JCC P E O P L E Interviews, Issue LXIX: TahiriVeilaSolo69!

I have to confess, TahiriVeilaSolo69 was never really on my radar until August of 2014. Why that month? Well, at that time, I hosted this vicious little game where I paired people up in elevator deathmatches and JCCers would come in and vote on who they thought would come out of the elevator alive.

TVS69 won that game.

People thought that she would indisputably win, and more importantly, survive. My god, I thought, what is it about this user that inspires awesome dread and respect in so many other users? JCCers, at that!

That was just one of the questions I explored in this interview.

My questions are bolded; Tahiri’s answers are not.

***

What is your first name?

Eden

Why did you pick this username?

My favorite character from the EU was Tahiri Veila and I wanted her to get married to Anakin Solo. This was clearly before SBS came out.

What kind of SW fan are you?

I originally got ANH on VHS in like 1992 from my gramma Lou and I was obsessed after that. I started watching the films and once I was able to read legit chapter books, my grandfather started buying me the books. So the movies wet my whistle but the books were the ones that hooked me.

Who are your favorite SW actors?

I think I have an idea of one... I would ride Adam Driver into the sunset, but Carrie Fisher is my soulmate. I love everything about her, but especially her bravery in the face of mental illness. I have family members who suffer from bipolar disorder so I loved reading Postcards from the Edge.



What do you do? Would you rather be doing something else? If so, what?

I am a high school teacher in the District of Columbia and a grad student (Poli Sci MA)

Yes and no. I love my babies, I love teaching. I don't like the bull**** that comes with the teaching. Once I finish my degree I want to transition to federal government work. I actually would like to work at DHS (Homeland Security) or Dept of Ed working on Educational policy. The director of communications at DoEd is actually a big fan of mine so that might be happening sooner than later



What sports and sports teams do you follow?

I am a diehard Chicago Bears, Blackhawks, Sox fan. I'll watch the Bulls but not the same without Scotty Pippen and MJ.

Who are your favorite athletes, past and current?

Mike Ditka is God in my household. Walter Payton is like the arch angel Gabriel. True story, a few years ago when I still living at home, my brother and I couldn't find the tree topper so we printed out a picture of Mike Singletary and glued it to a popsicle stick and put it up. Currently, I am in love with Kyle Long. He is goofy and adorable. And a kick ass football player.



What are your top five, six, or seven interests?

Uhhhhhhhh cooking, history (especially ancient and medieval), I have a weird fascination with serial killers...I blame childhood insomnia in which my father and I would watch CNN episodes on Charles Manson since we couldn't sleep, traveling, and urban education.

What are the things and people you hate with the fiery passion of a thousand burning suns?

I hate people who walk slow on the Metro, Brett Favre, pro-lifers, Tea Partiers, ignorance, hot weather, the Green Bay Packers, people who don't know the difference between their/there/they're, people who refuse to move their bags off the free seat next to them, people who hurt animals, my mother's side of the family.



Favorite music and musicians?

I am mainly a rap/hip-hop person. I am also partial to trap or drill. I am just now getting into go-go which is a DC thing. Not like the go-go from the 60s ala Rowan & Martin's Laugh-in.

What's a song or composition that you can't seem to stop listening to at the moment?

Often by the Weeknd



Do you have a talent?

Creating interesting ways of killing people

How well developed is this talent?

I plead the 5th, because any can and will be used against me in a court of law.



What drew you to Tahiri Veila, when you were a kid? Did you see yourself in her?

I know the feeling of being raised by someone other than your parents. My parents where young when they had me and were struggling so I spent majority of my early life with my gramma Lou. I am also drawn to strong female characters so I enjoyed reading about her and she quickly became one of my faves.

I saw that Tahiri is (was?) part of the post-ROTJ in the old EU. What do you think about all these stories suddenly not being canon anymore?

I mean it sucks, but that is corporate America and especially Disney. Disney is evil. I actually stopped reading the EU after they killed Anakin Solo because GL thought people would get him confused to Anakin Skywalker. Like how dumb do you think the readers are?

