Colonoscopy. Necessary but not to be savored.
What Exit?, our 14-year-old just saw Green Hornet and liked it (he gave it a B).
Do you have big plans for this weekend?
Colonoscopy. Necessary but not to be savored.
What Exit?, our 14-year-old just saw Green Hornet and liked it (he gave it a B).
Do you have big plans for this weekend?
Too funny, that's exactly the procedure I was thinking of when I posed my question. I thought of it because the hotel room I am in looks like the one I had to stay in when I went to Singapore a year or two ago for that purpose.Originally posted by Elendil's Heir
Now I'm here for fun -- just got back from the Singapore National Museum, which is within walking distance of our hotel -- so I guess I did have big plans for the weekend.
Name one book, artist (musician, painter or anything else), or movie that is generally widely acclaimed and beloved that you utterly despise.
Well, "utterly despise" is pretty harsh. But I have very little use for the Twilight series and The DaVinci Code.
Has there ever been anyone, known to you personally or not, who you would kill if you had the chance to do so and then escape uncaught?
Literally, no, because I'm too moral and/or wimpy to do such a thing even if escaping detection was 100% guaranteed. However, is there anyone I sometimes *imagine* killing if I could get away with it? Yes, although I'm not going to say who.
If you could eat the food of only one country for the rest of your life (you wouldn't have to worry about health or weight), what nation's food would be your choice?
Last edited by Hatshepsut; 23 Jan 2011 at 09:47 AM.
American food. We steal recipes from everywhere and make them our own.
What nation's/culture's cuisine would you willingly give up?
If the answer can be obscure, Mozambique and Micronesia don't have much going for them culinarily. If the answer should be a little more familiar and something I've actually eaten and enjoyed on a extensive basis, I'll say Portuguese. Good Portuguese food is truly delicious, but limited in range and originality, so it would be no big deal to give it up forever if Italian and French foods were still on the menu.
You can make yourself virtually perfect in one aspect: physical attractiveness, athletic ability, memory, reasoning capacity, musical talent -- take your pick. What do you choose?
Physical attractiveness. I'm already reasonably smart, athletic, and musical, but not drop-dead gorgeous; being absurdly handsome would open pretty much any doors I needed opened in life.
You can spend one 24-hour day in the place and historical time of your choosing. You will be magically immune to any exotic diseases of the time and place, and fluent in whatever language(s) you need to be. Where and when do you go?
"You laugh at me because I'm different; I laugh at you because I'm on nitrous."
find me at Goodreads
I'd be with Washington at the time of the British surrender at Yorktown in October 1781. After six long years of war, hardship, doubt and deprivation, to see him there at his moment of triumph would be wonderful. Either that, or I'd want to be right up front when Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address in November 1863. Or... ooo, ooo, no! To hear Lincoln's Lost Speech (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Speech) in May 1856, with a pocket digital voice recorder so it would be saved forever. Or maybe to prevent Lincoln's assassination in April 1865... or JFK's in November 1963....
=Sigh= Can I do all five?
What three now-dead famous people would you want to be bring fully back to life (no zombies) for just an evening so that they could dine with you?
Jesus, Muhammad, and Buddha. Maybe even at the same dinner, but even separately if necessary, just to get a feel for the person and separate it from the myth.
You can spend one day in the body of an animal of your choosing, but with your own mental faculties intact. What animal do you choose, and why?
"You laugh at me because I'm different; I laugh at you because I'm on nitrous."
find me at Goodreads
Another toughie. I've always liked cheetahs for their speed and good looks; bald eagles for their majesty and symbolism; and beavers for their industry and what seems almost a gruff charm. I love to fly, though, so I'd probably want to be a bald eagle.
If you could be given any famous artwork in the world, and be absolutely assured that it was lawfully yours to keep and would never be stolen, what would you pick to display in your home?
Nighthawks by Edward Hopper, probably. I adore that painting.
How many message boards do you visit regularly? Do you post on all of them, or are you a lurker somewhere?
I don't lurk anywhere that I don't post; not in my DNA, I guess.
I post here, at the Sherdog.com boards (mixed martial arts news site), and the Harmony-central.com boards (site for musicians).
What is the oldest e-mail address that you still check?
