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1. What are your first and middle names? William Raphael. I've gone by Ray since I was in 5th grade. It's fun to watch teachers read the name off the roster, then say "I go by Ray." They _always_ look at me like, "How'd you get Ray from William???"
2. When you were a kid, did you wish you were named something else? I must have. I've been told all about how, at age 6, I suddenly declared that my name was, henceforth, to be Riddle. That apparently only lasted 6 months, but it seems that I was pretty insistant. Then, in 4th grade, after being "Bill" or "Billy" for 10 years, my teacher relabeled me "William". She had four of us in the class, so one of them, she labeled "billy", one became "bill" and one was "Will". When I went to 5th grade, I changed schools, and having realized that my name wasn't really cast in stone, I changed my name as well, to "Ray", which I've been ever since, with the following exceptions: my siblings and parents still call me "Billy" a lot, and my own family call me "Poppy". "Poppy" is not a title, it's my name. That's Joy's fault, but there isn't enough room here to tell every name story! I was also called "Gideon" for a while, but that was embarassing: no one likes to admit that they remind someone of a stuffed alligator.
3. What is your favorite national pizza chain? My favorite pizza _type_ is New York style: thin crust, mix of cheeses and spices, thin sauce. There is no national chain that does that edibly (Papa Gino's might be the closest, but it's... well, indigestible, by me.)
4. How many pairs of shoes do you own? Shoes? SHOES? Who in their right mind expects a man to number his shoes? I have, when I can find them, sandles, which I seem to share with everyone else, and galoshes I never wear, and totes, which hardly count (and don't actually fit over my only real shoes.) What I can identify as "my shoes" are the Dr. Scholl's "Michael" model, which are all I will admit to: they have double velcro'd straps, and even someone with a back like mine can get feet into them and fasten them without too much misery. Shoes with ties, well, don't even ask.
5. What is one TV show you’ve seen at least one episode of, but you can’t stand? If you eliminate all the episodic shows on broadcast TV today (they all fit into one of the following unacceptable categories: trite, stupid, over-the-edge sex or gross violence or both, or just down right boring) there's nothing left. I hated "McKeever and the Colonel", because it replaced an evening cartoon in the early '60's that had a similar name, but was funny, clever, and aimed at adults. (another soap box: cartoon people, learn from Rocky and Bullwinkle: aim at the parents, the children will come along, and might benefit from it. Aim for the kids, and all you're doing is selling out to commercialism.) Anyway, since you can count on the fingers of one hand the TV shows that had episodes that I really liked, it's fair to say that it'd take all day to enumerate the answers to this question.
6. What’s your favorite cereal? Fruit loops. They're bad for me, I think I'm allergic to something in them (my mouth gets raw if I dare eat them) and I'm very in danger of becoming addicted to them. They're not good for me, so I don't eat them. (Used to be sugar pops, but they are worse for my allergies.)
7. Would you rather have temperatures above 100º or below 30º? Who would _rather_ be miserable? If I can have good warm outer garments, colder than 30 degrees F isn't too bad. If I can have a personal air-conditioner system, over 100F wouldn't be so bad either.
On the other paw, if the degrees here are Celcius, the answer is much easier: Under 30 degrees, but not a lot. (That's room temperature!) If it's Kelvin, wayyyyy over 100, like around 297 degrees, thanks!
8. What is the best concert you’ve ever been to? I've been to a _lot_ of concerts, and few of you will have any sympathy for the music in them. I have no clue what criteria I would judge a concert to be best, but a few of my favorite: The New York Philharmonic playing in the shell at Prospect Park in the summer evenings back in the 60's; The New York Pro Musica playing Renaissance music in Plattsburgh in the 70's;The last really great concert I went to was Meneham Pressler (the pianist whose name Deb can't remember) of the Beaux Arts Trio at Jorgensen Auditorium on the UCONN Storrs campus.
9. Do you have a college degree? I do! Two of them! and now I'm on to get another!!!!!! <-see what Terry Pratchett has to say about people who use more than four exclamation points!
