5,000 Questions, Part II
101. What does happiness/joy feel like physically? Elation as an emotion (rather than ecstasy as a sensation) is tremendously hard to describe as a physical experience. There's a wash of tickling, like goosebumps, and the satisfied feeling in the lungs and torso of having taken a particularly full and cleansing breath. Usually it comes along with a smile that is trying very hard to ascend into laughter.
102. List five people you love starting with the one you love the absolute most. I find it unconscionable to not only limit myself to five but to pretend as though one could order them. ("In the event of a loss of cabin pressure, oxygen masks will drop from the ceiling. Attach yours first before seeing to your child. If you have more than one child with you, please decide at this time which of your children you love more.") I could no more decide between my close friends and family than I could decide between my senses, and would regret and miss the loss of either in a profound and enduring way. Let it suffice to say that some of them read this journal, and that they know, or ought to know, who they are, though for what it may be worth, there is no one reading this entry that I would ever be rid of or for whom I could not find some kind and true thing to say.
103. How many movies have you gone to see this month? None. The movie-theater has in the last few years begun to truly bore me, and it is insulting what price they ask for two hours' supposed entertainment. I'm sure that some of my cynicism has developed out of making my living from distributing movies, but there it is.
104. If you could have 3 wishes...but none of them could be for yourself, what would you wish for? A far stronger sense of perspective for the species of humanity; a world in which no human suffers unduly at the hands of another; a greater desire among humanity for peaceful expansion into space. These three are off the top of my head, but I cannot imagine that I would generate anything more than perhaps provisos or tiny modifications to them with any longer thought. The cynic in me notes that I place these things in the realm of 'having wishes,' that is to say that I find them to be wishful thinking.
105. In what ways do you relax and de-stress when you are really tense? I tend to lash out directly at whatever is causing my tension. Most often this results in simply complaining to the nearest person. If it happens to be a person that is the source of my tension, I will usually vent my frustrations by telling them precisely what it is they're doing that they oughtn't be. If I'm feeling charitable, I might offer means of rectifying their behavior.
106. How much money would it take to get you to drive to school naked in the springtime and get out of the car? Dignity is a thing you can't buy back. I think it is entirely possible that I might reject any sum of money for such a privilege. And I say this having considered figures in the realm of eight and nine digits.
107. Have you ever killed an animal? Insects, perhaps. To my knowledge I have never personally killed a creature that can suffer.
108. Have you ever lost someone close to you? I have not, although I brace for it with every passing day.
109. What do you think of cloning? I think it is a fact of the world and that its use and refinement are to be expected. We are already seeing it in the form of vegetables and fruits, and some of us have even eaten of the products of it. What I imagine this question is asking, though, is what I think of human cloning, and that is this: Nature herself provides examples of cloning in the form of identical twins. The twins have their own personhood, each of them, and are capable of making independent decisions that foster their individuality. A person cloned from me today would grow from an embryo into an infant and experience childhood and maturation in a vastly different world than I grew up in. By the time he reached the age I am now, he would be a completely different person. While there are a few ethical issues on the sidelines of the argument - cloning purely for the sake of harvesting fully formed organs, for example - the main question is one to which I have no answer but incredulousness. Why wouldn't someone be in favor of cloning?
110. Do you read or watch TV more often? I read more often, simply because I do not watch TV at all.
111. With all this talk of terrorism going around are you willing to sacrifice rights and freedoms for increased safety? No, and nor should anyone else be so willing. We have inflicted upon ourselves more indignities and absurdities than even the terrorists themselves have. We curtail our own travel arrangements, subject ourselves to crude and invasive searches, hold up our own plans and bore each other with fearmongering on the grounds that there may be acts of terror and sabotage afoot. The reality is that every method we 'check' for is a method already used and discarded by our enemies. One has only to read a copy of the newsletter printed in the name of Al-Qaeda to see them mock our bumbling attempts to safeguard ourselves. Remove our shoes! Carry no toothpaste! Endure sexual molestation at taxpayer expense! We all go on pretending that these things make us safer. If it weren't tragic, it would be hilarious. No, I am in favor of a minimized effort to stop terrorists at the gate, aside from the obvious baggage scanners. The process of getting onto a plane or train should do little more than slow one's walking pace a bit. If we truly fear the terrorist with a travel-size tube of chemical reactant, then we can and should reinstate the 'Air Marshal' system.
