So Many Answers

Recently I got tagged (voluntarily) for a meme that got a little out of control. Not in a bad way though…It was actually incredible fun all the way down the line.

Anyway, it started with five questions…and then suddenly I was asking questions to everybody. Now, this is all good, and it got me a lot of hits, but I had expected the meme to go more viral. Having said this, feel free to ask for questions on the previous thread…though it might be worth noting that I’m going to try and cook this up into something slightly different that will keep the fun going on for longer. Watch this space (or something less derivative).

Right, so here’s the list of people who answered, just so they get more hits and you can easily find out more about people. Also I asked them to ask questions back. Those who’ve responded will feature questions and answers as well as links. This way you get to hear more about my lovely self. The order is roughly the order in which people first asked for questions. In case you’re wondering. If you answered and you want to ask something back, just drop me a line and I’ll update this post.

So first we’ve got the wonderful Vintagefan, the love of my WordPress life (well….the first person I really connected with using the magic of the blog…I can’t entirely remember how we first ‘met’ but it’s been nothing but silliness and strangeness ever since).

Matilde (not his real name…or even his real pseudonym) is pretty new to me, but jumped on board pretty wholeheartedly and managed to gaze into my heart and pull out a bold an simple image that I really love. Kudos.

He gave a question, which was:

If you could cure any disease in the world today, what would it be and why?

Now, this is a horrible question…unless we can define stupidity as a disease. Basically, Cancer has probably taken the most people in my life, so I’d go for that…but that seems selfish (is it selfish to want people you love to not die?). Then I think about madness….the one I’m closest to getting myself (it’s not really a disease though is it). My problem with that is that it’s so indefinable. I’ve read a lot of stuff about the concept of Mad Pride, bound up with patients rights and talks of anarchy. The fact remains that a lot of ‘mad’ people are intensely creative free thinkers. They may not always be functioning in the current world, but maybe that’s got more to do with the insanity of modern life than anything to do with them. Then there’s dementia, which I know that so many people are ruined by. I can think of nothing more fearful than losing my mind and being unaware of it. That’s horrible.

So maybe I’ll just settle for a joke answer and saying that if I could cure any disease today it would be George Bush and the political virus that’s eating up the world.

Apologies for the cop out….just read it as being unable to pick the best of many evils.

Writer Chick seems to be a bit of a phenomenon, and I believe is the person who directed so many people to my blog to ask for questions. I thank her, and think she’s pretty awesome.

Justin is a real life friend, albeit one met through the kind of thing that only happens because the internet is crazy mad like that. He also got questions from Ayaan, who appears below, hence him having more questions than most. Mine are the first five.

Ayaan also got five questions. She even answered them. She’s a clever young lass…who I’ve technically met, but only really got to know her properly since the last (and first) time I saw her…which is weird.

I just noticed she already sent questions…I’ll do them later…for now I must work. Apologies.

Here we go:

Share one Childhood memory:

I remember little of my childhood, but I do once remember listening to bizarre latin hip hop (early electro stuff) whilst reading the lord of the rings in a small yellow box.

I guess that my life just went on like that from that point on.

Seriously, I just decided the best place for listening to this strange record of music like nothing I’d heard before (or since…I wouldn’t call it hip hop…my like early electro funk with samba vocals and beatsy production….but at the time I just thought it was fun.I was little) and reading this wonderful and looong adventure was curled up in a ball in a box. I only just fit with the book poking out and angled with my one emerging hand so that I could keep turning pages and seeing it.

My sister came in to my bedroom find why I had my music on and I managed to stay hidden, pretty much in plain sight. The box was to one side of the room and she just didn’t notice that I wasn’t a box of junk…I was a box of me. When I said hello she jumped miles into the air, then gave me a funny look and asked if I was alright. I pointed out I was fine and she left.

So you can be happy even if you’re stuck inside the box.

Hey…I didn’t say you’d learn anything interesting. But it is a childhood memory…possibly one of my oldest.

Bonus Question:

If you could be one household item, which one would you be and why?

A Garden Gnome. I don’t know what I’d do without the weather beating down on me every now and then. Ideally one with a pipe.

Either that or the spoon, which will always be useful in a thousand and one ways.

Thanks Ayaan….much appreciated.

Now the Cranky Simple one confused the hell out of me for a while. Because of her blogging split personality. Despite this, she’s clearly wonderful…so I forgive her.

She asks:

What is your biggest pet peeve? (If you know why it bothers you, or where/when it originated, please tell.)

Well…in myself, it’s a toss up between my self obsession/hatred, which comes from being human and a lifetime full of inferiority and embarrassment, or my general ‘lustfulness’, which I think simply comes from being a man and a lover of aesthetics.

Honest.

It does bother me though. I really do become an idiot sometimes. I overcome it most of the time, and still consider myself a fairly radical feminist (gender abolitionist mostly), but at the same time I’m a quite lusty and tend to think about sex far too much. It really upsets me that I give in to this part of me. I mean…I can control it, but it’s still there. I think it’s irrational and bad.

In other people it always used to be leaving cheese in a fridge without properly wrapping it up (to ensure you don’t get that hard stuff on the edges…I hate that shit. But then I became vegan so that caused less of a problem.

