50 Questions About One Thing (Me!)
The 5000 Question Survey (5000questionsur) is kind of neat, and I think I'm going to do some of it, mainly because things are slow at work, my writing mojo is borked, and maybe this way some of you out there in radioland will answer these questions, too, and we'll all learn more about each other.
If you want to play along, you can find the first part of the questions here, for your copy-pasta needs.
Without further ado, here are my answers to the first 100 questions.
Part One
1. Who are you?
nos4a2no9, aka Nos (which is much easier to spell).
2. What are the 3 most important things everyone should know about you?
I'm Canadian by birth, American by necessity, and I'm slightly daft.
3. When you aren't filling out 5,000 question surveys like this one what are you doing?
Illin' and chillin', mostly. I also read and write, argue with people on the internet, Think Deep Thoughts, hang out with my doggy, date, complain about the weather, and occasionally I do some crafty stuff.
4. List your classes in school from the ones you like the most to the ones you like the least (or if you are out of school, think of the classes you did like and didn't like at the time).
My favorite class in school was History, followed closely by English. Thus began my lifelong love affair with the liberal arts. I hated math and science, and thus began my lifelong career as an impoverished woman who has very few practical skills (but boy, am I good with critical thinking!)
5. What is your biggest goal for this year?
I'd really like to meet someone with whom I want to spend a lifetime, or at least that awkward 40-60 year period between my late twenties and death. Aside from truw yove, I'd like to chip away at my "to do" list (get a street-legal vehicle, pass my certification exam, get out of the "overdraft" cycle of reincarnation that my bank account seems to be stuck in, make some more progress in therapy, make sure the pup's shots are all up to date)
6. Where do you want to be in 5 years?
Ideally? Somewhere on the West coast or the Southwest. Practically, somewhere in the suburbs of Atlanta, in a house, perhaps with a child. I'd be, I dunno, doing papier mache or something.
7. What stage of life are you in right now?
What's the stage called when you're starting to find some personal contentment but still feel unfulfilled because you don't have a long-term partner/children?
8. Are you more child-like or childish?
Child-like, I hope.
9. What is the last thing you said out loud?
"Balls!" (When I spilled the ramen noodles I'm having for lunch).
10. What song comes closest to how you feel about your life right now?
The New Pornographer's "Adventures in Solitude." I'm in a new country surrounded by new people and it is an adventure, but it's also hella lonely sometimes.
11. Have you ever taken martial arts classes?
I once took an akido class. The instructor sort of sucked. I'd like to take a karate or jujitsu class.
12. Does your life tend to get better or worse or does it just stay the same?
My life is like a graph of the economy. Overall there's improvement, but there are peaks and valleys, wars and depressions, gains and losses. It's tough to remember how the overall chart looks sometimes, but I think there's a steady upward trend.
13. Does time really heal all wounds?
Yeah, I think so. I'm only 19 months out from one of the most painful periods of my life, and every day it does get better.
14. How do you handle a rainy day?
Like a sloth: I sleep late, read fanfic, and watch TV.
15. Which is worse...losing your luggage or having to sort out tangled holiday lights?
Ugh, losing luggage FOR 'SHO. If your holiday lights are tangled, you know exactly who's responsible (yourself) and what to do about it (lapse into seething self-hatred while you grumble and work through the mess). If the airline loses your luggage? You're screwed.
16. How is your relationship with your parents?
Not so great. I mean, there's love there, but it's tempered by a lack of engagement on both sides that means we don't see each other often. It says a lot, I think, that I moved across the continent and then to a whole other country and still feel about as close to my parents as I did when I was a teenager living at home.
Will you miss them when they are gone?
Of course. I can't think about it (particularly my dad's death) without tearing up. I just wish that I could forgive them for not being what I needed them to be when I was small.
17. Do you tend to be aware of what is going on around you?
Sometimes? My job requires me to be very focused and observant of other peoples' behavior, moods and actions, but without a focal point my attention wanders, and I get distracted by the stuff going on in my head and my heart.
18. What is the truest thing that you know?
That love is all we've got. And, conveniently, love is all you need.
19. What did you want to be when you grew up?
I wanted to be an archaeologist, specializing in Egyptology. At least until my mother told me that everything had already been discovered and I'd never make any money at it. (I was 8). After that I wanted to be a lawyer or a teacher.
