Lit-Net Member Interviews

[Koa]

I think I'll eventually forget and it'll be such a nice surprise when out of nowhere someone says, "You're going to get asked interview questions now." That will be a happy day...

That's what happened to me, I didn't even think I was on the list because I'm not around much and all the new people might have never seen me...

By the way...what happened to Nightyyyyyy!???

[Pensive]

That's what happened to me, I didn't even think I was on the list because I'm not around much and all the new people might have never seen me...

Well, perhaps not in the newly-started threads. But the good thing is we have got threads of the yester-years also treasured on lit-net!

By the way...what happened to Nightyyyyyy!??? [/QUOTE]

*wonders the same*

Perhaps it's because of what we internet-ters call 'real-life'. I am sorry, everyone especially Koa to put you on such a wait. I hope you wouldn't be throwing angry smilies at me if I ask you to wait for some more time.

Again, sorry for such a delay but I have already PM-ed Night. Hope it works!

[Koa]

[Virgil]

Yeah what is going on here. If Night is not around, can't someone else do the interview? I'm sure Koa has saved her answers. I'm mean it's got to be four or five months now.

[Niamh]

yeah it has been a long time. Havent seen nightshade around in months. Think the last time she was around was in june. It is kind of unfair leaving someone hanging like that. Redo the interview i say!

[zanna]

Bummer that Night is gone! Hopefully she's ok . . . maybe just "stuck" in real life, lol. I, to join the rest of you, can't wait for the next interview to come out. (Well, I can, and I'll have to, it looks like, but I'm excited. This interview thread has been pretty cool.)

[Virgil]

Bummer that Night is gone! Hopefully she's ok . . . maybe just "stuck" in real life, lol. I, to join the rest of you, can't wait for the next interview to come out. (Well, I can, and I'll have to, it looks like, but I'm excited. This interview thread has been pretty cool.)

She may be away for the summer. I hope that's all it is.

[Pensive]

Hi everyone! Night seems to be busy with life (as we all are sometimes), perhaps on vacation as Virgil has said. But I am sorry to all those who had to wait, especially the member who was going to be interviewed! But I hope she would understand.

I also hope people would be interested in sending me questions for our quite active (yes, from about four years) member who has a great part in making forum what it is! Please, send your questions now to help us in revealing much more than we already know about our very own Koa!

*edit to add*

Please send me your questions before twentieth of this month if you can manage it! We are already quite late!

[Koa]

Eheh well Pensy... you can make it later than that, I'm awfully busy myself

[Pensive]

Thanks to all who sent their questions via PM! Your questions have been sent to Koa now!

[Koa]

I sent my answers to Pensy. It took a while but just one week ago I finished my dissertation and moved house, and then I was working and being generally hyperactive...

[SleepyWitch]

cool, I hope Pensy will post your interview soon

[Pensive]

Got Koa's answers just a few hours back. Would like to thank her for giving us a chance to get to know more about her by answering these questions and to all of you who like our interview series and comment on it. Thanks for your patience.

Introductory Questions

1. How are you today?
Fine, fine. It’s Sunday, being lazy...

2. What is your (user) name?
Koa (duh )

3. How did you decide your username?
I just needed a quick username to ask a quick question so used the name my schoolmates used to call me. I didn’t think I would stick to the forum, so it’s a bit weird now to be in a forum with a name that is so attached to my real life (and my brother goes under the same nickname too, because it comes from our surname so friends call us that...)

4. Why did you initially join the lit-net?
As I said, to ask a quick question... I had to read some Virginia Woolf for Uni and before buying it I was looking for it online and I was asking about the copyright, to know if it was possible to find it online at all.

5. As one of the oldest members here how do you think the forum has changed?
It has changed immensely. When I first joined the general chat section was rather...underdeveloped, not many discussions there around random things... of course because there were many less users. It was all much slower because it wasn’t this big. And it was all very serious. Then a certain user came and started to put in some fun and it all came more easy-going and basically turned into what it is now, even if still in a milder and smaller version.

6. Now tell us, what do you think are the good aspects of this forum?
It’s friendly, and interesting, and there are people from all over the world, although this applies to many forums I think, but it’s a great thing of the forum world in general. I’m not around that often anymore and to be really honest sometimes I don’t really feel “into” it anymore, too many people and too many new faces... I’m not saying it’s wrong, it’s just that not being there often I lost a lot of the attachment I had.

7. And what do you like the best about lit-net?
Isn’t that the same question as before? Or this applies to the whole site? Well I think it’s great to have such a database of literature and as far as I remember it’s very easy to browse and comfortable. A very good job and an impressive amount of work, I guess.

