Some questions: a meme

[mrissa]

Usually I don't do these because I don't feel I have time to attend to all of your answers individually. Right now I have let go of that and will only write lengthy responses to your responses if I feel moved to do so. I fixed some of the questions, so it's not quite the same as when timprov and greykev posted it. Just answer the ones that interest you, if you like.

1. Can you cook? What's your best dish (or some of your best dishes)?
2. What was your dream growing up?
3. What talent do you wish you had?
4. What's your most important place to take someone who means a lot to you?
5. Favorite vegetable?
6. What was the last book you read?
7. Favorite restaurant?
8. Favorite question to ask someone you've just met?
9. Worst Habit?
10. Do we know each other outside of lj?
11. What is your favorite sport?
12. Negative or Optimistic attitude?
13. Favorite musician?
14. This used to be "worst thing to happen to you." I would hear about that later, but not now. Tell me about something about bunnies or duckies or something else stereotypically adorable. Something non-disturbing, please.
15. Tell me one weird fact about you:
16. Do you have any pets?
17. What's your favorite place to be in the spring?
18. In the fall?
19. in the winter?
20. If you could change one thing about how you look at yourself, what would it be?
21. What cheered you up most when you were very small and sad?
22. What color eyes do you have?
23. Ever been... arrested? Kid, did they put you in a cell?
24. Red or white? (Wine or grape juice, not political affiliation.)
25. If you won $10,000 today, what would you do with it?
26. What if it was $10,000,000?
27. What should question 27 be? Answer it.
28. Do you believe people can change their personality traits?
29. Favorite thing to do in your spare time?
30. Do you swear oaths? On what?
31. Biggest pet peeve?
32. In one word, how would you describe yourself?

Comments

[barondave.livejournal.com]

13. Favorite musician?

I'll answer this one because a) 13 is my lucky number (sort of) and b) I have had roughly the same answer for a long time.

My favorite female vocalist is Patty Smith.
My favorite female singer is Maddy Prior.
My favorite male vocalist is Dave van Ronk.
While I like many male singers, from Frank Sinatra to Pete Seeger, if I had to pick one it would be Harry Belafonte. I may change my mind...

[reveritas.livejournal.com]

MADDY PRIOR.

So much love for her! But how do you distinguish between singer and vocalist? I'm not a musician, so this might be something every musician knows.

[reveritas.livejournal.com]

4. West Portal. In fact, West Portal is my favorite place to take anyone, at all. If it's early, I take them to brunch at the Squat & Gobble. Later, I like to eat lunch or dinner at Spiazzo, my favorite little Italian restaurant, and then walk the Ave. and stop at the bakery for dessert, and then do a little browsing in the music store and the bookstore. I show them the mosaic over the bank building that says "West Portal Gateway to San Francisco California Mexico Australia Japan" Then I point out where I used to live, and how close it is to the library and the train station, and then I put them on their train back downtown.

If it's someone who's already been to West Portal with me, I take them back. There's always something they haven't tried at the Squat.

17. In the spring: The Golden Gate Park rose garden
18. In the fall: Idaho Springs, Colorado
19. In the winter: Tahoe ski area and at home in San Bruno
27. In the summer: West Portal ...

1. I cook very well and I love to cook. I cook by experimentation: JD says the surefire way to make sure I'll cook something is to ask me if I've ever done it before, and if the answer is no, I'll cook it. But what I make all the time is my pasta puttanesca. I sent gismonda (we went to the Twinkies game) the receipt on the back of a postcard and I can send it to you or whoever else wants it, too. It's truly the best thing ever. Must like anchovies.

24. Sangiovese (red). I'm not picky about wine, but I am the opposite of picky when it comes to Sangiovese, I like them all.

25. Put it toward the house, probably knocking a back door in the guest room.

More soon and of course you don't have to answer them! Now or ever ;)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

The thing about cooking things you've never done before is that timprov has this, and then he makes really good things, and then he's done them before and is not as interested in doing them again. Sigh.

[avitzur.livejournal.com]

1. baklava
3. Singing
4. The Ocean
6. Against Love
7. Millennium
8. How do you spend your days?
9. Snark
10. No
11. Slacklining
12. Cynical and idealistic both at once.
13. Bach
14. I wear bunnie slippers around the house, and keep a spare pair for guests.
15. I never understood a word spoken around me while growing up.
16. No
28. Yes.
29. Walk on ropes.
30. Yes. On my Klingon honor, of course.
32. Silly.

[p-j-cleary.livejournal.com]

3. I wish I could sing well.

6. "Shadowed Summer" by Saundra Mitchell.

