I’ve been trying to avoid just responding to the news cycle and do some more thoughtful stuff, but that’s hard, so here’s a meme that’s been going around during our recent cold snap instead:

1. When you looked at yourself in the mirror today, what was the first thing you thought?
Why did I hardly have a pimple in adolescence and now I’m constantly battling them? (Yeah, I know it’s perimenopause. It still sucks.)

2. How much cash do you have on you?
I guessed about $80 and when I checked it was $75 in notes. I didn’t check my coin purse.

3. What’s a word that rhymes with “DOOR?”
IGNORE, which is what I tried and failed to do with this meme.

4. Favorite planet?
Saturn, great big gaudy lump that it is. No stylish understatement about it at all.

5. Who is the 4th person on your missed call list on your cell phone?
My mum.

6. What is your favorite ring tone on your phone?
I don’t actually have favourite ring tones as such, more like least irritating.

7. What shirt are you wearing?
A pink Indian cotton shalwaar kameez tunic. I have several similiar that are my essential summer wear – light, cool and comfortable.

8. Do you “label” yourself?
Not in a “what do you do?” way. (I hate that, and try to avoid asking it whenever possible).

I’ll cheerfuly own up to pedant, curmudgeon and skeptic though.

9. Name the brand of the shoes you’re currently wearing?
My feet are bare.

10. Bright or Dark Room?
Bright daylight, prefer pools of lamplight at night rather than a central overhead light.

11. What do you think about the person who took this survey before you?
I found this meme cropping up all over TEH OZ FEMINIST HIVEMIND. Naturally, we are all utterly ineluctably and effulgently delightful. Seriously, they are the sort of women I’d love to go on a retreat with sometime just to noodle around chatting, drinking and setting the world to rights. (Apparently Pav edited the 50 down to 35, which a few people took on, then it was generally felt necessary to do the remaining 15, hence the two parts for some bloggers)
[pavlov’s cat] [lucy tartan] [crazybrave] [view from elsewhere] [nopod – extras] [ampersand duck] [personal political] [moment to moment]

12. What does your watch look like?
Stainless-steel waterproof chronometer that my husband bought me on our honeymoon, saying it would be the last watch I’d ever need and I’d never have to worry about taking it off in order to do anything. He’s right, but it needs a service as I neglected it last year and the year before and it’s starting to lose too much time to be reliable at the moment.

13. What were you doing at midnight last night?
Reading in bed.

14. What did your last text message you received on your cell say?
From a week ago, my son’s school asking me to provide a reason for his absence (he was at home with the flu).

15. Where is your nearest 7-11?
Silly Americanised question. My nearest extended hours convenience store is at the BP petrol station a few blocks away.

16. Whats a word that you say a lot?
Absolutely. I wish I didn’t.

17. Who told you he/she loved you last?
My husband.

18. Last furry thing you touched?
Our household’s totalitarian feline mistress, Molly.

19. How many drugs have you done in the last three days?
Coffee in the morning, wine with dinner at night.

20. How many rolls of film do you need developed?
Zilch.

21. Favorite age you have been so far?
29. Not age denial, really 29 – married and expecting my first child, and those first few months after he was born. An intense, moving, memorable time.

22. Your worst enemy?
Myself.

23. What is your current desktop picture?
This fabulous picture of Saturn taken by the Cassini spacecraft.

24. What was the last thing you said to someone?
Yes darling, you may have a TimTam.

25. If you had to choose between a million bucks or to be able to fly what would it be?
To fly, definitely.

26. Do you like someone?
I like lots of people. People are fascinating. Fun too. I’m far from the first to note that this is an odd question.

27. The last song you listened to?
Some Disney pap on the console game my kids were playing earlier. Eevil.

28. What time of day were you born?
Mid-afternoon.

29. Whats your favorite number?
Don’t really have one. When asked to think of a number I always think of 7 first, but that doesn’t make it my favourite. I’m fond of primes and squares, sometimes tapping my feet in complicated patterns of them when bored in high school.

30. Where did you live in 1987?
In Sydney, studying for my physiotherapy degree.

31. Are you jealous of anyone?
Like Pavlov’s Cat, my inner pedant must ask whether this question is meant to be about envy, not jealousy. I have no call to be jealous of anyone, but I do envy some people who are more organised than I am and therefore less stressed.