20. Have you ever been given a second chance?
Yeah, in small ways, but not when I really needed it.
21. Are you more of a giver or a taker?
I hope I'm a giver. But ideally everyone wants to be, right?
22. Do you make your decisions with an open heart/mind?
Yes, I hope so. And while I've resigned myself to making a lot of mistakes, I don't want to reproach myself for making decisions openly and in good faith.
23. What is the most physically painful thing that has ever happened to you?
Wanged my head on giant whale on a mini-golf course once. I knocked myself out, and I remember how much it hurt when I regained consciousness. Also, one time I sprained my ankle really badly, and I felt like I was going to throw up it hurt so much.
24. What is the most emotionally painful thing that has ever happened to you?
A combination of factors that resulted in me being unemployed, heartbroken and faced with an impossible decision about 19 months ago. That was...pretty bad.
25. Who have you hugged today?
My dog, Fozzy!
26. Who has done something today to show they care about you?
My boss asked me how I'm feeling. He's a really nice man, and you can tell that he genuinely cares about your answer when he asks you that question.
27. Do you have a lot to learn?
Oh yes. troyswann once said that, the more you know, the more you realize you don't know. She is a wise, wise woman.
28. If you could learn how to do three things just by wishing and not by working what would they be?
A) Fly a plane
B) Play the piano
C) Write a best-selling novel. Or even an okay-selling novel.
29. Which do you remember the longest: what other people say, what other people do, or how other people make you feel?
That's a tough one. What people say, I think. Words are the hardest thing for me to forget.
30. What are the key ingredients to having a good relationship?
Established mutual interests, similar worldview on the "big" questions (like politics and religion) and a willingness to communicate well and demonstrate affection. You have those pieces, you have the whole thing. At least according to moi.
31. What 3 things do you want to do before you die?
A) See the Grand Canyon.
B) Go sailing.
C) Finish a novel.
32. What three things would you want to die to avoid doing?
A) Harming a child physically or emotionally.
B) Abusing an animal (spiders don't count!)
C) Sitting through an address by Rush Limbaugh or Newt Gingrich without being able to tell them that they are reprehensible human beings, or without being able to list the 100,000 reasons why they're wrong about everything.
33. Is there a cause you believe in more than any other cause?
Human rights. We don't do enough for each other. We haven't even gotten the basics right, yet.
34. What does each decade make you think of:
The 1900's: Trench warfare. Downton Abbey. Nellie McClung and the Famous Five.
20's: Prohibition, The Great Gatsby, and LM Montgomery.
30's: Bread lines, Bennett buggies, and the invention of the television.
40's: World War II. The Holocaust. The end of history. The death of God.
50's: Jim Crow, rocket ships, space monkeys. And Diefenbaker (the Prime Minister, not the dog).
60's: The Civil Rights movement, the Peace movement, the Feminist movement, the moon landing. When the world seemed to be finally waking up.
70's: Recession, Watergate, Trudeau, the Cold War (continued...), and the world goes back to sleep.
80's: My lifespan starts. John Lennon dies. Cabbage Patch dolls, Transformers, My Little Pony.
90's: Elementary school. High school. Things fall apart. My family doesn't survive the decade.
2000's: Bush v. Gore. University. Love. 9/11. The Bush years. Polarizing anger, the wars and prayers and the protests that fall on deaf ears. Grad school. Love lost. Dissolution. I'm wide awake.
2010's: America.
35. Which decade do you feel the most special connection to and why?
Probably the 2000's, because that's when I matured into adulthood. I got a job, moved out, finished my university and graduate degrees, and started to figure out who I was going to be.
36. What is your favorite oldie/classic rock song?
Let It Be.
37. What country do you live in and who is the leader of that country?
I'm in the United States, and Barak Obama is the president. (Thumbs up!)
If you could say any sentence to the current leader of your country what would it be?
"History is going to judge you favorably. Keep up the good work, and don't forget that you're here for the people, not for the big companies or the press."
38. What's your favorite TV channel to watch in the middle of the night?
HGTV. Can't get enough of those home renovation shows!
39. What Disney villain are you the most like and why?
Um, Maleficent, I guess. Because sometimes I'm a beautiful sorceresses, and sometimes I am A BIG FUCKING FIRE-BREATHING DRAGON!