112. What is the punishment you would come up with for Osama Bin Laden if you caught him alive? As an admitted terrorist and mass-murderer, his punishment should be to receive a civil trial like any other criminal. No military tribunal, no "Trial of the Century" atmosphere. A closed-door, voice-recording-and-stenographer trial wherein he is made to sit and hear what he has done, announce his guilt or innocence, and be treated like a common killer. To make a ceremony or a national spectacle of his trial is exactly what he wants. To simply dismiss him - though I might say dismiss him to the gas chamber - is what he deserves. There is no 'rehabilitation' for him. Perhaps his psyche might admit to it, but to do so would be to suggest that the doctrines he espouses constitute an illness from which one can recover. That is a precedent that I suspect the American people at large will not want to see enforced in the future.
113. Have you ever named an individual part of your body? I have not.
114. Have you ever been on the radio or on TV? Not that I know of.
115. Have you ever won a lottery, or sweepstakes? No.
116. Have you ever won a contest or competition? I won a "Geography Bee" when I was in 4th or 5th grade.
117. Do you like to watch The Joy of Painting show with Bob Ross (check out this link if you don't know who he is. Also please note me if you notice the link is broken)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Ross_(painter)? I only caught one episode of it. It was pleasant enough, but I can't imagine making a habit of it.
118. Do you know what your grandparents and your great grand parents did for a living? My grandmother was an English teacher for most of her career, and a newspaper editor for the years leading up to her retirement. My grandfather was a combat pilot in the Pacific Theater of World War II and retired to the civil service until his death in 1975. I don't know what my great-grandparents did.
119. Is there anything really interesting in your family history? I'm sure there is. My family's record of military service throughout the 20th century would take its own entire post to list.
120. Is there anyone you trust completely? Myself.
121. Have you ever lost someone without having the chance to say goodbye? No.
122. How do you feel about women in politics? I'm annoyed that this is even considered an interesting question. Women are humans, I feel the same about some humans in politics as I do about other humans in politics: all politicians are self-serving and untrustworthy.
123. Would you rather have an indoor Jacuzzi or an outdoor pool? An indoor Jacuzzi - outdoor pools are subject to the whims of the weather.
124. What things are you interested in that you study or read about on your own? Ethics, political and military science, history of all kinds, futurism... I could exhaust my readers with a recitation of all the things I'm interested in, but it isn't really hard to guess.
125. Would you consider yourself to be intelligent? Yes.
126. Would you consider yourself to be wise? The difference between 'intelligent' and 'wise' is not wide enough to make this question interesting.
127. Have you ever given or received a lap dance? Not that I recall.
128. Have you ever spoken to a homeless person? I have on several occasions.
129. Would you ever creep into the subway tunnels to go exploring? Properly equipped for contingencies, yes.
130. If you could add 70 years to your life but only by making some random person die 70 years sooner would you? No.
131. Can you finish any of the following lyrics?
A: Nothing to kill or die for... The brotherhood of man.
B: Late comings with the late comin' stretcher...
C: I could make a film and make you my star...
132. Were you ever with someone while they died? Yes. I held the hand of a woman who died of her injuries at the scene of a car accident. We arrived on the scene only a few minutes after the accident had occured, but we were ninety miles from the next town and despite one of our group getting back in our car and racing off at unsafe speeds, the response-time of the emergency services was just not fast enough.
133. Would you rather be a world political leader or a rock star? World Political Leader. There is something necessarily fake about the identity of a 'rock star.' A politician cannot pretend to be anything other than a politician, but a rock star can build any reputation for themselves that they like.
134. Have you ever given someone a love letter that you wrote? No.
135. Have you ever sent someone a surprise though the mail? Yes, although I do not remember what.
136. Are you looking forward to any concerts right now? No.
137. Of all animated movies, which is the best one you've ever seen? Wall-E and Lilo & Stitch can fight over this one.
138. What are the best bands or songs to listen to while driving? I don't have any particular preference. I could listen to Rob Zombie or Sarah McLachlan depending on how I felt. Driving doesn't change my musical preferences much.
139. What do you think is the most amazing thing that anyone has ever accomplished? The list of human accomplishments really goes beyond what I could possibly narrow down. To say "Neil Armstrong Landed On The Moon" would be to short-change "Martin Luther King and the people he surrounded himself with overcame subsidized racism in America," which itself would short-change "Less than two dozen people established a secular, forward-thinking democracy as an experiment in hope for the future of mankind." There is no deciding.
