You Don't Have To Feel Safe To Feel Unafraid (what the heck kind of title is this???)
1- Real until proven fake or fake until proven real?:
This from wikipedia. Realism, Realist or Realistic are terms that describe any manifestation of philosophical realism, the belief that reality exists independently of observers, whether in philosophy itself or in the applied arts and sciences. In this broad sense it is frequently contrasted with Idealism.
My psychologist gets after me all the time for being a cynic, a doom and gloomer, etc, but it boils down to me being a realist and he being an idealist. I say things are bound to happen regardless of our karma, and he says we can control our realities through our outlook. I say fine, until you smash your face in a car wreck, then see how you feel about people saying "Smile, it can't be that bad!", for example. People with inexperience tend to think they know more about how life should be lived than people getting real experience.
2- Can you knowledgeably say that there are perks to being a wallflower?:
Let's see, perks to hanging out but not participating... I usually get the best food before anyone else does.
3- Do you enjoy shows where people investigate haunted buildings?:
Just once I'd like to see a real ghost jump out and scare the crap outa them.
4- If you're at home and you can't reach something on a high shelf, who do you ask for help?:
Scott has commanded me to stop pushing chairs around to help me climb up onto the counters, so I commanded that he stop putting things on high shelves and pushing them too far back to hook a fingernail into the bottom of without a thought about the person who has to literally climb the walls to retrieve them when that other person is at work.
5- When was the last time you saw a clown in person?:
I'm surrounded by clowns every holiday. Getting a little tired of it.
6- Would you ever take part in a flash mob?:
Egads, I sure hope I'm never caught in the middle of a flash mob when it happens. I really like my anonymity.
7- What do you usually do on Remembrance Day/Memorial Day?:
You get a little toothbrush and some soapy water and clean the scum out of the words on the headstone. Then you look around at all the other headstones covered in very expensive colorful plastic flowers (and it really does look beautiful) and think in two weeks they'll look like crap and have blown around all over the place in some storm, and the guy who cuts the grass will pick it all up and throw it away. Real bonediggers (genealogy hobbyists) will memorize all the headstones, some will even get wax rubbings on paper, and anyone who's been around will be able to recognize headstone styles and the dates they were made, when they went out of business, etc. Some kind souls will spend many hours figuring out who is buried under a marker that is completely weathered away, and even go so far as to replace it at personal cost. Me-- I'm not a bonedigger, just married to one, and my sister has been one for years. Some people really get into cemeteries. About the most I get is really sleepy and a bad sunburn. Not dissing anyone who has lost loved ones and feels connected to burial sites, but in 200 years, no one is going to know who is there any more. The best thing about burial sites is that they are usually out under the wide open sky and fairly quiet if they're in a decent location. I can't imagine keeping an urn in my home, and I hope no one ever does that to me.
8- Has there been any construction going on near your house recently?:
We put up the hummingbird feeders and got the planters going.
9- Do you own any classic, glass Coca-Cola bottles?:
We used to shoot those with pellet guns.
10- How many books do you have around the house that you've only half-read?:
Just one. From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time. I stopped when I realized this guy was only regurgitating the history of the study of time direction and all the physics it involves. I was hoping he'd delve into some really cool new funky stuff on his own, I already know all the rest. Most of the science and math is over 30 years old (the basic stuff is 100 years old) and has been done to death in scifi. I'm ready to leap out into really deep stuff, like time fragmentation in dodec space, you know?
11- When you have to give a pre-written speech, how do you typically practice?:
NEVER PRACTICE, just throw it out there and hope the people listening weren't wanting to be somewhere else in the first place.
12- Have you ever forged a signature? If so, for what reason?:
I don't forge. I slop. No one cares.
13- Can you handle the pictures on www.bestgore.com? If you're too scared to go there (because it is pretty disturbing), how much gore can you usually handle?:
I'm burned out on gore. I've been watching the progression of gore in media over the years, and I don't care how realistic it looks, it just doesn't touch what I've seen on real life. And what I've seen is enough, I don't need the mimicry to push a thrill button. I think the need for gore and blood in our psyche goes back to homo sapien sapiens having to kill with their own hands on a fairly regular basis just to eat, much less kill vs. be killed. It's part of who we are to have blood and gore on our hands, to see gore and death all around us, and living our soft lives with none of that tends to attract a lot of people to watching it in some kind of media. The attraction is that we think it's taboo, but it's really genetic memory and instinct.
