Notes and Letters

[vovat]

The sound on my iTunes is scratchy. Not all the time, but sometimes. Other sound applications work just fine, so I think it's a problem with iTunes itself, not my speakers. I tried doing a repair through Control Panel, but that didn't help. Any idea as to how to fix this problem?

Anyway, here's a survey from majellen:

1. What bill do you hate paying the most?
Insurance, I guess. It's not the highest, but it's more annoying than paying the rent.

2. What's the best place to eat a romantic dinner?
The Olive Garden, I guess. I never really have romantic dinners.

3. Last time you Puked from Drinking?
The only time I ever got drunk, which was about two months ago.

4. When is the last time you got drunk and danced on a bar?
Never.

5. Name of your First Grade Teacher?
Miss O'Donnell

6. What do you really want to be doing right now?
Something fun on the computer. Or maybe eating. I'm hungry.

7. What did you want to be when you were growing up?
I think I actually did want to be a librarian. Sometimes I thought I wanted to be a teacher, but I'm glad I didn't pursue that.

8.How many colleges did you attend before you settled on the one?
I attended one undergraduate and one graduate school, and graduated from both.

9. Why did you wear the shirt that you have on right now?
Because I think it looks nice?

10. Gas Prices! First Thought?
Are they ever going to drop down again? I doubt it.

11. If you could move anywhere and take someone with you. . .
Hey, I'm still settling into my current abode! I don't want to move, unless it's to somewhere in the same area that I could own. Or if Oz were real, I'd want to go there and take bethje with me, but I don't think she'd want to go.

12. First Thought When the alarm went off this morning?
It didn't. I got up before it did.

13. Last thought before Falling asleep last night?
I never actually remember falling asleep.

14. Favorite style of Underwear?
Boxers

15. Favorite style of Underwear for the opposite sex?
Lacy stuff is nice.

16. What Errand/Chore do you despise?
Organizing my room.

17. If you didn't have to work would you?
I'd probably work part-time. As much as I enjoy sitting around and doing nothing, it usually makes me feel guilty after a little while.

18. Get up early or sleep in?
Sleep in. There are advantages to getting up early, but they're rarely worth the annoyance.

19. Your Favorite Cartoon Character?
I don't know. Maybe Fry from Futurama.

20. Favorite NON sexual thing to do at night with a girl or guy:
Play video games.

21. A secret that you wouldn't mind everyone knowing?
If I wouldn't mind everyone knowing, why would it still be a secret?

22. What was your First Car?
The same Ford Focus I'm driving now.

23. Your Best Your Mamma Joke?
Meh, I don't have any.

24. Your Favorite Lunch Meat?
Ham

25. What do you get everytime you go out for Ice cream?
My favorite ice cream is peach, but very few places seem to have that. Most fruit flavors will do in a pinch.

26. Beach Or Lake?
It depends, but I guess lakes in general. There's a lake right outside where I live, actually.

27. Do you think Marriage is an outdated ritual that was invented by people who died at 20?
20? I doubt they died THAT young. But anyway, I sort of agree, but I have no problem with people seeing marriage as symbolic, or as a sacrament for their particular religion. If it encourages long-term partnerships, that's cool. I don't think it's necessary, though, and it bothers me that the government tries to regulate it, and do so in a way that's biased in favor of the rather arbitrary "one man, one woman" model. I think all the recent controversy over gay marriage and the like has exposed some of the flaws in mixing legal and financial matters, love, sex, and religion into one package. It works for some people, but not for others.

28. Who do you stalk on myspace?
I'm hardly ever even ON MySpace. And how could I stalk anyone there, even if I wanted to? You only get the information that people choose to reveal to the Internet at large.

29. Favorite Guilty Pleasure?
Does staying on the computer all day count?

30. Favorite Movie you wouldnt want anyone to find out about?
I can't really think of any. I've never been all that secretive about the movies I like.

31. What's your drink?
I really liked the mango mojito I had at Pizzeria Uno some time ago.

32. Cowboys or Indians?
Indians

33. Cops or Robbers?
Cops

34. Do you cheer for the bad guy?
I'll echo majellen's answer here. "Depends on what he's doing."

35. What Hollywood star do you think resembles you best?
I don't really think any of them do. Apparently Jason Alexander sounds like me, though. {g}

36. If you had to pick one which cast member of Lost would you be?
I've never watched that show, so I couldn't say.

37. What do you want when you are sick?
Something to read

39. What radio station is your car radio tuned to right now?
KYW. I don't listen to the radio much, except for the traffic reports. Beth puts it on sometimes, though.

