- Has your life lacked a miracle? all of life is a miracle--but I've had several, too, that seemed to be just for me
- Would you shoot a terrorist? hard thing to do when unarmed
- Were you an unlovely child? at times, heck yeah
- In the recent Michael Jackson documentary, was he treated fairly? I didn't see it. But really, "fair" is a subjective, moving target. We live in a time of finger-pointing and public calling out. The Twitter mentality has ruined at least as many lives as it's "saved," and created a whole generation of bitter, blaming people who are actively seeking someone to foot the bill and carry the entire load for actions and emotions that they don't even seem to understand. Some of it started in very positive, necessary ways, but it's out of control, reactionary, and ugly. This isn't discourse.
- New York City and other places along the East Coast have recently been said to be the next terrorist targets. What do you think about this? about the likelihood that highly populated, financial and business power centers are potential targets for terrorism? Oooh, someone did their homework.
- What should the last question in this survey be? it'll probably be "what's your favorite soundtrack?"
- Are you more likely to think so deeply about things that you forget to take out the garbage, or be wrapped up in your life and forget to think deeply about things? I'm a green. I get lost in the forest and forget about the individual trees.
- In what ways are you destructive? the older I get, the more I see the sense in Johnnie Walker's "one strike, you're out" philosophy.
- If you're not with the one you love, can you love the one you're with? not anymore. Close isn't good enough, and not fair to "the one I'm with."
- Why is it that when you hang upside down the blood rushes to your head but when you stand up the blood doesn't rush to your feet? because the body is designed to be carried head-up; that's the way the systems were plumbed
- Do you demand a better future? I'm getting there. My genetic and family background make it hard to "demand" much, but I'm learning.
- What did you think of the movie "Vanilla Sky"? haven't seen it
- What is your favorite thing to dip into fondue? marshmallows - in chocolate
- Are you more like Wayne or Garth? really neither one, but probably Wayne if I had to choose
- "SNL" or "Mad TV"? SNL
- Best three REM songs: According to my iTunes: "Leave" [the alternate version from In Time], "Try Not to Breathe", and "We All Go Back to Where We Belong." The middle one is not a surprise, but the other two are, big time.
- Name something you do that might be considered eccentric: besides maintaining a blog, after all this time? I get the idea that most of my life is eccentric in some way--though, to me, it's just life.
- Are you hard or easy to love? yes. I don't think anyone is equivocal on this; it's either a HELL YES or a Good God NO. Or, rather, a "it pains me to say it, but, against my will, yes."
- Could you be the next American Idol? no
- If you were going on American Idol what would you:
...wear? a cardigan over a camisole and jeans that make my butt look nonexistent, of course. That's my uniform. - ...sing? "Hell on the Throat" by Dashboard Confessional
- Is Simon Cowell sexy or does he suck? are those really the only options? Sadness.
- What was the last thing you used a credit card for? I ordered a pair of earrings with a Visa gift card, from a jeweler where I've gotten some awesome stuff before. When they arrived, I was really disappointed. Besides being discolored (the silver was yellowed in spots), they seemed cheaply made and flimsy, crossing the line between flashy/fun and floozy/trash in an instant. They're going back.
- Do you like back or foot massages more? if I'm having regular massages, then the feet are a bigger deal. It's been probably a year since I've had one, though, so my back is like a snarl of tight and painful muscles (turning my head to the left makes my neck and right shoulder pinch, and my right eyelid twitch!). Forget the feet; my back is killing me.
- If happy little bluebirds fly beyond the rainbow, why oh why can't I? people aren't birds
- Why do teachers always want blue or black ink? talk to a teacher. My favorite ink is brown.
- What do you keep your change in? wallet, and bank
- Do you read Playgirl or Playboy for the articles? not even for that. I'm not much of a magazine-reader
- Are you old-fashioned? In what ways? sure. I love written correspondence, and giving gifts. I would usually rather eat something homemade than go to a restaurant or have prepared foods brought in. I like board games and jigsaw puzzles much better than video games. I'd rather take a walk than go to the gym. I prefer reading actual, paper books to almost anything else.