9. I pick at my cuticles.

10. Nope!

15. I have perfect pitch, but I can't sing or play an instrument.

22. Green.

25. I'd pay off most of my outstanding debt.

26. I'd do #25, then pay off all the debts of my family and friends and then retire.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

1. Can you cook? What's your best dish (or some of your best dishes)?

Yes. I do a pretty decent meatloaf, and pork lo mein, and beef with black bean sauce, and roast turkey with bread stuffing, and cheese fondue, and chicken with cashews.

2. What was your dream growing up?

Space travel.

3. What talent do you wish you had?

Music, or maybe drawing.

4. What's your most important place to take someone who means a lot to you?

Minicon.

5. Favorite vegetable?

Onions? I like most vegetables well enough, but the concept of having a favorite one just doesn't resonate.

6. What was the last book you read?

Thud Ridge

7. Favorite restaurant?

The Bakery, but it's been closed for years now.

8. Favorite question to ask someone you've just met?

So what do you do?

9. Worst Habit?

Probably better to get other people's opinions on that.

10. Do we know each other outside of lj?

Yes.

11. What is your favorite sport?

I guess table tennis, maybe. Frisbee isn't a sport the way I play it.

12. Negative or Optimistic attitude?

Negative.

13. Favorite musician?

Hmmm. Might be Maddy Prior.

14. This used to be "worst thing to happen to you." I would hear about that later, but not now. Tell me about something about bunnies or duckies or something else stereotypically adorable. Something non-disturbing, please.

Cute fuzzy little ducklings and bunnies, yes! With big trusting eyes, snuggling close.

15. Tell me one weird fact about you:

Hmmm. I've never been paid to do anything I learned to do in a class.

16. Do you have any pets?

Sort of. Naomi thinks I'm hers, I believe.

17. What's your favorite place to be in the spring?

Indoors.

18. In the fall?

Indoors.

19. in the winter?

Indoors.

20. If you could change one thing about how you look at yourself, what would it be?

Hmmm; less realistic?

21. What cheered you up most when you were very small and sad?

No idea.

22. What color eyes do you have?

Blue, I guess.

23. Ever been... arrested? Kid, did they put you in a cell?

No, not even detained.

24. Red or white? (Wine or grape juice, not political affiliation.)

Yes.

25. If you won $10,000 today, what would you do with it?

Pay off debts.

26. What if it was $10,000,000?

Pay off debts, and then devote myself to a life of leisure crime stuff. More travel, more photography, no more convention running (or not much), possibly work on developing open-source software.

27. What should question 27 be? Answer it.

Favorite cuisine? Many; Chinese and Mexican figure prominently. This is not to say that I do not think very highly of some Indian, American, Japanese, and French dishes.

28. Do you believe people can change their personality traits?

Yes.

29. Favorite thing to do in your spare time?

Hang out with friends, take pictures, eat. Oh, or sleep; I seem to do a lot of that, around a third of every day!

30. Do you swear oaths? On what?

I don't think so. Depends what people mean by the phrase.

31. Biggest pet peeve?

Stupid thoughtless people.

32. In one word, how would you describe yourself?

Smart.

[tewok.livejournal.com]

14. One of my pet parrots has learned to say "I'm sorry" and uses it in context. He bites us, he immediately follows it with "I'm sorry!" We bang a hand or stub a toe and say "OW!", we hear a gentle "I'm sorry!" from the other room.

15. I went to Hammerfest because I wanted a hammer from Norway, and I wanted it specifically from Hammerfest.

28. Yes, I have.

[columbina.livejournal.com]

Hm. Thirty-two footsteps leading to the room where the paint doesn't want to dry. I shall attempt brevity. [Inhales].

1. I can cook enough to keep myself alive and no more, with the exception of a few dishes I have learned to cook well just so I have a source for them when I want them (e.g. gumbo). 2. To be a writer for a living. 3. To be able to draw. 4. Wherever that person would like to be taken. 5. Sweet corn less than an hour from the stalk. Runner-up: Real carrots. 6. Unsolved Mysteries of American History, I think the title was. 7. It was called Metro, it served old-school French bistro food, and it doesn't exist anymore. 8. "What would you like to drink?" 9. Misanthropy. 10. Not well enough. 11. Misanthropy. 12. See 11. 13. Depends on the week, but I've been listening to a lot of Cream for the first time lately.

14. The other night I let the cat sleep in the room with me, which he loves but which I do not always allow. He's become a very sound sleeper in his old age. When the alarm went off the next morning, it woke him up and he told it "No!" very distinctly. I mean, it was a cat sound, but it was definitely, "No!" I told him that was my sentiment exactly ....

15. My eyes, as a child, were so mismatched in their nearsightedness that one was legally blind and the other was not far off normal. This is why my glasses always appear to be on my face lopsided in photos from that time, and one of many reasons why I try never to be seen wearing glasses. As I've aged, for various reasons, my eyes have come to be more similar, and now my right eye is only slightly worse than my left one.