41. Stiffler or Oz?
I don't even know what this question is referring to. I'll say Oz, because he shares the name of my favorite fantasy land. {g}

42. Norm or Cliff?
Never watched Cheers much, but I'll say Norm.

43. The Cosby Show or the Simpsons?
The Simpsons

44. Worst Relationship Mistake that you wish you could take back?
The way in which I agreed that Beth and I could be a couple could have been better.

45. Do you Like the Person who sits directly across from you at work?
I don't work in an environment where anyone DOES sit across from me.

46. If you could get away with it who would you kill?
Father Time.

47. What Famous person would you like to have dinner with?
I don't know. Weird Al?

48. What famous Person would you like to sleep with?
I can never come up with a good answer to this question.

49. Have you ever had to use a fire extinguisher for its intended purpose?
Nope.

50. Last book you read for real?
Does reading it on the computer count as "for real"? If so, The Good Witch of Oz, by March Laumer. I'm honestly not sure what the alternative to reading a book "for real" is. Just skimming it? Saying you read it when you really didn't? Re-reading it?

51. Do you have a teddy bear?
I have a lot of stuffed animals, but I don't really have a teddy bear as such. I think my childhood Winnie-the-Pooh is in Albuqerque. I do have a stuffed panda, and even though my dad told me when I was a kid that pandas aren't bears, he later said they actually were. (In my dad's defense, I don't think he was just making stuff up. Those taxonomic classifications really do change all the time.)

52. Strangest Place you have ever brushed your teeth?
I think I've brushed them in the kitchen before.

53. Somewhere in California you've never been and would like to go?
I've never been ANYWHERE in California. I might like to see San Francisco, though, as long as I didn't have to drive. Oh, and maybe the Hotel del Coronado.

54. Number of texts in a day?
I'm so out of it that I didn't understand what this question was asking at first. Anyway, I hardly ever get or receive text messages. Occasionally my roommate sends me one, but I don't think that's happened in over a month.

55. At this point in your life would you rather start a new career or relationship?
Career. Wow, that was probably the easiest question in this survey!

56. Do you go to church/synagogue?
Nah.

57. Pencil or Pen?
I usually use a pen, but there are situations in which a pencil is preferable.

58. Describe your favorite Day?
I don't know about "favorite," but days where I'm not obligated to do anything are usually pretty nice.

59. How many jobs have you had?
I guess technically eleven, if you count the two weeks or so I was a grocery store stock person.

60. What would be your "dream job"?
Why the "quotation marks"? I guess my ultimate dream job would be someone who researches stuff in the Oz books, but I don't think you can get paid for that. More realistically, I do like both cataloging and data transcribing.

61. What do you want to achieve in life?
Get a full-time job and my own house with Beth, have something I write published (aside from my Oziana story, that is), read a lot more books, and do something memorable and worthwhile (which might or might not be tied in with the publishing thing).


And here's a meme from lozenger8:

This is a twist on the Letter Meme. Instead of coming up with ten items for a certain letter, you come up with five song titles for a certain letter and explain why you picked them. If interested then leave a comment. I'll give you a letter. You post this blurb in your journal along with your list. (Download links welcome, but not required.)

My letter was W. And here are my songs. No download links, but if anyone is interested in hearing any of these, let me know. And if you want your own letter, let me know that, too.

Waking Up In The City - The Ditty Bops

One of my favorite songs from their newest album, Moon Over the Freeway. There actually seem to be a fair number of Ditty Bops songs that start with W: "Wishful Thinking," "Walk Or Ride," "Wake Up"...that might be all, but that's a lot for only two albums.

Wake Up - XTC

The opening track to The Big Express, and a really cool song besides. I love the guitar intro. The Verve Pipe did a really lousy cover of this for the tribute album.

Where Your Eyes Don't Go - They Might Be Giants

A fun and somewhat creepy song by my favorite band. Most of you probably know this one already. I think Terry Pratchett was known to have said that it was one of the scariest songs he'd ever heard.

Werewolves Of London - Warren Zevon

My dad had a Zevon cassette that he used to play really often, so I grew up with this song.