10. What state is home to you? Connecticut. I was born in New York, a state I'm glad I'm not in now.
11. What is your favorite physical feature (of yours)? My hands. I can make beautiful music with them.......
12. Do you believe God created the universe? I do. It is logical, sensible, supported by the evidence, and not nearly so hard on a person's belief as evolution of man from "the primordial broth" or chimpanzee ancestors or whatever. Once you know God, by the way, it's not even much of a leap of faith to believe He created the universe, but a much harder one to believe anything else could have, even as an unsaved person!
13. What is your very favorite outfit in your closet? Deb's T-shirt dress. No, not for me to wear. I couldn't care less about what clothes I have in the closet, as long as they don't embarass Deb when I wear 'em to work!
14. Have you ever bought anything on Ebay? If so, what? A few things, mostly after long research, careful study of similar auctions, and well-planned sniping. Some of them are: my notebook computer (and Melody's and Pam's, both of which are better than mine); both of my pocket slide rules; a Washburn "bantam" six-string bass; computer memory (all very successful, so far); and Cello instruction books for Deb.
15. What was your favorite book series when you were a kid? The Hobbit/The Lord of The Rings. I read them while listening to Mozart's 40th symphony, the last 3 Brandenburgh Concertos, Bach's first two violin and harpsichord concertos, Mozart's overature to "The Impresario" and Les Preludes, the former making a seque into the latter that is so perfect that for weeks I thought they were all one piece. Now, if I hear the music, I see Middle Earth. (Oddly, when I read LOTR to Hope, I don't hear the music!)
16. Can you speak any languages other than English?
OWEN: What I really need is a droid that understands the binary language of moisture vaporators.
THREEPIO: Vaporators! Sir - My first job was programming binary load lifter...very similar to your vaporators. You could say...
OWEN: Do you speak Bocce?
THREEPIO: Of course I can, sir. It's like a second language for me...I'm as fluent in Bocce...
well, Bocce is a Ball.
Anyway, I am actually fluent in a handful of programming languages, or at least I was as recently as 5 years ago. I took french and latin in school, and can't do much better than pidgeon in either language. And I've been accused (by the Russians at work) of being a master of The King's English, but really it's just the Senator's American, or some such.
On the other hand, I can read and understand electronics articles and journals in Italian, French, German and Spanish, and music articles and essays in medieval and modern German, French, Italian and Middle English, most of the time. Utterly unmarketable skill, lemme tell you.
17. Do you like sweet tea? I haven't had it. Deb says it has way too much sugar. We'd probably be friends, to my detriment.
18. What’s your favorite vegetable? cherry tomatos, maybe.
19. What age seems old to you right now? 53. (I'm 54.)
20. What is your biggest pet peeve? People who mistake the joy of building for the easy thrill of breaking down. Yes, you may be able to destroy something big, but the act will never equal that of the ones who built it in the first place.
21. If someone gave you $1,000 and told you that you had to spend it all within 24 hours, what would you buy? If I didn't stop and think about it, I'd probably waste it. That is my nature. If I thought about it, that gutter helmet sounds awfully good to me, Deb! But what I'd probably do is give it to UCONN as part of my Fee Bill payment, before they finish processing my active-military-during-the-VietNam-Confl
22. What was your first car? 73 Volkswagon bug grody orange standard. Big steering wheel . Slightly larger back window
23. When did you last climb a tree? I don't think I can honestly say I _every_ climbed a tree. I did go about a quarter-way up one to rescue Deb when we were dating, though. I still suspect she pretended to be stuck so I could Be A Hero.
