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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Lit Literature member interviews

Discussion in 'Literature' started by Point Given , Jun 6, 2013.

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  1. Gamiel

    Gamiel Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Dec 16, 2012
    With America I guess you mean the United States of America, so: I often watch the Daily Show and Colbert Report so I may have a rather lop-sided picture of U.S.A.. With that said: I like U.S.A., you have excellent ideals and I have nothing but respect for the "American Dream", and I am a happy consumer of a lot of your culture.
    On the other hand it sometime feels like you are still in the pre-60's with how you act around the world; have a tendency to distrust/dislike authority just because and seems to come up with all manners of reasons (even falls once) to why you should not follow the government's programs and, as JackG said, "what **** is with the guns?"

    Depending on the size of the prize. If it is really big I will probably change flat and if there is something left I will put it in the bank to use it later to by comics, books and RPG:s.
    If it is not that big I will put it in the bank and use it from time to time to make my purchase a bit bigger.
    Maybe use some of it to travell
     
  2. Todd the Jedi

    Todd the Jedi Mod and Loving Tyrant of SWTV, Lit, & Collecting star 6 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Oct 16, 2008
    Gamiel 21. Which Swedish prime ministers do you most admire and why?

    22. What's the funniest thing you've ever seen/done?
     
  3. Gamiel

    Gamiel Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Dec 16, 2012

    Non, most of them have done good (how else do they stay in powers for so long) but not enough or in ways to stand out for me
    [/quote]22. What's the funniest thing you've ever seen/done?[/quote]
    The "Flins" vs. the zombie village scene in the Gamers: Dorkness Rising, it made my cry from laughter the first time I saw it and I still find it really funny
     
  4. Todd the Jedi

    Todd the Jedi Mod and Loving Tyrant of SWTV, Lit, & Collecting star 6 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Oct 16, 2008
    And that's the end of the interview! Give a round of applause for Gamiel. =D= In a day or so we'll continue with Zorrixor.

    In the meantime, the floor is now open for anyone else to ask Gamiel any questions.
     
  5. anakinfansince1983

    anakinfansince1983 Skywalker Saga/LFL/YJCC Manager star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Mar 4, 2011
    I would like to ask all of you who aren't American to please take the Daily Show and the Colbert Report as an accurate reflection of what happens in the US.
     
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  6. Bullhead CIty

    Bullhead CIty Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Dec 1, 2012
    Thanks for your honest interview Gamiel.
     
  7. Gamiel

    Gamiel Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Dec 16, 2012
    I have to admit that I am a bit surprised that no questions regarding comics come up
     
  8. Todd the Jedi

    Todd the Jedi Mod and Loving Tyrant of SWTV, Lit, & Collecting star 6 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Oct 16, 2008
    Alright, it's time for our next subject, Zorrixor![face_party]

    1. Tell us about your username, why you chose it, what it means, etc. And what is the best way to address you?

    2. What made you sign up for the Jedi Council Forums? Do you post on any other forums?
     
  9. Jedi Ben

    Jedi Ben Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Jul 19, 1999
    Alas, if only it was more easily available!

    Moving on..... Zorr! [:D]
     
  10. Zorrixor

    Zorrixor Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Sep 8, 2004
    All of a sudden, I feel like the latest test subject... please be gentle...[face_worried]

    [​IMG]
    The first one's easy... but also has more history to it than its simple explanation, so I will answer these two together. ;)

    The username

    Those who've known me for longer will probably remember I always used to have the old site's Xizor avatar. "Zorrixor" was my very poor attempt at creating a Falleen character name many, many years ago.

    [​IMG]

    (I know that isn't the old one, but... not sure if it's still on the site, and am reluctant to delete my current one just to find out! :D)

    Its background and why I signed up

    But the story doesn't actually begin there. I actually first signed up to TFN in 1999 under the name "Xanos" (more on that in a moment) and had the same Xizor avatar the first time too. From what I can remember, I either signed up because I had just read SuperShadow's mad theories, or vice versa, and was looking for more spoilers after watching TPM, and having my mind bombarded with the wild theories and fake scripts that tried to explain Darth Sidious as Palpatine's brother, or whatever the crazy ideas were back then. But after I had my fill of spoilers, I don't think I looked at TFN again for a few years, and when I came back I had totally forgotten my password, changed email addresses (because I had grown up and realised AOL sucked :p) and so had to set up a new account.

    Why such a weird name?

    Why "Xanos" and "Zorrixor" and why the Falleen connection, you're probably now thinking?

