Nathan's Super Post of Questions and Answers

[vovat]

I got this survey from rockinlibrarian.


a p p e a r a n c e .

HEIGHT: 5' 11"
HAIR COLOR: dark brown
SKIN COLOR: They call it "white," but I guess it's really more of a reddish pink.
EYE COLOR: blue
PIERCINGS: none
TATTOOS: none


r i g h t n o w .

WHAT COLOR PANTS ARE YOU WEARING?: Black
WHAT SONG ARE YOU LISTENING TO?: I'm not listening to one. I kind of feel like I should play one just for the sake of this question, but I'm going to bed shortly, so I won't bother.
WHAT TASTE IS IN YOUR MOUTH?: Nothing, really. Maybe a slight taste remaining from lunch?
WHAT'S THE WEATHER LIKE?: Pretty humid, but not as hot as they were saying it was supposed to be, I don't think.
HOW ARE YOU?: Tired.

d o y o u . . .

GET MOTION SICKNESS?: I think I might have before, but it's very rare.
HAVE A BAD HABIT?: I have more than enough to go around.
GET ALONG WITH YOUR PARENTS: Pretty well, I guess. I don't really see my dad much these days, though.

f a v o r i t e s .

TV SHOW: The Simpsons
CONDITIONER: I don't have one. I usually just use whatever is there, if I use anything at all.
BOOK: Either Through the Looking-Glass or The Patchwork Girl of Oz, I'd say.
MAGAZINE: I don't really read magazines. I read The Baum Bugle, but that's more of a journal.
NON-ALCOHOLIC DRINK: Grape juice
THING TO DO ON THE WEEKEND: Catch up on the Internet. I usually get those done really quickly, though, and then I get bored.
BAND OR GROUP: They Might Be Giants

H A V E Y O U ....

BROKEN THE LAW: Technically yes, but not in any significant way.
RAN AWAY FROM HOME: no
SNUCK OUT OF THE HOUSE: No. I mean, I've left without people knowing, but there was no real sneaking involved.
EVER GONE SKINNY DIPPING: no
MADE A PRANK PHONE CALL: No
EVER TIPPED OVER A PORTA POTTY: no
USED YOU PARENTS' CREDIT CARD BEFORE: Yes, but with permission.
SKIPPED SCHOOL BEFORE: Not without a valid excuse
FELL ASLEEP IN THE SHOWER/BATH: Not as far as I can remember. I know my mom has a picture of me sleeping in my baby bathtub, but there wasn't any water in it at the time.
BEEN IN A SCHOOL PLAY: No
LET A FRIEND CRY ON YOUR SHOULDER: I guess.

l o v e.

BOYFRIEND: Nah, I don't swing that way.
GIRLFRIEND: Yes.
CHILDREN: No, nor do I want any.
CURRENT CRUSH: Does a girlfriend count as a crush?
BEEN IN LOVE?: Yes
HAD A HARD TIME GETTING OVER SOMEONE: No, I don't think so.
TOO SHY?: Definitely.
BEEN HURT?: Not in any significant way.
YOUR GREATEST REGRET: In terms of love? Well, my relationship with bethje got off to kind of a rocky start. I wish I could have done things better back then.
GONE OUT WITH A SOMEONE YOU ONLY KNEW FOR THREE DAYS: No

r a n d o m .

DO YOU HAVE A JOB: I have two, but they're both only part-time.
YOUR CD PLAYER HAS IN IT RIGHT NOW: Nothing.
YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE?: Green
WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPY?: Getting a new book or CD, among other things.
WHO MAKES YOU THE HAPPIEST?: Beth
WHAT'S THE NEXT CD YOU'RE GONNA GET?: I'm considering buying the Dresden Dolls' self-titled album, but I'm not totally sure yet.
WHO DO YOU CONSIDER YOUR BEST FRIENDS?: Beth is my best friend. I wouldn't want it any other way. I have to imagine it's difficult for people to be in relationships with non-friends, but it happens all the time.
WHAT DO YOU LIKE TO DO?: Read, write, spend time on the Internet, play video games.

w h e n / w h a t w a s t h e l a s t . . .

TIME YOU CRIED? I can't remember.
YOU GOT A REAL LETTER?: It's been a while, I think. I've gotten mail recently, but not letters per se.
YOU GOT E-MAIL?: I got a reply from Beth about half an hour ago.
THING YOU PURCHASED: A caramel frappucino and brownie (for Beth), and a piece of apple cake (for me), all from Starbucks.
TV PROGRAM YOU WATCHED: If you mean all the way through, then Family Guy. I saw Tori Amos on Jay Leno last night, though.
MOVIE YOU SAW AT THE THEATER: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
BOOK YOU READ?: Night Watch, by Terry Pratchett


And here are the results to the book quiz:


1. One thing was certain, that the white kitten had nothing to do with it--it was the black kitten's fault entirely.

This was from Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, by Lewis Carroll. lozenger8 and rockinlibrarian both got it right. Looking-Glass is my favorite of the two Alice books, even though I pretty much always read the two of them together. When I was a kid, my fascination with Looking-Glass made me want to learn to play chess, but I never really had the skill or patience to get through very many actual games.