So, Disney is evil... You're probably right, lol, but did you like TFA?

I did enjoy it. Kylo Ren is bae and I want Finn and Poe to hook up. They are totes adorbs.

Unfortunately, Pinn will never happen, cuz Disney and families. So you're a high school teacher-- do you have a classroom of your own? Is there SW stuff in it?

I have a "home base" but I share my classroom with three other teachers throughout the day. I teach in the largest comprehensive high school and we over 100% capacity so teachers have to share classrooms. So I don't really get to decorate except for the Chicago city flag and flags from the countries I have visited. But I talk to my kiddos about Star Wars and stuff so they understand the obsession. They were also the first who realized that I have fetish for tall men with dark hair.

What kind of teacher are you? How would you describe your teaching style? Do your kids love you or hate you?

Oh lord...I am a total *******. I run a tight ship but I also know to pick my battles. I swear in class, I will not hesitate to put my hands on my kids if they are acting a fool (which if anyone reports me for that I will end your bloodline, you have been warned), and I would protect them with my life if needed. My kids claim they like me, but again, I am an ******* so I think they are just scared to admit that I am terrifying. I require a lot of reading and I love class discussions. I foster a love of debate early on in the year and let the verbal fists fly after reading some interesting/controversial articles or books.

Oooh, such as?

Well we have had discussions about the track system within the education system and the most recent two was 1) Is Jay Gatsby passing? (as in, Gatsby being black but light skinned and passing for a white man) and 2) Affirmative Action and reading Scalia's remarks.

So this is a question I've been dying to ask you ever since it occurred... a while back on the forums, I hosted this terrible game consisting of elevator death-matches. It consisted of two JCers being paired up in an elevator and then people voted on which one would get out alive.

You won that game. You even beat out Frieda, who people kept voting up because she's so nice and kind and sweet, but when even her powers broke before you.

Why do you think you won that game?

Ahhhhh yes. I have no qualms resorting to violence in order to protect myself or my family. I grew up in a rough neighborhood in Chicago and had to learn to fight starting at a young age. Fortunately or unfortunately, JCCers who have met me person have sometimes witnessed me threatening people verbally or physically and know that I am 100% not ****ing around in life or death situations. For instance, Strilo had to talk me out of resorting to slashing tires or arson today because my boyfriend's company was forcing him to still come into work. He is stuck in a hotel near the Pentagon now and I am already plotting my revenge.

Has this ever backfired for you? It sounds like you could get in trouble, whether it be losing your own personal safety or with the law.

I got arrested in my senior year of high school for punching the drunk man that hit my house while he was being handcuffed. I didn't end up getting charged because lol minor and the sheriff was pretty impressed. I am pretty mellow until the situation warrants my temper, which at that point I feel like my actions are justified and that I could argue them effectively in a court of law. As I have gotten older, I have chilled out a lot. Plus my environment (being in DC) is not always conducive to acting like a hothead.

Alright, so we've got Eden from the mean streets of a bad Chicago neighborhood. She knows how to take care of herself and she'll **** you up if you look at her sideways. She'll **** you up if you look at her, period! If you were the hotheaded half of a buddy-buddy series of adventure movies, which JCer do you think should be your more mild-mannered partner/sidekick? Why?

Oh god lol...Strilo or Wocky. Strilo would just say "Eden, NO" after I tell him what I planned to do. Wocky would just start talking about Nat King Cole or "Ship of a Thousand Years" bull**** and confuse the hell out of me so that I would totally forget what I was planning on doing.

Alright, I'm a 6'2, 180 lb male. If you punched me square in the stomach, what do you think I'm doing? Simply bending over? Falling down and curling up? Getting knocked back like I just got punched in the Matrix?

Well if I am trying to take you down, I am not going to punch you in the stomach, I am going for a straight dick shot. Anywho, probably bending over and then curling down to the ground.

May I never get on your wrong side.

What's the worst fight you've gotten in? Or the best? Depending on your point of view.