    Well, back in the middle of 1999 I signed up to a Star Wars gaming club called the Emperor's Hammer -- originally I used my real surname, because I was young, naive, and stupid enough to think where it asked for my name, it actually meant my name... yes, I was special back then... -- but after I got into the roleplaying side of things, I wanted a proper name for my character. I'd been playing MechWarrior 3 at the time, and liked the named of one of the mechs, "Xanatos", and corrupted that into Xanos. The connection to the Greek god of death never occurred to me at the time, but funnily my character ended up going the Sith route, obsessed with immortality and the afterlife, blah, blah, so there was something kinda creepy in my original choice of name when looking back.

    Zorrixor later evolved out of wanting a surname for my character, and just thinking "He's a Falleen. It needs to be like Xizor. Let's mangle it and make Zorrixor". And that was that. I had a friend who (much more successfully than me) said he created his characters' names by just punching the keyboard, messing with the results, and voila, hey presto he had a cool name. I guess I took that too literally back then, hence the strange double "rr" in the middle of Zorrixor, and the overabundance of Zs and Xs in Xanos Zorrixor. When I signed up to TFN the second time, then, I went with my character's surname instead.

    Other forums...?

    As for other forums... not so much these days. I'm an old cranky miser without much time for that new age jazz (well, okay, I just turned 28, but... er, whatever :p).

    I'm more a close circle of friends guy these days, albeit I hate Facebook, Twitter, and that kind of thing, so mostly stick to the few people that I get on with and trust properly. I am, though, still a member of the Dark Jedi Brotherhood, which used to be part of the Emperor's Hammer that I joined back in 1999, though spun off back in 2003. That's a vice I really should grow out of, but I've always stayed on the grounds of wanting to help the newer people enjoy their time, so try my best to help out where I can.

    I suppose MMOs kinda count, maybe, in a more animated-kind-of-forumy-way, though I'm not really the biggest MMOer, and just play a little TOR and Aion with a friend.

    Anyways, for a simple question, I have already rabbited on too much! I'll close with the full avatar of Captain Goodvalor -- the name I would have chose had I signed up these days:

    [​IMG]
     
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  11. GrandAdmiralJello

    GrandAdmiralJello Comms Admin ❉ Moderator Communitatis Litterarumque star 10 Staff Member Administrator

    Registered:
    Nov 28, 2000
    Ah, Emperor's Hammer! I was a member of that for like five minutes back in 2000 or 2001 or so.
     
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  12. Todd the Jedi

    Todd the Jedi Mod and Loving Tyrant of SWTV, Lit, & Collecting star 6 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Oct 16, 2008
    Zorrixor 3. Where are you from? What are some of the best parts about where you live?

    4. What places have you traveled too? Any favorite locations?
     
  13. Zorrixor

    Zorrixor Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Sep 8, 2004
    I'm from Kent in the south-east of the UK. I briefly tried London ten years ago after leaving school and getting into university there, but... didn't really work for me; I didn't mind the city environment itself per se, but I'm not a tall buildings person, and ended up back out in the countryside again. Despite my family's business being fruit growing, I'd hesitate to call myself a "country" type of person exactly, as I'm still a computer nerd who likes Star Wars and video games, and not the rural cliche who likes shooting and horse riding or that sort of thing -- none of which has ever appealed to me, even if it's the kind of stuff that you do get quite a bit of in some of the smaller villages outside the main towns.

    Best parts... hmm... I went to school in Rochester, which was where Charles Dickens lived, so I guess it'd be normal to count all the architecture and history, etc, that's around the area. Where I went to school was actually founded in 604, and is the second oldest school in the UK, so when I describe the city as old, I'm talking old old -- several of the places in the Dickens books were actually the buildings we used as the school offices/library, etc. But having always been the country bumpkin who is anything but a country bumpkin I've always been more attracted to the trees and outdoors, than any of the towny features. :p

    Sadly, the area has its less so good parts as well. The Medway Towns that surround it -- named after the river that runs through Rochester -- currently have one of the worst employment rates in the country, so the whole area is rather... polarised in terms of its good and and bad sides, with extremes on both ends. That said, from a growing-up perspective I look back and view that as a good thing, as it meant being able to mix with a lot of different people from all kinds of backgrounds, some who had nothing, others who had everything, some white, some Indian, even a boy who'd come to England to avoid conscription into the Iranian army, and I've always valued having grown up with such a diverse mix of people instead of in an isolationist bubble where everyone around you was exactly the same.