"You laugh at me because I'm different; I laugh at you because I'm on nitrous."
find me at Goodreads
I still have my very first Hotmail address, circa 1995. I don't check it OFTEN, mind you, but I do once in a while.
What is your customary state of indoor footwearing? Shoes, socks only, barefoot, something else? And is there a rule about it in your own home?
I grew up in a no-shoes home (very Asian) - there was a shoe holding area right by the door, always. Guests were not necessarily expected to follow this rule, but habitual guests generally did. We usually went around in socks indoors. These days, I go barefoot inside the house.
If you could take one element of personal hygiene and make it forever unnecessary (e.g. perpetually clean and healthy teeth, and fresh breath, without ever having to floss or brush), which would it be?
"You laugh at me because I'm different; I laugh at you because I'm on nitrous."
find me at Goodreads
Hair washing/brushing. As someone with naturally curly hair that tends towards frizziness, it's a pain in the ass. I've done cornrows and dreads before, but I'm too damn white to do that without people asking me for weed all the time.
What is the single greatest memory from your childhood?
So now they are just dirt-covered English people in fur pelts with credit cards.
Going on a Mississippi River cruise aboard the old paddlewheel steamer Delta Queen. My sisters and I explored every inch of that boat and had a great time.
Here's Hatshepsut's painting choice: http://www.artchive.com/artchive/h/hopper/nighthwk.jpg
And here's the Delta Queen: http://www.civilwar.vt.edu/images/deltaqueen.jpg
Do you have a favorite Mark Twain short story or book?
My favorite is Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (there is no "the" at the beginning because these are simply some of his adventures; it can be assumed he continued them). I started reading it for the first time curled up in a sunny spot on my grandmother's couch. I must have been about ten or so. It was an eye opening experience for me, and one I'm grateful to Mr. Clemens for giving me.
What is the first book or story to have a profound impact on your worldview?
So now they are just dirt-covered English people in fur pelts with credit cards.
Probably A Wrinkle in Time. That book had everything - strong, independent women; tolerance for differences; mystery and adventure; space travel; and a belief that you could change the world through bravery and love.
Are you reasonably satisfied with your knowledge of current events throughout the world, and the history leading up to them? Or do you feel there are certain lacunae you wish you could fill?
I'm massively ignorant, which frightens me because I'm far more aware and curious than a lot of the people I know. There isn't a region, movement or period in history I couldn't stand to know more about.
If you had to spend a day as a farm animal, what would it be?
So now they are just dirt-covered English people in fur pelts with credit cards.
Probably a barn cat. Catch some rats, laze in the sun, drink some fresh milk - what a life! I thought of it because of this great kids' book, a favorite of mine: http://www.amazon.com/Barn-Cat-Carol...6620943&sr=1-1
Do you have a working fireplace in your home?
No, fireplaces are not the norm in upscale Jakarta housing, for obvious reasons. Strangely, fireplaces were everywhere in Egypt but were only facsimiles - they LOOKED real (mantle and everything) but when you looked up the flue, they didn't actually offer a way for smoke to leave the building.
What are you most likely to do when you have insomnia?
The cheating answer would be "pop a couple mg of melatonin and wash it down with a reasonably-sized shot of alcohol," but in the absence of chemical aid, I typically either read a book I know like the back of my hand, play a particularly mindless computer game, or watch late night infomercials on TV.
How did your parents celebrate your (and your siblings', if applicable) birthdays when you were little? Was there a big to-do about them? Any unusual traditions?
Last edited by OneCentStamp; 02 Feb 2011 at 08:49 AM.
"You laugh at me because I'm different; I laugh at you because I'm on nitrous."
find me at Goodreads
Before responding to your question, i must first endorse, applaud and generally agree with your insomnia approach, as it is nearly identical to the answer I would give. I would downplay the TV (not much worth watching here) and increase the consumption of carbs - a carbohydrate coma mimics sleep really well - but overall you pegged it.
I am an only child so my birthdays were a big deal, in a keep-up-with-the-Jones sort of way. I recall having quite nice birthday parties when I was little, with all the girls in party dresses. As a young teen, my mom asked me what flavor of birthday cake I wanted, and (ignorant of the difficulties involved) I said "lemon cake with cherry frosting." And by golly, she did it. Okay, it was pretty nasty - canned "cherry"-flavored frosting, as I recall - but still, a pretty impressive effort in New Hampshire in the 1970s.