8. The thing in this forum you would like to have improved?
Hm I’m not sure there’s anything to improve... I remember complaining about some restrictions such as smilies or characters in a post, but I think they have been changed then. There are things I don’t like but they are part of my opinion and personal taste so it wouldn’t make sense to express that, I can just ignore them. Oh there is one thing that sometimes gets a bit on my nerves and it’s been discussed before...too much friendliness Let’s be a bit more nasty, people! (I certainly do my best )

9. How do you feel about smilies?
The world wouldn’t be the same without them. Seriously, it’s great to be able to express something, like changing the tone of a sentence or conveying a facial expression... I do use smilies a lot, especially on MSN... it’s a bit embarrassing sometimes, you see I’m a forum user because of how many smilies I use there in comparison with people who are not internet addicted...

Personal Questions

10. What is your date of birth?
19th March 1982

11. How would you describe yourself, your personality?
Eeeeh! Thats is a tough one! I’ll try and make an effort... I think I’m quite intorverted and extroverted at the same time, like I like to stay on my own and I’m really wary of people at first, but when I get confident I can be quite extroverted. I talk a lot and I think I’m quite faithful to people I care about... Hm and I feel quite independent, well I fear others’ judgement but I just can’t live costantly in a group for long, as it’s typical in my country instead.

12. What do you do in RL? Student, work?
I have just finished to write my Master dissertation, so I’m no longer a student. It’s a horrible feeling, I don’t want to grow up! I had a part-time job where I can stay until mid-October (well I’m on holiday for the next two weeks though!) so I’m looking for something to do after that. No, I don’t know what I want to do. For the moment, anything that allows me to survive here in the UK, hopefully something I can enjoy enough... then I’ll think about what I really want to aim at...

13. How about your ideal job? Is the present one your ideal one? (suggested by Scheherazade)
Oh lol I partly answered above. Well I felt that during my Master I was trying out the scholar’s life and I wasn’t too impressed... well it’s incredibly interesting and all and I’ve had moments of thinking of continuing my studies, but I know in reality I don’t want to, at least not know. The dissertation was way too hard and it stressed me more than it should have, I wouldn’t be able to live like that for years. Maybe later in my life, when my mind is a bit more stable. If that ever happens, which I doubt

14. Would you tell us something about your various hobbies too?
I feel like I don’t really have hobbies, boring as it is... I just spend my free time online, when I don’t go out with my friends... I haven’t been reading much lately, at least for fun, but I hope I’ll go back to that soon (it’s been only one week since I finished working hard so I’m resting my mind). I like to learn languages but I can’t do it by myself, I’m too lazy and easily distracted so I need at least a language partner if not a class. I enjoy writing letters, the old way with pen and paper but it happens rarely these days because of lack of time and I have only two penpals left who are also very busy with their lives so it slowed down. I don’t watch much TV (didn’t have a TV for the past here, now I moved into a place where there is one but that’s rarely something worth watching, I mostly use it as a background or for moments when I’m too tired to do anything, but then I get bored after a few minutes anyway.)
15. Do you like sports, if so do you play sports yourself?
I used to be into sports about 10 years ago, but then I lost interest. I used to follow football (soccer for you Americans), formula 1 and especially basketball. I used to play basketball and I really loved it but I wasn’t good at it at all.

16. What about music? Do you play any instruments?
I can’t play anything and music lessons at school were a real pain, I just don’t understand anything about music. I listen to it, but without any technical awareness...

17. Now we should better come towards your location. Where do you live and from where do you belong?
I’m currently living in the UK, in a big city whose name starts with M I absolutely love it. I don’t know where I belong, I thought I belonged here but as much as I love it, it is difficult sometimes because it’s so incredibly different from where I’m from. I’m probably one of those desperate travellers who like to change location every now and then. Citizen of the world lol, although that’s a bit of a lame definition in my opinion
18. When are you going to go back to Italy and what will you be doing once you are back? (suggested by Sceheherazade)
I’m going back whenever I feel like it. Since I have no real direction, I prefer to do a random job here than there, as I feel more active when I’m not at home. I just get really passive there and everything feels more difficult. Maybe because I live with my parents there so I have less motivations to actually get active. I just find it easier to live my own way here.

19. Perhaps you mentioned somewhere that you didn't like a few things about Italy but has it started becoming a little more agreeable for you as you are starting to get older? (suggested by Virgil)
I don’t think it’s about getting older, I think it’s about being far from it I needed England to start appreciating some things about Italy Still I’m not sure I’d be able to live there, at least not in my hometown, which feels too narrow-minded... I’d love to live in Milan at some point. Being here, for the first time in my life I felt a bit homesick at some point, probably because of the terrible weather we’ve had. I think the UK is, as I said, so different that it made me miss some things that were usual to me. But still I’m not sure I like the Italian mentality.