24. What is the last movie you saw in a movie theater? Iron Man! Great movie, must see in the Theatre, if you still can!
25. Have you ever been on TV? I've been on television many times. My father was a TV repairman, and he had 'em all around in his shop. Sometimes, when I'd watch the phone for him while he was out on service calls, I'd spread a van-quilt over one to sit on while watching the screen of 3 others...oh, not like that, eh? Well, my brother Jim and I played folk music and were taped and rebroadcast on Channel 5 (Plattsburgh) on a country-and-western show. I've marched in the Chicago Thanksgiving Day Parade (1973). Jim and I were playing for a campaign reception for George McGovern's candidacy in 1968, and we ended up on TV for about 2 minutes. Without sound. Since, I've been on closed-circuit TV quite a few times, including while on the USS GUam. It's not as thrilling as it might seem.
26. What is your favorite website to visit when you’re bored? When I'm bored? When is that??? (ok, blog.makezine.com)
27. Do you usually cheer for the underdog? If I stand up, I'm right as rain, but when I bend over, there's a Stabbing pain! Oh...not that Underdog? Yeah, I usually do cheer for the underdog. But I'll cheer for the Patriots even when they aren't the underdog.
28. What book(s) are you currently reading? One on calculus and analytic jommetry. One on basso continuo realization. One on chaotic electronic circuits. And I've got a Garth Nix book that PJ loaned to me which I got half-way through and bogged during the last semester. I wonder if I'll ever go back to it.
29. How many versions of Pride & Prejudice have you seen? 1 but I read it too (and when I read, I see, so maybe that makes it 2?)
30. What’s your favorite thing to cook? Pasta in its many and variegated forms!! Yea!
31. Have you ever regularly watched any Star Trek? OH yea. I watched all the old generation episodes when they first came out (We'd go over to Tom and Jerry's house, no less, to see it on a color TV, because the cobbler's kids run barefoot in the street.) Then TNG was a family party sort of thing. We watched Voyager the same way, but in reruns. And Enterprise was a family thing until they got into the need to have T'pork smear stuff on Trip('n'fall) while he did vs. versa on screen, etc etc.
32. What color are the sheets on your bed right now? Invisible. I sweated 'em out last night. Sorry, Deb!
33. What is one food you refuse to eat? Bell Peppers. I'm so allergic to them I have reactions if someone cuts into one in the same room.
34. How do you take your coffee? rarely, and with too much sugar and by preference, half-and-half.
35. Do you floss your teeth every day? (hangs head) no, ma'am. I'll try to do better. Maybe.
36. Which countries have you been to? uhn. There are a lot of long-list questions in this survey. Lessee:
Canada
the Phillippines
Spane
France
Italy
England
Palma Di Majorca (which acts like it's a country)
Trieste (which is about the size of Palma, but really _is_ a country!)
I have also been at station off the border of Greece and walked the borders of Roumania (back when it was Roumania) and Austria. Oh yea, and I've been in Tokyo for a 3-hour layover, so Japan too. kinda.
37. Are you good with directions? I'm good with my GPS!
38. Which operating system is on your computer? Windows Vista Business and WindowsXP Tablet. Potentially, Ubuntu as well, either via puppy, DSL or a virtual machine. Aren't virtual machines neat?
39. Do you get along well with your parents? Yes and no? It's not like any of us hate the other, but I haven't actually spoken with my mother in almost a decade, and I guess I'm on good communication terms with my father, even if he thinks I'm a religious fanatic.
40. Is it “pop”, “soda”, “coke”, “fizzy”, or something else entirely? I grew up in Plattsburgh, where it was "soda", but with parents from Brooklyn and near Cleveland, so I have always been aware of "pop" and what "soda" really is.
41. What’s your favorite unhealthy fast food chain, and your typical order there? I'm trying to be good and not _have_ a favorite unhealthy fast food chain! But if forced, I think it'd be a tossup between Taco Bell (hard tacos, been burritos and the occasional leGrande) and KFC (their $2 2piece with biskkit!)
42. How many presidential elections have you voted in? All of them since the one Nixon won. (I actually voted against him. I was a liberal then. I'm not now.)