140. What could a member of the opposite sex do to impress you? There are any number of things. I am not difficult to impress.
141. About how many emails do you get a day? A dozen or so.
How many of those emails are junk mail? None. Gmail's filters have always been effective for me.
How many of them are forwards? None. My biological father is the only person who sends me forwarded mail, and I've since blocked him because he refuses to stop.
142. What's your favorite thing to do online besides write in your diary and hang out at this site? World of Warcraft probably takes up the most time, but reading/watching the various offerings from Penny-Arcade probably gives me more concentrated happiness.
143. Do you believe Kurt Cobain (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Cobain) killed himself or was it a conspiracy? The man was found with a heavy dose of narcotics in his system and a shotgun in his arms, in a room locked from the inside. He was known to be depressed and had tried at least once before to kill himself. While I admit that "a conspiracy" is possible, it seems to me that he committed suicide exactly in the way that it appears.
144. Have you ever though about hitchhiking across the country? No.
145. Who would you bring with you on this kind of a road trip? If I were driving myself, I would bring Mike, Ian, and Christine.
146. Of the following, which word best describes you: accurate, bold, charming, dependable Probably 'bold.' I am not detail-oriented enough to be called 'accurate,' and I'm sure I'm less than 'charming' to some. I'm well aware that I forget things, so 'dependable' is out. I can, however, be counted on to occasionally break the ice of a situation or be the first to step onto an unsteady bridge. So 'bold' it is.
147. If you are single, at about what age do you think you will be ready to settle down and get married? If you are married, how old were you at the time? If I found the right person I could "settle down" this instant. I don't have any particular attachment to the single life.
148. Do you often wonder, when you say goodbye to people, if it is the last time you will ever see them? I wonder it occasionally, yes.
149. What movie are you most looking forward to seeing when it comes out? None in particular.
150. What is your quest? To find the Holy Grail. (I had to.) Really though, to forward the cause of human solidarity in whatever means I can, with the eventual hope of uniting humanity under the common and peaceful interest of fellowship and fulfillment. ...which I suppose amounts to the same thing as finding the Holy Grail.
151. What is louder and more annoying: 200 adults talking or one four-year-old screaming? A single four-year-old screaming. I've been in the presence of both and I can speak with authority on the matter.
152. Do you believe the stories about planes, boats and people mysteriously disappearing into the Bermuda triangle? I believe that they occured simply because there are records of their disappearance. Whether I believe there is anything supernatural or inexplicable about their disappearance is another matter. For the record, I do not.
153. Who are you the most jealous of? I suspect this is a misuse of 'jealous,' and that the question ought to be whom I am envious of. I am envious of a great number of people for their intellect, their wit, their lack of fear of rejection, their moral courage and certitude. As for whom I am actually jealous of (in the dictionary sense of the term), no one.
154. What is the happiest way you can start your day? Knowing that I have money enough to have paid the bills and a bit left over to do whatever small thing might cross my mind that day.
155. Do you ever have moments where you feel like everything is all right in the world? No. A sense of unease and dissatisfaction with the state of the world is the fuel that keeps me going. I only need to read a few articles or ask a knowledgeable friend about recent world events if I find myself doubting that this is all going to hell in a handbasket.
156. Who thinks that you are offensive? The stubbornly ignorant, the excessively open-minded, the ultra-conservative, the unapologetically religious.
157. If you had to teach a class in something, what would you be able to teach people? Basic ethical theory, specializing in the "use of force" arguments, from a personal to a political level.
158. Have you ever had a spiritual experience (an experience that cannot be explained by science)? No. I in fact reject the assertion of such an experience's existence.
159. Do you believe that this experience was truly mystical or do you think there is some scientific explanation for it, only you don't know what it is?
160. Do you get offended easily? I can bear quite a lot when the issue is the tedium of someone else's personality, but there are a few issues about which I have a hair-trigger.
161. Would you still love and stay with your signifigant other if he or she had to have a breast or testicle removed? Yes.
162. Do you believe in fate or free will? I believe that the dichotomy is a false one, and that the question of "Whether or not we have free will" is nothing more than a philosophical shaggy-dog joke that has wasted the time of intelligent people since it was first formulated. I have no reason to believe that we will ever know the answer to the question with any certainty and that even if we did know the answer, it would not change our behavior meaningfully.
163. Do you believe that only boring people get bored? No, although I hear that Harvey Danger does.
164. Can life change or are we all stuck in vain? This is not a sensible question.
165. What changes are you afraid of? I am afraid of destitution, of long-term loneliness, of outright and widespread rejection of the ideals I espouse.