If you had to go deaf or blind, which would you choose?
Deaf. As much as I would hate to lose the way I currently experience music, I'm very visually oriented in how I think and process information. I do better watching body language than listening to tone of voice, meaning I'd be seriously screwed if my primary way of gathering information on my surroundings and people I was interacting with was through sound.
What is the greatest adventure you had as a teenager?
The summer before 10th grade, I took a hiking/canoeing trip in northern Minnesota with my Boy Scout troop, who also were my circle of friends from church. The trip took a week, and it was over 50 miles through completely virgin wilderness. We would canoe across lakes - some tiny, some large - and carry our canoes through the woods between lakes. For the entire week, we ate only provisions we carried in our packs, supplemented by fruit and herbs we found in the woods. The water was so clean that you could reach over the side of the canoe anytime you liked and take a cupful. Several times, we paddled over to the Canadian side of the lakes, just to say we did. We found one tiny island in the middle of a large lake. The island was maybe the size of two football fields, and was completely covered in wild blueberry bushes. We removed our handkerchiefs and filled them with pounds of fresh blueberries, which we took back to camp and threw into the biscuits we were making for dinner. Several times on the trip, I found myself standing in places where I'm fairly certain no human had ever stood before. It was just unimaginably, breathtakingly beautiful.
Do you have any recurring nightmares? What are they?
"You laugh at me because I'm different; I laugh at you because I'm on nitrous."
find me at Goodreads
I don't have any recurring nightmares, but I wanted to comment on that post. It sounds totally awesome if you can excuse the phrase.
What was one of your proudest moments?
Being sworn in as a magistrate while my parents, wife and kids looked on.
Hatshepsut, if you still like lemon cake, we have a great recipe. PM me if you wish.
OneCentStamp, I went on a very similar Boy Scout canoeing trip in upper Wisconsin just before I started ninth grade. It was awesome, although much colder than we'd been warned; I remember shivering quite a bit. I'm still regularly in touch with two of my friends from that trip.
What was the coldest you've ever been?
Last edited by Elendil's Heir; 02 Feb 2011 at 10:55 PM.
I'm always cold, so that's tough. But I think the worst was on a trans-Pacific air flight on United or American many years ago ... for some reason there were no blankets, and the cabin was ice-cold. The real problem was that I needed to SLEEP (it was a 42-hour trip from a Pacific island to the east coast of the US with a zillion layovers, long flights, and a need to hit the ground running as soon as I arrived). I was so cold I couldn't sleep, but finally exhaustion took over and I dozed off.
Even though I understand that the flight attendant who shook me awake to ask if I wanted food was no doubt just following SOP (I bet a lot of people complain shrilly if they sleep through meals and aren't given the option of being fed), she is very lucky to be alive today.
Are you worried about the future of mankind?
Surprisingly, no. I worry that we'll destroy ecosystems across this planet and make it so that only people with access to modern technology can ever manage to get food or water. I worry about wars and places on the globe becoming uninhabitable. But as a species as a whole? We're resilient. One of the things that allowed our population to grow back in the earliest days of Homo is our altruism. It's not always evident, obviously, but we've been taking care of others in our species for a very, very long time. Individuals that would have died otherwise, that might very well have been killed by their own families in another species, were cared for and thrived and added to the species as a whole. As time has gone on, that altruism has been able to expand and become more complex. The currently widespread condemnation of slavery--despite the fact that those enslaved are usually a different ethnicity from the dominant culture--illustrates the slow growth of altruism's grasp. Maybe I'm a hippie at heart or watched too much Star Trek as a kid, but unless some disaster happens to wipe us all out I firmly believe we will eventually all live as one people, all working together for the common good of humanity.
OneCentStamp, that really does sound like an incredible trip. I've wanted an adventure like that myself, but unfortunately Girl Scouts (or at least the troops I was with) only ever had one camping trip and it was...in a trailer.
What was your first job?
Would you like Fries with that? Yep, my first job was at Wendy's as a grill/fry/prep/take out window worker.