2. A man of my acquaintance once wrote a poem called "The Road Less Traveled," describing a journey he took through the woods along a path most travelers never used.

From The Slippery Slope, the tenth book in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. I had wanted to go with The Ersatz Elevator, but I don't own any of the books, and I could find the opening pages of Slope on Amazon. Isn't there supposed to be another book in this series coming out soon? By the way, an interesting trivia fact is that Daniel Handler, the man behind Lemony Snicket, plays accordion on the Magnetic Fields' 69 Love Songs.

3. Over the door appeared a weather-worn sign that read: "JULES GROGRANDE, BAKER."

Another one nobody got, this was from John Dough and the Cherub, by L. Frank Baum. While Baum is probably my favorite author, I must say that "appeared" is a poor verb choice in this sentence. "Hung" would probably work better, since it isn't like the sign just materialized out of thin air.

4. Harry Potter was a highly unusual boy in many ways.

The series this was from is painfully obvious. Mind you, it would have been amusing if I'd found a book not in the Harry Potter series that begins with a sentence about Harry, but I'm not sure such a thing exists. Regardless, the book in question here was Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, as bethje and rockinlibrarian both guessed.

5. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays it was Court Hand and Summulae Logicales, while the rest of the week it was the Orgamon, Repetition and Astrology.

This was probably the hardest one on here, both because the sentence has very little to do with the story that follows, and because I'm not sure how many people on my friends list have even read it. It's from The Sword in the Stone, by T. H. White. The Once and Future King would also have been acceptable, since the first part of King actually IS a revised version of Sword, but I've never actually read the post-Sword part of King.

6. This is a story about something that happened long ago when your grandfather was a child.

bethje knew it was one of C. S. Lewis' Narnia books, but not which one. In fact, it was The Magician's Nephew, the sixth book in the series to be written, but the first in chronological order. I chose it simply because it was one of only two Narnia books at my house (the other being The Voyage of the Dawn Treader). It's been a while since I read that series, so I can't remember what my favorite was, but I think I liked The Silver Chair a lot. The one I remember the least about is Prince Caspian.

7. Just outside the western wall of the Emerald City facing the yellow brick highway, stands a small green cottage with blue shutters.

From Ojo in Oz, one of Ruth Plumly Thompson's best contributions to my favorite series of books. bethje got this one right.

8. The Morris dance is common to all inhabited worlds in the multiverse.

As rockinlibrarian said, this is from Reaper Man, by Terry Pratchett. Even though Lords and Ladies has Morris dancers playing a significant role, I don't believe they're mentioned in the book's opening sentence.

9. Current theories on the creation of the Universe state that, if it was created at all and didn't just start, as it were, unofficially, it came into being between ten and twenty thousand million years ago.

From Good Omens, by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, making Terry the only author represented twice in this game. rockinlibrarian got this one.

10. There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.

Like obsessical said, this is from The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Douglas Adams' sequel to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I know Prak says something quite similar in Life, the Universe, and Everything, but it's Restaurant that begins with this sentence.

Comments

[loz]

I've read the middle three books in The Once and Future King but not The Sword in the Stone (or the Merlin thingymathing). T.H. White was an odd duck. But he rocks just for how much the book is a commentary on Malory's tale as it is the actual tale itself. Very modern for the time he was writing in.

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

When I was a kid, my fascination with Looking-Glass made me want to learn to play chess, but I never really had the skill or patience to get through very many actual games.
Not only am I going to reply "me too," but I was just THINKING about this fact just an hour ago. And lamenting that I am also not any good at it, although at least I know how all the pieces are supposed to move.

2. A man of my acquaintance once wrote a poem called "The Road Less Traveled," describing a journey he took through the woods along a path most travelers never used.

From The Slippery Slope, the most recent book in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. I had wanted to go with The Ersatz Elevator, but I don't own any of the books, and I could find the opening pages of Slope on Amazon. Isn't there supposed to be another book in this series coming out soon?

Ah, I KNEW I'd read that line somewhere! (And, pathetically, I OWN this book and couldn't place it!) The Slippery Slope IS possibly my favorite, but there WAS a more recent one last fall, The Grim Grotto... I didn't think it was as good as some of the others, but it's all right. And now that you mention it, they DO all seem to come out toward the end of September, so we are due, aren't we?

I think it's the first line of Voyage of the Dawn Treader (which I think IS my favorite Narnia book) that is another of my favorite opening lines EVER, but because I don't actually own the book I didn't use it on my list, but it's such a great line: There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it. Man, I wish I DID have that book so I could have used it on mine... anyway.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

at least I know how all the pieces are supposed to move.

Unlike Death. {g}

You're right about Grotto being the most recent Snicket book. I was mentally confusing that and Slope. Maybe I should go back and correct that.