166. Are you a day person or nocturnal? I don't think I'm either. I find that I enjoy being awake through the night because I tend to be less often interrupted, but I can function equally well either way.
167. What one CD could you listen to for an entire week (no mixed CD’s, it must be an album)? Lisa Gerrard's "Immortal Memory."
168. Which is worse, working in retail, food service, or an office? Food Service. There was never a more thankless job. Office-work tends to be paid better for its drudgery, and retail workers usually have some control over the power-dynamic between customer and salesperson. Food service is in abject servitude to the whims and whines of the customer, and doesn't even have the consolation of being paid well for it in most cases.
169. What's the coolest job you ever had? Probably the one I now hold, although for a few weeks I was able to say that I was a financial advisor.
170. What is one central idea that your thoughts seem to come back to? "How in the world are we ever going to set things right again?"
171. Have you ever wanted to be an actor/tress? No.
172. If you had the power to control one person and make this person do anything you wanted for a whole day, who would you pick and what would they do? I would not pick anyone. The idea of directly "controlling" another person's actions is repulsive.
173. What star sign are you and what is your sign like? I am whatever sign is appropriate to October 14th. As for what it is like, it is like every other astrological assertion: Utterly irrelevant and laughable.
174. Did the Blair Witch Project scare you? Portions of it, yes.
175. Are you in constant fear of death? Constant? No. I am aware of the fragility of human life and how inadequate our evolution is to the world we live in/have created for ourselves, but no, I don't fear every possible fatal outcome. There are a hundred ways I might die right here in this room I'm sitting in, not counting the uncontrolled ones stemming from failures of the body.
176. Does fear of death keep you from building a life? No.
177. Do you like all your movies to be in wide-screen? Yes.
178. Are you a fan of any comic books? Transmetropolitan, The Sandman, 300.
179. At what age did you attend your first funeral? I have never attended a funeral.
180. What do you smell like (lotion, cologne, sweat)? Right now? Probably sweat.
181. What are your greatest sources for wisdom? Great humanist thinkers and lecturers like Carl Sagan, Robert Ingersoll, Henry Rollins and Christopher Hitchens.
182. When you were little, where did your parents tell you babies come from? I don't recall. I don't believe I ever had "the Talk."
183. What is your favorite band? I could hardly choose amongst all of them.
184. What's the best cheesy 80's song? Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up."
185. What's the best kind of movie to see on a date? The sort that all parties agree on.
186. Do you like to sit in the front, middle or back of the Movie Theater? Back. I hate having to crane my neck or turn my head to see the entire picture.
187. Have you ever been inside an abandoned building? Yes.
188. Under what circumstances would you agree to work for free? A particularly noble cause, or a case of immediate and exigent human suffering.
189. Candles or strobe lights? Candles.
190. Do you think the Lord of the Rings movies are true to the books or did Hollywood change the story too much? I think they're true to the book. The only elements that were removed are ones that would not have survived the transition to the screen intact. Much of what Tolkien wrote was easily evoked with words on a page, but would have required minutes, even hours of screen-time to correctly portray. In the case of Tom Bombadil, for example, almost nothing would've been added to the story, either, proportionate to how much time would have been needed to correctly portray the scene(s).
191. When you see a stranger on the street does your first reaction lean towards thinking of this person as a potential friend or as a potential threat? Threat.
192. Is it natural for human beings to fear and distrust each other, or is it cultural? It is most certainly cultural. Humans have a general awareness of the capabilities of other humans and might be generally wary naturally, but the simple fact that children have to be taught not to talk to strangers is indicative of the inborn willingness of humans to be social with one another.
193. What do you really want to buy? A fully independent, solar-powered houseboat on the Pacific coast.
194. You have to choose. Would you be happier marrying someone rich for their money or living in the streets and subway tunnels with someone you love? I'll take love over money any day.
195. If someone wanted to understand you what book could they read that would help? Carl Sagan's The Demon-Haunted World.
196. Do you think it’s odd that Americans have freedom of religion and yet call themselves 'one nation under god'? I don't think it is odd. I think it's insulting, on top of being factually wrong.
197. In what sense are you a minority? I am an atheist.
198. Are you anti social? Not in any clinical way, no. I am against the general setup of society as it exists in America, but I am not truly 'antisocial.'