- If you were going to get a mentor, who would your top three choices be (out of everyone alive)? meh. I've come to realize that I'm just about the least ambitious person ever, so mentoring me would be an exercise in frustration, if not futility.
- Would you rather visit France or Thailand? why is France always one of the options here? I would go to Thailand, because it was so evocatively described by Anthony Bourdain somewhere along the line. I think I would be mildly terrified throughout the experience, but it would be worth it.
- You love your partner but they are a slob. They aren't likely to change. Your thoughts: eh. Tidiness isn't that big a deal when you love someone.
- Is anything brainwashing people? How/in what ways? sure. Media, personal background, culture, illness, affections--each of these and more plays into bias.
- Are you more likely to drink moderately and often, or drink within an inch of your life but only once in a while? I almost never drink, and when I do it's not very much. I think that having migraines so often for so long has made me turn away from that life.
- What scares you most about war? dying
- You find a man with wings (an angel?) half dead in your back yard. The first thing you do is: cut down on the drugs
- Why do people go to faith healers when there is so much proof that they are fake? "proof" is a funny thing
- When someone you care about is really angry with you, how do you feel and how do you deal with that feeling? there is only one person in my life right now who gets "really angry" with me. It makes me sick and scared, and I feel like I could do anything to make it stop. But the thing is, I don't. I don't immediately start doing things to fix it. There is no fix, a lot of the time. And the more I do, the worse it gets. Because it's not me, it's the other person. Sometimes the hardest thing in the world is to just be still.
- There's a guy who sometimes get violent with his wife. He will scream 'I love you!' while he hurts her. Do you think there could be any love there? yes
- Name at least three things that make you want to cry. a good book, a good movie, and being so tired that you can't sleep
- Is John Malkovitch sexy? Is Billy Corgan? Malkovitch: at times, and Corgan: no, he's not at all my type
- Is Michael Stipe? Is Moby? Is Sinead O'Connor? Stipe: not with the nose ring (ugh) but in previous incarnations, sure. Moby, nah. Sinead? Sexy? Never.
- Imagine there's a leper and he wants to be cured but instead of going away his sores sprout sunflowers? Would that be a miracle? Would that tell you anything about anything? whomever wrote this prompt has done some seriously mind-altering drugs
- Do you watch people? yep
- Do you have anything that doesn't belong to you? a pirate pin that I took off a guy's letter jacket when we were watching a band in a bar when I was about 16 or 17 years old. Why I still have it, I do not know, but it's been lugged along through my life up to this point so there's never been much urge to get rid of it. That's the only thing I can think of that's not mine.
- What is normal? good question
- You are given your own private island. What would you name it, and who is allowed to live there with you? naming it would only draw attention, and the whole point of living on an island would be to Get Away. I'm not sure whether I would let anyone live there full time. There's a short list of people I'd allow to visit.
- How can you prevent war? hustle the Archduke out of the way when the assassin comes a callin'
- How can we all prevent it? pay attention, and do what's right
- If something is wrong in society and you don't like it but you do nothing about it, in a way aren't you supporting it? butterfly effect? God, questions like this are simplistic. Either you buy into it or you don't, and either you do what you can or you don't. Blathering about it self-righteously on your blog changes absolutely nothing.
- Do you like Leslie Nielsen? he's not my favorite of all time, but he was terrific in a movie that I absolutely love--Men with Brooms.
- If you could make a new toothpaste flavor what would it be? no, thanks. Mint is the only toothpaste flavor that I like.