Best: my little brother is 6 years younger than me and was diagnosed with cancer when he was 4. In the second grade, he was being bullied by this little ****. My parents went the usual route, talking to the teacher and school but it continued. The final straw was when he came home with huge bruises on his torso and cracked ribs. My father told me to handle it. So I did. The kid never touched him again...and I got a two week suspension.

Worst: Again with my brother. Bears vs. Atlanta Falcons about 6 years ago or so. Guy threw at beer straight at my brother and then laughed. So I vaulted over a few rows of seats and buried my fist in his mouth. I was escorted from the Dome and had to watch the game in the back of someone's truck.

You sound like the best big sister a little brother can have!



Favorite bad-ass (can't pick yourself!)

Boudica

Lovable wimp

Hoggle

Wisecracker

Deadpool

Nutball

Harley Quinn

Serial killer

Jeffrey Dahmer

What's your favorite story about Boudica?

I think my favorite is her speech to her troops from her chariot with her daughters around her, appealing to the fact that they are fighting for their freedom and not her lost wealth.



What is, in your opinion, the best thing you cook?

oh boy....well the most requested thing by my father and brother is browned lemon chicken with feta and black olives with pancetta mozzarella mashed potatoes. I use the pan drippings to make a brown gravy to put over the mashed potatoes.

Oh great, now I'm hungry!

Have you ever been a chef? Is cooking something you do a lot of?

Nope, like every good Italian girl I was taught by my gramma Lou from a very young age. I knew how to cook myself pasta (with homemade sauce) by the time I was 8. My father taught me how to grill. I have been cooking my family dinner since I was about 10 years old and that hasn't stopped . I find cooking therapeutic and I take much pride in my creations. I have never considered being a chef though.

What about baking? Because I want to ask about bread. David thinks American bread sucks, is he right?

I like baking but it is very time consuming. I make Italian bread (semolina bread) or rosemary boule. I rarely buy sliced white bread because it is gross. So yes, I agree with Daveed, American bread blows monkey balls.

Gramma Lou sounds like an interesting grandparent. What's your fondest memory of her? And you mentioned earlier, she was the one who mostly raised you, right?

Yea she was my everything. Even into my early 20s while I was still living in FL I spent 4 out of the 7 days a week with her when I wasn't at work. Oh lord...I always loved it when she was around her brothers and sisters. She was the oldest, there was 18 years between her and the youngest. She outlived them all too.

Okay, so, I count... Chicago, Florida, DC.... you've been all over! Are there any other places you've lived in the country? Or just those three?

Just those 3. I spent majority of my formative years in Chicago, 9th grade till 23 in Florida and DC since. I will never move south of here again.

Was Florida as racist as they say?

I mean I feel like racism is a large problem everywhere in America, not just Florida. The state is just gross. Between the inbred uneducated idiots and the humidity and then the flying cockroaches, just no-****ing-thanks. I'll take 3 feet of snow and a blizzard over that **** any day. I barely go visit my parents down there. I make them come up here.



Well, let's go back to education- how is racism prevalent in our education system? You can probably provide us a better look than anyone else on the boards.

Curriculum, funding, standardized testing, hiring of teachers of color. I mean you can see it literally everywhere in the education system. In DC we have a problem with a high rate of white teachers in schools where minorities are the majority. When asked about why the schools don't work harder to get teachers of color, the Chancellor of schools said that she wants to hire the best person for the job...which yea I get that but are you meaning to tell me that the only qualified teachers are white? I am skeptical. We have an issue in the curriculum in which we don't have enough diversity in the texts that students are subjected to. I might add that we also have an issue with diversity in terms of GENDER as well in the texts that students read. And do I even need to touch on funding?

The point about diversity in texts- what do you mean about that? Could you provide a couple examples?

So we don't just have to read texts by old white men. We can read texts by women, African-Americans, Asians, Hispanics, etc. Like if I wanted to do a whole unit around the American experience I would chose a text from every column so that my students would get a well rounded view of the American experience, say, in the 1920s. My grandmother's fresh-of-the-boat Italian immigrant story is going to be vastly different from a Japanese flower farmer in San Fransisco or an African-American sharecropper in Alabama. You do the students a disservice and, perhaps inadvertently, tell them that POC stories aren't as good as the old white men's.

