Sitting here watching the sun come up. Mom is having breakfast. Paliki is doing cat cleaning yoga on the couch. Nizzibet is sleeping. No new messages from the Mystery Person. Not expecting to do much in the way of exciting today. Might manage to get some artwork in. Definitely need to do laundry.
Envy me for my thrill-a-minute life.
Twenty-Eight Questions
This set of questions comes via the Engineering Student in an email. What you’re supposed to do is copy (not forward) this entire e-mail and paste it onto a new e-mail that you’ll send. Change all of the answers so they apply to you. Then, send this to a whole bunch of people you know *INCLUDING* the person who sent it to you. As a rule I don’t forward these sorts of emails. So anyone with time to kill, feel free to copy these and post your own answers.
1. What time did you go to bed last night?
8:00 o’clock. It’s usually between nine and ten but the Nizz was dead tired and the Aged Mother got through her routine early.
2. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
Assuming that we’re talking about an instanteous magical change, I’d become all buff. Satisfy my vanity without having to work at it.
Assuming that we’re talking about a change made of my own initiative, no clue.
3. Paper or Plastic?
Depends on whether I have a long way to walk. Or if it’s raining.
4. What was the last book/magazine you read?
Necroscope 3: The Source by Brian Lumley
5. A TV show you can’t stand to watch?
Don’t know. We only use the TV to watch DVDs and videos.
6. What did you eat for lunch yesterday?
Homemade seafood gumbo
7. Do you like to be surprised?
Usually yes.
8. What color is your toothbrush?
White and purple.
9. What brand of deodorant do you use?
Gillette
10. What is your favorite store to shop at?
Any bookstore. Half Price Books for volume.
11. Winter, Spring, Summer or Fall?
Fall
12. Favorite dessert?
Not too big on dessert anymore.
13. Which one would you prefer – Maid or Personal Chef?
Maid
14. Favorite candy bar?
Lindt Lindor
15. Regular or Decaf?
Regular
16. Favorite Restaurant?
Tan Duc
17. What do you admire in a person?
Enthusiasm for life, curiousity, a sense of humor and thoughtfulness toward others.
18. Favorite Holiday?
Thanksgiving
19. Favorite time of day?
Usually early morning when the rest of the world is asleep.
20. Fruit or Fruit Smoothie?
Fruit smoothie.
21. How many rings are you wearing?
One. Wedding band.
22. How do you like your meat prepared?
I stole the E.S.’s answers here: beef- med well to rare, chicken- done, seafood- not overcooked, sushi- raw
23. What was the last card you sent to someone?
Christmas card. This morning.
24. What radio station is on where you are right now?
None. I generally listen to KEXP on the radio when I drive.
25. Who do you least expect to send this back to you?
I don’t expect to get it back from anyone.
26. Who is the person you expect to send this back first? See previous answer.
27. Onion rings or French fries?
Onion rings.
28. What kind of car do you drive?
Suzuki Sidekick.
The Mystery Person replies –
David:
I didn’t mean the crystalline reference to be a clue to my identity. I meant it only to assure you that really I once knew you. Here is something more definite:
You told me you once took so many hits of acid that the entire world turned into crystals. Everything you looked at took a crystalline form: trees, houses, people.
There was probably more…but that’s all I remember…my memory is clouded as well.
Our conversation itself was the thought of the day? Not quite what I intended, but I’ll work with it. I’m game as well.
Elaboration will be delayed a few days. I need to carefully study your blog. It appears a lot has changed over the years.
Something at least semi-profound is coming…
-MP
The world turning crystalline while on acid happened. (Or seemed to. Nothing really happens on acid.) And I’ve no doubt that I knew you, MP, back in the day. I tend to take people at their word. Someone says h/s/it knew me? Innocent until proven guilty. (Or maybe that should be vice versa)
Part of the fascination of this, MP, is that (I suspect) both of us are trying to figure out what the other is thinking. Since I don’t know who you are I’m looking for clues in everything you say, even if no clue is intended. You (perhaps) are thinking of what you can say to play the game without having the game end too soon.
I get a clue as to how clearly I’m communicating. “Granite” was the thought for the day yesterday. Heh.
Please, read the blog. I’m not sure how good it is for showing how I’ve changed. I generally write to amuse (and vent) rather than inform. And how much I will seem to have changed will depend on how you knew me. I readily admit to being a different person with different people. If you come back with something profound, great! If not, come back anyway. One can never have too many friends.
I’m a lousy correspondent. That’s one big change over the years. Having Aged Mother around isn’t improving that. But if you knew me then you probably knew some of the people I still know. I can put you back in contact with some of them if you’re interested.
Thought for the day: Sleeping bag.
On Monday morning I found this message in my email:
Ingersoll, I know you’re busy, but aren’t you responding to email?
It’s been over a decade since we’ve talked…
Yeah…I know…I haven’t signed this. I’m not playing with you. Just thought it would be kind of fun for you to try and figure out who I am…
Well, thinks I, if this is spam it’s a little more clever and complicated than the usual nonsense I get. So I replied:
Hello Mysterious Person –
Given the volume of spam that I get, a lot of odd emails get missed.
So, you’re someone I knew ten years ago? I’ll need more clues than your address if you want me to guess who you are.
Curious,
David
Monday afternoon I got this back:
Oh the spam thing…that didn’t even dawn on me…sorry. I guess you would get a lot of junk mail.
So that you know I’m not some freak just messing with you, I guess I should tell you something that only someone who knew you would know:
In a moment of introspection and clarity, you once saw the entire world in crystalline form.