16. Two old cats. 17. Out taking a walk. 18. Out taking a walk 19. Burrowed in bed with a cat. 20. It would be easier to say what I wouldn't change. I think I have nice eyes. Oh, wait, did you not mean physically? 21. I don't remember. 22. Blue, tending more to grayish than greenish, if you get what I mean. 23. I have never been put in a cell. I have been a defendant in a court case, though (auto crash in my teenage years). 24. Depends on the food, silly. 25. Save it, or do some major home repairs with it. 26. Do some major home repairs; save the rest. 27. Q: "What should question 27 be? Answer it." A: "What should question 27 be? Answer it." (This question and answer brought to you by Douglas Hofstadter.) 28. I would very much like to believe so. 29. Surf the web; read; watch old movies; play computer games; sleep. Actually that's not the favorites, that's the entire list. 30. I don't swear oaths; I just swear. 31. Idiocy, especially my own. 32. Pseudo-irascible.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Pseudo????

[aedifica]

28. At least sometimes. I know that some traits I have are there because when I was young, I decided that was how I wanted to be. (Deciding to be that way was prompted by things I was reading at the time, which shows the power of a book.)

24. I drink wine so seldom that I can never remember which I prefer. This isn't helped any by the fact that I know I've enjoyed some red wines and some white wines, despite having an overall preference for one or the other if I could remember which.

20. By this point I'm pretty used to myself, so I'm not sure there's anything I'd change about how I look at myself. Used to be, I'd have liked to get rid of the belief that my breasts were too small, but by now I'm used to them being the size they are and so I think the belief has gone away on its own.

16. Yes, three cats with varying amounts of orange and white in their fur color.

12. Mostly optimistic.

5. Zucchini (cooked).

1. Yes, though there are many things I don't know how to cook. I don't eat much meat at home because I don't like working with raw meat, for example. I make very good spaghetti sauce and lentil stew. (I don't demand that anyone else agree; *I* think they're very good, and since I'm nearly always the only one I'm making them for, that's what matters.)

[rosefox]

1) I don't have a "best dish" on the savory end of things, but I think of brownies as being My Thing.

4) Home with me, into my bedroom. The metaphor is obvious (though non-sexual) and apt.

8) "How do you spend your time?" I get much better answers to that than to the more common "What do you do?", which has come to exclusively imply profession.

10) Someday, I hope!

14) Sometimes when my kitten is asleep, I pet her just to hear the "mrr?" sound she makes when she wakes up.

17-19) New York.

20) I wish I could see my back, and the back of my head.

21) I have no idea! Books? Hugs from my mother?

25-26) Split it with my brother (we have a long-standing agreement that we will divide any monies over $100 won in a game of chance, not counting inheritance), pay off my debt, put any remainder in savings, continue living exactly the way I have been except with less money stress.

27) It should be "What should question 27 be?".

28) Of course.

30) When it matters, I prefer to affirm. I will occasionally say "I swear to cats!", but I don't mean it seriously.

31) Erroneous grammar and/or spelling, and grating gender-neutral pronouns.

32) Rarely compliant.

[kightp.livejournal.com]

time on my hands, and since we don't know each other well, I'll take a whack at all 32.

1. Yes. I even foodblog, on occasion: http://marketcook.wordpress.com/

2. In approximately chronological order: a ballerina, a cowgirl, a cow*boy*, an archaeologist, a writer. I managed the last one, although not in the sense that I'd dreamed of.

3. Tapdancing. I've taken classes, but, um, no.

4. The Oregon coast.

5. Whatever's fresh, in season and local. Never met a vegetable I didn't like.

6. I've been unable to read for pleasure for almost seven years due to vision changes. Last audiobook listened to: Barack Obama's Dreams of My Father.

7. Canyon Way Bookstore and Restaurant, overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Newport, Oreg., is high on the list.

8. "What do you do when you aren't earning a living?"

9. Smoking.

10. No, and we've barely met here.

11. Not a big sports fan, though I enjoy a good hockey game every 5-10 years.

12. Optimistic, to a fault.

13. Oh, my, I hate these "pick one favorite" questions. I have eclectic tastes. I tend to listen most to the music I loved in my youth: Leonard Cohen, the Beatles, Joni Mitchell, Eric Clapton... But my collection is much broader than that. Just lately, I've been enjoying Tricky Pixie (http://www.trickypixie.com/) and Gaia Consort (http://gaiaconsort.com/).

14. Rather than tell, allow me to show. My youngest cat, in typical morning mode:
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/kightp/2609689736/)

15. I went to 15 public schools in 13 years.

16. Yes. See answer 14. Also her mother, who is slightly less gooftastic (http://flickr.com/photos/kightp/2565268717/in/set-72157605721579124/)

17. My garden

18. The woods

19. Sitting in front of my fireplace. (Yes, I'm a homebody)

20. Hm. I've mostly made those changes. I'd still like to get more realistic about how much time and energy I have, and learn not to overtax it.

