20 (000) questions

[cleolinda]

So there's this thing called Formspring (formspring.me, not .com) where you can sign up to let people ask you questions, or ask them yourself; you can leave your username, but you can also ask anonymously. Enough people were doing it on Twitter that I finally broke down and thought, Okay, sure. I'll probably get some trolls or inappropriate questions, but you don't have to answer anything you don't want, so why not. It'll probably take me a while to answer them, though--if I mention it on Twitter, I might get, like, fifteen questions the first day or something...

So, one day later, I have answered 72 questions and still have 33 in my inbox. That... that happened. And some of the unanswered ones are really good ones; I'm just having to parcel the answers out between other things I'm doing, and sometimes needing extra time to think of good replies. I mean, "Best song ever" is gonna take me a while. (Also, three people have already asked about my favorite books; I just haven't answered that yet.) So far I've been asked about dolls, The Secret Life thereof, pasta, poetry, podcasts, my creative process, BPAL, Aromaleigh, my preference re: Spike and Angel, pop-culture vampire throwdowns, snacks, unobtainium, how I actually feel about Twilight, and head-squishing. The newest answers are on top, but they're not really dependent on chronological order, I don't think.

By the way: I reserve, and have already exercised, the right not to answer questions I find to be rude or invasive. No one will see your question unless I answer it, so don't bother trolling if all you want is attention.

Comments

[beckyh2112.livejournal.com]

Your answer about being a certain type of Southern girl really cemented something in my head - because that's me. It's taken me years to admit that the people who read my fanwritings, no matter what those writings contain, are fans of mine.

I'm still almost-painfully people-pleasing. Does my boss need someone to fill more hours at work? Sure, I can do it! Never mind any plans I might have made, I would be letting people down at work if I didn't come in. Which almost inevitably leads to needing mental health days now and then because saying no to more hours even though they're stressing me out? Crazy talk! Telling my boss 'the way you have this set up so I am the only person doing this and it is insanely stressful, PLEASE get me some sort of helper!'? Also crazy talk!

So, yeah. I need to work on that.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I remember some boy in fourth grade cornering me and sneering, "You LIKE compliments, don't you? You LIKE THEM." "No, no, I don't, I don't!" What the hell?

[beckyh2112.livejournal.com]

Seriously. That is so messed up.

I remember being told at a young age that I shouldn't 'fish for compliments', which seemed to mean 'do not show your new, shiny thing you just made to people' in the context.

Still have no idea how to handle compliments. 'Thank you!' seems to work when it's about something I've made, but if it's about something like the fact that I look nice dressed up or whatever, I have no idea how to respond. And 'thank you!' only works when I've had a day to process the compliment; like, my instinctive response isn't 'thank you!', it's 'crap, what the hell do I say? did I deserve this? are they right that I did this well? I so could have done this better, crap, I should tell them...'

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I just say "Thank you," regardless, but often in a tone that says, "It is so sweet of you to say that," rather than, "Thank you, because it is totally true."

[klik101.livejournal.com]

Oh, god, me too. Thank you so much Cleo for putting it into words. I think the drive to avoid attention and keep things running smoothly for everybody else extends to entire families as well. No matter what kind of drama is going on within a family, you keep it to yourselves and never let the cracks show.

[editornia.livejournal.com]

Oh, god, I do this too. /o\ Of course, being bi-polar, I also occasionally LOOK for attention - and then don't know how to handle it. O_o

Thanks for helping me to see it, y'all.:S Clearly, this is something I need to work on fixing...

[jdotmi.livejournal.com]

Well, there just went a half hour of my life reading that... and looking for other people I read on there...

That there has TVTropes levels of danger brewing. Some day, people will link to Formspring and the replies will be XKCD strips about civilizations devoured by the beast.

Hi, you don't know me

[vlexor.livejournal.com]

But I was really gobsmacked by the douchiness of the Jon Stewart question asker.

What an ass.