43. Does the idea of wearing clothes someone else has worn gross you out? No. Should it?
44. What is one product you can’t live without? Neutrogena shampoo and soap. I can live without them, but with misery. (I suppose I could have been more honest and said Ibuprofin, or Norvasc. Life would be more continuously uncomfortable without IB, and without Norvasc (and my other BP meds) I might just not be able to live. But that's depressing realistic, so I'll stick with the hypoallergenic soap and shampoo.)
45. Do you have cable/satellite TV? Radio Shack's best broadcast-receiving antenna. It's probably 10' short of where it'll have to be for us to get any 'real' TV after February. 8^(
46. How many kids do you want? All of mine. Possibly all of yours, if you're one of mine, too!
47. On a date would you rather have a casual picnic on the beach or a fancy dinner at a romantic restaurant?
I like romantic dinners at restaurants, but I'd take the picnic because Deb prefers them. Just one thing...please, no seagulls!
48. What is your favorite Christmas tradition? Gramma Fisher Fudge!
49. Have you ever met anyone in person that you first met online? Yup. I was a Harper on PernMUSH, and was invited to be guest-of-honor at 5con, a sci-fi fantasy convention at Smith College for the Pern gather, where I met some of the people I'd RPd with. It was OK, but not something I'd go that far out of my way to do again. I took Joy, who was quite young at the time, and she brought the firelizards she'd made out of chenille stems to sell. She was more popular than I was, as guest of honor, which I thought was really great!
50. How many hours of sleep do you get on an average night? Hard question. I sometimes sleep very well, and often don't. I go to bed about when Deb does, but I get up between 5:20 and 5:40, so it amounts to an average of 6 to 7.5 hours _in bed_. This morning, for instance, I woke up at 4, and lay awake for an hour. What kind of sleep is that? feh. So my answer should probably be "more than I would without the Cpap machine, less than I need." Wait until school starts in the fall!
51. Who do you miss the most right now? Melody. I also am missing Ike and Bethany, 'cause when Mel comes back she and Deb are going to take Jesse down to FL to Word of Life and visit with them, but I won't get to go because I'll already be in school again.
52. What is the most expensive thing you’ve ever purchased (not counting education, cars and houses)? Darn. Education _is_ the most expensive thing I've ever purchased. And, oddly, not because of the dollar cost: scholarships and CT's tuition waiver have made that far less burdensome. But the strain of working full time and attending college full time, with the accompanying fears of not being Able To Do It Anymore because I'm an old fart, and Surety That I Can't Do It because I've had to drop two horrible attempts my junior college made at Calc Based Physics, cost dearly in exhaustion, lack-of-time-with-Deb-and-the-kids, and sanity.
Next to that, nothing is very expensive.
53. What's your favorite board/card/party game? Monopoly, especially with Isaac!
54. Are you a vegetarian? Good Heavens, no!
56. Would you rather have Oreos or Nutter Butters? Oreos. Nutter bars are... well, peanut butter and artificial cookie. And to be honest, it's Sunshine Hydrox for me!
57. What is your favorite perfume/cologne? I really don't have a favorite. Well, maybe: the scent of Dry Idea's Unscented deoderant works for me! My favorite smell, though, has got to be baking bread!
58. Would you ever get a tattoo? Nope. No point in it.
59. What is the lowest price you ever remember gas being per gallon? I clearly remember it being 29cents a gallon, but I'm pretty sure the memory isn't valid.
60. Have you ever been in a wedding (other than yours)? Too many years of playing music for weddings to think about all of them. I was best man for a friend from the Navy, which meant travelling to Oakland and getting to accompany his future wife to the eye doctor's to get her new glass eye.
61. Do you ever drink alcohol? yes, but I'm not really an alcohol drinker.
62. What's the weirdest thing you've ever eaten? Steak and kidney pie. go figger. (OK, I've eaten octopus, too, which was gross and unnecessary, but not really weird.)
63. What is your favorite CD ever? My favorite recording ever never made it to CD. My favorite CD's right now are Piffaro's: Odhecaton, Flemish Masters and German music. Good stuff!
