1. Peace, including opposing war. 2. Philosophy: I'm into traditional enlightenment ideals, truth and evidence and rationality, tolerance and freedom and autonomy - "modern" stuff. I don't think they're at all outdated; along with love/friendship/joy they're what make human life so bloody great. 3. Those I love; over the years there are more and more of these (a lucky life).
Music
A fair bit of several styles (rock, classical, jazz - esp. trad and blues - folk, etc.)
a few faves: Jailhouse Rock; Substitute; And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda; Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, the Brandenberg Concertos… Led Zeppelin's 4th…
And check out the Melbourne band Orisha! (my daughter Emah sings and writes with them).
Movies
Jesus of Montreal, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Arsenic and Old Lace, Casablanca, Wm. Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, The Favour the Watch and the Very Big Fish, The Usual Suspects, Finding Nemo, Serenity, the Mission; most things with Johnny Depp, Rusty Crowe or Courtney Love; oh, I suppose the Lord of the Rings makes it too…
Television
Mainly oldies: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly; Fawlty Towers, Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister, Rumpole of the Bailey; Brideshead Revisited, the Ascent of Man; oh, Deadwood, and a fair bit of sport, I confess.
The test that produced these results is interest only to huge Whedon fans (if you're lucky, you're one). Others say I should have come out as Wash, or second as Shepherd Book.
: I am Zoe Washburne (Second-in-command)
Zoe Washburne (Second-in-command)
75%
Malcolm Reynolds (Captain)
70%
Dr. Simon Tam (Ship Medic)
70%
Inara Serra (Companion)
45%
Wash (Ship Pilot)
40%
Kaylee Frye (Ship Mechanic)
40%
River (Stowaway)
40%
Jayne Cobb (Mercenary)
25%
Derrial Book (Shepherd)
20%
Alliance
15%
A Reaver (Cannibal)
5%
Dependable and trustworthy. You love your significant other and you are a tough cookie when in a conflict.
You're very wise. Though you've only recently begun thinking about yourself, you're always there to help. Everyone around you holds you in high regard. You've always pulled through.
Rupert Giles
67%
Buffy Summers
42%
Xander Harris
42%
Tara Maclay
38%
Dawn Summers
38%
Willow Rosenberg
29%
Spike
25%
Anya
17%
That's the quiz's verdict: I nominate Clem the floppy-faced demon, not one of the quiz's candidates.
Books
Fiction: anything by Mary Doria Russell, e.g. The Sparrow, Children of God, A Thread of Grace; most Ursula le Guin, e.g. The Dispossessed, the Left Hand of Darkness, the Earthsea series; much Orson Scott Card, e.g. Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead; a propos of which, check this cartoon:
http://xkcd.com/304/
The Mists of Avalon; most Terry Pratchett, some Tom Robbins; Don Quixote, the Brothers Karamazov, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, The Name of the Rose, Catch 22, Jill Paton Walsh's Knowledge of Angels, Belloc's But Soft We are Observed, Spike Milligan's Puckoon, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes;
Non-fiction: Romulus My Father; most of Inga Clendinnen; some well-written old histories, e.g. Gibbon, Macaulay;
Poetry: The Hunting of the Snark, the Ballad of the White Horse, most Adrian Mitchell, anything published by John Leonard press
Heroes
Gandhi, Mum Shirl, Sylvia Pankhurst, Emma Goldman, Voltaire, Erasmus. Among the living, Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Dan Berrigan.
About me: New Zealander, though in Australia since 1958. Married (same woman) for 40 years, taught philosophy (same university - La Trobe) for 40 years. Before that, spent 9 years training for the priesthood (R.C.) - gave that up in the times of turmoil over e.g. the 2nd Vatican Council, the Vietnam war. Homemaker & cook. Two splendid daughters, one splendid granddaughter. and see interests, below.
Who I'd like to meet: There are some great writers with marvellous imagination, humanity and intelligence - Ursula Le Guin and Mary Doria Russell are two. Reading them is so good I'm sure meeting them directly would be even better.
All manner of new people, with humour, decency, openness, joy in life. (For they're infectious; insofar as I've developed any of these, I've caught it from people who had it.)
Hey John, thanks again for the add! We're just rewatching Buffy season two again right now. What is it about that show that just makes it better and better?
Hi there! I trust you enjoyed your hols, I tried ringing a couple of times but no-one's been home! Hope to catch up soon, there's a bottle of red here with your name on it... :-)
John, sorry to see the status update about your friends. At my main hangout, several people have reported friends or family diagnosed with some type of Cancer. It's awful and sad, but we can pray for strength to be supportive, upbeat and perhaps these folks will survive this terrible disease.
Hey your Greek is better than mine... Hope you're having a fab day, I'm snowed under as usual, the sunshine outside looks wonderful, which I was in it!! We'll def. catch up over the xmas break... maybe I should be the one to do a bit of a bbq? (as opposed to a LOT of a bbq - which would turn into a big fat greek party with too many people!! so I'd keep it just us, these things have a habit of snowballing....) :-) talk soon
I'm trying to take a break from MySpace for awhile but was emailed a notification you had posted something about me. What a lovely birthday greeting. It was worth breaking my pact with myself (again) to come in and read it. Thank you.
Yeh I missed everything yesterday but my stupid morn meeting aarrgh... I can't really afford to get any thinner!! Still feel a bit drained & dizzy but I had something to eat a sec ago so I'm hoping to be back to normal tomorrow. How was the party? Blake can tell me all about it tonight when I ring her. Catching up with a girlfriend on Friday but that's at 10pm, so I'll probably go to the gig first (and hope it runs on time for once!!) Yes, I hope I see you at least once this week!! Ciao for now :-)
