the only interesting thing that can happen in a Swiss bedroom is suffocation by feather mattress

from 200 Questions to Ask a Girl

99. What was a huge deal when it happened but now everyone seems to have forgotten about it?  Y2K

101. What jobs exist because people are selfish?  that concisely explains the department in which I work

102. If many people consider red to represent anger/passion, blue sadness, and green envy—what feelings would some of the other colors represent, like purple, turquoise, silver, or brown?  purple is bravery, turquoise is spirituality, silver is wisdom, and brown is connection with nature

103. What's the weirdest thing you have seen on someone's phone?  a picture - prominently displayed - of someone who has treated them very badly. I wondered if it was negative feedback conditioning, like people who wear a rubber band to remind themselves not to smoke

106. Who was the most spoiled person you personally have met?  a classmate's child

107. What's the most pleasing accent to hear your language spoken with?  Canadian

108. What website or app has completely changed your life for better or for worse?  OKCupid

109. What makes you feel old?  contemplating my mortgage payoff date

111. What's your favorite non-drug high?  exercise. Or kitty purrs. Or being held.

113. How do you feel about books?  "books," in general, list among my favorite things in the universe. I cannot imagine a life without them. That being said: individual books bring out the same sorts of emotions as people do. Some I love, some I hate, and about most I am indifferent. I used to believe that every title was precious—that there ought to be one copy of every book ever written, extant, somewhere in the world, preserved for all time. In fact, I used to feel something close to that about every copy of every book; the thought of throwing away a book was abhorrent. 

Working in a public library resolved that problem for me, on both sides of the issue. Individual copies of books are often too revolting to keep and beyond restoration. And some titles are literally not worth the paper upon which they were printed. It's all right to let go. 

114. What do you really want to know?  this makes me laugh a little. I have always wanted to know my IQ, but only if it is above a certain point. I mean, I would hate to think that I'm just such a brain and then discover that I'm hovering at or below sea-level. It was tested during elementary school, when our school district must have written a big grant now that I consider it, because it was a big deal. Some of us who were tested were invited to take 'High Potential' summer school classes. I thought the testing was wonderful - being yanked out of class to answer open-ended questions about myself? Bring it on! Playing games like Free Association and Inkblots? Cool! There were even mini logic games (i.e. analytical reasoning), which I've always rocked. It must have been a pretty big deal, because I can recall the conversations with my parents about the tests and results and whether or not I wanted to take the summer courses. For it to be left to me was not the usual way of things in my family. 

I did it, and it was mostly good and sometimes bad. The first year - fourth grade - was the most academically challenging for me. The subject was "probabilities" and there was way more math than I enjoy[ed]. The other two years were creative and in my comfort zones.

It was the same pack of kids in those classes each of three summers, pulled from the various elementary schools in our district. That gave us a big advantage when we started junior high and already knew each other, and also in high school when we'd already taken classes in the building for almost nine months over those three years. Some of those people remain my friends; I FB messaged one earlier this very day.

That's a really long, wandering way of saying that we were standard IQ tested for that program, so I know my score is out there somewhere. But if it's lower than some objective standard, I wouldn't want to know. Logically, then, if I asked and I didn't get an answer, I would know. So I'm not going to try and find out and risk ruining my own illusions.

116. What was your most memorable dream or nightmare?  I've had recurring dreams lately about something that I strongly desire but haven't yet been able to do. Wishing wishing wishing... I wonder, if I do get to do it, if those lovely dreams will stop?

117. What do you love about yourself?  my toes, facility with clever (often filthy) double entendres, and ability to recall song lyrics

118. What job won't be replaced by machines or computers anytime soon?  massage therapy

119. What gets progressively weirder the more you think about it?  the idea of finding meaning in the universe

120. What have you gotten too old to put up with?  being deliberately unhappy is a waste of time

121. What cheesy song do you love?  "Come Closer Together," the mashup of "Come Together" by The Beatles and "Closer" by Nine Inch Nails. Neither of the originals does all that much for me anymore because the smoosh tickles me so thoroughly. (Apologies for this video, which is really bad - the song gets taken down from YouTube every now and then, so this is the best I could find. Sigh.)

122. What's the most ridiculous thing you have convinced someone is true?  I once convinced my ex-husband that he had hallucinated a cat toy. I don't recall all the details so it will lose something in the translation, but the gist of it was that he pissed me off about something intellectual or academic (we had an ongoing - like, fifteen years ongoing - battle about which of us was smarter because his GPA was higher but I got better scores on standardized tests...), so at the next opportunity, I messed with his mind. I flicked a little ping-pong sized rainbow-colored cat ball behind a curtain when he looked away, and when he asked about it maintained that he'd imagined it. I should probably feel bad about that but to this day the memory makes me giggle.

123. What event would you like to know the whole and complete truth about?  it's not an 'event', but I'd love to know more about Swiss neutrality in the Second World War

126. What's surprising about you?  as I told a friend and coworker today - I am greedy as Hell but not mercenary. We were discussing a mutual acquaintance who targeted their future spouse based at least in part upon future net worth, pursued having children in order to cement their financial security, and - after that spouse's untimely and violent death - has taken advantage of their children's inheritance to their own financial gain. 

In all seriousness: I like money as much as the next guy. If I had more of it, and knew that it would not be a worry in the years to come, my life might be quite significantly different. But I cannot be like that, to trade my conscience and decency for cash. I wouldn't know how, I couldn't live with myself, and it would show on my not-even-close-to-a-poker-face anyway.

[from here; the title quotation is by the novelist Dalton Trumbo]