Wanderlust - Frank Black

One of the better songs on Frank's new double-CD album, Fastman Raiderman.

Comments

[travspence.livejournal.com]

Give me a letter, man.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Okay, how about R?

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

I'll take a letter. And incidentally, yay as a matter of fact I now HAVE "Wishful Thinking" by the Ditty Bops... some guy sent it to me....

Random comments:
60. What would be your "dream job"?
Why the "quotation marks"? I am still trying to figure out the answer to this question in general-- I mean for things that aren't a quotation. Perhaps the author of this survey is nervous lest you think s/he would actually use such a cliched phrase as "dream job" and wants you to know that she knows she didn't make the phrase up. But it's not the worst gratuitous use of quotation marks I've ever seen. Actually I was kind of disgusted to find a lot of gratuitous quote marks on the invitation to my high school reunion, because according to the return address it was written by a girl who had ALWAYS been in the advanced english classes, and she should totally know better!

55. At this point in your life would you rather start a new career or relationship?
Career. Wow, that was probably the easiest question in this survey!
WASN'T it? everyone on my friends list including myself has thought the exact same thing.

I'm honestly not sure what the alternative to reading a book "for real" is. Just skimming it? Saying you read it when you really didn't? Re-reading it?
If rereading doesn't count as reading for real, then I got this question wrong when I took it.

41. Stiffler or Oz?
I don't even know what this question is referring to.
yeah, I'm still waiting for someone, any one of the people who seem to know this to enlighten me, too. If anyone tells you, let me know?

I think all the recent controversy over gay marriage and the like has exposed some of the flaws in mixing legal and financial matters, love, sex, and religion into one package. It works for some people, but not for others.
Probably the biggest problem is that everyone has a different definition of marriage and no one has figured that out yet. My lesbian best friend recently announced that she's marrying a transsexual male-female/female-male/I-don't-know-what-order person in a ceremony in a park in Minnesota sometime in the next year. There are a billion different sides of the story that would not see this as a marriage per se, but I do: it's the promise of two people to devote their lives to each other, for better or for worse, for the rest of their lives. That's my definition. Screw the government. But not the church-- you can choose your church, therefore they have the right to sanctify whichever unions they like, because you don't have to be a part of it; but you're stuck with the government unless you move or have a revolution (or somehow inspire decent people to run for office), so 'tain't their business, dangit.

Okay, I appear to have run out of stuff to respond to, so I guess I'll move on.

[travspence.livejournal.com]

I was so sleepy when I asked for a letter I had to come back and see what I was doing with it. :-)

[bethje.livejournal.com]

I would never ever move to Oz. The only thing I would do is bring Chips there for ten minutes, in case he had something to say to me.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Actually I was kind of disgusted to find a lot of gratuitous quote marks on the invitation to my high school reunion, because according to the return address it was written by a girl who had ALWAYS been in the advanced english classes, and she should totally know better!

Some people seem to think that quotation marks can be used to show emphasis, which is not only incorrect, but seems pointless in an age where we can change the size and style of letters with a few simple clicks. Mind you, it also bothers me when every other word of a document is in bold or underlined or CAPITALIZED, but at least these aren't breaking basic rules of punctuation, and they can be effective if used sparingly.

55. At this point in your life would you rather start a new career or relationship?
Career. Wow, that was probably the easiest question in this survey!
WASN'T it? everyone on my friends list including myself has thought the exact same thing.

I wouldn't be surprised if this survey had gotten around to people who have successful jobs but no successful relationships, though.

Screw the government. But not the church-- you can choose your church, therefore they have the right to sanctify whichever unions they like, because you don't have to be a part of it

Yeah, that's pretty much how I see. I think I heard that in some country (Spain, perhaps?), the government ONLY sponsors civil unions for same-sex AND opposite-sex couples, making marriage a personal and optional matter. I think there's a certain amount of logic to this. That doesn't mean I think secular marriage should be abolished entirely (a lot of us have secular Christmas and Easter celebrations, after all), but I don't know that it should be tied in with financial and legal unions. The way we have it now, people get tax breaks and such for living together if they're married, but not otherwise, even if they still share the bills. It all seems a little arbitrary to me.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

But maybe he'd be like Toto, and not talk right away. I kind of think Dewey would start talking immediately, though. His personality is different from Toto's.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I forgot to tell you your letter. I guess I'll give you N.