21. Sucking my thumb and reading.

22. Plain old everyday brown.

23. Yes, along with several thousand of my fellow criminals, at the 1972 May Day demonstrations in DC. Otherwise, I've never even had a traffic ticket.

24. Either. I like good wine.

25. Pay off my credit cards.

26. Pay off my mortgage, put some away for retirement and travel, give the rest away.

27. Q. Do you actually enjoy doing these memes? A. Only when I'm bored or trying to avoid doing something else.

28. I believe people can change their behavior, and that behavioral change over the long term can affect personality. But my general observation is that most people don't change so much as they become more like themselves. Which should probably be a warning to us all.

29. Geek out on the Internet. Knit. Sometimes simultaneously.

30. Not really. I sometimes promise, though, and I keep my promises.

31. Malicious gossip.

32. Content

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

What a very fine goofy cat.

[athenais.livejournal.com]

1. Beef stroganoff.

2. To be famous.

4. To drive them the length of I-280. It's so beautiful.

6. Shadow of the Silk Road, Colin Thubron.

9. I talk too much about myself.

11. Baseball.

13. Akiko Suwanai.

17. Spring: gardens everywhere

19. Winter: the desert

21. Acting out stories I made up in the privacy of my bedroom.

24. I dislike wine. I'm not keen on alcohol in general.

25. Buy a new car.

26. Start my own animal rescue center.

28. Oh, you betcha.

29. Travel internationally.

31. Inconsiderate drivers.

[ashnistrike.livejournal.com]

GoogleMaps shows 4 different I-280s (CA, IA, OH, and NJ). Which is yours? (My favorite highway is either I-90 through western Mass or I-80 through PA, particularly the Delaware Water Gap.)

-Nameseeker

[songwind.livejournal.com]

1. I can. I think my best dishes are usually stir-fries. I get good reviews on my turkey, but since I don't like turkey very much....
4. My heart. Sappy, but the truest answer I could think of.
5. Brocolli, hmong bean spouts, or bamboo shoots. Tossup.
6. Last completed Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper.
10. I am sure I've seen you around somewhere. :)
12. I vacillate, but am mostly positive these days.
13. This one is hard for me. There are too many musicians who are too good for different reasons. I think, given my guitar background, that I will go with Stevie Ray Vaughn today.
20. I would learn to keep the things that people like about me foremost in my mind, rather than fixating on what I see as my overwhelming negatives.
30. I don't swear BY anything other than my own conscience. I don't have anything that's more binding by which I'd be willing to swear.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Had you read Over Sea, Under Stone before?

[fidelioscabinet.livejournal.com]

1. Yes; currently, probably bogrács gulyás. Want the recipe? Wait, you probably have one of your own.

5. Asparagus, or very new green peas

6. The New James Beard, which is over 20 years old.

10. No, which you have likely already guessed.

11. Baseball, although I am prepared to be amused by others. I was a basketball statistician when I was in college, but it was a small school in the midwestern US.

12. Cheerfully pessimistic--this way, I'm often pleasantly surprised!

14. My roommate has the Best Dog in the World, East Nashville Mixed Breed division. (Everyone who has a dog has the Best Dog in the World, at least if they have any fondness for the pup, so it has to be broken down into categories--I expect you have the Best Dog in the World, Suburban Twin Cities Poodle Division.)

15. My toes are all pretty much the same length.

16. I have cats. In fact, I have too many cats, including Black-thumbed Jemmy Casey, Pirate cat of the Cumberland, and The Dread Pirate Roberts, AKA Bob the Emo Kitty. Sometimes they review books.

22. Brown.

23. No.

24. Both, but not in the same glass at the same time.

25. Pay off debt and save the rest.

26. The same, buy a house, and contribute more to my father's memorial scholarship fund.

27. Are camellias prettier than azaleas? Yes.

28. No, but I believe that if they can learn to recognize them they can, to some extent, rise above them.

31. I have to choose?

[mechaieh.livejournal.com]

14. My roommate has the Best Dog in the World, East Nashville Mixed Breed division. (Everyone who has a dog has the Best Dog in the World, at least if they have any fondness for the pup, so it has to be broken down into categories

Some might argue that my Abby is also an ENMB, but we always refer to her as a Tennessee Brown Dog instead, and I swear she's part-goat anyhow. Which is to say I've just quashed my initial impulse to contend with your roommate's dog's title. ;-)

[jry.livejournal.com]