199. Do you photograph well? In my own opinion, no.
200. Do you think that human beings would survivor through a nuclear winter? There is a slim chance that the species might maintain gene-pool viability, but I doubt anything meaningful would survive of our current culture.
102. List five people you love starting with the one you love the absolute most. I find it unconscionable to not only limit myself to five but to pretend as though one could order them. ("In the event of a loss of cabin pressure, oxygen masks will drop from the ceiling. Attach yours first before seeing to your child. If you have more than one child with you, please decide at this time which of your children you love more.") I could no more decide between my close friends and family than I could decide between my senses, and would regret and miss the loss of either in a profound and enduring way. Let it suffice to say that some of them read this journal, and that they know, or ought to know, who they are, though for what it may be worth, there is no one reading this entry that I would ever be rid of or for whom I could not find some kind and true thing to say.
103. How many movies have you gone to see this month? None. The movie-theater has in the last few years begun to truly bore me, and it is insulting what price they ask for two hours' supposed entertainment. I'm sure that some of my cynicism has developed out of making my living from distributing movies, but there it is.
104. If you could have 3 wishes...but none of them could be for yourself, what would you wish for? A far stronger sense of perspective for the species of humanity; a world in which no human suffers unduly at the hands of another; a greater desire among humanity for peaceful expansion into space. These three are off the top of my head, but I cannot imagine that I would generate anything more than perhaps provisos or tiny modifications to them with any longer thought. The cynic in me notes that I place these things in the realm of 'having wishes,' that is to say that I find them to be wishful thinking.
105. In what ways do you relax and de-stress when you are really tense? I tend to lash out directly at whatever is causing my tension. Most often this results in simply complaining to the nearest person. If it happens to be a person that is the source of my tension, I will usually vent my frustrations by telling them precisely what it is they're doing that they oughtn't be. If I'm feeling charitable, I might offer means of rectifying their behavior.
106. How much money would it take to get you to drive to school naked in the springtime and get out of the car? Dignity is a thing you can't buy back. I think it is entirely possible that I might reject any sum of money for such a privilege. And I say this having considered figures in the realm of eight and nine digits.
107. Have you ever killed an animal? Insects, perhaps. To my knowledge I have never personally killed a creature that can suffer.
108. Have you ever lost someone close to you? I have not, although I brace for it with every passing day.
109. What do you think of cloning? I think it is a fact of the world and that its use and refinement are to be expected. We are already seeing it in the form of vegetables and fruits, and some of us have even eaten of the products of it. What I imagine this question is asking, though, is what I think of human cloning, and that is this: Nature herself provides examples of cloning in the form of identical twins. The twins have their own personhood, each of them, and are capable of making independent decisions that foster their individuality. A person cloned from me today would grow from an embryo into an infant and experience childhood and maturation in a vastly different world than I grew up in. By the time he reached the age I am now, he would be a completely different person. While there are a few ethical issues on the sidelines of the argument - cloning purely for the sake of harvesting fully formed organs, for example - the main question is one to which I have no answer but incredulousness. Why wouldn't someone be in favor of cloning?
110. Do you read or watch TV more often? I read more often, simply because I do not watch TV at all.
111. With all this talk of terrorism going around are you willing to sacrifice rights and freedoms for increased safety? No, and nor should anyone else be so willing. We have inflicted upon ourselves more indignities and absurdities than even the terrorists themselves have. We curtail our own travel arrangements, subject ourselves to crude and invasive searches, hold up our own plans and bore each other with fearmongering on the grounds that there may be acts of terror and sabotage afoot. The reality is that every method we 'check' for is a method already used and discarded by our enemies. One has only to read a copy of the newsletter printed in the name of Al-Qaeda to see them mock our bumbling attempts to safeguard ourselves. Remove our shoes! Carry no toothpaste! Endure sexual molestation at taxpayer expense! We all go on pretending that these things make us safer. If it weren't tragic, it would be hilarious. No, I am in favor of a minimized effort to stop terrorists at the gate, aside from the obvious baggage scanners. The process of getting onto a plane or train should do little more than slow one's walking pace a bit. If we truly fear the terrorist with a travel-size tube of chemical reactant, then we can and should reinstate the 'Air Marshal' system.