    It's just a pity how many people view that as a bad thing, as while I valued that, the area certainly suffers from those who moan about "all the Indians" or that kind of comment, instead of the integration (instead of all living in separate ghettos) being seen as a positive thing.
    Ah, travelling...

    I last went on a family holiday when I was... I believe 6. (I did though go on a school classics trip to Greece when I was 11 or 12ish -- of which my only memory was chronic jet lag, sleeping through most of it, and the belly dancing performance during the meal we had on the last night [face_sick]) So in terms of travelling... I can't really offer much, other than making people regularly stare at me with wide eyes and asking how I possibly cope without a holiday each year. When I was younger, the main reason was my parents being unable to, as being farmers they worked literally 365 days a year, and these days my problem is my parrots demand from me the sort of commitment that a toddler does -- just a toddler that will be 4-years-old for the next 80 years.

    So I've never really been much of a travelling person, and just have got used to it -- strange as I know that usually sounds to most people. There's a funny story of my final day at school about that. I was outside talking to people, and got chatting to the deputy headmaster, who unprompted, asked me if I really had never been to a beach (as that had come up once during a chemistry lesson with him, about five years earlier). That clearly must have stuck with him all those years. :D

    I admit, I do vaguely recall going to a beach on that Greek trip and getting an urchin spike stuck in my foot (which didn't come out for like five years), but... that is pretty much the only memory of a beach beach that I have, if you discount walking alongside the muddy coastline where the river Medway goes out to sea, which isn't exactly a beach... just an estuary that you'd need a death wish to want to swim in.

    Ah, 2001... the dark times. :p

    *hides before any hidden EHers come and throw things at him*
     
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  14. Barriss_Coffee

    Barriss_Coffee Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Jun 29, 2003
    Zor -- didn't you lose some parrots a few years back? Victims of parrot-napping? Did you ever get those back?
     
  15. Zorrixor

    Zorrixor Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Sep 8, 2004
    Barriss_Coffee We never got them back, no. :(

    We learned the name of one guy, who the police later arrested with a bunch of others during an electronics store theft, and who eventually admitted to it, but he pleaded ignorance of who they sold them to, and never said who his associates were (he'd been out on early release at the the time, from another theft he'd done sometime earlier -- so it will come as little surprise that I am not a fan of early release, and detest drug users). Another guy claimed he knew were they were, but the pet store he took us to... while very dodgy, the parrots in there weren't ours, although they did feel very distressed to me (and the owner was shocked they didn't bite me), but without anything else to go on, the police didn't follow that one up -- and it scared us enough just getting in the car with this heavily built, tattooed guy the first time, so didn't feel safe doing more ourselves.

    But, yeah...

    It was... not a nice time. I'm honestly lucky I had the right friend to help me through it, as I fell into such a hole, I spent more than six months scanning every single animal sales website daily, and must have put up nearly a thousand posters... something the police had told us not to, thinking we'd get dozens of crank calls, but that never happened.

    There's been several more parrots reported stolen in the area in the three years since (some the same sort as ours) which always upsets me -- especially knowing that they're only doing it to fund their drug habits, as from what we got told, they barely even got any money from them, selling them for like fifty quid. The police have always thought it's a big professional circuit exporting parrots to Europe, but... I don't know. Maybe. Our two African greys had started breeding, so maybe they saw more money in those, and the stupid kids they use are too scared of the ones doing it, but we strangely had a phone call from a woman two years later, saying she had a bird she'd always been unsure about, as she said it didn't have a ring, but... we never followed that up, due to the inability to confirm either way. It did though fit what one person had told us, about the birds getting given to one of the thieves' mothers after its ring had supposedly been removed.

    The worst part honestly was that they came at 1am and took the two African greys -- you could see two bags on the videos. Then they left. Two hours later, they came back, and that time it was only one bag -- meaning they took my pet macaw the second time, who I'd had since before I did my GCSEs, meaning they hadn't even targeted the expensive macaw -- they must have wanted the greys -- but then must have decided to come back, making my one nothing more than an opportunist extra. I... still feel rather faint thinking about finding that image on the CCTV that afternoon after scanning through hours of nothing happening...

    But... yeah... not nice... there's barely a day go by that I don't get flashbacks to the morning my mum woke me up... what's always hurt me the most is that I'd lived in the same house for 26 years, and was in the process of moving out (we did six months later), so had it been a year later... we wouldn't have been there anymore....
     