1. yes, but I need a recipe. I get good responses to my pizza though my crust bears little resemblance to any other pizza crust I've ever had anywhere much to my annoyance.
3. Making conversation with strangers.
6. Mathematicians in Love by Rudy Rucker. It had its moments.
8. I haven't used it yet, but somewhere someone once suggested "What do you like to talk about?" as a good opener and I've always thought it very fine.
9. Internets.
10. Nope.
12. Negative in the short term, Optimistic in the long.
14. Most nights as I ride my bicycle home from work, small fuzzy bunnies run alongside my bike feinting from side to side trying to decide whether to cut across the trail or dive for the underbrush. When one gets ahead it will usually station itself perpendicular to the trail facing the bushes and when I get close it will snap out of sight as if pulled by a suddenly released rubber band.
15. When I was in college I was known for going barefoot around campus and blowing soap bubbles between classes (usually trying to do the trick where you blow six small bubbles which surround a nearly cubic central space) This is my wife's first memory of me outside the first class we had together, History of Math.
16. One spoiled and neurotic cat named Theo.
23. Not arrested, but had talkings-to from police officers on several occasions.
24. Either, but lean red.
25. Rebuild our garage.
26. Along with the usual things, send anonymous checks to imaginary internet friends in need.
28. Certainly.
29. Read in the sun. Ask again tomorrow and it may be different.
31. Server software applications on Windows that pop up windows with a message and an OK button and refuse to process any more until someone clicks it.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

What is different about your pizza crust?

[stillnotbored.livejournal.com]

I don't have time to answer all of these, so I picked a few.

1. Can you cook?
Yes I can. My mother taught me to cook when I was ten. My favorite thing to do is bake. Cookies, bread, cakes, pies--you name it. There was a time in my life I thought being able to open a bakery would be the best thing in the world.

2. What was your dream growing up?
To be a writer. Working on that. :)

3. What talent do you wish you had?
As much as I love music and as important as it is to me, I wish I could either write music or play an instrument. Not just fool around with either, but be really good at it. Alas, I can't do either.

4. What's your most important place to take someone who means a lot to you?
When I was in California, Muir Woods. I loved the quiet of the redwoods, the smell of the air and the birds. I loved to take people there, especially if they'd never been in a redwood forest before. Here in Ohio, I love to take them to the rose garden at Park of the Roses and for a walk along the river that runs outside my window. Both places are wonderful.

9. Worst Habit?
Not speaking up when someone hurts my feelings.

10. Do we know each other outside of lj?
Yes. :) Alas, we don't get to see each other often.

15. Tell me one weird fact about you:
Weird is a relative term. *g* I grew up thinking that I was German on my father's side of the family. Moyer is a very German name, so it was a natural assumption. Then I started doing family history research, trying to find my grandfather and trace his family. I discovered that my grandfather was adopted by his stepfather at the age of two, along with his brother and sister. This was back before Arizona was a state and was still a territory.

It was a true soap opera too, a scandal in the little town my great-grandmother lived in. It involved acquisitions of being a harlot, being run off my great-grandfather's land with a gun and a sheriff's posse having to get her children back for her. And--wait for it--it turns out I'm Irish on that side of the family as well. Kind of explains some of my temper.... *g*

16. Do you have any pets?
The infamous warrior kjittens, Morgan Miranda and Gillian Paul. A combined 15 pounds of trouble.

25. If you won $10,000 today, what would you do with it?
Go to Ireland, Scotland and Wales and see castles.

26. What if it was $10,000,000?
Oh, I have dreams for money like that.

Right after I got back for that trip to Ireland, Scotland and Wales, I'd buy a big piece of land someplace beautiful. Trees and a river and enough open meadow for a couple horsed and dogs to run. I'd build a series of small houses, each with one or two bedrooms, a kitchen, bath, the full house experience. There would be a big community space/house too, for gatherings and workshops.

Then I'd start gathering writers and poets to live there for as long as they wanted or needed. We could hold a yearly retreat as well in the big community house for people who just wanted to visit or have a quiet place to get away and write. I figure there would be permanent residents and people who come and go. The important part would be having their own space to retreat to and still having other people around when they wanted them.

A writer's castle, log cabin style.

[lydy.livejournal.com]

1. Can you cook? What's your best dish (or some of your best dishes)?

Kind of. I like my Rogan Josh the best, but David is tired of it.

2. What was your dream growing up?

To be a science fiction writer.

3. What talent do you wish you had?

Fiction writing.


4. What's your most important place to take someone who means a lot to you?

A science fiction convention.

5. Favorite vegetable?

Artichoke? Hard to say. I don't love eggplant, that's about the only vegetable that I am not fond of.

6. What was the last book you read?

Trying to read Ink and Steel. Before that, Extras

7. Favorite restaurant?

Tejas from 15 years or more ago. It's not the same.

9. Worst Habit?

Procrastination.

10. Do we know each other outside of lj?

Yes.

11. What is your favorite sport?

Pairs ice skating. Ice Dance comes in a close second. Figure skating in general.

