Baa Baa Meme Sheep

[libertango]

I want everyone who reads this (and feels up to it) to ask me 3 questions, no more, no less. Ask me anything you want. Then I want you to go to your journal and copy and paste this in, allowing your friends (including myself) to ask you anything.

Comments

[blue-by-you.livejournal.com]

1. What places/cities have you lived and can you give your impression of each place?

2. Who will win the presidential election in November and why?

3. Do you have a top 10 list of books, authors, songs, albums -- something that you'd like to share with us?

[hal-obrien.livejournal.com]

1. Hoo-boy. I look at that, and I see yawningly wide invitation to an autobiography. I think my mom and I worked out I'd moved 17 times by age 11. It's been fewer since then, but still, many. And it takes more time to write briefly rather than at length, y'know? But the basic run-down is: Boston and environs; the San Bernardino mountains of California; Englewood, NJ; Back to the mountains; suruban LA (but widely different suburbs -- Upland, El Monte, Burbank); the Santa Ynez Valley (during my years at Midland School); LA again (Claremont, West Covina, Pasadena, Orange County); and Seattle/Bellevue/Redmond. And I don't dare say another word, for fear of not being able to stop.

*^*^*

2. I have no idea.

I still think it's only 50-50 the election will even happen. After all the noise made about how the Spanish "appeased" terrorists (by deciding to focus on terrorists themselves rather than the pointless sideshow in Iraq), I can easily see the Bushies giving veto power on the election to the terrorists and cancelling anything "too close" to an attack. (That's the charitable view. An uncharitable view involves how such an attack comes to be.)

And that's before we get into the election itself. I have no idea how anyone of good conscience can vote for Bush. I'm not talking about ideology. George W. Bush has given me the heebie-jeebies regarding his honesty since the word go. I have, in all my years of following politics, never seen a person who so obviously, to me, appears to be lying with every word. I'm including figures whom I've met and have since been convicted of crimes (Pat Nolan, former Calif. Assembly Majority Leader), and those who have just struck me as slimy (Howard Jarvis, Paul Brady [city manager of Irvine]). Yet, some folks do appear to think of Bush as a fine fellow. Either they're seeing something I don't, or failing to see something I do. I don't know.

Given that I literally have no clue how Dubya can get more than a single vote (Should even his family vote for him, after the Thanksgiving in-your-face-Dad-and-family fiasco?), I have no way to predict just how many votes he'll actually get.

*^*^*

3. Um. Well. Christopher Alexander. Leopold Kohr. Steven Minkin. A.S. Byatt. Cyril Connolly. Paul Krugman. Dan Simmons. Harlan Ellison (non-fiction, interestingly). Anne Fadiman. John le Carre (both for the books, and for his recorded readings of them -- he's one of the best readers I've ever heard). Bernard Rudofsky. Ezra Pound's literary non-poetry (ABC of Reading, Guide to Kultur, etc.).

Peter Gabriel; Warren Zevon; Varttina; Sorten Muld; Mike Oldfield; Rickie Lee Jones; Dexter Gordon; Midnight Oil; House of Freaks; Aimee Mann.

I could go on and on in both categories, but... Those are designed to be a snapshot of who I really value right now, since the point of the question (as I read it) is to tell you about myself... :)

[blue-by-you.livejournal.com]

Those are designed to be a snapshot of who I really value right now, since the point of the question (as I read it) is to tell you about myself... :)

That's exactly the case and I enjoyed reading these answers. I'm keeping them until my day off so I can google the names I don't know.

[hal-obrien.livejournal.com]

Ooh! Ooh! About books!

Nassim Nicholas Taleb and his book, Fooled by Randomness. There a new 2nd edition at Amazon, with 80 more pages than the first. Taleb is a fine, fine writer, who has literally changed the way I think.

[cityzephyr.livejournal.com]

do you believe that memes are worthwhile and/or lead you to actually know more about yourself/those around you?

do you play skee-ball and would you consider playing skee-ball a passable use of free time?

orange you glad i didn't say banana? (hehehe)

[hal-obrien.livejournal.com]

1. Depends. You'll notice I don't do this kind of thing often. The main reason I did it this time is because I decided to ask someone else the questions, and having done that, decided to be intellectually honest and follow through. :) But I definitely pick and choose.

2. I played skee-ball as a kid in New England, and more recently at Balboa Beach in Orange County. I have no idea if there is any place that does skee-ball in Seattle. As with most pasttimes, I think it's a good thing if it either a) helps you develop a real skill if done alone, or b) is something a group of folks can use as a... not tool, not method, but means of getting to know each other better. For the purposes of this comment, "group" means more than one. :)

3. Orange you smart? And isn't that a good thing?

[cityzephyr.livejournal.com]

Hey you up for skeeball around here?
Gameworks does it.
Email: cityzephyr@cityzephyr.com