balsamandash | Ask me anything, and I'll help you find your way

Ask me anything, and I'll help you find your way

Meme time again I guess? Stolen from a couple of people, because why not.

The problem with LJ/DW: we all think we are so close, but really, we know nothing about each other. So I want you to ask me something you think you should know about me. Something that should be obvious, but you have no idea about. Ask away. Then post this in your journal and find out what people don't know about you.

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What's the best date you've ever been on?

I... don't know that I've really been on many things that would qualify as dates? XD All my relationships before Bast were long-distance, I think I spent a total of like... three or four days with significant others, and we never really went out, and half of them were also hanging out with somebody else I think. I'm trying to think of times Bast and I have gone out that stand out, but even then, it hasn't often been designated as dates. I don't even know what makes a date really? Also going out is hard without a car, so there's that.

I guess seeing Night Vale in 2015 might count? There was a nice cafe, there was an excellent show, it was mostly pretty good. Like, definitely a good night, dating is just a weird concept. XD

Fair point. Night Vale love sounds like a terrific time together, so we can call it a date.

I relate so much to this. Even after having been in a relationship, it was also long-distance and I can definitely call certain things dates (like, I can't NOT call Steirereck a date; I dressed up, it was hellishly expensive, etc etc) but... IDK that they FELT that much like dates? But what the hell is a date supposed to feel like, anyway.

Oh man, I understand entirely. How do you even know, aside from announcing very clearly ahead of time that yes, this is a date? Like, does the fact that you're together intrinsically make all hangouts a date, and if so, does spending the night at somebody's house count? Does that change if you're doing it because otherwise it's hard spending any real amount of time together and there are other people around? Does going to McDonalds count? Going out to hunt Pokemon? Or do you have to decide ahead of time/dress up/do something out of the ordinary? Is the deciding factor somebody spending money? Being unusually romantic? I certainly don't know!

...In short, dating is weird. XD

Steirereck was certainly somebody spending money and a date decided ahead of time (it was my first date ever, supposedly), but I think maybe it's hard to see it that way because I just never was that into him?

So weird.

I just realized I'd never given you access to my flocked posts so I fixed that. I usually do both subscription and access at once so I blame DW.

Super basic: what do you do for a living, or rather (since I checked your pinned post), how is it going? Do you have a strategy for finding gigs? (Not asking for advice, just curious. I'm making a go of self-employment as well but my pursuits are more on the visual side.)

Whoo! I think I meant to ask at some point if that was on purpose (largely because most of your journal IS locked), and then I... failed at communication. But yay for access!

It is... going. I've done some editing work the last few months which was awesome, but it was for a friend so not so much something I had to go looking out of my way for, and I've not much Tarot at all recently. I have a steady job with my mother (who's an author/teacher online) taking care of her email/social media/assorted other things, which is most of what I've been doing lately.

My strategy for finding gigs right now is "finally kick my ass in gear and update sites and then ask more well-connected friends to share links around". XD But honestly, I have not managed to find a rhythm or a way of getting things to work yet, which is very much on me. Last year was a series of nonstop minor disasters and this year has been a lot of helping my family get ready to move so far, and my brain is having a lot of trouble settling into getting anything done when I have some spare time, and I'm not so good at wrestling it into working right. I'm working on it, though! Just... slowly.

Definitely a mistake - I do sometimes add people just to read them, but for the most part I want to interact with them both ways, so if they add me back I'll give access. Especially back before December when 99% of my posts WERE locked.

Yeah, I feel you on that. It's good that you have something secure and steady, though. I know how to find blog gigs, mostly; I know how to pitch at least, and in my experience, posting consistently means people will contact me (though they're not always the kind of offers I take). But I've been slacking so bad. And with design and photography, like -- I could probably find design clients if I put more effort into it, update my portfolio for one thing, promote myself more, but I keep thinking back to bad experiences and I realized yesterday that I need to also rehaul my offerings and stop being so 'catch-all' because it's not working for me, either in terms of getting hired or of enjoying the process.

And with photography I live in the middle of nowhere but I could at LEAST get a portfolio up and advertise myself as a traveling photographer while I live here. Some people do it! But that means getting the portfolio up... which means going through so, so, soooooo many pictures I've failed to edit over the past couple of years.

I have 2 things! (Choose one or both to answer. Whatever you feel more comfortable doing.)

- If you could vacation anywhere in the world, where would you go?

- What do you do for self care/a day off?

Answer ALL THE THINGS! :D

- I am... real bad at coming up with places for these things. XD My travel has been really limited and I'm a terribly awkward tourist, so I'm better at thinking of events/people to visit than places. That said, we lived around Seattle a little while when I was a kid; what little I remember about it has always been really great, and I've known people who've lived there and said I'd like it a lot. So I'd love to visit it sometime now that I'm an adult and see how I like it now.

- I am also really bad at self care! Uh. Singing loudly is my best real form of self case that I can think of. I don't do it often because I get awkward when anyone else is around and not joining in, but it does wonders for my mental health.

Also, cooking and having it come out good can do great things for my brain, but it's... kind of a double-edged sword, because it's great for me, but only as long as nothing goes wrong, which it's more likely to do if I'm already down and not paying as sharp attention. And if things do go wrong at all I tend to kick myself a lot about it. So I don't do things that aren't so routine I barely count them anymore very often.

Favorite colors? Favorite tea? Favorite food? Favorite movie?

ALL the colors. I'm more picky about tones/shades than I am about colors? I like darker, richer tones of basically anything, and I'm not big on pastels or jewel tones. Dark blues and purples, greens, reds. I do like lighter blues and purples more than I like lighter forms of other colors, though.

I don't drink a whole lot of tea, but when I do I pretty much exclusively default to earl grey. I have liked a few of the Adiago character teas Bast gets and I mean to drink more of them, but I get really twitchy about loose leaf tea getting into my cup and I can never stop it altogether from happening, so I don't drink anything but earl grey very often.

I like food too much to pick one favorite. XD But: shellfish, spaghetti, shepherd's pie, french fries, and good pizza are kind of my quintet of comfort foods. I could eat at least one of them basically all the time, however picky I feel, and most of them time I can go for any of them. (I am not a healthy eater at all. I am also a really picky eater, but I'm trying to get better about it.)

Movies kind of depend on what I've been watching recently (I am the WORST at favorites, I'm sorry XD), but -- Practical Magic and Clue are eternal favorites, I will watch them basically always, even though I can basically recite them end to end, so they win. (Close runner ups: Exam is... weirdly one of the most personally comforting movies I know despite it being pretty heavy actually; the noise quality is fantastic, the plot is interesting, and I somehow never get tired of it. ...and the Fox and the Hound is my favorite Disney movie, and my movie for when I'm feeling sick and want comfort.)

...I am just overanswering ALL the questions today. Whoops. XD

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Ask me anything, and I'll help you find your way

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