12. Negative or Optimistic attitude?

Negative.

14. This used to be "worst thing to happen to you." I would hear about that later, but not now. Tell me about something about bunnies or duckies or something else stereotypically adorable. Something non-disturbing, please.

My cat Arwen likes to sit on me for extended length of time. She lets me rest a hand on her body, even after I've stopped scritching her.

15. Tell me one weird fact about you:

Sometimes it seems like everything about me is weird.

16. Do you have any pets?

One and a half. Arwen is mine for sure, and Naomi is mine in that I feed her and take her to the vet and clip her claws. But David is her person.

17. What's your favorite place to be in the spring?

I'm with David. Indoors.

18. In the fall?

Indoors.

19. in the winter?

Indoors.

20. If you could change one thing about how you look at yourself, what would it be?

I would be able to envision a flattering hair style.

21. What cheered you up most when you were very small and sad?

Books.

22. What color eyes do you have?

Very brown.

23. Ever been... arrested? Kid, did they put you in a cell?

Nope, fortunately.

24. Red or white? (Wine or grape juice, not political affiliation.)

Red wine, definitely.

25. If you won $10,000 today, what would you do with it?

Pay off debt.

26. What if it was $10,000,000?

Pay off debt, never work again.


28. Do you believe people can change their personality traits?

Yes.

29. Favorite thing to do in your spare time?

These days, read blogs. Or books, depending on whether I'm in a good book.

30. Do you swear oaths? On what?

I cuss a lot. Other than that, I occasionally promise things.

31. Biggest pet peeve?

Incorrectly used apostrophes and quote marks.

32. In one word, how would you describe yourself?

Better ask someone else that knows me better.

[marydell.livejournal.com]

1. Can you cook? What's your best dish (or some of your best dishes)?

Barely. Steamed rice & salmon with bottled stir-fry sauce.

2. What was your dream growing up?

Some sort of academic career. When I was 24 I discovered that was someone else's dream, and started over.

4. What's your most important place to take someone who means a lot to you?

My home.

5. Favorite vegetable?

Asparagus

6. What was the last book you read?
Black Candle: Poems About Women from India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh by Chitra Divakaruni

7. Favorite restaurant?
Fogo de Chao in Chicago. This is one of those Brazilian places where handsome young men bring skewers of meat to your table for as long as you can stand it.

10. Do we know each other outside of lj?

We met briefly at Fourth Street Fantasy, but have mainly gotten acquainted via LJ since.

14. Tell me about something about bunnies or duckies or something else stereotypically adorable.

Here's (http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3583/3292080106_829bce39b5.jpg) a picture of Charlie outfitted for the current weather conditions. Fun fact about him: he was born the Saturday I was at 4th street (unbeknownst to me), so you and all the other great people I met there, and the positive mojo I acquired there, are part of our family story.

15. Tell me one weird fact about you:
I am descended from one of the judges who condemned Mary I of Scotland.

20. If you could change one thing about how you look at yourself, what would it be?

The fatness.

21. What cheered you up most when you were very small and sad?

Time spent with my dad or my favorite brother.

28. Do you believe people can change their personality traits?

Maybe

29. Favorite thing to do in your spare time?

Surf the internets.

30. Do you swear oaths? On what?

As needed. A bible.

32. In one word, how would you describe yourself?

Intense.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Winter Charlieeeeeee!

Funny thing about the intense. I went up to register for my first semester of college classes, and I had all sorts of ideas on what I wanted. They had us set up to register two students with one faculty member, and it was me and my future ex-boyfriend and my advisor DCH. And the future ex-boyfriend says, "Wow, you're kind of intense about this," and the advisor says, "She's intense about everything."

This was very interesting to me, so I went home and said to scottjames, "Did you know some people think I'm intense?"

Last I checked he was still sort of chuckling under his breath at me over this. And the story took place in the summer of '95.

woot.

[daharyn.livejournal.com]

2. To be a lab scientist.

4. Probably the UN.

5. Broccoli.

9. biting my nails. I'm compulsive.

12. Well, I generally have a fairly negative attitude, it's true. But I am trying to renegotiate that.

16. I have Fay, the super-awesome, super-ornery small grey kitty, aged 5.

22. Blue.

24. White with most dinners, red when getting tipsy with friends

25. OMG pay off my undergrad loans!

26. Pay off my undergrad loans, buy myself a place to live and furnish it, set up an annuity for myself and my friends.

28. Some people can change some of their traits some of the time, with hard work and dedication.

29. Watch DVDs.

32. Growing.

[prettymuchpeggy.livejournal.com]