People are just looking for some way to criticize, aren't they? (rhetorical.)

Anyway, just thought I'd say your journal is entertaining and so are your answers to questions.

Re: Hi, you don't know me

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Heh, thanks. I was kind of blown away by that myself. There's a reason I don't allow anonymous comments here, and it's because it makes my life so much easier and happier.

[maudelynn.livejournal.com]

who was the weirdo that asked about vodou dolls?
Oh, wait that was me :P

Here's mine
http://www.formspring.me/maudelynn

I say answer all the rude questions with this
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/28965072@N00/4406842575/)

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I should have used that as my answer to "What kind of super power would you want to have?"

[laurelin-kit.livejournal.com]

I'm intensely curious about the weird questions you've turned down. People are so WEIRD about people with internet fame. It's like they can't distinguish between distant celebrity and ONE OF THEIR OWN that happened to strike it big.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

They haven't really gotten weird yet--right now they're just "none of your business" questions, like do I have a day job and if so where, why do I live with my family and not on my own, etc. The kind of thing where, if I haven't told you before, there was probably a reason.

The "Did you seriously just compare yourself to Jon Stewart?" question was assy, but I didn't turn it down.

[laurelin-kit.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I saw that one. They were seriously looking for something to bitch about.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Huh. "Has anyone proposed marriage to you?"

[laurelin-kit.livejournal.com]

Oooh. That's a new one. Now you just have to wait for someone to actually propose.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I wonder if this is the setup for "Would you like me to?"

[laurelin-kit.livejournal.com]

I think you'd really want an IP trace on that one.

[kvschwartz.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed reading that Q & A. Of course, some of those answers just made me think of other questions. For example:

Where can we find those two short stories you posted?

==

"Death Note" is a really good anime. (Supposedly it's also a really good manga, but I haven't gotten around to reading it yet.) That wasn't really a question, was it? But *that* was. Sorta.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I posted them one Halloween, and then audio readings of them the next. Happy haunting!

[kvschwartz.livejournal.com]

Somehow, idiot that I am, I misread that as "one October." So it took me a lot more time to find it than it should have.

[la-petite-singe.livejournal.com]

Is that what that is? I was wondering. I don't understand Tumblr, either. Every time I hear it I just think of Batman's car. But anyway, giiiirl. You know you have crazy stans. I give you credit for doing any of these at all, since I'm sure plenty of them are insane and scarily invasive. Sorry you're getting trolled. :\

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm still trying to figure out what Tumblr is. Honestly, the Formspring questions haven't been that bad; I've gotten a few mildly None Of Your Business questions and that one really snitty one that I did answer. But I figure, "Hey, don't bother trolling, no one's going to see it anyway" might help for the future.

[la-petite-singe.livejournal.com]

Yeah, trolls usually don't bother if they're not going to get any widespread attention. (Which is why ONTD is, like, a breeding ground). My BFF described Tumblr as an "online scrapbook" and a "visual journal," which sounds cool, but really, I have enough internet vices. ...So I'll probably be joining within the next week or so, I expect.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it sounds really cool, and one of my Twitter people crossposts links to hers... there's just so many sites, you know? If I didn't already have a couple of places where I'm really entrenched, I might look into it, but...

[metonymy.livejournal.com]

I like Tumblr because it lets me toss up links and pictures and Youtube videos without feeling like I have to write an actual entry or content or anything.

[klik101.livejournal.com]

If you like Judy Garland and Gene Kelly in The Pirate, then you absolutely must see Summerstock. Beautiful songs, including the original "Get Happy," and great chemistry. When Gene finally declares his love for Judy (which I really don't think is a spoiler in this context) it is done in such a subtle way that you don't even realize what he's doing until he's well into his speech.

[sertcake.livejournal.com]

I totally agree with the Newsies question. But that's probably because I'm a HUGE fan of the movie. =)

[siromygod.livejournal.com]

So I have 2 my little ponies I have no use for. Would you by any chance want them? Or know someone who would? I told my friend I wanted a pony for my birthday because I didn't actually want her to spend money on me. But she actually bought me ponies. So let me know! And here's a picture. Let TLE have a look, see if he has any interest to adding to his herd.