Okay, so as I understand it, you don't choose the texts in your classroom. If you could choose them, what texts would you go over the course of one school year? Or semester or quarter if a whole school year is a little too daunting?

House on Mango Street by Cisneros
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (I taught this once! ONCE! And I effing loved it, does such a better job at discussing the effects of European imperialism and colonialism on Africans than that piece of **** Heart of Darkness. ****ing hate that book)
Anything Toni Morrison, I love her work
The Bonesetter's Daughter by Amy Tan

Just a few off the top of my head. I typically get through 4 texts with my on-level students and 6-8 with my college-level kiddos.



Let's go back to the fighting-

should JCCers ever find themselves in the need to engage in fisticuffs (lol), what primo advice do you have to give them to hold their own? Or at least barely manage to survive?

Well try not to get into a fight in the first place. Do everything in your power to not get to that point. If you do have to fight, go for the soft spots. The eyes, the throat/neck, the groin, the feet (shockingly enough). One-well placed kick, fist, or gouge will bring your opponent to the ground. TypoCelchu can tell you about how well I gouge out eyes. He has a scar on his temple from trying to fight with me. And he tell you about a well placed punch to the collarbone from when he called me fat (back when I was skinny and hot).

Wait, aren't you and Typo a couple?

Yep, been dating for like 6 or 7 years...or something. I don't even remember anymore.

So you guys have actually gotten into physical fights? Is this something you're okay with?

You have never wrestled with your significant other? lol. Don't paint it like this is some sort of domestic violence relationship. We wrestle and he, at the time, had the weight on me so I was pinned. But, as we have discussed, I wasn't going to lose like that so I fought dirty. And I don't know a woman who wouldn't punch her boyfriend for saying she looked fat in her outfit or at least not talk to him for days.

Ha! I don't have a significant other!






I just wanna make sure this isn't construed as being some weird violence ****. That's all.

Yeah, no, I can understand how it might come across that way.

So I have to ask, since you're a teacher, what is your view on students and swearing?

I swear in the classroom so I don't really care of it my kids do. We just have an understanding that if there are other random adults we both have to reign it in.

So if I asked your kids, what would they say is your favorite swear?

mother****er or ****



If you were stuck in a snow globe for eternity (you kind of are already, I guess), what would you be doing? What would the setting be? Would anyone be inside with you?

Reading or sleeping, I like when the wind is swirling the snow around and I would have Typo and our dog.

What is your favorite book?

Wuthering Heights

Why?

It's a beautiful and sorrowful love story. There's no happily, ever after which is refreshing.

You mentioned that you have a talent for creating interesting ways of killing people... does this come from all your experience watching shows about serial killers?

Could you just make a way up on the spot right now?

Probably. Depends on the person and why I want them to die.

Wanna do a super demented namedrop? Do you know what I'm thinking?

Like a JCCer I would kill?

Several.

JoinTheSchwartz
Boba Nekhbet
EmpireForever
FamousAmos
Strilo (<3)
KUK
Vin
Beez
Danthe
Tunick
SithLordGunray
Zapdos
Harpuah
HealerLeona
Jabbawocky
Boorach
Siha

Wait, that's kind of a lot. You'd come up with a different, special way to kill every single one of those people?

Depends on how I feel in the moment.

Alright, well, that's the next question. How would you kill each of those people?

It would take me hours to describe all of those people, yo. Just know that it would take hours or days, there would be organ and/or limb removal with possible auto-cannibalism. Auto or self-cannibalism, I don't know which.



What was the last picture you took with your phone?

The parking lot of our apartment complex for Typo. He was stuck at work the entire storm and finally got to come home yesterday afternoon.

Aw, stupid blizzard!

As someone who grew up in a rough neighborhood, having to learn how to defend herself, do you think that ever really leaves you? Do you look at people who grew up middle-class or rich in safe suburbs and think, "they really can't quite completely understand?" Or are they more than capable of fully emphasizing with it?