1. Can you cook? Yes. What's your best dish (or some of your best dishes)? My favorite of my best dishes is macaroni and cheese (at least three cheeses). Otherwise it is creative leftover stir fry. I know friends would have other answers.
2. What was your dream growing up? to be a mom...white picket fence so to speak -or- a dancer
3. What talent do you wish you had? any situation social skills & *
4. What's your most important place to take someone who means a lot to you? Winnipeg
5. Favorite vegetable? As a treat - Asparagus; on a day to day basis - mushrooms
6. What was the last book you read? Onion Girl (ok, this is last book of which I remember(off the top of my head) the title, but I know it is not the last book.)
7. Favorite restaurant? Khyber Pass
8. Favorite question to ask someone you've just met? " What music do you like?"
9. Worst Habit? Not letting go.
10. Do we know each other outside of lj? yes
11. What is your favorite sport? ballroom dancing
12. Negative or Optimistic attitude? depends on the situation (I often refer to myself as an optimistic curmudgeon.)
13. Favorite musician? Paul Simon
14. Tell me about something about bunnies or duckies or something else stereotypically adorable. When I was about 8 years old, I woke up and the whole of the back yard was carpeted in Monarch butterflies. A very magical experience.
15. Tell me one weird fact about you: I love vinegar.
16. Do you have any pets? yes, one, a long skinny fluffy cat with a long tail
17. What's your favorite place to be in the spring? Any place I can watch ice melting.
18. In the fall? Folk Alliance Midwest Gathering - music, friends, fall colors - what could be better? (Haven't been in a while and I miss it.)
19. in the winter? Any warm place where I am with friends.
20. If you could change one thing about how you look at yourself, what would it be? I would be the shiny sort of beautiful all the time.
21. What cheered you up most when you were very small and sad? Being held and cooed over.
22. What color eyes do you have? hazel under-toned with gold, green and brown.
23. Ever been... arrested? Kid, did they put you in a cell? nope
24. Red or white? (Wine or grape juice, not political affiliation.) White.
25. If you won $10,000 today, what would you do with it? pay off my debts
26. What if it was $10,000,000? pay off my debts, buy a house, put out an cd or two, travel (with friends), set myself up for a good retirement, pay for the post secondary education of my nieces & nephews and consider a business.
27. What should question 27 be? Answer it. As an adult what is your dream as you keep growing? To have the respect of my musical peers.
28. Do you believe people can change their personality traits? yes. It takes a lot to form a new rut, but it can be done.
29. Favorite thing to do in your spare time? Depends on my mood - assorted couch potato-ness (including video gaming) or song writing or web surfing or cooking or stretching & meditation or a good long hot bath or reading.
30. Do you swear oaths? yes On what? my honor
31. Biggest pet peeve? being cut off in traffic.
32. In one word, how would you describe yourself? caring (because it describes me as well as "multi-faceted" which is the word I gave timprov.)

{*I wish the I could edit, too!!}

[mechaieh.livejournal.com]

1. deviled eggs
2. to live in a large city
3. to ignore people behaving badly, to not sink to their level, and to be more articulate on my feet (or hell, with my feet, for that matter)
4. my home
5. green beans, when not overcooked. My threshold of "done" is way lower than most of the South's, though.
6. still meandering through Roy Blount Jr's Feet on the Street
7. Favorite restaurant? Sweet 16th Bakery
9. Worst Habit? procrastination
10. Do we know each other outside of lj? yes
12. Optimistic
14. Tell me about something about bunnies or duckies or something else stereotypically adorable. Something non-disturbing, please. I was going to mention the Peeps diorama (http://magazine.uchicago.edu/0902/every_issue/lite.shtml) contest at my alma mater, but I think that qualifies as disturbing.
15. Tell me one weird fact about you: The three last dreams I remember involved FAKE (a manga series), the Chicago Manual of Style, and a reunion in a grubby non-existent restaurant.
16. Do you have any pets? Per above exchange with fidelioscabinet, I live with the Best Dog in the World, East Nashville Tennessee Brown Dog Division.

25. If you won $10,000 today, what would you do with it?
rainy-day account

26. What if it was $10,000,000?
shore up rainy-day/retirement accounts
splurge on more sheep (http://www.heifer.org/site/c.edJRKQNiFiG/b.2664267/)
pay off mortgage
commission some compositions and a ballet

28. Do you believe people can change their personality traits? yes

30. Do you swear oaths? Not since I stopped working as a poll official, but I blaspheme frequently.

32. In one word, how would you describe yourself? makar (in the old Scottish sense). I plan to donate my body to Vanderbilt and then to be cremated and deposited in my church columbarium, so there isn't a headstone in my plans, but if there were to be one, I'd want it to say "makar and macher" (Yiddish for woman who gets stuff done - not always complimentary, but nonetheless a key part of my identity).

addendum to #25

[mechaieh.livejournal.com]

Custom bras. [rant about current lingerie redacted]

[redbird]

3. Cucumber.
10. Yes, but I think we met here first.
24. White grape juice, red politically.
28. Some people, some traits, but it takes time and practice.
30. No, I don't limit truth-telling to times when I've called a deity to witness. I think the Quakers have the right idea here.

