Rogan Shannon

Drink responsibly, kids!

Hello and welcome to Vlogmas day 14. Today, I will be doing a Q&A. I will just open with… I’ve done absolutely no preparation for this. The most I’ve done is just screenshotting the questions and putting them all in one place, that’s it. So… I may not be able to think of answers for some of them on the spot. So we’ll just go with it. I asked for questions from YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram. I will start with YouTube questions first.

What’s your favorite city outside of the US that you’ve visited, and why? For those who don’t know, I’ve traveled some. I’ve been to six countries outside of North America. I would say my top favorite probably has to be Melbourne, Australia. I was there for about a week and half. And the whole time I was there, I just loved it. It’s SO walkable, I love it. And coffee is easily accessible. But no honestly, Melbourne is a beautiful city, right on the water. Just yes.

Someone asked what the sign for autism is. I’ve been seeing some people debate over this right now, because there are a lot of signs that aren’t… The best for that word. It’s either offensive, very stereotypical, very degrading, really. The one that I’ve seen most commonly used, and seems to be the most accepted use, is autism.

What kind of things, food or drink, am I planning to have for my Christmas dinner? I have no idea. I’m not even sure what the final plans are for Christmas yet, so… I don’t know. Probably some eggnog. Probably something with alcohol in it? Drink responsibly, kids.

Next is two questions, but I’m going to combine them and answer them together. What’s your favorite book? And what’s your favorite spot to read? First. Not nice. I refuse to answer that question. I will not pick favorites. Too many good books to pick a number one favorite. For favorite place to read, I don’t have a specific favorite place, but I love having a cozy, comfortable sitting place because I’m one of those people who constantly moves while reading. I just can’t stay in one place while reading. So…yeah. It’s a bi problem apparently. I’ll link an article down below so you can know what I’m talking about.

This person asked like ten questions, I’m not going to answer all of them. I’m going to answer just a few of them. One’s the worst book to movie ever? There’s quite a few, but one that came to mind almost immediately was Eragon. That movie was just… Disappointing. Favorite library, real or fiction? There are a lot of great libraries out there. I’ve been to the library in Melbourne, one in Aarhus, one in Copenhagen, there’s a lot of really beautiful libraries. For which one… I can’t choose. No. I can’t choose.

That’s it for Youtube questions. Now I’ll do Twitter questions.

Eric Bittle offers to bake you a pie, what flavor do you choose? Honestly, I would take anything. Okay, for those who don’t know who Eric Bittle is, he’s from my new favorite graphic novel, Check, Please! and it’s just… If you haven’t read this, you NEED to read this. It’s amazing. And when you finish the first volume, go online and read the rest! Okay. For pie, I would say… I would really like something with maple and apples, something, some combination of that. (Can you tell I’m a little obsessed with Check, Please!?)

What are your favorite movies of all time? I’ve seen so many movies, I honestly can’t really pick out one and say yep, that’s my favorite movie. It’s nowhere near the equivalent of picking a favorite book, but… I watch so many different genres, I don’t really…have an easy answer for that.

If you could become an animal for a week, what would it be and why? I would probably choose a bird of prey, something like an osprey or kestrel. Something in that family. Why? Because I want to be able to fly for a week, that’d be really cool.

Artistically, who inspires your drive? For me, I can’t point to one person because artistically, that’s really broad. YouTube, filmmaking, or drawing, or whatever. But even when I narrow it down to more specific, like YouTube or filmmaking. It’s still–I draw inspiration from all different kinds of people. So… I may leave a few links down below to some people who I watch often that really inspire me creatively.

That’s the Twitter questions finished, now to Instagram questions.