64. When do you usually go to bed? Right after I tuck Hope!
I did it! I'm done!!!!
2. When you were a kid, did you wish you were named something else? I must have. I've been told all about how, at age 6, I suddenly declared that my name was, henceforth, to be Riddle. That apparently only lasted 6 months, but it seems that I was pretty insistant. Then, in 4th grade, after being "Bill" or "Billy" for 10 years, my teacher relabeled me "William". She had four of us in the class, so one of them, she labeled "billy", one became "bill" and one was "Will". When I went to 5th grade, I changed schools, and having realized that my name wasn't really cast in stone, I changed my name as well, to "Ray", which I've been ever since, with the following exceptions: my siblings and parents still call me "Billy" a lot, and my own family call me "Poppy". "Poppy" is not a title, it's my name. That's Joy's fault, but there isn't enough room here to tell every name story! I was also called "Gideon" for a while, but that was embarassing: no one likes to admit that they remind someone of a stuffed alligator.
3. What is your favorite national pizza chain? My favorite pizza _type_ is New York style: thin crust, mix of cheeses and spices, thin sauce. There is no national chain that does that edibly (Papa Gino's might be the closest, but it's... well, indigestible, by me.)
4. How many pairs of shoes do you own? Shoes? SHOES? Who in their right mind expects a man to number his shoes? I have, when I can find them, sandles, which I seem to share with everyone else, and galoshes I never wear, and totes, which hardly count (and don't actually fit over my only real shoes.) What I can identify as "my shoes" are the Dr. Scholl's "Michael" model, which are all I will admit to: they have double velcro'd straps, and even someone with a back like mine can get feet into them and fasten them without too much misery. Shoes with ties, well, don't even ask.
5. What is one TV show you’ve seen at least one episode of, but you can’t stand? If you eliminate all the episodic shows on broadcast TV today (they all fit into one of the following unacceptable categories: trite, stupid, over-the-edge sex or gross violence or both, or just down right boring) there's nothing left. I hated "McKeever and the Colonel", because it replaced an evening cartoon in the early '60's that had a similar name, but was funny, clever, and aimed at adults. (another soap box: cartoon people, learn from Rocky and Bullwinkle: aim at the parents, the children will come along, and might benefit from it. Aim for the kids, and all you're doing is selling out to commercialism.) Anyway, since you can count on the fingers of one hand the TV shows that had episodes that I really liked, it's fair to say that it'd take all day to enumerate the answers to this question.
6. What’s your favorite cereal? Fruit loops. They're bad for me, I think I'm allergic to something in them (my mouth gets raw if I dare eat them) and I'm very in danger of becoming addicted to them. They're not good for me, so I don't eat them. (Used to be sugar pops, but they are worse for my allergies.)
7. Would you rather have temperatures above 100º or below 30º? Who would _rather_ be miserable? If I can have good warm outer garments, colder than 30 degrees F isn't too bad. If I can have a personal air-conditioner system, over 100F wouldn't be so bad either.
On the other paw, if the degrees here are Celcius, the answer is much easier: Under 30 degrees, but not a lot. (That's room temperature!) If it's Kelvin, wayyyyy over 100, like around 297 degrees, thanks!
8. What is the best concert you’ve ever been to? I've been to a _lot_ of concerts, and few of you will have any sympathy for the music in them. I have no clue what criteria I would judge a concert to be best, but a few of my favorite: The New York Philharmonic playing in the shell at Prospect Park in the summer evenings back in the 60's; The New York Pro Musica playing Renaissance music in Plattsburgh in the 70's;The last really great concert I went to was Meneham Pressler (the pianist whose name Deb can't remember) of the Beaux Arts Trio at Jorgensen Auditorium on the UCONN Storrs campus.
9. Do you have a college degree? I do! Two of them! and now I'm on to get another!!!!!! <-see what Terry Pratchett has to say about people who use more than four exclamation points!