[redbird]

14. How about a sea otter with a video camera?

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Best thing.

[mackatlaw.livejournal.com]

I can cook, though do so rarely, unless working with others. On my own, I simply prepare food or eat simple ingredients, like peanut butter and jelly or spaghetti. My best dish is probably an Indian potato and vegetable one that I learned from a friend of mine, who grew up in South India. I haven't made it in years, though.

2. Probably to be a Jedi or superhero. I didn't say it was a realistic dream.

3. Singing. I try, but I don't have the ability to hold a tune that I would like to have. I still love to raise my voice in song, though.

4. My parents' house.

5. Probably the tomato. It's the source of so many great tasting sauces, stews, soups, pizza, and is yummy just by itself.

6. Stalin's Ghost, by Martin Cruz Smith, a murder mystery set in Moscow.

7. Favorite restaurant?

Taj India. I love Indian food.

8. Favorite question to ask someone you've just met?

What books have you read lately?

9. Worst Habit?

Oversleeping.

10. Do we know each other outside of lj?

No, but I'd love to meet you.

11. What is your favorite sport?

Running. I'm not much on watching sports, but I used to love running track and cross-country in junior high and high school. The tendonitis got too bad in my senior year for me to continue much afterwards, though, though I tried. Maybe I'll give it another shot and see if I can keep my hamstrings from aching so much.

12. Despite what one might think, I am an optimistic. I keep hoping that things will work out. I do plead, though, that the glass is neither half full or half empty, but simply half. That's the Zen in me.

13. Bob Dylan without a doubt, though Bruce Springsteen is a close second.

14. Best thing to happen to me: going to law school. It was such a growth experience.

15. Tell me one weird fact about you:

I listen very carefully to what people say, unless I'm distracted by something else.

16. Do you have any pets?

Yes. He is a short-haired tabby cat named Beowulf.

17. What's your favorite place to be in the spring?

No particular preference, but it's nice to be outside.

18. In the fall?

In the South, where I can see the leaves change color.

19. in the winter?

I would love to be in San Francisco or Berkeley, but there's no one left to visit.

20. If you could change one thing about how you look at yourself, what would it be?

I honestly don't know. I'm pretty good at changing myself; it's objective reality outside that trips me up.

21. What cheered you up most when you were very small and sad?

Playing with G.I. Joes and pretending they were superheroes.

22. What color eyes do you have?

Green.

23. Nope. People who have been arrested have trouble becoming an attorney!

24. I like all sorts of grape juice, and I'll sip wine of either type, but I don't really drink much for a number of reasons.

25. If you won $10,000 today, what would you do with it?

Pay a portion of my immense law school student loan debt.

26. What if it was $10,000,000?

Pay all my debts, travel, help my friends, get involved in some charities, devote my time to practicing law without being bound by the need to make a living, choosing the cases that I want to.

27. What should question 27 be? Answer it.

Favorite fantasy? Being a hero and standing up for what I believe in.

28. Do you believe people can change their personality traits?

People can change, but they have to really want to.

29. Favorite thing to do in your spare time?

Read, walk, play on the Internet, play chess, eat out, sing, listen to music, see my friends.

30. Do you swear oaths? On what?

I try not to swear, or at least not sacrilegious oaths. (God might take offense; I don't want to risk it.) I don't mind the other ones.

31. Biggest pet peeve?

Saying "Have a good one," when there was nothing wrong with "have a nice day."

32. In one word, how would you describe yourself?

Stubborn.

[fmi-agent.livejournal.com]

14. My cat is sitting perched next to me.

16. See #14.

27. This question reminds me of a joke a professor told me. A pilgrim climbs to the top of a mountain to talk to the world's wisest man, who grants him one question. The pilgrim asks: "O wise man, what is the best question I can ask you, along with its attendant answer?" The world's wisest man replies: "The best question is the one you just asked, and the answer is the one I just gave you."

So, I guess, Question 27 should be the one you asked, and its answer should be the one I just gave you :)

28. I find myself wanting there to be a scientific answer to this question. The answer could be "no" in that, in order for some aspect to be worthy of being called a "trait," it has to be unchangeable. With that said, I'd like to believe it's possible anyway.

[fmi-agent.livejournal.com]

Going back through previous responses more carefully, I see I'm not the first to answer #27 the way I did. I feel less clever now! ;)

[guipago.livejournal.com]

12. Negative or Optimistic attitude?

Hrm, realistic? I don't tend to overshoot, but I don't like to underestimate either. I'm twisted.

21. What cheered you up most when you were very small and sad?

Critters. They always know how to make you smile.

32. In one word, how would you describe yourself?

Searching