  16. Todd the Jedi

    Todd the Jedi Mod and Loving Tyrant of SWTV, Lit, & Collecting star 6 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Oct 16, 2008
    Zorrixor 5. What are some of your favorite pastimes/activities?

    6. Tell us how you become a Star Wars fan, and SW lit in particular.
     
  17. AdmiralNick22

    AdmiralNick22 Retired Fleet Admiral star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    May 28, 2003
    Zorrixor

    Kent? I have a customer in Ashford, which I believe is in Kent!

    --Adm. Nick
     
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  18. Zorrixor

    Zorrixor Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Sep 8, 2004
    Even if they drive me mad and rob me of a social life, I'd be lying if I didn't mention my parrots first. I don't breed them, but maybe when I'm older and have more time that might eventually develop, who knows... but I'm currently hoping both my birds are male, as we only have one sexed currently, and I'm not ready for that yet! [face_praying]

    Anyways, aside from my being a masochistic psittacophile (Jello will probably say it's wrong, but I believe that's the term used for "parrot lover" :p), my other two main loves would have to be books and video games, both of which I hold on the same level. (I'll talk a bit more about books for the next question.) I studied literature for one of my degrees, and guess I take a rather modern take on viewing video games as themselves a form of literature, as some of my most beloved stories have to be some of the RPGs I have played -- and RPGs are definitely my favourite, as I rate games based on their story, above whatever the gameplay experience is like.

    So I suppose you could reduce that to me saying my favourite past times are stories...? I enjoy writing too (and when I get around to my PhD, hope to write a novel as part of it), as I've always enjoyed telling stories, too, so escaping into other worlds is probably the best way to encompass what I most enjoy doing? :)
    Honestly? I have trouble remembering! :D

    Watch Star Wars??? That OLD thing?????

    I have a memory of watching the scene in ANH with Obi-Wan explaining the Force to Luke on the Falcon as he practices against the training droid. I was under 10, and hated it. Absolutely hated it. It looked old, the actors looked old, the dialogue sounded old, the effects looked corny; I got quickly bored, left the living room, didn't watch it. I have a feeling that happened again sometime/weeks/months/years after that, as I'm sure it was on the TV more than once, and that both times I didn't enjoy it, or watch it fully. Now, I also have a memory of playing Super Star Wars: Return of the Jedi on my NES or SNES (whichever it would have been on?). I never got past Tatooine, but then I sucked at video games back then. I could never work out how to get inside Jabba's Palace, and if I used cheats, I just sucked even more, and constantly died. So despite playing that, I again didn't exactly enjoy it, and it probably had been bought more for my older brother I suppose, or something. I dunno.

    But, but, but... where this changed was one of either two events.

    I was invited to a friend's birthday party where we saw the Empire Strikes Back Special Edition in the cinema. I enjoyed that. I also remember this day where I came across a game called X-Wing vs TIE Fighter (the flight sim game) on a shelf in Woolworths, which I got my mum to buy for me, and ended up getting addicted to (which was what led me to joining the Emperor's Hammer gaming club I mentioned earlier, as they had lots of custom missions to download too). But I cannot for the life of me say whether I came across XvT first, or if I saw ESB:SE first. But that must have been what sparked me to go on and get interested in the other films, as by the time TPM rolled around in 1999, I was desperate to see that in the cinema (even though I think I'd only seen like two films in a cinema by that point -- ESB:SE and maybe Jurassic Park, I think).

    Star Wars literature... or was it a video game... or are they the same?

    As for SW literature... that again is a bit grey.

    [​IMG]

    The first book was Vision of the Future. My mum was a member of one of those book clubs where you had to buy something each month or they sent you the editor's choice (aka the stuff they couldn't shift). For whatever reason, I decided to get VOTF -- I am guessing this was sparked by the interest I'd gained from ESB and XvT the year previously? So my interest in Star Wars stemmed from me initially taking an interest in both Darth Vader and Thrawn. However, for a straight A student who went on to get a double first in Literature at uni, I was a dreadful reader back then though (meaning... I, er, never read anything). I know I took VOTF with me on the coach ride during a school geography trip somewhere one day, I must have been 13 or something, but... I maybe got through the first couple of chapters, then never touched it again until many, many years later. But that was almost certainly my "first taste" of the SW books.