10. What state is home to you? Connecticut. I was born in New York, a state I'm glad I'm not in now.
11. What is your favorite physical feature (of yours)? My hands. I can make beautiful music with them.......
12. Do you believe God created the universe? I do. It is logical, sensible, supported by the evidence, and not nearly so hard on a person's belief as evolution of man from "the primordial broth" or chimpanzee ancestors or whatever. Once you know God, by the way, it's not even much of a leap of faith to believe He created the universe, but a much harder one to believe anything else could have, even as an unsaved person!
13. What is your very favorite outfit in your closet? Deb's T-shirt dress. No, not for me to wear. I couldn't care less about what clothes I have in the closet, as long as they don't embarass Deb when I wear 'em to work!
14. Have you ever bought anything on Ebay? If so, what? A few things, mostly after long research, careful study of similar auctions, and well-planned sniping. Some of them are: my notebook computer (and Melody's and Pam's, both of which are better than mine); both of my pocket slide rules; a Washburn "bantam" six-string bass; computer memory (all very successful, so far); and Cello instruction books for Deb.
15. What was your favorite book series when you were a kid? The Hobbit/The Lord of The Rings. I read them while listening to Mozart's 40th symphony, the last 3 Brandenburgh Concertos, Bach's first two violin and harpsichord concertos, Mozart's overature to "The Impresario" and Les Preludes, the former making a seque into the latter that is so perfect that for weeks I thought they were all one piece. Now, if I hear the music, I see Middle Earth. (Oddly, when I read LOTR to Hope, I don't hear the music!)
16. Can you speak any languages other than English?
OWEN: What I really need is a droid that understands the binary language of moisture vaporators.
THREEPIO: Vaporators! Sir - My first job was programming binary load lifter...very similar to your vaporators. You could say...
OWEN: Do you speak Bocce?
THREEPIO: Of course I can, sir. It's like a second language for me...I'm as fluent in Bocce...
well, Bocce is a Ball.
Anyway, I am actually fluent in a handful of programming languages, or at least I was as recently as 5 years ago. I took french and latin in school, and can't do much better than pidgeon in either language. And I've been accused (by the Russians at work) of being a master of The King's English, but really it's just the Senator's American, or some such.
On the other hand, I can read and understand electronics articles and journals in Italian, French, German and Spanish, and music articles and essays in medieval and modern German, French, Italian and Middle English, most of the time. Utterly unmarketable skill, lemme tell you.
17. Do you like sweet tea? I haven't had it. Deb says it has way too much sugar. We'd probably be friends, to my detriment.
18. What’s your favorite vegetable? cherry tomatos, maybe.
19. What age seems old to you right now? 53. (I'm 54.)
20. What is your biggest pet peeve? People who mistake the joy of building for the easy thrill of breaking down. Yes, you may be able to destroy something big, but the act will never equal that of the ones who built it in the first place.
21. If someone gave you $1,000 and told you that you had to spend it all within 24 hours, what would you buy? If I didn't stop and think about it, I'd probably waste it. That is my nature. If I thought about it, that gutter helmet sounds awfully good to me, Deb! But what I'd probably do is give it to UCONN as part of my Fee Bill payment, before they finish processing my active-military-during-the-VietNam-Confl
22. What was your first car? 73 Volkswagon bug grody orange standard. Big steering wheel . Slightly larger back window
23. When did you last climb a tree? I don't think I can honestly say I _every_ climbed a tree. I did go about a quarter-way up one to rescue Deb when we were dating, though. I still suspect she pretended to be stuck so I could Be A Hero.
24. What is the last movie you saw in a movie theater? Iron Man! Great movie, must see in the Theatre, if you still can!
25. Have you ever been on TV? I've been on television many times. My father was a TV repairman, and he had 'em all around in his shop. Sometimes, when I'd watch the phone for him while he was out on service calls, I'd spread a van-quilt over one to sit on while watching the screen of 3 others...oh, not like that, eh? Well, my brother Jim and I played folk music and were taped and rebroadcast on Channel 5 (Plattsburgh) on a country-and-western show. I've marched in the Chicago Thanksgiving Day Parade (1973). Jim and I were playing for a campaign reception for George McGovern's candidacy in 1968, and we ended up on TV for about 2 minutes. Without sound. Since, I've been on closed-circuit TV quite a few times, including while on the USS GUam. It's not as thrilling as it might seem.