Least favorite thing about gift shopping? People. I don’t just mean other shoppers. I mean gift shopping FOR people. I… I’m not always the best at knowing what would be a good gift for a person, so that’s what I don’t like. Which is why I tend to–if I get a gift, I tend to make it more of like a voucher, or a gift card. That’s why I always really appreciate it when people say, I would love to have that thing, or I would love to do this thing, or whatever. Then I can keep that in mind for Christmas. But… I haven’t really done gifts in general for a while except for small things because… You know, I’m poor.

The next person has two questions. The first one, is there anything that ASL students do that bother you? I’ve already answered this, link here. Do you have a favorite author? Again, I can’t pick a favorite. There’s so many great authors out there. No. I can’t pick a favorite.

Two different people asked me if I like tea, and if I do, how I like it. Yes. I do. I don’t drink it as often as I used to, but I still drink it now. I usually just drink it hot, straight up. During the summer, it’s iced. I do occasionally add milk to my tea. I know, I know. It’s a thing I picked up in Europe.

One of those people asked me if I like coffee, and how I like it. Yes, I do. That’s really my primary drink of choice, over tea. And if I do have coffee at home, I usually just add a little bit of half and half, and a pump of caramel syrup. That’s it. Or if there’s no syrup, I add a spoon of sugar, that’s it. If I get it while out, it’s usually a latte with some flavor added. Caramel, hazelnut, peppermint because it’s the winter season now.

Since you love reading so much, have you ever thought about writing your own novel? I’ve already answered this before, but the basic answer is I have thought about it, yes. Will I actually do it? Maybe?

What shows on Netflix are you binge watching? I haven’t been on Netflix that much lately. I’ve been reading a lot more. I haven’t really felt motivated to or want to binge watch shows. Or even watch movies, just… *shrugs*

This is an interesting question. I’m hearing, and I’m writing a deaf character. What’s your advice on what to include? Some things that you’ve seen that annoyed you? That’s hard. I would really suggest you talk directly with a deaf person. And when you write this character, go ahead and have what’s called a sensitivity read. Have deaf people read that scene or that story, and give you their thoughts on how you wrote that character. A big question to think about with this character is… Are they a signer? Or do they speak? Or a combination? You will have to show that in your writing. You can’t just have them be a signer then all their dialogue and whatever is in English. It doesn’t really work that way. This is why it’s so hard to write stories with deaf characters, because it’s hard to convey sign on the written page. Yeah, this is a big question. I could go in more depth about this, but basically, it’s hard to write a deaf character, even for deaf authors. So… I would really suggest you work with a deaf person when you do this.

Do you plan to travel to the east coast? I’m not sure if this question is because this person doesn’t know I’ve been to the East Coast before or… I don’t know, but I’ve been to the East Coast. Many times. I went to college on the East Coast for four years, in upstate New York. So… But if you’re asking this as in am I planning to travel there anytime soon? I’m thinking of all of my possible, possible!, travel plans and… I think for 2019… The majority of them are West Coast. So the answer would be yes, I’ve been to the East Coast before many times, but anytime soon, probably not.

Have you ever dyed your hair? Yes. Photos here, here, and here. And I kind of want to dye it again!

Least favorite genre of art? Most favorite? Okay, this is going to be a little weird. My least and most favorite are really close together. Least favorite… I don’t know if this is really even an actual name for it, but it would be extreme minimalism. Now. What I mean by this is like art that’s literally just a blue square on a white background. Or… Like a red canvas with one little square of gold in the corner. What? Anybody can do that! Honestly. And you charge $3,000 for this? That’s ridiculous. But my most favorite is minimalism. Okay, minimalism and geometry. By minimalism, I mean things that you can still understand what it is. You don’t have to look at the title to know what the piece is supposed to be about. You can look at it and go, oh I can kind of see it. Geometry, what I mean by this is when complex shapes are made out from many, many, many basic shapes, usually triangles.

That’s all of the questions for this Q&A. I hope you learned something new about me and… Go ahead and leave some in the comments. I may answer them, I may not. Earlier today, I realized that we’re more than halfway through Vlogmas. I don’t know how that happened!

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