- Have you ever called the police or the fire department? Why and what happened? yep, many times. I called the non-emergency police number from my former job probably a hundred times, either to report that our alarms were going off but there was no emergency or to ask for an officer to come by to sort out something that was stupid but not an immediate danger. And I've called the fire department to help with a malfunctioning smoke alarm system in an old apartment (twice in one day). I've also been the guest of honor in an ambulance, though I'm not entirely sure whether that was a nine-one-one call or the other sort. I wasn't breathing at the time, so a lot happened without my knowing.
- What's more important, freedom or security, and why? at times (like when I'm on an airplane) I don't care at all about my freedom as long as my security is taken care of. Other times (like when I'm sitting inside my house, minding my own business) I'm much more concerned about freedom and less about "security" in the universal sense. But I don't think that, in this age, it is possible to have one without the other. And we wouldn't want to live in a world where it was a mere choice between the two.
- Do you like:
...mint Skittles? mint Skittles (and jelly beans) are the reason I have trust issues - ...mint ice cream? love it
- ...Junior Mints? I can eat one now and then but they're not my favorite. They remind me of the woman with whom I used to share an office, as they were the only candy that she particularly liked. An odd thing to crave, I think.
- Does protesting/demonstrating really have any effect? sure
- After the world demonstrated against war with Iraq, Saddam was quoted as saying America was 'weak and isolated'. Do you believe this is so? in some ways, it is
- Have you ever wanted to be with someone who was off limits? no. Everything in my entire romantic history has been a perfect fit, with zero frustrations or complications.
- Have you ever wanted someone so badly that you would kiss your hand imagining it was them? when I was about 10 or 11, maybe
- Are there any situations when cheating on someone is OK? I think I've aged out of the scenario where I could be bothered to cheat on anyone. One relationship at a time is plenty complex enough for me--and I'm really not even good at that.
- When you feel empty inside what do you fill yourself up with? words
- Where does it come from? it? The empty? Or the words? Or something completely different? I'm lost on this one.
- Would you rather be loved or desired? loved, of course. "Desired" is worth the paper it's printed on, or the time it takes to say it. Desired does more harm than good.
- When you remember something, do you remember yourself to be more or less graceful/positive/smooth than you actually were? depends on the something. For instance, my overall memory of high school is one clanking nightmare of awkward after another, but it may not have been quite that bad (or memorable for anyone else), really. On the other hand, college seems now to have been pretty fun and an almost endless party--though at the time it was probably closer to a drunken shit-show, constantly borrowing money, making huge errors in judgment, falling on my face (metaphorically if not physically), and hooking up in the most idiotic combinations because of mere convenience or, again, drunken inclination, rather than any sort of affection or compatibility. The same thought processes (albeit less drunk and WAY less sexual) followed me through grad school and law school. Though I'm pretty smart, I do stupid shit all the time. But sometimes it works out all right.
- How can you tell the days of the week apart without using a calendar? my brain...?
- Are your days really different or all the same? work days are work days, and weekends are weekends, but they're different enough within there that I can discern one from another
- Who started punk rock? the first big punk band, generally known, is the Kinks
- Who started goth? probably Velvet Underground
- Who started hip hop? The Sugarhill Gang, depending on what you believe about the origins of the genre
- What 3 things about you have shaped your life the most? education, relationships, and what I look like
- Is your mind awake? sometimes. At the moment it's at least half asleep. I have been really out of it all day today after a very restless night last night.
- Is your soul? awake? No. Anytime it starts to rise up lately, I jab it back down. It's not safe for it to be up and about right now. It took a blow a week or so ago, and it's not ready to deal with life yet. Better just to lay low and avoid for a while.
- Were they always? OK, to interpret: was my mind always more than half-asleep? No, it is typically more in the 70/30 awake mode. Was my soul always completely asleep? No, usually it is close to 100% awake--but when needed, I shut it down for its own protection.
- If not, can you remember a moment or a few moments that helped you wake up? oh my God, the assumptions of this survey.... Sheesh. Moments that helped my mind wake up. Well, I suppose that at this point a good night's sleep (which would require no headache, no next-door-neighbor assholishness, no alarm to wake me up, no work to rush off to before I'm fully rested), something great to read, and connection with someone I love: that's what I need for my mind to wake up. And for my soul to be awake? Feeling that it's not in danger.
