Man vänjer sig.

From thette, who in turn took it from jophan:

The Rules:
1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I will respond by asking you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will post the answers to the questions (and the questions themselves) on your blog.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post. (or a separate post, but not too long after. Be honest here, people!)
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.


Questions from thette (I'm working on the answers):

1. How would you explain the collecting mentality to someone who isn't a collector?

With difficulty, and I can only speak for my own mentality. Let me start with a quote from Tove Jansson's Finn Family Moomintroll (Trollkarlens hatt för svensktalande):

"I think I'm beginning to understand," said Moomintroll slowly. "You aren't a collector any more, you're only an owner, and that isn't nearly so much fun."
"No," said the heartbroken Hemulen, "not nearly."

The fun is not having the complete collection, but getting there. Discovering more about the subject as you delve deeper into it, and feeling the thrill of the chase.

[Note: I will probably expand this paragraph tomorrow.]

2. Which is your favourite computer ever and why?

Hm. It depends on what you mean.

• My favourite system is the Mac OS, which I have used for eleven years, long before I got personally involved in it. Nowadays, I must admit, the differences in outward appearance between Windows and Mac OS are less than they used to be, but I still prefer Mac OS - it fits the way I think.

• My favourite machine of those that I own is my iBook, if only because it's the one I have spent the most time with. It's been sleeping on my bedside table for three and a half years, and it's followed me everywhere, including Belgium. (By contrast, my PCs are generic boxen. They are tools, while my iBook is a pet.)

• My favourite computer model may be the Commodore 64. It was small, relatively cheap, and primitive (although its synthesizer chip was advanced for its time), but it was a fun and friendly machine, and the one that started my love affair with computers. I always felt that it was a machine whose inner workings you could understand, and obviously many did.

3. Which science fiction books did you read your teenage years?

I read a lot (as most people, I picked books from the SF shelf at the local library, which means my choices were a bit limited), but those that I remember made the deepest impression on me were, in the order I read them (1988-1993):

Douglas Adams: The Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy (which I found a couple of months before I turned 13)
Robert A Heinlein: Double Star
Isaac Asimov: The Naked Sun
Isaac Asimov: The Foundation trilogy (which I had read when I was nine, but when I re-read it I understood it)
Stanisław Lem: The Futurological Congress
Stanisław Lem: The Star Diaries
Stanisław Lem: The Cyberiad
Alfred Bester: The Stars My Destination
Harry Harrison: Bill, the Galactic Hero
William Gibson: Neuromancer
Arthur C Clarke: Childhood's End

I was (and am) also very fond of collections of short stories, although Sam J Lundwall's tendency of recycling them got a bit annoying. Some of the stories to which he had the Swedish rights appear in three or four collections...

Since those days, I have lost most of my high regard for Heinlein (though I still like some of his novels), and Asimov has also dropped a notch or two on my list.

4. How would you describe your humour?

Short description: like something that's been left out in the desert too long, i.e. dry, black, twisted, and with questionable taste. I may write more here as well, as soon as I figure out what I really mean.

5. Tell me about your first crush...

In December 1996, I met a girl named Camilla at zrajm's birthday party, and after I'd meet her a few times and we got along very well, I realised that I had started thinking of her as more than a friend. It was the first time that I was in love with someone and understood it. It certainly was an intense experience, at least for me. I was too shy to tell her what I felt for her, except in roundabout ways that could be interpreted as just being friendly (and probably were, for she never said anything). We exchanged some letters and postcards over the summer, but never on a more than friendly level. (The letters I didn't send were another matter. They were... passionate and rather explicit, and horribly written. I don't deny that I was interested in her body (though I never got to see much of it) as well as her mind. And no, I'm not going to give you any quotes. The only good thing I can say about them is that at least I kept to prose.)

After about a year of being hopelessly, one-sidedly in love, I slowly lost interest. Her going to India for several months helped towards that end, as did her shacking up with another mutual friend. (They now have a son together.) I don't even think I've talked to her for a couple of years now.

(Please note that this is not the same Camilla that I had a crush on a couple of years later, i.e. the young lady who made off with my Latin textbook. I think I've mentioned her before.)