32. Is anyone jealous of you?
I seriously doubt it. I may perhaps be envied for my beautiful, healthy, well-mannered children.

33. Where were you when 9/11 happened?
At home watching TV with my husband. We kept watching for hours, unable to tear ourselves away from the drama and horror. I’m glad the feed we were watching was one which didn’t show the people jumping.

34. What do you do when vending machines steal your money?
If there’s a manager around I’ll ask for a refund, but that’s a rare situation. I usually shrug it off.

35. Do you consider yourself kind?
Yes. On matters trivial I can be impatient or grumpy, but in emergencies or true angst/pain I am not only kind but calm and competent which is often even more important.

36. If you had to get a tattoo, where would it be?
I don’t know where, but I do know what. The IPU logo, symbol of the Invisible Pink Unicorn. I’ve long been aware of the IPU as an analogy used amongst atheists when discussing the nature of faith and revelation, and the idea of the IPU logo is as a way to identify yourself to other atheists without being antisocial to theists. I think it’s a rather elegant logo.

37. If you could be fluent in any other language, what would it be?
Definitely a Romance language, I love the sound of all of them. Probably French.

38. Would you move for the person you loved?
Yes.

39. Are you touchy feely?
Yes.

40. What’s your life motto?
I’m not sure I have one. Maybe I should, it might make me more focussed.

41. Name three things that you have on you at all times?
Wedding ring, earrings, scent.

42. What’s your favourite town/city?
I’m not sure. I’m accustomed to Sydney and would miss it, but I don’t know whether that makes it my favourite. I enjoy visiting Melbourne and Brisbane, I’m extremely fond of small coastal towns along the SE coast of Australia generally, and I find London and Paris totally absorbing.

43. What was the last thing you paid for with cash?
Slushies for my children.

44. When was the last time you wrote a letter to someone on paper and mailed it?
Years. I fill out forms and mail them to companies/bureaucracies, I write notes to accompany packages in the mail, but an actual letter? No.

45. Can you change the oil on a car?
Yes, at least I know how to and have done so in the past. 20 years ago. Also the tyres, the battery, the fan-belt, the brake-pads and the head-gasket. Don’t know that I’d bother doing any of it myself these days, except an emergency tyre or fan-belt incident.

46. Your first love: what is the last thing you heard about him/her?
That he got married a few years after I did, I can’t remember when that was exactly, but I’ve been married 15 years now.

I fantasised for years after we broke up of how one day our paths would cross and I’d just be so fabulous that he would headbutt a wall with regret for what he was missing out on because he dumped me, but then I was only 22 when we broke up. I hardly think about him now, except on my sister’s birthday every year, because his birthday is the day after. Then I usually subvocalise a short wish that he’s happy in his life too, because although he broke my heart it wasn’t done from malice, and we wouldn’t have suited each other in the long run.

47. How far back do you know about your ancestry?
Seven generations in Australia of my father’s paternal ancestry, about four generations of his maternal ancestry. One of his cousins has much much more data on the paternal ancestry in Ireland and Scotland, but I’ve never read much about that far back. On my mother’s side, only know about three generations back here in Australia, and a few vague family stories about Wales.

The main ancestor told stories of is the convict from Ireland: transported for political reasons, promoted to workgang-leader because he was respected and competent, but repeatedly busted down and punished for letting other convicts escape or striking a guard for whipping a convict too harshly. The records of his time in Tasmania show that the promotion-punishment cycle happened over and over again while he served out his conviction.

48. The last time you dressed fancy, what did you wear and why did you dress fancy?
I don’t dress fancy very often. Neat casual is my usual standard for a night out. I wore a skirt with some sparkles on it to a birthday bash for a fellow blogger a few months ago, and I broke out my best jewelry for my birthday night out.

49. Does anything hurt on your body right now?
My neck aches. I slept on it wrong last week and it’s taking some time to get better.

50. Have you been burned by love?
Oh yes. Burned hard. But I wouldn’t fully appreciate the loving partnership I have now without the disappointments of the past.

Categories: fun & hobbies

Tags: apod, astronomy