on no account brood over your wrongdoing. Rolling in the muck is not the best way of getting clean

1. What gives you the most comfort? 

CBD lotion, VS pajama pants, and unplanned naps

2. Were your parents good at being parents? 

mostly, yes

3. Did you ever feel like your parents were your friends? 

not to the exclusion of being parents. Those two roles are distinct in my mind.

4. Have you ever felt guilty about doing something good? 

my upbringing did involve a degree of guilt for various things that don't really call for it - good, bad, or indifferent

5. Are you into politics?

I wouldn't use the word 'into'

6. Do you seek out order or chaos?  

I am attracted to chaos, and struggle (internally) against attempting to impose order

8. What do you like the most in people? 

seeing their face light up when they talk about something that fascinates them - that inner fire

9. What do you dislike the most in people? 

unwillingness to step out of their comfortable cage

10. What would be a perfect life for you? 

more money, less work, time to write and read and travel - and someone with whom to do some of that, sometimes

12. Do you think we’d be better off without social media? 

no, though I believe it's best when treated as a tool, not an end in itself

15. If you could change your appearance to that of the most beautiful person in the world, if it meant looking like a completely new person, instead of an improved you – would you do it? 

not at all, no

16. How do you feel about big corporations? 

they employ a lot of little people, who in turn spend a lot of money. It's very simple (almost simplistic) to blindly and uniformly hate them, but more complicated to think about them as entities made up of individuals with families and real lives and income taxes to pay, who shop at local stores and use local banks and eat in local restaurants.

17. If you have a choice of two similar products, do you ever consciously choose the one made by a smaller company because it’s made by a smaller company? 

local v. national, or national v. international, is sometimes a consideration, but I doubt that I ever consciously consider the size of the company. Why would I discriminate against a business that's been successful?

18. What do you love the most in life? 

relationships, language, and good sleep

19. Do you vote? 

I do

20. Do you consciously give preference to what’s trendy and fashionable, or to what’s obscure and rather unknown? 

I hope that I do neither of these, but only to what I like, want, or need. I don't care at all about "fashionable," and "trendy" only so that I am not a complete embarrassment to my friends. "Obscure" used to be a criterion for my selection of fiction books, but that's way harder to find in my current line of work than when I was at the library and blessed with choice. I do watch a lot of "unknown" movies, but not specifically because of that description - rather because they are recommended in previews in other movies I've liked, so it's an avalanche effect.

    In other words, I'm not trying to be pretentious and irritating, but I know that it looks that way sometimes. 

 

[from here and cherry-picked; the title quotation is by Aldous Huxley, from Brave New World]