty, but I do try to live my life in a way that promotes kindness and honesty. 

Tell us about your first kiss.  Who was it with?  How old were you?

I'm not saying who it was with (though I'm sure everyone can figure it out), but it really wasn't much of a first kiss.  I was 17, and I think I originally mistook it as kiss on the cheek that missed. 

Oh well.  At least there wasn't a lot of saliva.

What are your top 25 most played songs? 
Submitted by Cooxie.  

My Top 25 gets inflated by one play list that I listen to in order to fall asleep, so I had to adjust it a little bit...

1. Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl - Broken Social Scene

2. Book of Love - Peter Gabriel

3. Kissing the Lipless - The Shins

4. Strange Days - Matthew Good Band

5. Please Forgive Me - David Grey

6. Someday You Will Be Loved - Death Cab for Cuite

7. Something She Has to Do - Philip Glass (The Hours Soundtrack)

8. Boston - Augustana (I saw the music video for this today!)

9. Cold December - Matt Costa

10. A Minor Incident - Badly Drawn Boy

11. When You Were Young - The Killers

12. Ceremony - New Order

13. So Here We Are - Bloc Party

14. Cold Cold Water - Mirah

15. Congratulations - Blue October

16. Wash Away - Matt Costa

17. July, July!  - The Decemberists

18. Silver Springs - Fleetwood Mac

19.  I Hear the Bells - Mike Doughty

20. The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us! - Sufjan Stevens

21. Cast No Shadow - Oasis

22. Hands Open - Snow Patrol

23. Dodo - Dave Matthews

24. Cathedrals - Jump, Little Children

25. Fields of Gold - Eva Cassidy (Sting cover)

I just realized I have way too much music for my own good. 

What movie can you quote by heart?
Submitted by clamhead.

I can quote most of the original Star Wars trilogy by heart (I'm pretty good with Revenge of the Sith, too!).  Also, I've got a lot of Gladiator's dialogue down.  I'm not sure if that's something to be proud of, though.