112. What is the punishment you would come up with for Osama Bin Laden if you caught him alive? As an admitted terrorist and mass-murderer, his punishment should be to receive a civil trial like any other criminal. No military tribunal, no "Trial of the Century" atmosphere. A closed-door, voice-recording-and-stenographer trial wherein he is made to sit and hear what he has done, announce his guilt or innocence, and be treated like a common killer. To make a ceremony or a national spectacle of his trial is exactly what he wants. To simply dismiss him - though I might say dismiss him to the gas chamber - is what he deserves. There is no 'rehabilitation' for him. Perhaps his psyche might admit to it, but to do so would be to suggest that the doctrines he espouses constitute an illness from which one can recover. That is a precedent that I suspect the American people at large will not want to see enforced in the future.
113. Have you ever named an individual part of your body? I have not.
114. Have you ever been on the radio or on TV? Not that I know of.
115. Have you ever won a lottery, or sweepstakes? No.
116. Have you ever won a contest or competition? I won a "Geography Bee" when I was in 4th or 5th grade.
117. Do you like to watch The Joy of Painting show with Bob Ross (check out this link if you don't know who he is. Also please note me if you notice the link is broken)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Ross_(painter)? I only caught one episode of it. It was pleasant enough, but I can't imagine making a habit of it.
118. Do you know what your grandparents and your great grand parents did for a living? My grandmother was an English teacher for most of her career, and a newspaper editor for the years leading up to her retirement. My grandfather was a combat pilot in the Pacific Theater of World War II and retired to the civil service until his death in 1975. I don't know what my great-grandparents did.
119. Is there anything really interesting in your family history? I'm sure there is. My family's record of military service throughout the 20th century would take its own entire post to list.
120. Is there anyone you trust completely? Myself.
121. Have you ever lost someone without having the chance to say goodbye? No.
122. How do you feel about women in politics? I'm annoyed that this is even considered an interesting question. Women are humans, I feel the same about some humans in politics as I do about other humans in politics: all politicians are self-serving and untrustworthy.
123. Would you rather have an indoor Jacuzzi or an outdoor pool? An indoor Jacuzzi - outdoor pools are subject to the whims of the weather.
124. What things are you interested in that you study or read about on your own? Ethics, political and military science, history of all kinds, futurism... I could exhaust my readers with a recitation of all the things I'm interested in, but it isn't really hard to guess.
125. Would you consider yourself to be intelligent? Yes.
126. Would you consider yourself to be wise? The difference between 'intelligent' and 'wise' is not wide enough to make this question interesting.
127. Have you ever given or received a lap dance? Not that I recall.
128. Have you ever spoken to a homeless person? I have on several occasions.
129. Would you ever creep into the subway tunnels to go exploring? Properly equipped for contingencies, yes.
130. If you could add 70 years to your life but only by making some random person die 70 years sooner would you? No.
131. Can you finish any of the following lyrics?
A: Nothing to kill or die for... The brotherhood of man.
B: Late comings with the late comin' stretcher...
C: I could make a film and make you my star...
132. Were you ever with someone while they died? Yes. I held the hand of a woman who died of her injuries at the scene of a car accident. We arrived on the scene only a few minutes after the accident had occured, but we were ninety miles from the next town and despite one of our group getting back in our car and racing off at unsafe speeds, the response-time of the emergency services was just not fast enough.
133. Would you rather be a world political leader or a rock star? World Political Leader. There is something necessarily fake about the identity of a 'rock star.' A politician cannot pretend to be anything other than a politician, but a rock star can build any reputation for themselves that they like.
134. Have you ever given someone a love letter that you wrote? No.
135. Have you ever sent someone a surprise though the mail? Yes, although I do not remember what.
136. Are you looking forward to any concerts right now? No.
137. Of all animated movies, which is the best one you've ever seen? Wall-E and Lilo & Stitch can fight over this one.
138. What are the best bands or songs to listen to while driving? I don't have any particular preference. I could listen to Rob Zombie or Sarah McLachlan depending on how I felt. Driving doesn't change my musical preferences much.
139. What do you think is the most amazing thing that anyone has ever accomplished? The list of human accomplishments really goes beyond what I could possibly narrow down. To say "Neil Armstrong Landed On The Moon" would be to short-change "Martin Luther King and the people he surrounded himself with overcame subsidized racism in America," which itself would short-change "Less than two dozen people established a secular, forward-thinking democracy as an experiment in hope for the future of mankind." There is no deciding.
140. What could a member of the opposite sex do to impress you? There are any number of things. I am not difficult to impress.
141. About how many emails do you get a day? A dozen or so.
How many of those emails are junk mail? None. Gmail's filters have always been effective for me.
