Halloween Mixer

[Shaun Hately]

Ooh, this looks fun and interesting.

> * Do you believe in ghosts? Why or why not?

No. By nature, I'm a scientist - while I certainly wouldn't rule out the possibility that 
ghosts exist, I'd require a lot more evidence before I'd believe they do.
  
> * What things about you often come as a surprise to others?

Um... OK, how to put this without appearing completely and utterly arrogant. My 
brain. I have been stuck with an extremely high IQ, and apparently when talking to 
people in real life, I can come across as very intellectually intense and sometimes 
quite scary.
  
> * Provide the etymology of your signature/handle/email address. In 
> other words, how and why did you choose the name you use on the 
> HPfGU lists.

Fairly long story, but I love telling it.

Dreadnought - OK, the school I went to was *extremely* wrapped up in tradition. 
Both formal traditions of the school, and informal traditions among the students. 
One of the latter was the existence and use of nicknames. Nicknames were 
earned - they were allocated to you by older boys based on your name, your 
personality, or your achievements. And they changed - which was a good thing 
because sometimes you got a bad one. When you got one you liked, you held 
onto it.

I tended to get fairly bad ones 'Psycho Bicycle' 'Eyebrows McKinley' - I went 
around for a long time known as 'Lovely' Hately - which is an awful thing to have 
to wear at an all boys school.

A formal tradition of the school was sport. We had compulsory sports training two 
nights a week after school, and compulsory inter-school sport on Saturday 
mornings. I was... all right at sports. Not bad, but not brilliant. My school 
worshipped Australian Rules Football - from memory we had something like eight 
Aussie Rules teams at every year level, and in the winter that was the school's big 
name sport. I didn't like it that much - it could be fun to play, and to watch, but it 
was not for me. So in winter, I played Rugby Union - a sport that I found a lot 
more enjoyable, but also one played by a lot less people at the school, and so 
one where I actually had a chance of standing out a little bit.

I was fairly good at Rugby for my age - not a brilliant player, but a reasonably 
good one in a school where the best athletes went into Aussie Rules. I played for 
my year level team - and we did OK.

For Americans on the list who don't know Rugby (most probably have at least a 
basic idea, I know) superficially it's somewhat similar to what Americans mean 
when they say 'football'. What Americans call a 'touchdown', we call a 'try' in 
rugby. I want that understood, because I want people to understand why I was 
proud of my achievement.

When I was 15, some sort of virus went through the school - a *lot* of students got 
sick - not seriously ill, but ill enough that playing sports in the rain was a bad idea 
(and the week this happened was very wet, all our sports fields turned to mud - 
and as the Rugby pitch, being a minor sport, wasn't on the best land, it was a 
mudbath). The senior team, the First XV, had a major game that week that they 
couldn't afford to forfeit - forfeiting was bad. Much better to lose by 200 points 
than forfeit in terms of the competition as a whole. The senior teams started 
pulling in junior boys to play - and Aussie Rules, being the premier sport, was 
even pulling in Rugby and Soccer players for the week - it was taking the school's 
top talents, because it was the prestige sport. Everybody is moving up and I found 
myself selected for the Rugby First XV, at least a year before I would have had a 
chance at that in normal circumstances.

I took the field on Saturday - and the other team probably outweighed us two to 
one - they were one of the best teams around, while two thirds of our team were 
undersized. And when the match started, the outcome was predictable - they were 
annihilating us.

The field was churning mud - and if it hadn't been we'd have probably been in a 
lot more pain, because at least it was fairly soft mud. It was slippery - the game 
had no finesse. But it didn't need to  - basically we spent 95% of the time within 
25 yards of the try line we were defending, our sole aim was to try to keep their 
winning margin to less than 100 points. And the way we were playing that looked 
like being a close run thing.

Near the halfway mark of the game, a fairly decent crowd from our school had 
developed - our opponents had come from an unusual distance (most of the 
schools in our competition were located pretty close to each other - two were a 
considerable distance away) so we'd started later than normal and other matches 
had finished so we were the best entertainment around.

Anyway - we were defending maybe two or three metres off our line. I was right up 
against one of the sidelines - less muddy there, than towards the centre of the 
field and the ball came out that wide only rarely in this match. The ball spilled right 
in front of me, and I scooped it up. This HUGE player from the other team came 
charging down at me - basic principle seemed to be that he was going to pick me 
up and take me over the line with the ball - and I tried to sidestep, thrusting out a 
hand. I slipped. He slipped. My hand went into his face - my finger went into his 
eye. Total accident and there was a pause of maybe half a second before he gave 
an enraged ROAR and I took off down the field like a rabbit in sheer terror and 
fear for my life.

Their whole team had come forward - they really weren't bothering with much 
defence anymore. And I don't think I've ever run as fast in my life. I wanted to live. 
I'd covered 60 yards - and I could hear him behind me every step, and everybody 
else seemed to be chasing me as well, before I realised that I actually still had the 
ball. I kept running as people came behind me from both sides, I managed to 
push through two of them simply because I had forward momentum, they were 
coming sideways and the mud meant they couldn't change direction easily - about 
ten yards from the try line, I could feel everybody converging on me - but I'd also 
realised that I could maybe score. They caught me - one from behind, one 
slamming into me from behind and to the left about two metres from the tryline - 
and I dived trying to put the ball down in the corner. I went through the corner flag 
- our combined weights uprooted the thing and was buried in the mud off to the 
side of the pitch. 

