solarbird | Two surveys, crossing in the night

Stolen from

nihilistic_kid, keeping his revision...

1. Do you like having your picture taken?
I used to hate it. Now, not as much. But I still get nervous. ^_^

2. If you could go anywhere in the world where would you go and why?
Other than planned trips? (Those include Scotland, Japan, and Thailand, tho' the Thailand trip isn't a vacation.) Hm. Cambodia. There's so much history there. I've wanted to visit Cambodia since college.

3. Have you ever done crossword puzzles?
Not often. The memory problems I have - centred around noun-labels - are brutalised by crossword puzzles.

3. Pick up the closest book and write a sentence at random from it:
Hm, two Nr. 3s. I wonder which question got added later?
"Well, whatever you've got in mind, I'm not at all in the mood for it. In fact, you're acting very badly."
(Araminta Station, Jack Vance.)

4. Do the same with a lyric from either a cd or the radio.
Japanese: "Take my revolution; ikite-yukou; genjitsu wa gamushara ni kuru shi."
English: "Take my revolution; let's go on with our lives; reality approaches now, frantically."
(Rinbu Revolution,

5. Have you ever tried to analyze your own dreams?
Of course.

6. Can you sing?
Yes! Not very well, but yes. And I'm getting better!

kathrynt is teaching me. I'm a first alto. ^_^

7. Do you ever sing to yourself while doing everyday tasks?
Yes.

8. What's your favorite color of post-it note?
White. Most of the colours are nasty.

9. Have you ever lied to get off the phone or out of talking to someone online?
Not quite lied. Discovered a need to do something (which I've actually gone and done, mind you), maybe; not outright lied. I really, really, really hate the telephone.

10. Is your vcr flashing 12:00 all the time?
Why no, I'm not a goober!

11. Do you read your horoscope?
If I'm exceedingly bored and all I have is the newspaper. Say, at the doctor's office.

12. Would you rather chew gum or use mouthwash and why?
Um... I don't think I really care? I don't do either, much. Chew gum, I guess. Some of them are tasty, even if they don't last very long. I used to like Chicklets a lot. ^_^

13. How many times a year about are you sick?
Less, now that I don't work for the Borg. Maybe once a year. I haven't been sick in a year and a half.

Or, as NK said, "Constantly!" Depending upon how you look at it. I have long-term damage from RSI, but it doesn't interfere with my life now that I don't code.

14. Ever been in an airplane?
Um... when was this written? And where? (Yes.)

15. What radio station do you listen to most?
KIRO AM and C89 FM.

16. Do you know how to play dominoes?
I ... think so. But I'm not sure!

17. What color are your eyes?
Variable. Yes, really. In order of probability: Green (most of the time), blue (regularly), grey (not often), gold (rare). It has something to do with the contraction of the irises, I think. This makes shopping for makeup Harder (tm).

18. Name one person your life is made better by.

annathepiper, but there are others as well.

19. Can you do math with ease?
Unless that's a SEKRIT TRADEMARK for a game, yes.

20. Are you a vegetarian?
Nope!

21. How about an aspiring actor/actress.
BWAH-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA no.

22. Which movie can you watch and say the lines along with the actors?
Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension. For one.

23. Name one of your passions in life.
This whole sculpture thing is starting to click in my head. It's still sporadic, but still.

24. What's your least favorite time of day?
Late morning on any day I have to make a lot of telephone calls, because that's when I make them.

25. What color is the inside of your head when you close your eyes?
These are two different questions rolled up into one! I think you want to ask "what do my eyes see," which is "black, with a scattering of tinted near-white points, like stars."

26. Ever listen to classical music?
Not generally on purpose, but I hear it regularly.

27. Have you ever said 'lol' in real life without thinking about it?
Bluh? No.

28. What is the best present you've ever given someone else?
I can't say. It's private, and wouldn't make any sense to most of the people reading this. But I'll generalise it out to "a vitally needed answer," and note that it's happened more than once. (This is not work-related, no.)

29. What is the best present someone else has ever given to you?
Hee! There've been a bunch. ^_^ But... I'm going to be vague again and say "permission and approval." Some people will know what that means.

Of course, the silk robe

annathepiper got me from Victoria's Secret last Solstice was awfully nice too. ^_^ And

spazzkat gave me the comfy recliner I'm in. Hiya Spazz! And an assortment of other gifts as well. ^_^

30. Do you wear a watch?
No, I can't; they die. I carry this very cute little transparent-green-and-translucent-white travel alarm with me in my backpack, though.

31. Write one sentence stating what you want people to say about you after you've passed on.
"She did it; I don't know how, but she did it."