Anyone can empathize but it is harder for people who had fairly nice home lives to truly understand what it is like. Many of my friends and co-workers think I am a cold bitch when we go out because I am always surveying the scene or I notice some shady **** that they didn't notice because "they were too busy having fun." I also have resting bitch face with a tinge of the psychotic whenever I am out and about to keep people away from me which is disconcerting to many people. As long as my family and man understand it, that is all that matters.

So, let's say you, me, Typo, and some other JCCers are out one night, maybe for some JCC gathering. What are the kinds of things you're going to notice that's gonna fly straight over my head?

Wellllll that is really hard to answer because it depends on where we are. One thing that I do where ever I go is know exactly where all of the entrances and exits are, any cash machines/registers, windows that look breakable and could get me onto the street asap. I also can never sit with my back to an open room.

I should have specified a location or two, but that was still very illustrative. Thank you.

So, if you sit with your back to an open room, you are really not going to feel safe at all, no matter where you are?

I mean, it reminds me of an Old West thing where cowboys would always try to avoid sitting with their backs to the door, so they could see who could come in and also avoid getting harmed from behind. Are the rough neighborhoods of Chicago an apt comparison to the Wild West?

Yep, it is a running joke in the teacher's lounge that I always sit in the back corner with the whole room out in front of me with a clear view of who is coming into the room. I also don't sit with my back to windows lol.

We all have seen the reports of what in happening in Chicago. It's horrible. They executed a 7 year old because of his father's ties to a gang, for ****s sake. They wouldn't even do that **** in the Wild West.

That's terrible.

So I have to ask, since you're someone who came straight from a place that shaped you in such a way as to still sit in a certain place in a room, what made your neighborhood like that?

Poverty. It is the root of many ills in our society. It drives people to act or lash out in desperate ways. It is also generational. I grew up in poverty, my mother grew up in poverty, her parents grew up in poverty in war-torn Europe after WWII, their parents grew up poor in Europe, my grandmother's grandparents and great-grandparents survived the potato famine so their ass were really poor. I at least have the comfort that if Typo and I ever were cursed to have children, ours would not grow up poor like we did. We both have very nice paying jobs. But I don't think we would raise selfish little prickbags, we would simulate our childhoods for them so that they could appreciate what we can provide and love those extras would give them.

Do you think humans, or most of us, anyway, have a pretty strong sense of rules? Lines not to cross? Morality? Or are we just repressed animals at the mercy of our environment?

Law is what sets us apart from the animals. And, I guess, the ability to think critically but that is debatable in some individuals. We all know right from wrong. We make a conscious decision to do wrong. However we can always try to justify our actions when we do the wrong thing.

What's the best thing about being a teacher?

My kids. I love them. They can be huge ****s outside of the classroom or to other teachers but I love them.

With your knowledge of JCCers in RL, and your experience growing up, which JCCers do you think could make it if suddenly deposited into the middle of the third world? Or into some kind of Running Man urban slum scenario? And who curls up into a fetal ball to wait to die?

I am pretty sure every single one would curl up in a fetal position. But I would put some money on Vin and Daveed making it for a while.

Interesting! What about me, think I'd get far?

I don't know enough about you to make a decision. Some of the things makes me believe that you might not have it in you to do the dirty work lol

The only way I'd have a chance is if I suddenly went Lester Nygaard.

Just one more thing...

Panthers or Broncos?


CHICAGO BEARS

***

Thank you for reading! And a huge thanks to Eden for her participation!

Eden might make a post shortly. If you liked her answers and participation in this interview, please Like that post.

If you were a PEOPLE interviewee in the past and you saved your issue, please let me know. It would be greatly appreciated. Otherwise, old issues from before the big move will be restored by going the (very) long way around.