26. What is your favorite website to visit when you’re bored? When I'm bored? When is that??? (ok, blog.makezine.com)
27. Do you usually cheer for the underdog? If I stand up, I'm right as rain, but when I bend over, there's a Stabbing pain! Oh...not that Underdog? Yeah, I usually do cheer for the underdog. But I'll cheer for the Patriots even when they aren't the underdog.
28. What book(s) are you currently reading? One on calculus and analytic jommetry. One on basso continuo realization. One on chaotic electronic circuits. And I've got a Garth Nix book that PJ loaned to me which I got half-way through and bogged during the last semester. I wonder if I'll ever go back to it.
29. How many versions of Pride & Prejudice have you seen? 1 but I read it too (and when I read, I see, so maybe that makes it 2?)
30. What’s your favorite thing to cook? Pasta in its many and variegated forms!! Yea!
31. Have you ever regularly watched any Star Trek? OH yea. I watched all the old generation episodes when they first came out (We'd go over to Tom and Jerry's house, no less, to see it on a color TV, because the cobbler's kids run barefoot in the street.) Then TNG was a family party sort of thing. We watched Voyager the same way, but in reruns. And Enterprise was a family thing until they got into the need to have T'pork smear stuff on Trip('n'fall) while he did vs. versa on screen, etc etc.
32. What color are the sheets on your bed right now? Invisible. I sweated 'em out last night. Sorry, Deb!
33. What is one food you refuse to eat? Bell Peppers. I'm so allergic to them I have reactions if someone cuts into one in the same room.
34. How do you take your coffee? rarely, and with too much sugar and by preference, half-and-half.
35. Do you floss your teeth every day? (hangs head) no, ma'am. I'll try to do better. Maybe.
36. Which countries have you been to? uhn. There are a lot of long-list questions in this survey. Lessee:
Canada
the Phillippines
Spane
France
Italy
England
Palma Di Majorca (which acts like it's a country)
Trieste (which is about the size of Palma, but really _is_ a country!)
I have also been at station off the border of Greece and walked the borders of Roumania (back when it was Roumania) and Austria. Oh yea, and I've been in Tokyo for a 3-hour layover, so Japan too. kinda.
37. Are you good with directions? I'm good with my GPS!
38. Which operating system is on your computer? Windows Vista Business and WindowsXP Tablet. Potentially, Ubuntu as well, either via puppy, DSL or a virtual machine. Aren't virtual machines neat?
39. Do you get along well with your parents? Yes and no? It's not like any of us hate the other, but I haven't actually spoken with my mother in almost a decade, and I guess I'm on good communication terms with my father, even if he thinks I'm a religious fanatic.
40. Is it “pop”, “soda”, “coke”, “fizzy”, or something else entirely? I grew up in Plattsburgh, where it was "soda", but with parents from Brooklyn and near Cleveland, so I have always been aware of "pop" and what "soda" really is.
41. What’s your favorite unhealthy fast food chain, and your typical order there? I'm trying to be good and not _have_ a favorite unhealthy fast food chain! But if forced, I think it'd be a tossup between Taco Bell (hard tacos, been burritos and the occasional leGrande) and KFC (their $2 2piece with biskkit!)
42. How many presidential elections have you voted in? All of them since the one Nixon won. (I actually voted against him. I was a liberal then. I'm not now.)
43. Does the idea of wearing clothes someone else has worn gross you out? No. Should it?
44. What is one product you can’t live without? Neutrogena shampoo and soap. I can live without them, but with misery. (I suppose I could have been more honest and said Ibuprofin, or Norvasc. Life would be more continuously uncomfortable without IB, and without Norvasc (and my other BP meds) I might just not be able to live. But that's depressing realistic, so I'll stick with the hypoallergenic soap and shampoo.)