What is the worst job you've had?
I worked at Chuck E. Cheese for four weeks. Keep in mind that this was directly after I worked at Arby's for two years, and directly before I worked at Hechinger (East Coast hardware chain) for three years, so it's not as if I was some wanton job hopper. My duties included busing tables, working the ticket redemption desk (which was ten kinds of hell, as the little assholes hemmed and hawed over whether to spend their last eight tickets on Smarties or a Gobstopper), and wearing the Chuck E. suit. This last duty was the reason I quit. You'd think it would be fun wearing the mouse suit, having kids all excited to see you, almost like working at Disneyland. Not so. It was just being mobbed by sugar-rushing kids who all wanted to pull your tail and look up into your face vent to see if they could see the person inside the suit. And the worst part of all was the suit itself; it had been purchased at least ten years before, when the restaurant had opened, and had not been cleaned in all that time. How could it be? So it was an oversized, ratty fursuit with thick polyurethane foam padding inside, and was hellishly hot. The head was two and a half feet wide, weighed eight pounds, and was very poorly ventilated. Your breath and perspiration would condense inside the plastic helmet, run down the sides, and soak the collar of your shirt. The smell inside the suit was indescribable; the mingled sweat, pizza grease, and bacterial growth of thousands of hours' worth of wear. It was like wearing a homeless man's long john bottoms...for a hat. I'm not prone to vomiting from disgust, otherwise I would have, numerous times. I quit in the middle of my shift on my third full Saturday there.
If you could go back and change your college major, knowing what you do now, would you?
Last edited by OneCentStamp; 03 Feb 2011 at 01:18 PM.
"You laugh at me because I'm different; I laugh at you because I'm on nitrous."
find me at Goodreads
I'm still in college, so no.I'd take back that year I spent screwing around, though.
What dish that you've never had would you love to try?
It's not a dish, exactly, but I would like to be set down in front of a really, really first-class cheese platter, served at just the right temperature. I've rarely if ever been exposed to fine cheese; most of my experience is with mass-produced grocery store cheddars and the like. But I've had just enough slightly better quality stuff to know that given the opportunity I could easily become a cheese connoisseur.
OCS, both of your last two responses have been awesome stories!
You can witness, up close and personal, an incredibly powerful natural disaster without being harmed. (And it is not your fault, so if there is any loss of life or property destruction, it was an act of god and you are blameless.) What will it be - tsunami? volcanic eruption? mudslide? avalanche? flash flood? earthquake? Or something else?
I've always wondered what it would be like to experience an earthquake, so I'll pick that. I was once in a mild one, but was driving at the time, and didn't realize there'd even been one until I reached my destination and everyone was talking about it.
OCS, having taken kids to Chuck E. Cheese's several times for birthday parties, I feel for you. I almost get a headache just by walking into those places - the noise, the manic energy of the kids, the flashing lights - ugh!
If you could change one scene of a favorite movie to make it even better, what would it be?
In Batman BeginsSpoiler (mouseover to read):
Bruce Wayne refused to kill the captive criminal and then fought his way out of the secret ninja training ground. As he fought his way out, he also happened to blow the whole place up and kill all of the captive criminals within, along with any ninjas who didn't manage to make it out.
It would have been improved had their been a brief moment of realization and horror over how attempting to stick to his principles had actually caused him to violate them in a far more dramatic way.
Describe your ideal pizza.
I'm nefariously simplistic in my appetites. I want a pizza with a thick crust, cheesy cheese, a lot of pepperoni, sausage, canadian bacon, chicken, beef, any other meats I have missed, and spiced up with the tears of vegans.
Somehow you find yourself in a position where you can effortlessly steal Adolf Hitler's wallet. The theft will not affect his rise to power, the nature of WW2, or the Holocaust. There is no important identification in the wallet, but the act will cost Hitler forty dollars and completely ruin his evening. You don't need the money. The odds that you will be caught committing the crime are less than 2 percent. Are you ethically obligated to steal the future Fuhrer's wallet?
Last edited by Ramses; 06 Feb 2011 at 04:11 PM. Reason: I used the wrong "ffect".