Maybe that’s too vague…maybe you’ve blogged that. If it’s too weak, I will try to come up with something else.
I know you’re at a disadvantage. However, this is as much for your amusement as mine. Consider it an experiment. Can you determine the identity of someone just by their words?
Factors working in the favor of mystery:
a. You knew a LOT of people ten to fifteen years ago.
b. I have been worn by the years — changed profoundly.
Factors working in the favor of discovery:
a. Well…anything explained here would give it away.
Clues would be too easy. Let us consider this an extension of your blog. Give me your thought for the day and I will elaborate on it.
Are you game?
(Oh, and if you can’t figure out who I am, I will eventually tell you. You have my word. My word is good, but you’ll just have to take my word on that.)
I didn’t get a chance to reply yesterday. And for the life of me, that clue doesn’t help. I saw the world in crystalline form? Which time? Which drug? Or could that reference be to The Forum? Or perhaps the occasional epiphany, unasked for but so appreciated? Or perhaps this is reference to some odd conversation we had that I no longer remember.
He/she/it is right. Ten to fifteen years ago I did know a lot of people. I usually do. I like people. One of the things that I miss about working in retail is the interaction with strangers on a daily basis.
Well, I’m game. My thought for the day to be expanded upon –
Granite.
Waiting For The Trade
Been watching the first season of Angel on DVD. I’d been thinking that I liked Angel better than Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the series that Angel spun off of. Not because it’s a better series necessarily. Angel tends to be less focused than Buffy, with semi major characters wandering in and out, storylines that vanish and such. It’s just that as a central character Angel is easier to deal with than Buffy.
I finally figured out why in I Will Remember You, the episode in which Angel becomes mortal again during one of Buffy’s visits to LA. He and Buffy fall asleep together and Buffy says that this is what she’s dreamed of – being a normal girl falling asleep in the arms of her normal boyfriend.
Feh. “Normal”.
That’s when it became clear. Never having wanted to be “normal” myself I find it a little hard to sympathize. Buffy spends a lot of time agonizing and complaining about being special. Her aspirations prior to discovering her Chosen One status were simple – be cute and popular. It’s not that Buffy is a bad person, she isn’t. She’s kind and enthusiastic and heroic when she needs to be. She’s also fundamentally shallow and self-centered. Without being the Slayer she’d be happy to be chase boys and gossip and shop. Basically, she’d be someone I’d have no interest in hanging out with.
Angel, on the other hand, has mostly accepted his fate. He’s a champion and, yes, it’s not fun, but that’s life. You do what you gotta do. He likes being by himself. He reads. If he let himself go he could be a really horrible person. And he used to drink a lot when he was mortal.
I can relate to that.
Of course, Buffy is a teenager and Angel is over 200 years old. If he weren’t more mature than she was he’d be pretty pathetic.
I haven’t seen the latest season of Angel. No cable. But I think I’m okay with waiting for the DVD. I like the whole no commercials thing. I look forward to a time when people start creating series just for DVD. No more having to depend on the whims of TV executives. No more demographic targeting or Nielson family jerry-rigging. There’ll still be plenty of crap but there’ll also be a greater chance for a quality series to find an audience and continue because the audience will be supporting the series directly. Film and TV that follows a book publishing model.
My shallow self-centered thought for the minute.
Ah, Margaret Cho, thank you for reminding me of a useful attitude in these days of teapot tempests and authentic doom. Actually a very Christian outlook. Heh.
Thanks to Jenn for providing the link. I’d been looking for an epiphany this morning (and yesterday and the day before and …) and there it was, waiting to be clicked. The sneaky part about most epiphanies is that I’ve usually already seen that light before. I just forgot it. Personal darkness descended and all.
‘Course it helps if them boots to the head come by way of a sense of humor.
Not a Review
We finally made it to Return of the King last night. A friend volunteered to watch Aged Mother while we had dinner and took in the show. A.M. ran her ragged. Sigh.
I don’t have much to say about the film. I don’t usually have much to say about films that worked for me. It’s been nearly twenty years since I last read the trilogy so most changes/adjustments to the story went unnoticed. Someday Nizzibet and I will sit down with all the extended versions and watch the whole story straight through.
And twenty or thirty years from now (heck probably just ten) someone is going to remake the story as a 20 hour TV miniseries. It won’t be better. But it will include Tom Bombadil and the Scouring of the Shire. And singing. Much more singing.
And sometime in 2005 or 2006, Peter Jackson and his band of Kiwis will give us their remake of King Kong. That should be fun. Certainly more fun than the 1976 version. More fun than any of the Jurassic Park movies.
It’s morning as I write this. Everyone but me is asleep. I’d be happy to grab some z’s myself but I know that two minutes after I get comfortable A.M. will wake up and need something. She’s evil that way.
Skook and I meet for a moment in the back yard. Dawn is still an hour or so away. I’m taking out the trash. He’s coming home from wherever he’s been wandering.
I don’t have much to say. Mostly because I’m so sleep deprived that I’m unable to direct a conversation. I can answer questions but Skook isn’t much for asking them.
So the meeting is short. Friendly. Then I go back to wake up Aged Mother and get her started on breakfast. Skook heads for the garage to get some sleep.
Note to Self –
Arguing with crazy people is pointless. Getting angry with crazy people is pointless. Expecting logic from crazy people is just stupid. Trying to point out the logical fallacies in a crazy person’s world view is just a waste of time.