40. Have you ever been a girl scout/boy scout?
Nope!
41. If you were traveling to another continent would you rather fly or take a boat?
Take a boat, definitely. As long as it was a cruise ship, not a rowboat.
42. Why is the sky blue during the day and black at night?
Rayleigh scattering, fool! (I...had to look it up).
43. What does your name mean?
"Helper of mankind." HA!
44. Would you rather explore the deeps of the ocean or outer space?
Either way, I'd be doing it in a small, pressurized metal can, so both seem EQUALLY HORRIFYING. The ocean, I guess, because there would be cool fish and such.
45. Word association
What is the first word that comes to mind when you see the word:
Air: blue
Meat: suit
Different: interesting
Pink: lovely
Deserve: want
White: throne
Elvis: lonesome
Magic: heresy!
Heart: ruby
Clash: the Sex Pistols
Pulp: Fiction
46. If you could meet any person in the world who is dead who would you want it to be?
Hypatia of Alexandria. She was pretty rad. I'd tell her to keep working, write shit down, and make nice with the Christians. Maybe get out of Alexandria, too, and go live far out in the country until things settle down.
If not her, I'd like to meet Jesus and tell him to pass along the message to his prophets that it's okay to be gay, women are awesome, and fighting never solved anything. Also: don't believe everything you read in the Bible. That's an important one too.
47. What if you could meet anyone who is alive?
John Stewart, I think. He'd be great to talk to, and by all reports he's a very nice man.
48. Is there a movie that you love so much you could watch it everyday?
The 2006 BBC adaptation of Jane Eyre. I'll never get tired of watching all the Rochester!porn.
49. You are going to be stuck alone in an elevator for a week. What do you bring to do?
My iPad (assuming there is wireless and I can, I dunno, hook up to a power source or something), a couple of paperbacks, my writing journal, my phone and a tennis ball (for bouncing).
50. Have you ever saved someone's life or had your life saved?
Yes, I saved my mom's life once (she'd overdosed and I kept her conscious until the paramedics arrived) and I think I play a role in helping my clients keep going until they come to terms with their vision loss and start looking forward to living again. No one's ever saved me, though, and I really hope no one ever has to.
Except from sharks. Please save me from sharks.
If you want to play along, you can find the first part of the questions here, for your copy-pasta needs.
Without further ado, here are my answers to the first 100 questions.
Part One
1. Who are you?
nos4a2no9, aka Nos (which is much easier to spell).
2. What are the 3 most important things everyone should know about you?
I'm Canadian by birth, American by necessity, and I'm slightly daft.
3. When you aren't filling out 5,000 question surveys like this one what are you doing?
Illin' and chillin', mostly. I also read and write, argue with people on the internet, Think Deep Thoughts, hang out with my doggy, date, complain about the weather, and occasionally I do some crafty stuff.
4. List your classes in school from the ones you like the most to the ones you like the least (or if you are out of school, think of the classes you did like and didn't like at the time).
My favorite class in school was History, followed closely by English. Thus began my lifelong love affair with the liberal arts. I hated math and science, and thus began my lifelong career as an impoverished woman who has very few practical skills (but boy, am I good with critical thinking!)
5. What is your biggest goal for this year?
I'd really like to meet someone with whom I want to spend a lifetime, or at least that awkward 40-60 year period between my late twenties and death. Aside from truw yove, I'd like to chip away at my "to do" list (get a street-legal vehicle, pass my certification exam, get out of the "overdraft" cycle of reincarnation that my bank account seems to be stuck in, make some more progress in therapy, make sure the pup's shots are all up to date)
6. Where do you want to be in 5 years?
Ideally? Somewhere on the West coast or the Southwest. Practically, somewhere in the suburbs of Atlanta, in a house, perhaps with a child. I'd be, I dunno, doing papier mache or something.
7. What stage of life are you in right now?
What's the stage called when you're starting to find some personal contentment but still feel unfulfilled because you don't have a long-term partner/children?
8. Are you more child-like or childish?
Child-like, I hope.
9. What is the last thing you said out loud?
"Balls!" (When I spilled the ramen noodles I'm having for lunch).