I don't know about ethical obligation, but in practice: hell yeah, I'm snaking Shickelgruber's wallet, and I'm getting a jug of schnapps and a knockwurst with his cash. If I get caught, I'm going to belt him one across the nose before I get dragged away by the cops. That probably won't stop WWII or the Holocaust either, but at least a half-century later I'll be memorialized on the History Channel as the key element in one of Hitler's formative early-life events.
Would you eat human flesh if the human in question agreed to it, and the meat could be certified safe for your consumption? If so - what cut, prepared in which way?
"You laugh at me because I'm different; I laugh at you because I'm on nitrous."
find me at Goodreads
I've already confessed an obsessive love for meats of all manner. So, curiosity demands yes. While my discussion of an aforementioned meatzilla pizza might demand solidarity, no, I'm quite a classy steak-man.
In answer: The psoas major muscle, which is anterior to the transverse processes of the lumbar region of the vertebrae, just by the kidneys. This is known in cuts as "the eye fillet", and is an amazing loin of meat in almost any animal. It's a very tender cut and makes for a fabulous fillet. And I'd like it rare, flash-seared on both sides.
You're in England sometime before 1971. You are in desperate need of a vehicle, and they offer you a car that costs 20 pounds upfront, and an additional farthing per mile. Another offer is given at three crowns upfront, but a thruppence every mile. How many miles do you have to drive for these plans to be the same cost?
21.81818182 miles.
If you had to live with one constant temperature and one type of weather for the rest of your life, what would you go with?
Northern Bay Area, California. (80 degrees, calm, clear skies)
If you were abandoned on a desert island, assured you would never rejoin civilization again, assuming a plentiful and non-threatening land with good shelter available, what one person would you bring with you... and why?
My wife, because I love her and because she's good company.
But if she declined, it'd definitely be Keira Knightley: http://lh4.ggpht.com/_deHyWgFUXnM/Sk...+%28889%29.jpg. Just, well... because.
If you could have any car in the world as a gift, with insurance, gas costs and all maintenance fully paid for life, as well as a foolproof antitheft system, what would you pick?
The Tesla Roadster I guess. It would actually be practical and fun. all Electric, incredible pick-up and excellent range.
(As to Keira and the desert island, watch her around the rum. she does terrible things to rum)
OCS, I can't stand even visiting Chucky Cheese, I hate that place like no other business I can think of. I cannot imagine working there.
If you could have any signed first edition book, which would it be?
Honestly, while I love books as media, I'm not really the collector type. I suppose I'd just go with something uber-valuable (maybe a Codex Leicester?), and look to sell it. I'm a Philistine, I know.
The United States is splitting into two nations of twenty-five states each. You and the opposing leader are taking turns picking states, like teams for kickball back in grade school. You win the coin toss and get first pick. Keeping in mind you're trying to come out with the stronger final country, which state do you pick first and why?
"You laugh at me because I'm different; I laugh at you because I'm on nitrous."
find me at Goodreads
State #1 will still be New York. California is so messed up I think New York would be easier to fix and NYC is probably worth more than Hollywood. Also I can hope the opposing leader will pick Texas as he is Bush style righty. Then I can get California as a second pick.
Also, yes, you are a Philistine OneCentStamp, though I thought a few of the cleverer writers on the board might say, "I want a signed version of my own #1 selling book"
Let's followup on OCS question, which state would you pick last?
Rhode Island. I don't foresee this being a principal conquest in my new empire. I'm tempted to answer North Carolina just out of seething hate.
If you could be a book, which would you be? And why?
I would be Jeffrey Toobin's The Nine, which is about the U.S. Supreme Court and is just what I would like to be: well-informed, even-handed, thoughtful and yet funny.
Before 2001, if you could be a trusted aide to any world leader, who would you pick, why, and what would you tell him or her?
A trusted aide? I would have tried to make President Clinton keep it in his pants. Such a stupid thing had far reaching consequences. Maybe it wouldn't have kept W out of the White House if the Clinton administration hadn't been so tarnished, but it would have been worth a shot. Plus, it's something that I as a political outsider couldn't really screw up like "Hey man, don't invade this country" and then it snowballs into Russia bombing us.
If you could be a trusted advisor to any religious leader in history, who would you pick, why, and what would you tell him or her?
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