Tuesday, November 6, 2018

Ten Answers to Ten Questions from a Book of Questions - Episode One


(Annabelle is not 100% sold on this blog post concept)

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Today, friends, my mind keeps trying to circle around the election, so I'm a bit distracted. I already voted, and there's nothing to do but wait to find out how it's going to go. Because of this, I'm going to do the first of theoretically four hundred question-answering posts. You see, I have this book called 4,000 Questions for Getting to Know Anyone and Everyone, by Barbara Ann Kipfer. The book has ten topic sections, each containing a lot of questions. Instead of picking a single topic, I'm going to answer the first question from each of the sections. SUPER RANDOM FUN. I cannot be held responsible for the quality of the questions. Ready? Here we go!

Topic: The Latest Scoop
Do you like working with a tablet computer? Do you like it better than a laptop or desktop computer?

I like using a tablet. It's definitely my preferred thing to use for making digital drawings, and I like using apps. I haven't looked into this recently, but last time I checked I was disappointed in the options for using the tablet for writing, even with a keyboard attached. I like using Open Office for writing on my desktop computer, and I'm sure I'd like that on a laptop, too, if I had one. 

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Topic: Childhood and School
Where did you grow up?

A few places. Without getting too specific for my comfort level:  I was born in Indiana, and lived in a small town there until I was six. Then we moved to a larger small town in Ontario, Canada, and stayed until I was twelve. The next move was to a near southwest suburb of Chicago, like right up against the border between Chicago and not-Chicago. I lived there until I was twenty-one. 

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Topic: Family and Friends
If you could only make one phone call, who would you call?

At the moment, based on phone calls and visits I've had recently, I would call my brother. I'm not much of a phone-caller, so I'm more likely to email or text someone.

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Topic: Fun and Sport
Anything can be fun if you want it to be: agree or disagree?

Literally anything?! Disagree with a vengeance. I'm not going to put you through the list of never ever fun things my mind immediately started to generate upon reading that question. However, I'll concede that many things can become more fun than you'd think if you do them with a good attitude and the intention to generate as much fun as possible.

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Topic: Habits
What things can you do with your eyes closed?

Are these questions for real? Is this post a bad idea? I'm going to keep going, but damn. To answer your question, o book of in-depth investigative journalism, I can do the standard eyes-closed things like sleeping and meditation with my eyes closed. Maybe brush my teeth. Listen to music. You know. I'm not even sure why this question is about habits. Even if I do something all the time, that doesn't necessarily mean I can do it with my eyes closed.

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Topic: Love and Sex
How often have you fallen in love?

It's kind of nice that this doesn't ask "how many times." Because fuck you, book, none of your business and I'm taking your wording literally. How often? Less than once per year over the course of forty-six years. That's right, math wizards, I have fallen in love fewer than forty-six times. 

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Topic: Outlook
Do you like a peaceful or hectic life?

If I had to choose one or the other, I would not want a guaranteed hectic life, so I'd go with peaceful. But then I'd get bored and start to add in activities to get to a middle ground of neither too hectic nor too peaceful. I like mental stimulation, but not constant activity.

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Topic: Politics
Do you question "conventional wisdom" and authority?

OH HELL YES. ALL DAY, EVERY DAY. Sometimes "conventional wisdom" is useful, but it's important to update your ideas. Question whether they're still useful or not. Sometimes ideas that were established in the past were based on less information than we have now. Authority isn't something to value for its own sake. Just because someone's in charge, or a certain law is in effect right now, doesn't mean either one is perfect and never to be challenged.

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Topic: Spirituality
What is sacred?

I'm not religious, so I'm going to think of something sacred as something that deserves veneration. I feel that kind of reverence for the natural world, and for goodness that comes from the wish to do good, rather than the fear of punishment or the hope of reward. 

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Topic: Work
Do you believe that people are basically lazy or hardworking and why?

I think it's way more complicated than this either-or thing we have going on in this question. I think that people show a wide range of behavior, from lazy to hardworking, and that generally most people are somewhere in the middle. I think that each person probably is also lazier about some kinds of tasks, and more hardworking about others. I don't necessarily think of "hardworking" as a virtue in itself. I feel that the word "lazy" is fairly judgmental, so I don't use it much. Like, if something is not important to a person, are they being lazy if they're not strongly motivated to do it? I don't think so. I think that most people will put in effort on work that's important to them.

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That does it for the questions for today! I'm... not completely thrilled with the book, I guess, but that was a sample of ten questions out of four thousand, so maybe the next round will suit me better. Or maybe I'll do the next round when I'm in a better mood. Or something. I'll spread these out and give the concept a few rounds before I judge, I think. 

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