10. What song comes closest to how you feel about your life right now?
The New Pornographer's "Adventures in Solitude." I'm in a new country surrounded by new people and it is an adventure, but it's also hella lonely sometimes.
11. Have you ever taken martial arts classes?
I once took an akido class. The instructor sort of sucked. I'd like to take a karate or jujitsu class.
12. Does your life tend to get better or worse or does it just stay the same?
My life is like a graph of the economy. Overall there's improvement, but there are peaks and valleys, wars and depressions, gains and losses. It's tough to remember how the overall chart looks sometimes, but I think there's a steady upward trend.
13. Does time really heal all wounds?
Yeah, I think so. I'm only 19 months out from one of the most painful periods of my life, and every day it does get better.
14. How do you handle a rainy day?
Like a sloth: I sleep late, read fanfic, and watch TV.
15. Which is worse...losing your luggage or having to sort out tangled holiday lights?
Ugh, losing luggage FOR 'SHO. If your holiday lights are tangled, you know exactly who's responsible (yourself) and what to do about it (lapse into seething self-hatred while you grumble and work through the mess). If the airline loses your luggage? You're screwed.
16. How is your relationship with your parents?
Not so great. I mean, there's love there, but it's tempered by a lack of engagement on both sides that means we don't see each other often. It says a lot, I think, that I moved across the continent and then to a whole other country and still feel about as close to my parents as I did when I was a teenager living at home.
Will you miss them when they are gone?
Of course. I can't think about it (particularly my dad's death) without tearing up. I just wish that I could forgive them for not being what I needed them to be when I was small.
17. Do you tend to be aware of what is going on around you?
Sometimes? My job requires me to be very focused and observant of other peoples' behavior, moods and actions, but without a focal point my attention wanders, and I get distracted by the stuff going on in my head and my heart.
18. What is the truest thing that you know?
That love is all we've got. And, conveniently, love is all you need.
19. What did you want to be when you grew up?
I wanted to be an archaeologist, specializing in Egyptology. At least until my mother told me that everything had already been discovered and I'd never make any money at it. (I was 8). After that I wanted to be a lawyer or a teacher.
20. Have you ever been given a second chance?
Yeah, in small ways, but not when I really needed it.
21. Are you more of a giver or a taker?
I hope I'm a giver. But ideally everyone wants to be, right?
22. Do you make your decisions with an open heart/mind?
Yes, I hope so. And while I've resigned myself to making a lot of mistakes, I don't want to reproach myself for making decisions openly and in good faith.
23. What is the most physically painful thing that has ever happened to you?
Wanged my head on giant whale on a mini-golf course once. I knocked myself out, and I remember how much it hurt when I regained consciousness. Also, one time I sprained my ankle really badly, and I felt like I was going to throw up it hurt so much.
24. What is the most emotionally painful thing that has ever happened to you?
A combination of factors that resulted in me being unemployed, heartbroken and faced with an impossible decision about 19 months ago. That was...pretty bad.
25. Who have you hugged today?
My dog, Fozzy!
26. Who has done something today to show they care about you?
My boss asked me how I'm feeling. He's a really nice man, and you can tell that he genuinely cares about your answer when he asks you that question.
27. Do you have a lot to learn?
Oh yes. troyswann once said that, the more you know, the more you realize you don't know. She is a wise, wise woman.
28. If you could learn how to do three things just by wishing and not by working what would they be?
A) Fly a plane
B) Play the piano
C) Write a best-selling novel. Or even an okay-selling novel.
29. Which do you remember the longest: what other people say, what other people do, or how other people make you feel?
That's a tough one. What people say, I think. Words are the hardest thing for me to forget.
30. What are the key ingredients to having a good relationship?
Established mutual interests, similar worldview on the "big" questions (like politics and religion) and a willingness to communicate well and demonstrate affection. You have those pieces, you have the whole thing. At least according to moi.
31. What 3 things do you want to do before you die?
A) See the Grand Canyon.
B) Go sailing.
C) Finish a novel.
32. What three things would you want to die to avoid doing?
A) Harming a child physically or emotionally.
B) Abusing an animal (spiders don't count!)
C) Sitting through an address by Rush Limbaugh or Newt Gingrich without being able to tell them that they are reprehensible human beings, or without being able to list the 100,000 reasons why they're wrong about everything.