[chibimitch.livejournal.com]

Heh. I've had "Pony" as number one on my Xmas list for years. One year my mom got me little ponies - I made a mental note not to ask for ponies again.

[siromygod.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I honestly did not think she'd send me these. I opened the box and went, WTF? Hahaha.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I--well--oh, sure, why not. (Thank you!) My PO box is on my user info; it ought to be okay going there. Do you want me to PayPal you anything to cover shipping?

[siromygod.livejournal.com]

Oh, no no no. Think of it as like a March gift, or something. I'm just glad they'll be going to a home where they're taken care of and will have other friends. =)

[txvoodoo.livejournal.com]

re your Southerness & internet fame: I feel you need to embrace more of your Katie Scarlett O'Hara, and less of your Melanie Wilkes :D

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Heh. A friend once told me I was like Melanie Wilkes with Dorothy Parker's mouth. I don't know how true that is, but I've definitely gotten the Melanie part before.

[txvoodoo.livejournal.com]

That may be the best way of describing you ever

You're a post-modern Melanie Wilkes!

[robinmc.livejournal.com]

I saw that yesterday, and I tried to come up with something to ask you. But I saw what other people asked, and I either thought, "damn, that's a good one," or "wow, who would ask that?"

I guess I just feel that if you feel like telling us something, you'll tell us. I always feel horrible asking people private questions, even people I've known for years, just because I always assume that if they wanted me to know, they'd tell me. Maybe I'm projecting, though, because I sometimes have a hard time telling people about myself.

That said, your answer to which kind of pasta you'd be made me smile.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I'm terrible at thinking of questions to ask people--I'd be a terrible interviewer. So part of the reason I set up was to find out what people wanted to know, because God knows I wouldn't know what to ask me (or anyone else).

I've gotten better at telling people about myself, because when the book first came out, I had to do a couple of interviews, and every now and then someone emails to ask if they can do an interview for a school project or someone needs the entire Twilight series explained in an hour. I've probably done 12-15 interviews on various topics at this point (I probably get asked because I'm chatty and easily accessible and not scary), and I'm about to write up another one tomorrow. It's like--it's like when I had to take the SAT and the ACT in high school so many times in high school that, by the end, I had no anxiety about taking standardized tests at all.

[jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com]

stopping here to say WORD to your description of Southern girls--my friend and I both read it and went "it's funny because it's SO TRUE."

on a side note, I would just like to say it always gives me warm fuzzies when you talk about Alabama, even when Alabama's being ridiculous (honestly when is it not). I think it's a combination of homesickness and state pride--sometimes I feel...underrepresented on the internet? And then you're all like LO, I AM CLEO, AND I AM FROM ALABAMA, and it cheers me immensely.

as a final random thing, my friend got me M15M for Christmas, and I've been treating myself to it all semester, and I WHOLEHEARTEDLY APPROVE of the running Padme-crush-on-Obi-Wan gag. :-D

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Aw, hee. Thanks. : )

Vampire reunion

[andromedabastow.livejournal.com]

I though you might like this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdD0jbsIg8k

Springform issue

[suzeclues12.livejournal.com]

Yep, I keep clicking on "more" at the bottom of your Springform page - a little dial "I'm working on it" symbole comes up for two seconds, and then it disappears and the page does not change. The "more" is grayish, but my arrow symble does turn into a "hand" thingie when I point my mouse on it. This issue is not addressed on Springform's FAQ's, but they do mention having had some problems at one point. Most of the FAQ's are "questionee" related. Any suggestions for the technologically inept?

Re: Springform issue

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I'm having the same problem too now. People tell me that Formspring glitches A LOT--it keeps eating my answers or double-posting them as well.

[bobonancy.livejournal.com]

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