How many of them are forwards? None. My biological father is the only person who sends me forwarded mail, and I've since blocked him because he refuses to stop.
142. What's your favorite thing to do online besides write in your diary and hang out at this site? World of Warcraft probably takes up the most time, but reading/watching the various offerings from Penny-Arcade probably gives me more concentrated happiness.
143. Do you believe Kurt Cobain (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Cobain) killed himself or was it a conspiracy? The man was found with a heavy dose of narcotics in his system and a shotgun in his arms, in a room locked from the inside. He was known to be depressed and had tried at least once before to kill himself. While I admit that "a conspiracy" is possible, it seems to me that he committed suicide exactly in the way that it appears.
144. Have you ever though about hitchhiking across the country? No.
145. Who would you bring with you on this kind of a road trip? If I were driving myself, I would bring Mike, Ian, and Christine.
146. Of the following, which word best describes you: accurate, bold, charming, dependable Probably 'bold.' I am not detail-oriented enough to be called 'accurate,' and I'm sure I'm less than 'charming' to some. I'm well aware that I forget things, so 'dependable' is out. I can, however, be counted on to occasionally break the ice of a situation or be the first to step onto an unsteady bridge. So 'bold' it is.
147. If you are single, at about what age do you think you will be ready to settle down and get married? If you are married, how old were you at the time? If I found the right person I could "settle down" this instant. I don't have any particular attachment to the single life.
148. Do you often wonder, when you say goodbye to people, if it is the last time you will ever see them? I wonder it occasionally, yes.
149. What movie are you most looking forward to seeing when it comes out? None in particular.
150. What is your quest? To find the Holy Grail. (I had to.) Really though, to forward the cause of human solidarity in whatever means I can, with the eventual hope of uniting humanity under the common and peaceful interest of fellowship and fulfillment. ...which I suppose amounts to the same thing as finding the Holy Grail.
151. What is louder and more annoying: 200 adults talking or one four-year-old screaming? A single four-year-old screaming. I've been in the presence of both and I can speak with authority on the matter.
152. Do you believe the stories about planes, boats and people mysteriously disappearing into the Bermuda triangle? I believe that they occured simply because there are records of their disappearance. Whether I believe there is anything supernatural or inexplicable about their disappearance is another matter. For the record, I do not.
153. Who are you the most jealous of? I suspect this is a misuse of 'jealous,' and that the question ought to be whom I am envious of. I am envious of a great number of people for their intellect, their wit, their lack of fear of rejection, their moral courage and certitude. As for whom I am actually jealous of (in the dictionary sense of the term), no one.
154. What is the happiest way you can start your day? Knowing that I have money enough to have paid the bills and a bit left over to do whatever small thing might cross my mind that day.
155. Do you ever have moments where you feel like everything is all right in the world? No. A sense of unease and dissatisfaction with the state of the world is the fuel that keeps me going. I only need to read a few articles or ask a knowledgeable friend about recent world events if I find myself doubting that this is all going to hell in a handbasket.
156. Who thinks that you are offensive? The stubbornly ignorant, the excessively open-minded, the ultra-conservative, the unapologetically religious.
157. If you had to teach a class in something, what would you be able to teach people? Basic ethical theory, specializing in the "use of force" arguments, from a personal to a political level.
158. Have you ever had a spiritual experience (an experience that cannot be explained by science)? No. I in fact reject the assertion of such an experience's existence.
159. Do you believe that this experience was truly mystical or do you think there is some scientific explanation for it, only you don't know what it is?
160. Do you get offended easily? I can bear quite a lot when the issue is the tedium of someone else's personality, but there are a few issues about which I have a hair-trigger.
161. Would you still love and stay with your signifigant other if he or she had to have a breast or testicle removed? Yes.
162. Do you believe in fate or free will? I believe that the dichotomy is a false one, and that the question of "Whether or not we have free will" is nothing more than a philosophical shaggy-dog joke that has wasted the time of intelligent people since it was first formulated. I have no reason to believe that we will ever know the answer to the question with any certainty and that even if we did know the answer, it would not change our behavior meaningfully.
163. Do you believe that only boring people get bored? No, although I hear that Harvey Danger does.
164. Can life change or are we all stuck in vain? This is not a sensible question.
165. What changes are you afraid of? I am afraid of destitution, of long-term loneliness, of outright and widespread rejection of the ideals I espouse.
