Just call me Sybil.

[shanmonster]

Here's your chance to ask me three questions on anything.

Well? What's stopping you?

Comments

[hellsphreak.livejournal.com]

1. How much does it cost to take belly-dancing classes?

2. How do I know if the instructor's actually good?

3. Is there a much cheaper way?

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

1. It depends on where you live. I charge $60 for six weeks, which seems fairly standard in North America, give or take a few dollars.

2. Talk to other students. Watch the instructor dance. Take a sample class, and see if the instructions make sense to you.

3. On the Matrix, you could learn something really well by just having the information uploaded to your brain. Find someone with the right hardware/software, and you might be set. Either that, or work on bartering for your classes. I know of students who traded babysitting services for lessons, as an example.

[hellsphreak.livejournal.com]

1. How hard is it to get started?

2. What can I do to train prior to starting a class?

3. What muscles is used for the majority of belly-dancing?

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

1. That depends wholly on your own personal level of procrastination.

2. A class is exercise, in and of itself, but if you're a real keener, you might want to focus on exercises which help improve your flexibility and endurance. I recommend yoga and/or martial arts.

3. I'd say quadriceps, hips, obliques, abdominals, erectors, shoulders, and lats. The area which gets the least amount of work would be the hamstrings, and I strongly encourage all serious dance students to crosstrain in such a way that these muscles are also developed. Otherwise, you'll end up like I did a few years ago, with strongly-developed quads and weak hamstrings. This imbalance led to muscle tearing and cramping. Now that my legs are muscled proportionately, I'm fine.

[hellsphreak.livejournal.com]

OK.. thank you! Sorry for pestering you with all the questions I might've been able to find on my own in the wonderful world of the internet!

Heh.

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

No problem! I'm glad to answer your questions.

[sorceror.livejournal.com]

1) How did you & f00dave get together?

2) Explain your motivations for creating the "Jesus was Gother Than You" page (and the rest of your site, should you choose to do so). You were a Goth, but got sick of it? You never were a Goth, and got sick of it anyway? You simply have a penchant for blasphemy (tsk)? What's the story here?

3) What is my destiny?

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

1. We met over the internet. Well, intranet, actually. It was while I was a freshman at UNB, and a mutual friend of ours introduced me to f00 over the computer using a messaging program. I wrote "Hi!" to him, and he responded with either "Fuck off," "Piss off," or "Sod off." What a beginning....

2. Jesus Was Gother Than You was one of my very first webpages. I was still learning HTML when I put it together. I was both an ex-JW and a current perkygoff at the time, and the idea came to me in a moment of brainstorming. In retrospect, it seems quite silly that I was surprised when hate mail began filling my mailbox. But the hate mail gave me an opportunity to exercise my rapidly rusting brain and my equally rusting writing skills. I lived in Moncton, at the time, and the city is not exactly intellectually stimulating....

3. You are destined to perish during a dreadful baked potato mishap.

[sorceror.livejournal.com]

1) We want more! What happened next? What's the whole story? ^_^

3) Curses. I just *knew* it would be something like that.

[f00dave.livejournal.com]

Um, we had lots of fun sex, got jobs, got married, and got LJ accounts? Did I miss anything?

[sorceror.livejournal.com]

Sod off! ;^)

[ngtmagicks.livejournal.com]

1) In your recent illnesses and such, any lessons learnt?

2) I can understand "adopting" wild animals but pigeons?

3) I completely forget why I linked you, but your site is so much fun, any ideas?

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

1. Doctors are overworked and unless the ailment is obvious (like a broken leg), usually go by guesswork. I've learned to listen to my body, and do what seems to work for it. So I avoid hot, humid places (especially for hard physical activity), don't eat deep-fried food, am sparing with my intake of oats (they often make my gut cramp badly), avoid overly-bright days (they cause blind spots, which seem to trigger migraine aura attacks), and I use my asthma inhaler only when I really, really, need it.

2. I love critters of pretty much every type, although small, yappy dogs peeve me. Why not pigeons? I think they're just as interesting as any other animal, and more intelligent than quite a few. They're more clever than my chinchillas, for example.

3. You had no choice but to link me because of my subliminal messages in the ska music you listen to.

[ngtmagicks.livejournal.com]

wow, I didn't know I listen to ska...

Uhmm what's this Big Fish? Boa? hmmmm....

"The female of the species is definately more dangerous than the male."

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

I guess the ska elements of your music are subliminal, too.