- Have you ever misperceived what was going on, only to discover it when it was too late? that's the story of my motherfucking life right now, and the reason that my soul is in cold storage
- Do you understand the human heart? blood in, blood out
- How important is your weight? it's pretty important. I'm fairly sure that if I can lose some of it, I'll be healthier and happier.
- How important is your partner's weight? partner?
- What color is the wind? it is colorless, but the shit it carries makes it appear to have color
- Do you believe children or adults know more? adults, of course. Kids have simplistic clarity of understanding in certain ways, but adults have both breadth and depth.
- Do you believe you are crazy? maybe so
- Snow blower or shovel? shovel. I've decided that I'm thoroughly cowed by my snow blower, alas.
- List everything you ate in the last 24 hours? ahhh, no
- Have you ever plagiarized? If yes, what and why? I'm sure I did when I was little. You try and get away with stuff, and you think you're sneakier than you are. And in college, I wrote a couple of papers for a couple of people.
- Did you get caught? not in college, but I'm absolutely sure that I didn't get away with it when I was really young. I was deceptively innocent-looking, so I probably just got a pat on the head and a parental note about watching me more closely.
- Who specifically annoys you? what, a list? The next-door neighbor. One of my coworkers. A couple of colleagues. A friend of a friend. A family member.
- What is your favorite blanket like? tan, fuzzy, not too heavy. It is affectionately known (and not entirely by me) as "the napping blanket".
- How do you feel about teachers coming on to their students? ugh. Not surprisingly, I don't have a problem with adult-aged people who used to be (but no longer are) in those roles spending time together in a romantic fashion, but I'm hardly going to make a big to-do about it. I've never been in on it, so it doesn't matter a whole lot to me either way.
- Students coming on to their teachers? way more ugh. Underage people of any kind ought to stay. away. from anyone who is an adult. Particularly if they are in a position of control over them. Particularly if they (the minor) believe that they have some sort of affection for the adult. RUN, don't walk, in the other direction, for the safety of all involved.
- In what ways do you keep yourself entertained? I read a lot
- Entertainers (musicians, sports players) are the highest paid people in America. Why are we so obsessed with being entertained? this is actually not true, but we can accept it as given for the sake of argument. I think that a lot of people, perhaps most of the people in this country, have an incredibly short attention span due to things like Twitter and Vine and so forth. We've been insidiously trained to focus for shorter and shorter periods. We also cannot sit quietly together without having music playing or the TV or a movie on, or God forbid whipping out our phones--on our own, even. Does anyone just sit in a lawn chair anymore and enjoy the weather? Watch the sky change colors, and listen to birds?
- Do you want a perfect body? there is no such thing as an objectively perfect body
- Do you want a perfect soul? sure. Why not?
- Which do you want more? since I only answered one of those in the affirmative, it would have to be the latter
- Do you want people to notice when you're not around? certain people, yes
- Are you more of a creep, a weirdo or "special"? a weirdo, I guess. I'm not a creep exactly, and I don't think I qualify for "special"
- Who wrote the Bible? good, if unanswerable, question
- Who wrote the book of love? Neruda
- If you could pick 5 things to study with no limits, what 5 things would you pick? history, poetry, photography, psychology, and semiotics
- Do you study any of them on your own? yup
- What's more important, learning or getting the Hell out? presumably "getting the Hell out" refers to school. And obviously the answer to this is learning.
- What is your favorite highlighter color? yellow
- Give everyone some advice: no one ought to listen to my advice
- Are you practically perfect in every way? I am completely perfect in almost no way
- Are you nasty and tricksy? definitely!
- Where is the precious? for all intents and purposes, half a world away
7.04.2018
I will write our story in my mind Write about our dreams and triumphs
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