166. Are you a day person or nocturnal? I don't think I'm either. I find that I enjoy being awake through the night because I tend to be less often interrupted, but I can function equally well either way.
167. What one CD could you listen to for an entire week (no mixed CD’s, it must be an album)? Lisa Gerrard's "Immortal Memory."
168. Which is worse, working in retail, food service, or an office? Food Service. There was never a more thankless job. Office-work tends to be paid better for its drudgery, and retail workers usually have some control over the power-dynamic between customer and salesperson. Food service is in abject servitude to the whims and whines of the customer, and doesn't even have the consolation of being paid well for it in most cases.
169. What's the coolest job you ever had? Probably the one I now hold, although for a few weeks I was able to say that I was a financial advisor.
170. What is one central idea that your thoughts seem to come back to? "How in the world are we ever going to set things right again?"
171. Have you ever wanted to be an actor/tress? No.
172. If you had the power to control one person and make this person do anything you wanted for a whole day, who would you pick and what would they do? I would not pick anyone. The idea of directly "controlling" another person's actions is repulsive.
173. What star sign are you and what is your sign like? I am whatever sign is appropriate to October 14th. As for what it is like, it is like every other astrological assertion: Utterly irrelevant and laughable.
174. Did the Blair Witch Project scare you? Portions of it, yes.
175. Are you in constant fear of death? Constant? No. I am aware of the fragility of human life and how inadequate our evolution is to the world we live in/have created for ourselves, but no, I don't fear every possible fatal outcome. There are a hundred ways I might die right here in this room I'm sitting in, not counting the uncontrolled ones stemming from failures of the body.
176. Does fear of death keep you from building a life? No.
177. Do you like all your movies to be in wide-screen? Yes.
178. Are you a fan of any comic books? Transmetropolitan, The Sandman, 300.
179. At what age did you attend your first funeral? I have never attended a funeral.
180. What do you smell like (lotion, cologne, sweat)? Right now? Probably sweat.
181. What are your greatest sources for wisdom? Great humanist thinkers and lecturers like Carl Sagan, Robert Ingersoll, Henry Rollins and Christopher Hitchens.
182. When you were little, where did your parents tell you babies come from? I don't recall. I don't believe I ever had "the Talk."
183. What is your favorite band? I could hardly choose amongst all of them.
184. What's the best cheesy 80's song? Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up."
185. What's the best kind of movie to see on a date? The sort that all parties agree on.
186. Do you like to sit in the front, middle or back of the Movie Theater? Back. I hate having to crane my neck or turn my head to see the entire picture.
187. Have you ever been inside an abandoned building? Yes.
188. Under what circumstances would you agree to work for free? A particularly noble cause, or a case of immediate and exigent human suffering.
189. Candles or strobe lights? Candles.
190. Do you think the Lord of the Rings movies are true to the books or did Hollywood change the story too much? I think they're true to the book. The only elements that were removed are ones that would not have survived the transition to the screen intact. Much of what Tolkien wrote was easily evoked with words on a page, but would have required minutes, even hours of screen-time to correctly portray. In the case of Tom Bombadil, for example, almost nothing would've been added to the story, either, proportionate to how much time would have been needed to correctly portray the scene(s).
191. When you see a stranger on the street does your first reaction lean towards thinking of this person as a potential friend or as a potential threat? Threat.
192. Is it natural for human beings to fear and distrust each other, or is it cultural? It is most certainly cultural. Humans have a general awareness of the capabilities of other humans and might be generally wary naturally, but the simple fact that children have to be taught not to talk to strangers is indicative of the inborn willingness of humans to be social with one another.
193. What do you really want to buy? A fully independent, solar-powered houseboat on the Pacific coast.
194. You have to choose. Would you be happier marrying someone rich for their money or living in the streets and subway tunnels with someone you love? I'll take love over money any day.
195. If someone wanted to understand you what book could they read that would help? Carl Sagan's The Demon-Haunted World.
196. Do you think it’s odd that Americans have freedom of religion and yet call themselves 'one nation under god'? I don't think it is odd. I think it's insulting, on top of being factually wrong.
197. In what sense are you a minority? I am an atheist.
198. Are you anti social? Not in any clinical way, no. I am against the general setup of society as it exists in America, but I am not truly 'antisocial.'
199. Do you photograph well? In my own opinion, no.
200. Do you think that human beings would survivor through a nuclear winter? There is a slim chance that the species might maintain gene-pool viability, but I doubt anything meaningful would survive of our current culture.