    [​IMG]

    Fast forward to the Easter school holiday of 2002. I'd read a few comics by then, again that Emperor's Hammer club had a part in that, as they had named some of their things after Naga Sadow and the characters of the Sith Empire comics, and I had read some of those. But I'd learned about Thrawn from the flight sims, and wanted to know more, and I remember that Easter holiday, I blasted through a massive ton of books sitting in the bath for like six hours a day (yay! I got an ear infection as a result!). I was so glued to those books during those few weeks, probably getting through a book in a day or two. I know I read Vector Prime, and VOTF, as I'd had those for a few years from the previously mentioned book club.

    And then on Sept 8, 2004, I set up this new TFN account, so I clearly had bitten the literary bug by that point, and had finally gotten into the books big time and wanted to delve deeper. (And I then remember being a juvenile jackass and trying to out-history Jello during a debate on Queen Victoria and the British Empire, and ended up making myself look like a complete dumbass :p)

    But, yeah, I guess the short story is that my interest arose as some sort of combination of Vader and Thrawn from ESB and VOTF, with a helping of Naga Sadow and TIE Fighters.
     
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  19. Zorrixor

    Zorrixor Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Sep 8, 2004
    You believe correctly! ;)

    Yeah, I live in a small village near Sittingbourne at the moment, and Ashford is... maybe 10, 15 miles or so south-east-ish from here.

    My accountant is based in Ashford. :p
     
  20. Todd the Jedi

    Todd the Jedi Mod and Loving Tyrant of SWTV, Lit, & Collecting star 6 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Oct 16, 2008
    Zorrixor 7. What other franchises do you like besides SW and which are you most passionate about?

    8. What was your reaction to the announcement of Disney's purchase of Star Wars, and what are your hopes for the ST?
     
  21. gizkaspice

    gizkaspice Force Ghost star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 27, 2013
    Zorrixor what kind of parrots do you have, if i may ask? depending on the species there are sometimes hints physically--although the most certain way to determine the sexes is via DNA testing. I used to breed Agapornis roseicollis (bird people would know what this is)....if you don't put any nest-like material into their cage, this usually discourages breeding.
     
  22. Zorrixor

    Zorrixor Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Sep 8, 2004
    The unsexed one is a blue-and-yellow macaw. I plan to get him sexed the next time he's in the vets, but haven't wanted to do a vet trip just for that purpose.

    From his behaviour with the male, I'd have said he's female, but he also rubs his rear end over my shoulder which sometimes makes me think he's a male trying to mate with me. I know parrots can masturbate though, so don't know if that's just the males, or if the females would be doing that sort of thing too or not. (My male definitely tries to mate with me, when he does his courtship dances around my face, and tries to pounce on me whenever he gets horny. :p)

    Whereas the blue-and-gold doesn't do any of the courtship stuff, just gets straight to rubbing (and, yes, people, that is as vulgar as it sounds :p).

    The main thing that sometimes makes me expect to walk in there with an egg one morning is that my old African greys (the pair that were stolen) just were on the floor one morning, with an egg. (Although, with the benefit of hindsight, the signs had been there, as for several weeks they'd kept trying to intrude on the shed where my other birds slept (but where the African greys didn't), and my little conure had been shoeing them out each night. Until that fated morning where they'd obviously snuck in and got frisky in the middle of the night and/or early morning! :D
     
  23. Barriss_Coffee

    Barriss_Coffee Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Jun 29, 2003
    Awww that absolutely sucks, Zorrixor! :( I remember you were really concerned about that a couple of years back, but I was sort of shy talking to people in the social thread back then and didn't ask about whatever happened. That's so depressing... like losing several family members at once. I'm glad you've got some parrots again, although it's sad you never got any closure from the others.


    Unrelated, but VOTF has to be one of the worst ways to enter the EU. Not that it's a horrid novel or anything, but... sheesh. Talk about trial by convoluted fire.
     
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  24. gizkaspice

    gizkaspice Force Ghost star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 27, 2013
    Does he try and regurgitate for you? If so, very likely a male. In general, this behavior is typical with males, but not exclusive to males...
    also....really sorry about your other parrots--anyone who deals with large parrots, IMO, must have a strong love for these animals, esp. addressing the commitment they need. :)

    EDIT: sorry, Todd the Jedi ....I usually don't lurk here...but.. there were birds and stuff :p
     
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  25. Todd the Jedi

    Todd the Jedi Mod and Loving Tyrant of SWTV, Lit, & Collecting star 6 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Oct 16, 2008
    gizkaspice, while I appreciate the enthusiasm (believe me I'd love to hear more about the mating habits of parrots :p ) I'm gonna have to ask you to refrain from asking any more questions until the interview is over, when anyone can ask a question between interviews.
     
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