So I guess now it’s intolerance….and not seeing the beauty of themselves and others. I hate it when people need to be told that they are wonderful and beautiful despite the fact that it is so patently obvious to everyone else that they are.

God that’s a big mess of an answer.

Sorry.

The Desktop I’ve never read until he asked for questions…but he certainly does seem like a clever little scamp.

The cheeky bugger also left me five questions…but I’ve got to leave for work in ten minutes so I’ll have to answer them later on. Apologies.

Here Goes:

1. Imagine yourself looking into the future 200 years from now and seeing your succeeding generations try to puzzle together your life for some reason. Is there any one trait about you that you’d like them to understand? Why?

I’d like them to know that I was trying to make difference, even if only in the smallest ways. I don’t expect to be remembered as anything other than some guy…but I’d like it to be known that I always wanted people to cheer up and live better lives. I won’t be that bothered if I’m not remembered….but I hope those that do know that I tried to be nice.

Also, if I am remembered for anything major….I’d like people to know that I was probably only kidding.

2. Everybody’s life has at least one turning point where all other events are considered “before the turning point” and “after the turning point.” What’s yours?

Birth maybe?

I don’t know that I’ve ever seen my life as being split in two. I’ve had lots of important moments, but most of them were long periods of change and transition. I mean…that’s pretty much been the story my whole life. Lots of flux with a thread of continuity only really continuous in that it was still me. Sorry if these seems like I’m cheating, but I really couldn’t say anything stands out as being the single moment where my life changed completely…although it does seem to happen in a way all of the time.

3. What is your biggest regret/blunder?

Birth maybe?

Nah, I’m kidding. I’d generally tend to a relationship in which I only realised the value of it too late and am now left loving someone I don’t have a future. We still remain friends, but it’s something that really messed me up. Having said that…it was the impetus I needed to sort my life out a bit.

Otherwise it would simply be that I spend so much time talking about writing and not actually doing

4. You are injured seriously in the crossfire of a gang shoot out. You’re still mentally healthy, but your body is a wreck. For some reason, you have to have it transplanted onto the body of an animal. What animal would you like your head to be on and why?

Orang Utan…any day. Just hanging around like a big leathery sack of cool meat and bones. I love the way their body moves, and the lazy strength.

That or a whale or something like that. Something that can enjoy being underwater but also jump up and reach for the sun as often as possible.

Or a cat….lazy and clearly much better than us. At least from their view point. There’s nothing better than creeping around stalking the sun until you find the perfect spot to curl up into a ball in.

5. Do you aspire to anything? Would you give up all responsibilities to fulfil your desires?

I’ve tried to avoid aspirations.

Well…maybe not. I aspire to be a more full individual living in harmony with the world. Read the Tao Te Ching if you want to know what I really aspire to be. I’d say most of it is in there somewhere.

I’m not sure what you mean by responsibilities. I think you’re labouring under the assumption that I’m left responsible for anything apart from my own well being (which I respect at least seventy percent of the time).

I would never abandon my friends and loved ones, and I would never harm others. I guess I have to work and I try to enjoy it.

If you’re saying would I leave the mainstream society and live in a commune or solitude that would supply all my needs and allow me to live completely in harmony with the world….well…yes. But I think that would be fulfilling my responsibilities. Which would partly involve helping the world outside.

I’m confused now.

Thanks for the questions you flat and purposeful flat space for the distribution of work and rubbish.

Modest Moe is another beautiful stranger. Good stuff here too.

She left an awesome question…that I’ll get back to soon I promise….it’s the kind of question I could write a whole blog post on…so it should be interesting.

Here goes:

What do you think the purpose of imagination is and where do you think it originated?

First of all…I realistically have no idea. Though I have read a couple of books on this subject.

I think the imagination is there to free us. It’s like an internal type of evolution. It gives us the ability to make ourselves better, improve our lot in life and make the world a better place. It allows us to see how things could be better and how things could be worse. Once we can see, we can make changes. It also frees our minds. It allows us to explore places and things that don’t exist. It means we can empathise…and it means we can care for people we can’t see. It means everything really.

I don’t think we use it nearly enough. I think people need to remember that they’ve got it.

I imagine it originated in the need to sense threats. In a more primitive and dangerous environments, you need to react to a threat before it is there. This means you have to be prepared, so you have to imagine what might happen.

It gives you something to fear, but then it lets you find a way to avoid that fear by finding a way to overcome it.

Once it was there though, it could be used for something else. It could become a tool to be used. It also became something to be exercised in its own right…simply for pleasure…and for wonder.

It’s a pretty big thing…and there’s much more to it than that….but I don’t want to pour too much into this post right now.

Anyway, you may want to check up later today (by my watch I should be able to get it all done by seven at the latest (that’s PM BST by the way)*. And if I haven’t posted questions from you it’s because you didn’t give me any…please feel free to give more below. Apply for questions on the original post, though you may want to save it as I’m currently concocting something new (as I mentioned before) that may be a more interesting forum for this kind of game.

Thanks to all the answerers and askers. It’s been an absolute joy to discover so much about so many people with such a simple yet intriguing task.

*Now updated with all questions from the original thread.

12 Comments

Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI

Leave a comment

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website