The Referee had been caught out by the movement too - couldn't tell if I'd got the 
ball down. Neither could I for that matter - and I was lying in the mud, completely 
winded and thinking I was dying. The Ref asked if I'd got it down. The guys who 
tackled me said I had. So I got the try. Most fortunately in the probably fifteen 
seconds or so, we'd been charging down the field, the fellow I'd eyegouged had 
come to the realisation that it'd been an accident - and I actually hadn't injured 
him, thankfully.

I had to leave the game - but watching were some of the guys who assigned 
nicknames and who knew I was unhappy with what I had. They started discussing 
things - considered names like Tank, I know, but knew I came from a navy family 
so decided on Dreadnought - name for an early type of battleship. And I liked that 
name. And I claimed it. And a couple of years later when I first got an e-mail 
account, I used it.
  
> * Whose signature/handle/email address on the HPfGU boards {a} would 
> you like to steal or {b} intrigues you?

Um... can't answer. I'm on well over 100 mailing lists and I can't remember which 
sigs are on which lists.
  
> * Describe your ultimate Halloween costume.

Halloween isn't a big thing here in Australia - it's becoming more common for kids 
to get into it, basically because kids tend to embrace traditions that result in free 
candy - but when I was a kid - and that's not that long ago - where I was anyway, 
Halloween was seen as in very bad taste, as if we were culturally subservient to 
the US, so had to apishly copy it. So it's not something I've really thought about.

> * If you lived in the Potterverse, who would you be, and what would 
> you do for a living?

Probably a Hogwarts teacher, giving full choice. Potions or Arithmancy, I think - 
subjects that seem to me to be more... scientific.. in many ways than most of what 
they learn. Or maybe just a teacher who teaches them Mathematics and English - 
there seems to be a need for specialist instruction in that (-8.
  
> * What would you see in the Mirror of Erised?

Minister for Education in my home state - I want to reform (well, that's what I call 
it), the school system (-8
  
> * What shape would a boggart take, if you chance upon one?

Possibly a Walrus Moustached man carrying a Car Muffler... it's hard to answer 
that, really. My true greatest fear, the greatest horror I face would be the death of 
a person I could have saved. I think. 
  
> * What happy memory will you rely upon, if you are to conjure up a 
> Patronus?

Aged 13. My second day in a new school after a year of abject and total hell at 
another school. Sitting down next to a statue, just having finished my lunch. And 
for the first in my life - at 13 years of age, a boy comes up to me and asks me if I 
want to join in a game. Tears comes to my eyes now even just thinking about how 
I felt. It's really hard to describe how I felt in that moment. Happy, so happy, just 
because somebody had asked me to play with them... and feeling for the first 
moment ever, that, maybe, just maybe, I'd found a place where I could fit in.
  
> * What form might your Patronus take?

Like Hermione's - an otter. It's part of my family crest and I've always felt attached 
to them. Maybe a blue tongued lizard - I have a thing for them going back to age 2 
or so when one stuck it's tongue out at me. IT WAS JUST SO COOL!!!!!
  
> * What might your animagus form be?

Blue tongued lizard, or a platypus. 
  
> And here are two more that are already being discussed on the list; 
> if you haven't answered them already, you can answer them now . . . 
>  
> * What basically harmless things scared you as a child (for example, 
> a certain toy or household item)? [Question originally posted by 
> Tracy]

Car Muffler man mentioned above - I also answered in more detail in the thread.
  
> * What's your scariest moment from a film or television show? Or, 
> tell us which horror movie is your all-time favourite, and why. 
> ["Scariest"
> question originally posted by June]

Scariest moment in a film - two, actually. One for just momentary terror, and one 
for absolute nightmare inducing horror.

The first was in Jurassic Park - when the dinosaur rips through a wall. I saw that 
movie with two guys from school, who'd also seen it the previous night - they 
didn't warn me. They watched me to see how I'd react. Well, somebody about five 
rows back had a three quarter full large coke land in their lap (-8

Horror - the Fly. "Help meeeeeee. Help meeeeeee." Yeesh - why did you have to 
ask that question!
  
> Some other fun things to do (you can post your results along with 
> the answers to your questions):
> 
> * Ever wonder into which Hogwarts House the Sorting Hat would put 
> you? If you're not sure, here are a couple of sites where you can 
> get sorted:

Sites tend to put me in Gryffindor or Ravenclaw. Pretty sure I'd be a Ravenclaw.
  

Yours Without Wax, Dreadnought
Shaun Hately | www.alphalink.com.au/~drednort/thelab.html
(ISTJ)       | drednort at alphalink.com.au | ICQ: 6898200 
"You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one
thing in common. They don't alter their views to fit the 
facts. They alter the facts to fit the views. Which can be 
uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that 
need altering." The Doctor - Doctor Who: The Face of Evil
Where am I: Frankston, Victoria, Australia