14- Do you have any weekly "nights" dedicated to doing something (e.g., poker night, family game night, etc.)?:
The SciFi channel used to be my number one Friday date night, but ever since they went Syfy, Fridays have gone to crap. Now they are pushing Mondays.
15- What is the first scary story/legend that you can remember hearing?:
Dad scared the crap out of us with end world prophecies and UFOs really being demons ever since I was in gradeschool. I'm nearly 50 and have yet to hear anything as scary out of anyone else.
16- Where do you keep all your DVDs?:
Nobody ever asks where I keep all my old records any more.
17- Have you gotten a new item of clothing recently? If so, describe it. If not, when was the last time you were at the mall and what was it for?:
New pants, went down a size, huzzah!
18- What kind of horror movies scare you the most, if any do?:
Nothing is scarier than the nightmares I get on benzo meds. Nothing. Stephen King and years of Outer Limits and Twilight Zone and Freddy and Hellraiser and anything I can think of have nothing on my nightmares. If I ever decide I wanna be rich, I'll start typing out my nightmares and reinvent the horror industry.
19- Why did you choose to take this survey in particular?:
There isn't a shower question.
20- Do you enjoy novelty items? If so, which novelty item do you wish you owned?:
I'm into novelty tees. Wearing a Ghost Hunters t-shirt right now. Can't think of any in particular I wish I had. Maybe a Sunny in Philadelphia shirt. I got a Nerd Herd shirt and it shrank two sizes, so I'm kinda ticked at NBC merchandising. I'm more into the weird math t-shirts and stuff, and Homestar Runner t-shirts. Have a Buckaroo Banzai tee. Always wanted a Sliders t-shirt, but I'd have to make my own and those don't last very well.
21- Would you rather be considered 'talented' or 'gifted'? Why?:
I am gifted, but no one ever 'considers' me gifted, more like wacko. You automatically get negative attention when you're gifted. But I still prefer that to being talented. Anyone can lose a talent through a cruel twist of fate. You don't lose being gifted.
22- What was the last thing you read aloud to somebody?:
A sentence out of our insurance policy manual that most people, even in medical billing, aren't aware exists. If you EVER get disability and decline your medicare part B because you already have group insurance, make absolutely sure your group is over 20 people. 20 or less means medicare is automatically primary with big insurance companies, and they don't bother going out of their way to let people know that. That means you'll eventually get slammed with demands for years of repayment because you had an ~option~, even if you declined it. No one can save you from this easily avoidable mistake once you've made it.
23- Give a quote from the last TV show you watched:
Questions like this are so distracting. I wound up on a 3-day sci-fi quote widget hunt and decided I didn't like any of them.
24- Are you amused by little things that seem pretty average to others?:
I think I'm at the opposite pole or something, I tend to be amused over really big things that leave other people in shock.
25- What are you hoping we find when we someday gain access to all the other planets?:
It disturbs me that the previous survey taker couldn't be bothered to read the entire sentence and simply answered "YES!" My next thought is the phrase "gain access to all the other planets". Gain access? You gain access to a safe or locker or private webpage when you enter the correct code. Just because we might eventually be able to physically arrive somewhere doesn't mean we will gain access. Look at it from the alien point of view, what would we think if they were pleased to 'gain access' to Earth? Might that mean they can do what they want against our will? So I looked up gaining access, which can mean establishing direct communication, and it can mean negative stuff, too. This will help, from can we say ''gain access to'' somebody? - Learn English - italki Answers We can also use gain access to a place ( which normally requires permission to enter) / to information (which is normally hidden or protected) 'Hackers gained access to the email addresses of customers of several large US banks.'
So if we gain access to other planets, does it mean we are going to break in and get what we please? Like going shopping across the galaxy, mob style. Let's see, what do I hope we find... I think it would be incredibly awesome to have a tiny giraffe like that guy in the commercial.
Speaking of exotic pets and animals in general, do you think we'll ever treat each other with as much respect as these people are demanding we give to our pets? Are you insulting your pet?
You guys have no idea how long these surveys actually take me to complete.
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