Anyone Up For A Good Old-Fashioned *Mixer?*

[alshainofthenorth]

Allright, here goes.

 *********************
  
 Name: Elisabeth
 
 Also known as: 
Alshain, Beta Aquilae, IRL nothing but my name. Hate nicknames with a
passion, which doesn't prevent people from giving me them. 
 
 Age/Sex: 
30 years, female.
 
 Birthplace/Livingplace and feelings about same: 
Was born and grew up in Jakobstad/Pietarsaari in Finland, on the West
coast where the 6 % Swedish-speaking minority is still going strong.
About 20 000 inhabitants, moderately conservative, the kind of place
where everyone knows you and there isn't space for more than one point
of view at a time. At 19 moved to Åbo/Turku (160 000 inhabitants, most
of whom students) after school to study political science at
university. Still here, I like about everything about the town except
for some really ugly 1960's city planning and the fact that half of
the shops sell nothing but Nokia mobile phones.   
  
 Family Life: 
Single, parents and two younger sisters. One lives a five-minute walk
from my place, the youngest one is still at school.
 
 Personality: 
A conglomerate of the worst parts of Severus Snape, Sirius Black and
Remus Lupin. Some of the good parts too.     
 
 Words friends have used to describe you: 
Intelligent, quiet, creative, witty, educated, loyal, stubborn,
arrogant, snobbish, sarcastic. See above. :-)
  
 Words you have used to describe you: 
Impatient, proud, lazy, procrastinating. 
 
 Things you do when not staring at the computer: 
Read voraciously, go for walks, look at stars, work out (not enough,
alas), write columns for the party district newspaper, write slash,
discuss politics and culture and feminism while drinking red wine and
playing board games with extended family of single female friends. 
 
 Comfort foods: 
Fresh scones with jam, cream and a pot of tea. Irish whiskey and
occasional cigarrettes when I'm self-destructive. 

 Education/Work: 
Licentiate degree in political science, working on seemingly
never-ending dissertation on constitutional regulation of political
parties. 
 
 Language skills: 
Swedish (mother tongue), Finnish, English, French, some remnants of
German and Russian. 
  
 Technical know-how:
I can operate a computer and an espresso machine, but that's about it
apart from watching over my Da's shoulder when he's tinkering with
cars. Would like to get a motorbike when midlife crisis strikes.
 
 Favourite HP book: 
PoA. OoP is in a class all of it's own, I don't think it's fair to
compare it to the others before at least # 6 is out. 
  
 Favourite HP character(s): 
Favourite Gryffindor: Tie between Neville Longbottom and Ron Weasley
Favourite Hufflepuff: Ernie Macmillan
Favourite Ravenclaw: Cho Chang
Favourite Slytherin: Used to be Draco, but after Oop he's too banal to
be interesting. Still have half a hope that Blaise Zabini, Tracey
Davis or Daphne Greengrass will turn out to be decent.
Favourite teacher: Minerva McG.
Bloke I'm most likely to go out with: Remus Lupin. 
Most interesting Character: Severus Snape. 

 Favourite HP line: 
The world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters.

 Watching/Avoiding the HP movies?:
Watching, then bitching about the director.
  
 Into HP fanfiction?
Far too deep for my own good. Gen, Het or Slash. Pet peeves are
Hermione sleeping around and nicknames like 'mione, Drake, Sev, Remmie
and Siri.      

 Books you'd recommend to just about anyone:
Michael Ende's Momo and The Never-ending Story. The Little Prince. His
Dark Materials. Salman Rushdie's Haroun and the Sea of Stories.
Anything by Isabel Allende. Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett, Neil
Gaiman. And Astrid Lindgren, she was a genius. Works of other
Scandinavian authors you won't recognise. Fantasy authors I enjoy are
JRR Tolkien, Ursula K. LeGuin, Katharine Kerr and Patricia McKillip.
 
 Favorite TV shows:
Can you believe I don't own a TV set? Anything by French and Saunders,
some detective series, documentaries, plus I still have an
inexplicable soft spot for Mission Impossible. 
 
 Favorite Movies: Krysztof Kieslowski's Blue, White and Red,
Polanski's The Pianist, Four Weddings and a Funeral.  
 
 Favorite Musical Artists: 
Musical omnivore. To start from the beginning: Monteverdi, Palestrina,
J.S Bach, Handel, Mozart (when depressed), Mahler and Prokofiev. Miles
Davis, Ben Webster and Stan Getz. Aretha Franklin, Leonard Cohen,
Simon & Garfunkel, Queen, Deep Purple, Celia Cruz, Patricia Kaas,
Diana Krall, Norah Jones, Counting Crows, REM, Sting, Clannad and the
Chieftains. And then some.

 One thing about your life you'd change if you could (sorry, but you
 may not say "lose weight"): 
Become a more active, organised and outspoken person. Get rid of my
mood swings and tendency towards depression.
 
 One thing about your life you wouldn't change even for an advance
 copy of Book 7: 
My capability of seeing both sides of things. My extended family of
single female friends. (and they'll have to take the Blackadder series
on DVD out of my cold, dead hands.)
 
  Philosophy for an easy life:
What goes around comes around. Always look at things twice before
making a decision. Don't eat things you aren't prepared to kill. Check
your bag before you leave the house.
 
 How you found HPfGU:
Don't remember, really. Started lurking sometime last winter. 
 
 Active at other HP sites: 
Usenet group alt.fan.harry-potter and some fanfic sites.
  
 Your most rock solid Book 6 or Book 7 prediction:
Ron and Hermione will start going. We're going to lose Dumbledore and
Harry. Snape is going to be a mystery until the last chapter.  

 Take a moment to wave to members of the fandom you have personally met: 
None yet.

 ADD A QUESTION OF YOUR OWN AND ANSWER IT:
 If I was a magical beast, what beast would it be?
A Hippogriff.