I'm going to make my mark, maybe in surveys

[vovat]

bethje and I watched Ginger Snaps last night. It was a werewolf movie that I'd never heard of until recently, and I found it interesting and rather disturbing.

On a totally unrelated note, I've probably brought this up before, but is anyone else really bothered when people act like the time we're in is somehow different from any other? You know, like how some people insist that people nowadays are less moral than they ever were, or crime is worse now than ever, and things were so much different back in the day. Doomsday preachers seem to be particularly bad in this respect, but they're hardly the only ones. It also happens from the opposite perspective, when people act like things are so much better now than they ever were, and we're living in some age of great enlightenment and technological progress. There are probably some ways in which both sides are right. It's certainly a better time to be, say, a woman or a black person than it was a few decades ago. And maybe some things are worse now than they were last century. Overall, though, aren't things pretty much the same as they always have been? There have always been stupid people, violent criminals, dishonest politicians, disobedient kids, natural disasters, and whatnot. And societal mores and technology are constantly changing. So why is the present so special? Just because we happen to live in it?

As you've probably noticed, I've been taking a lot of surveys recently, and I decided it might be fun to create my own. I'm hoping it'll spread like wildfire, but it'll probably just be a minor flicker, if that.


1. How old are you?
2. Are you satisfied with that age?
3. What's the last book you read, and what did you think of it?
4. What's the last movie you saw, and what did you think of it?
5. Do you usually get enough sleep?
6. What's your opinion on peaches?
7. If you had to be stranded on a desert island with some kind of undead, what kind would it be?
8. If it were possible, would you want to go into space?
9. How about becoming immortal?
10. If you could have one magical power, what would it be?
11. If you suddenly were to become filthy, stinking rich, would you still work?
12. What would be the ultimate mode of transportation?
13. How much money do you think you're worth?
14. If you were the patron deity (or saint, or fairy, or whatever) of something, what would it be?
15. If you were to record an album, what would you call it? (If you already HAVE recorded an album, and you named it yourself, what was it called?)
16. If you had your own country, what would you call it?
17. What form of government would it have?
18. And what would be the national anthem?
19. And what would be on the flag?
20. How much longer do you think the United States will last?
21. How about the world?
22. Do you think robots will ever take over the planet?
23. Do you think there's life on other planets?
24. A train leaves Chicago bound for San Francisco at 2 PM, carrying 105 passengers. The train is travelling at 75 miles per hour, and it costs $3.50 to buy a sandwich in the dining car. Suddenly, three miles from the station in Miami, a cow is seen on the tracks. The engineer notices the animal in time, and brings the train to an abrupt stop. It takes thirty minutes to remove the cow from the tracks. Once it's left the tracks, though, it reveals to you that it's actually a long-lost prince, turned into a cow by an evil wizard. The only way to break the spell is to hold the cow's tail while standing in a cornfield at midnight and reciting the Aramaic alphabet backwards. You go ahead and do this, and the disenchanted prince decides to thank you by giving you some kind of magical talisman. It turns out that the only kind of magical talisman available in his country is a whistle that summons a forest nymph, who will grant one request. What would you request of the nymph?
25. Why would a train going from Chicago to San Francisco be making a station stop in Miami, anyway?
26. What's your favorite kind of cheese?
27. What's one program that you think should receive more government funding?
28. What program do you think should receive LESS government funding?
29. If you could have a mythological being as a pet, what kind would you choose?
30. What do you think of this survey so far?

And now for some of those "Which one do you prefer?" questions:

1. Vanilla or black raspberry?
2. Chocolate or the Complete Works of William Shakespeare?
3. Pepsi or the floating disembodied head of Colonel Sanders?
4. Walt Disney World or the Black Hole of Calcutta?
5. Pornography or oceanography?
6. Geopolitics or deer ticks?
7. Peach pie or the Taj Mahal?
8. Blueberry muffins or fiscal policy?
9. Air conditioning or potato chips?
10. Chevrolet or candied yams?
11. The history of Egypt or fake noses?
12. Slurpees or riding lawnmowers?
13. Spider-Man or box kites?
14. New York or the Noble Truths of the Buddha?
15. This survey or a swift kick in the butt?

I don't think I'm going to take this myself. You should take it, though. Now! {g}

Comments

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I think a lot of people have a rose-tinted view of the past, or think that their own experiences were shared by everyone else in their time. The myth of the Golden Age has been around since time immemorial (and I'll bet things were a lot better back in time immemorial {g}).