Past Issues

1. FamousAmos
2. Darth_Ignant
3. FareLenore
4. Mortimer_Snerd
5. Darth_Deception (hear+soul)
6. Albert_Normandy
7. Darth_Snowball*
8. PhilipWise
9. Everton*
10. Quixotic-Sith*
11. DarthTunick*
12. KnightWriter*
13. gabe*
14. Coruscant*
15. rhonderoo / Kavic_Toth*
16. Katya_Jade*
17. harpuah I*
18. VadersLaMent*
19. George_Roper*
20. Handmaiden_Yane*
21. solojones I*
22. jp-30*
23. GrandAdmiralJello*
24. Earwen and Skye Lightrider*
25. Souderwan*
26. harpuah II*
27. AaylaSecurOWNED
28. TheGuardianofArlon*
29. PulsarSkate*
30. Eeth-my-Koth (Vin)*
31. dp4m*
32. MASTERPRENN*
33. Grimby the Hutt*
34. s65horsey*
35. Esperanza_Nueva*
36. Errant_Venture*
37. harpuah III*
38. Darth_Guy
39. JediYvette
40. solojones II*
41. SLR*
42. Whitey*
43. imperial_dork*
44. AmazingB*
45. Miana Kenobi*
46. JoinTheSchwarz*
47. Armenian_Jedi*
48. darth_boy*
49. ApolloSmileGirl
50. tom
51. Jabba-wocky
52. Zapdos
53. Kyle Katarn
54. Healer_Leona
55. I Are The Internets
56. Ramza
57. Rogue1-and-a-half
58. Admiral Volshe
59. Lord Vivec
60. Jabbadabbado
61. anakinfansince1983
62. slightly_unhinged (ask-the-younglings, Bob Crow)
63. mrsvos
64. Darth Punk
65. Boba_Fett_2001
66. LostOnHoth
67. Juliet316
68. Shira A'dola

*unrestored







~Coruscant

 

I am most definitely a sociopath.

 

I would watch either or both of these.

 

I was going to rap my answer to you, but I realized I was rhyming "Jew" with "you" and we can't have that.

Also, surprised you didn't namedrop that one place you recently visited. You know, hmm? HMMM? (Not the hairdresser's, the cool one).

Love ya, Eden.

 

The White House? Oh yea, no big deal I get invited to speak there at least once a year.

 

I wish I could like this interview twice just for this.

 

I agree, but an Eden/Wocky buddy-cop duo would be amazing. Someone needs to make this happen.

 

Should I be flattered or scared TahiriVeilaSolo has a plan to kill me, a la Batman's plans to take out every single member of the Justice League?

 

Remain awesome, Eden.

 

Since I am from Wisconsin, all humans from Chicago are basically the slime on the bottom of my shoe. TVS69, some how escapes this dictation. I think she acts pretty tough, but she was obviously didn't grow up in the Nancy pantsy north Chicago. She does add a lot to the Arena which is nice. It's just hard to give anyone who is a Chicago sports fan any cred.

 

That's probably why they love you. The teachers I ended up loving the most were the ones who were a hard*** and I really didn't like to start with. I found they tended to care the most and were the most passionate about what they were teaching.

Also, we read both Things Fall Apart and Heart of Darkness my senior year of high school and I completely agree with your opinions on both! We hated Heart of Darkness so much the teacher decided not to teach it the next semester.

 

Eden rocks!

 

r

 

nm

 

Disappointed Coruscant didn't ask her about her ongoing battle with chronic yeast infections. I've told her once, I told her a thousand times. Wipe front to back!

 

I like being a portable bread making machine. Now if I could just figure out to make my a$$hole a toaster.

 

I like how your 9 in your sign in picture is on a second line.

 

aw, i'd like to kill you too, eden

 

Figured you'd appreciate this story. My very first teacher in middle school -- new school, first class -- was a short, African-American woman (couldn't have been taller than 4'11"), shaped roughly like a pear and with a very high (but not shrill) voice. And she was terrifying. For a 12 year old, she was insanely scary, and very intense and hard-ass. And head of the math department.

But as I got older, and got to know her better, it's clear she's tough but fair (and knows literally every single person in every math class in school to a scary degree). She's easily one of my top-two teachers from middle through high school. I imagine your kiddos will think this of you too.

 

*scribbles down notes in notebook* "Make sure to NEVER get on @TahiriVeilaSolo69's bad side..."