33. Is there a cause you believe in more than any other cause?
Human rights. We don't do enough for each other. We haven't even gotten the basics right, yet.
34. What does each decade make you think of:
The 1900's: Trench warfare. Downton Abbey. Nellie McClung and the Famous Five.
20's: Prohibition, The Great Gatsby, and LM Montgomery.
30's: Bread lines, Bennett buggies, and the invention of the television.
40's: World War II. The Holocaust. The end of history. The death of God.
50's: Jim Crow, rocket ships, space monkeys. And Diefenbaker (the Prime Minister, not the dog).
60's: The Civil Rights movement, the Peace movement, the Feminist movement, the moon landing. When the world seemed to be finally waking up.
70's: Recession, Watergate, Trudeau, the Cold War (continued...), and the world goes back to sleep.
80's: My lifespan starts. John Lennon dies. Cabbage Patch dolls, Transformers, My Little Pony.
90's: Elementary school. High school. Things fall apart. My family doesn't survive the decade.
2000's: Bush v. Gore. University. Love. 9/11. The Bush years. Polarizing anger, the wars and prayers and the protests that fall on deaf ears. Grad school. Love lost. Dissolution. I'm wide awake.
2010's: America.
35. Which decade do you feel the most special connection to and why?
Probably the 2000's, because that's when I matured into adulthood. I got a job, moved out, finished my university and graduate degrees, and started to figure out who I was going to be.
36. What is your favorite oldie/classic rock song?
Let It Be.
37. What country do you live in and who is the leader of that country?
I'm in the United States, and Barak Obama is the president. (Thumbs up!)
If you could say any sentence to the current leader of your country what would it be?
"History is going to judge you favorably. Keep up the good work, and don't forget that you're here for the people, not for the big companies or the press."
38. What's your favorite TV channel to watch in the middle of the night?
HGTV. Can't get enough of those home renovation shows!
39. What Disney villain are you the most like and why?
Um, Maleficent, I guess. Because sometimes I'm a beautiful sorceresses, and sometimes I am A BIG FUCKING FIRE-BREATHING DRAGON!
40. Have you ever been a girl scout/boy scout?
Nope!
41. If you were traveling to another continent would you rather fly or take a boat?
Take a boat, definitely. As long as it was a cruise ship, not a rowboat.
42. Why is the sky blue during the day and black at night?
Rayleigh scattering, fool! (I...had to look it up).
43. What does your name mean?
"Helper of mankind." HA!
44. Would you rather explore the deeps of the ocean or outer space?
Either way, I'd be doing it in a small, pressurized metal can, so both seem EQUALLY HORRIFYING. The ocean, I guess, because there would be cool fish and such.
45. Word association
What is the first word that comes to mind when you see the word:
Air: blue
Meat: suit
Different: interesting
Pink: lovely
Deserve: want
White: throne
Elvis: lonesome
Magic: heresy!
Heart: ruby
Clash: the Sex Pistols
Pulp: Fiction
46. If you could meet any person in the world who is dead who would you want it to be?
Hypatia of Alexandria. She was pretty rad. I'd tell her to keep working, write shit down, and make nice with the Christians. Maybe get out of Alexandria, too, and go live far out in the country until things settle down.
If not her, I'd like to meet Jesus and tell him to pass along the message to his prophets that it's okay to be gay, women are awesome, and fighting never solved anything. Also: don't believe everything you read in the Bible. That's an important one too.
47. What if you could meet anyone who is alive?
John Stewart, I think. He'd be great to talk to, and by all reports he's a very nice man.
48. Is there a movie that you love so much you could watch it everyday?
The 2006 BBC adaptation of Jane Eyre. I'll never get tired of watching all the Rochester!porn.
49. You are going to be stuck alone in an elevator for a week. What do you bring to do?
My iPad (assuming there is wireless and I can, I dunno, hook up to a power source or something), a couple of paperbacks, my writing journal, my phone and a tennis ball (for bouncing).
50. Have you ever saved someone's life or had your life saved?
Yes, I saved my mom's life once (she'd overdosed and I kept her conscious until the paramedics arrived) and I think I play a role in helping my clients keep going until they come to terms with their vision loss and start looking forward to living again. No one's ever saved me, though, and I really hope no one ever has to.
Except from sharks. Please save me from sharks.