45. Do you have cable/satellite TV? Radio Shack's best broadcast-receiving antenna. It's probably 10' short of where it'll have to be for us to get any 'real' TV after February. 8^(
46. How many kids do you want? All of mine. Possibly all of yours, if you're one of mine, too!
47. On a date would you rather have a casual picnic on the beach or a fancy dinner at a romantic restaurant?
I like romantic dinners at restaurants, but I'd take the picnic because Deb prefers them. Just one thing...please, no seagulls!
48. What is your favorite Christmas tradition? Gramma Fisher Fudge!
49. Have you ever met anyone in person that you first met online? Yup. I was a Harper on PernMUSH, and was invited to be guest-of-honor at 5con, a sci-fi fantasy convention at Smith College for the Pern gather, where I met some of the people I'd RPd with. It was OK, but not something I'd go that far out of my way to do again. I took Joy, who was quite young at the time, and she brought the firelizards she'd made out of chenille stems to sell. She was more popular than I was, as guest of honor, which I thought was really great!
50. How many hours of sleep do you get on an average night? Hard question. I sometimes sleep very well, and often don't. I go to bed about when Deb does, but I get up between 5:20 and 5:40, so it amounts to an average of 6 to 7.5 hours _in bed_. This morning, for instance, I woke up at 4, and lay awake for an hour. What kind of sleep is that? feh. So my answer should probably be "more than I would without the Cpap machine, less than I need." Wait until school starts in the fall!
51. Who do you miss the most right now? Melody. I also am missing Ike and Bethany, 'cause when Mel comes back she and Deb are going to take Jesse down to FL to Word of Life and visit with them, but I won't get to go because I'll already be in school again.
52. What is the most expensive thing you’ve ever purchased (not counting education, cars and houses)? Darn. Education _is_ the most expensive thing I've ever purchased. And, oddly, not because of the dollar cost: scholarships and CT's tuition waiver have made that far less burdensome. But the strain of working full time and attending college full time, with the accompanying fears of not being Able To Do It Anymore because I'm an old fart, and Surety That I Can't Do It because I've had to drop two horrible attempts my junior college made at Calc Based Physics, cost dearly in exhaustion, lack-of-time-with-Deb-and-the-kids, and sanity.
Next to that, nothing is very expensive.
53. What's your favorite board/card/party game? Monopoly, especially with Isaac!
54. Are you a vegetarian? Good Heavens, no!
56. Would you rather have Oreos or Nutter Butters? Oreos. Nutter bars are... well, peanut butter and artificial cookie. And to be honest, it's Sunshine Hydrox for me!
57. What is your favorite perfume/cologne? I really don't have a favorite. Well, maybe: the scent of Dry Idea's Unscented deoderant works for me! My favorite smell, though, has got to be baking bread!
58. Would you ever get a tattoo? Nope. No point in it.
59. What is the lowest price you ever remember gas being per gallon? I clearly remember it being 29cents a gallon, but I'm pretty sure the memory isn't valid.
60. Have you ever been in a wedding (other than yours)? Too many years of playing music for weddings to think about all of them. I was best man for a friend from the Navy, which meant travelling to Oakland and getting to accompany his future wife to the eye doctor's to get her new glass eye.
61. Do you ever drink alcohol? yes, but I'm not really an alcohol drinker.
62. What's the weirdest thing you've ever eaten? Steak and kidney pie. go figger. (OK, I've eaten octopus, too, which was gross and unnecessary, but not really weird.)
63. What is your favorite CD ever? My favorite recording ever never made it to CD. My favorite CD's right now are Piffaro's: Odhecaton, Flemish Masters and German music. Good stuff!
64. When do you usually go to bed? Right after I tuck Hope!
I did it! I'm done!!!!
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