20. How about Italian literature? What do you think about it? (suggested by Virgil)
It used to be one of my favourite subjects at school, and I really appreciated a big part of it. I think it’s really rich and interesting. I don’t know much at all about contemporary literature though...and no I’m not into Dante, I’ve never heard of anyone liking it, for us it’s just something we have to go through for years and years at school. I admit it’s not uninteresting but it’s just too much

21. Which other countries have you visited?
I love travelling. I have spent quite a lot of time, as in months, in Ukraine and Hungary. Now let me think of places I’ve quickly visited and I’ll show off my list, in random order: Ireland (well I’ve just been to Dublin for 3 days a few weeks ago), Germany (one week or so in 2000), France (with school in 1998 and probably a couple other times with my family), Spain (Madrid last January), Austria (which I really don’t like, sorry), Finland (one week between 2005 and 2006), Estonia (well one day in Tallinn while I was in Finland and I just hopped there), Russia (how could I forget, one month in Moscow in 2005), hmmm Serbia Bosnia and Romania quickly while I was in Hungary as I lived close to the border to Serbia and Romania, but I spent just one day in Romania... 2 or 3 in Serbia and one in Bosnia. I feel I’m forgetting something. I’ve been to Prague in 2004 so Czech Republic should be on the list too. And I think that’s it. I’ve never been out of Europe and I’m not sure it will ever happen, I really dislike long flights so that puts me off unfortunately...

22. Which one did you like the best and why? (suggested by Scheherazade)
I have a special attachment to Hungary, but it must be influenced by the fact that I was on a student exchange so everything was easier from the point of view of socialising, and it also was the first time I lived abroad or lived out of my parents’ house for what matters (that’s normal for an Italian). So I just enjoyed it immensely. And the country is so interesting. I really love the whole of Eastern Europe, it has a certain feeling to it. I really loved to live in Kiev too, and Moscow was great to experience too.

23. Do you have a personal hero or someone you look up to?
Not really, or maybe I have in some moments but it changes all the time. Or I admire some things from some people.

Favourites

24. The favourite chamber in the forum?
Just general chat and chit-chat It’s relaxing to talk of nothing

25. Favourite author and why?
Not sure I have one anymore. I had a big Dostoevsky phase some years ago but it’s been a while...

26. Favourite book and why? (suggested by Scheherazade)
Same as above... Maybe I could say Crime and Punishment because of how much it amazed me the first time I read it, but I know I desperately loved other books in my life. I only wish I could read like that again but I’m too distracted and scatterbrained these days

27. Favourite music band or singers?
My absolute favourites: Depeche Mode, the Cure, Joy Division, Placebo, The Smiths... things like that. I’m that kind of dark-ish 80s person I guess. Plus some Italian bands and singers you’d never heard about and some obscure (well really popular there, but not outside of the country I fear) Hungarian band and singer. Some Russian stuff too.

28. Favourite movie and why? (suggested by Sceheherazade)
I used to answer to this by saying that I don’t like movies. Then I realised I just was bored with the usual American movies, since I got the opportunity to see many films from many countries at the library where I was working, and they were just so interesting. Still I don’t have an absolute favourite, there are just films I liked a lot.

29. Your favourite game in the Games sub-forum?
Haven’t been in there in years

30. And and and your favourite smilie?
There are many valuable ones, but: is just special!
And now, the most important question of them all

Now The Most Important Question of All

31. How do you like your turnips?

I like them to sit on their shelf at the supermarket and not move from there

Thanks for the sweet interview, Koa!

[SleepyWitch]

great interview, Koa congrats on finishing your thesis! what was it about?

Oh lol I partly answered above. Well I felt that during my Master I was trying out the scholar’s life and I wasn’t too impressed... well it’s incredibly interesting and all and I’ve had moments of thinking of continuing my studies, but I know in reality I don’t want to, at least not know. The dissertation was way too hard and it stressed me more than it should have, I wouldn’t be able to live like that for years.

I sooooooooo know what you mean!

I don’t know where I belong, I thought I belonged here but as much as I love it, it is difficult sometimes because it’s so incredibly different from where I’m from.
....
I needed England to start appreciating some things about Italy

yeah, I felt the same way about England and Germany when I was doing my year abroad.

[Koa]

great interview, Koa congrats on finishing your thesis! what was it about?

Crime fiction in contemporary Russia. At least it wasn't a boring topic, but still it was hard.