[snowy-kathryn.livejournal.com]

1.) Can you believe that I'm 'done' my thesis?

2.) Isn't that great?! :)

3.) A bunch of us are heading to the Nut tomorrow night to celebrate. Would you and Dave like to come over to my place for a few celebratory drinks before that? I can show you an episode of Mad Mad House! :)

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

1. No! That's nigh-unto unbelievable!

2. Absolutely!

3. That depends on what time. I'm doing a photo shoot tomorrow with a couple of photographers, and I'm not certain how late it will be running. I can't imagine it going for more than three or four hours, though, which should mean my nighttime will be free, and then, sure!

[snowlionsilver.livejournal.com]

1. What does your LJ name mean?

2. Was it difficult for you to get out of the whole JW thing? I mean extracting yourself from the whole JW lifestyle and all the things it entails.

3. Nude wrestling: lime jello or chocolate pudding?

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

1. Not much, really. It was a spur-of-the-moment kind of thing arrived at a long time ago while playing networked Doom. My fingers typed it before my brain caught on, and it just stuck.

2. Very difficult. I was born into it, so leaving it was something like leaving planet earth, as I knew it. But once I started escaping from it, it became easier.

3. Neither, for me. I can't stand having slimy stuff on my skin. But if I'm watching it, I'd go for lime jello.

[palacia.livejournal.com]

1. what is your favourite place to sit?
2. How long is you right hand in inches?
3. do you like England?

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

1. There are a couple. On the chair in front of my computer, in my enormous, nest-like papasan, or in bed, reading a book.

2. With the fingers, 7 1/4 inches. With just the palm, 3 inches.

3. I've never been there, but it seems a fine, olde country.

[purrthecat.livejournal.com]

1 - how did you get into bellydancing?

2 - you're into LOADS of hobbies and skills. What's your next new 'thing' to get into and learn?

3 - if money was no object, where would you go on holiday and why?

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

1. I always wanted to be a dancer, but wasn't allowed to take any dance classes at university, because it wasn't part of my program. I was also a figure model for artists, and an artist, myself. One day, I had a figure model who used some very creative poses. I asked what her background was, and discovered she was a belly dancer. My art teacher asked if I'd like to see her perform, and I said, "Definitely!" Well, the model/dancer was very good, and I was blown away. When I discovered she also taught dance, I signed up that week. I've been doing it ever since.

2. Things I want to try for the first time: dancing with poi (whether lit or otherwise), salmon fishing, working with gold instead of silver, learning to knit, dancing with horses, burlesque performance, rock climbing, making sculptures, voice training, and painting (not rendering) with watercolours. There are plenty more, where that comes from. Singing lessons are something I've always wanted, though.

Things I want to get back into: horseback riding, weaving, fire dancing, flamenco, training horses, crocheting, underwater dance, fencing, West African dance, and collage.

3. I'd love to go to Brauron in Greece to see the Bear Temple, where Artemis was worshipped by boy-killing little girls. I also want to go to Sable Island to see the wild ponies, Tasmania to see all the crazy flora and fauna, Antarctica for the icebergs and penguins, and Paris to see the Louvre and get sneered at by snooty French waiters.

[purrthecat.livejournal.com]

Fantastic. Thanks. :)

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

Any time......

[bloobert.livejournal.com]

1. Why only three questions? Are you superstitious about the number 3?
2. Can I ask only two questions?

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

Three shall be the number of the counting and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither shalt thou count two, excepting that thou then proceedeth to three. Five is right out.

had to be

[metasilk.livejournal.com]

1) Why Sybil? Do you have other history/connections to multiple personalities (individuals with multiple personalities? That does seem like an oxymoron)? What's your take on that?

2) Which word do you most love the sound of?

5) Would you barter for your costume book?

Re: had to be

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

1. Sybil as in the oracle of Cybele. Sibyls answer questions, that's all.

That being said, I have my reservations about the reality of multiple personality syndrome. From my psychology classes in university, it seems to me that MPD, if it actually exists, is exceedingly rare. So it seems to me there are plenty of deluded individuals out there who equate moodswings with personality changes, or who are just plain faking it. But I'm no trained psychologist, which means this opinion is useless.

2. There are several: boing, adobe, aquaduct, Gertrude (French pronunciation, only), papillon, as well as numerous multisyllabic Russian words, spoken with a strong, Russian accent.

5. 5? Mebbe. What did you have in mind?