32. Describe the ideal superpower and what you would do if you had it.
Alter Reality; fix a lot of things. Oddly (to some), I would not rule the world. I have no interest in that kind of thing, and don't see why other people do.

33. Name something you've done in the last 24 hours no matter how big or small.
Bought new bras.

34. Do you wear necklaces, bracelets, anklets, earrings, rings?
Yes, yes, yes, no (unless you count earcuffs), and no.

35. What's on your computer desk?
I don't really have one. I just have kind of this monitor stand. I'm typing from a recliner!

36. When you're talking do you ever use your hands to do quotation marks in the air when saying certain words?
Only in parody.

37. Do you think you're pretty?
Hee. I can be. ^_^

38. After how many drinks?
<laughs!>

39. What's in your fridge right now?
Wow; this must have been written for people still in college. Food. Lots of it. Also a bunch of film, since it lasts longer that way.

40. How many people do you live with?
We live in a communally-run household. Our private space is just me and Anna. There are three other people in the working household, and two more past that who are in the building but don't really participate, though one has shown signs of interest.

41. What is the strangest thing you've ever done?
I won't talk about it in a public post. (And yet, it's neither illegal nor about sex!)

42. Name an instrument you've never played but would like to.
I designed in my head this electronica instrument I never built. It would be neat to build it someday. It would be hellaciously difficult to play, but it'd look really neat while you were doing it. ^_^ Or, failing that, I'd like to learn how to play the transverse flute. (Currently, I can only play traditional/inline flutes.)

43. Have you ever been on TV or the radio?
Radio only. I was a regular at WTLX (college), at WVLK (commercial), ran my own pirate station in high school ^_^, and did a bunch of chat show appearances about SF on commercial stations for about a year.

44. What is the worst thing anyone could ever do to you?
Make me be what my abusers wanted me to be.

45. Are you a fast typer?
Not as fast as I used to be (stupid RSI!) but still pretty fast. ^_^

46. Describe how you sleep.
I love

nihilistic_kid's answer to this. Go read his entry instead.

47. Have you ever read a book and not understood it? If so which one?
I've never understood why anyone liked Dahlgren. But aside from that... not so much a book, but when I was working on my (only) scientific paper (genetics, not a very interesting paper but MINE MINE MINE and I was first author ^_^ ), the PI had me read a bunch of papers that were only tangentally related, and some of them were clearly only loosely translated from the original gibberish. It didn't help that I didn't actually have a biology background, and had to do a lot of special-term lookup. I got through them, eventually, but it was grueling.

48. Do people pick up your slang language more than you pick up theirs?
No, sadly. I have invented slang that has caught on, but I am more often impressed by the slang-creation metrics of others.

49. Have you ever bought anything just because it was a fad?
Of course! Just look at my CD collection!

50. What would you like to do with your life?
Another impossible thing. This one, bigger. I'm not joking, either.

51. Do you bite your nails?
Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow no.

52. Tell me about your dream last night.
I don't remember any from last night. But a few nights ago, I dreamt that this football game was starting and the referee had signaled "go" for the kickoff, but was actually down another football field away, and behind some large metal industrial equipment (?!) that blocked his view, so after

spazzkat returned the kickoff for a touchdown, he had to run up to me to get the numbers on the play. Which I went and got and handed to him in the form of a small, metallic sphere.

Then, because Spazzkat had scored a touchdown, he had to go take a shower (it's a Rule) and I followed him to the locker room and went in to wait while he was showering, only realising after I was in there that it was also a bathroom, and suddenly there were all these guys staring at me wondering what the fuck I was doing in there, so I bolted out the door, briefly wondering whether I'd be allowed to use the women's restroom if I had to later, now that I'd seen the inside of the boy's.

At that point, it turned into a Seventh Doctor episode of Dr. Who, with me and

annathepiper being his companions. It was the fourth and final part of some episode that involved a lot of running around down corridors and ended up with all the villains running into each other in a pile in one room and getting knocked out. Then we all climbed out the skylights to look at the stars, and

risu started singing "General Taylor," but I made her stop because she was singing it very badly.

Hey, it's better than the Alien accountants.

53. Are people's perceptions of you usually correct?
No.

54. When they start sending rockets to the moon for us civilians, will you be on the list to go?
Probably. I'd like to go. I wouldn't spend my last nickel to do it as a tourist or something, but I'd spend a good amount of money.

55. Have you ever written anything on your skin?
Nope! That always made me go "ew." I'm not sure why.

56. What color are most of your clothes?
No one colour. But red looks great on me.

57. Are things as bad as they seem?
They're better than they seem, but stranger than you know.

58. Do you like to look people in the eye?
Yes. And smile. NO, not the "before I punch them in the stomach" version, either! People cheer up a little when you smile at them. I like that.