February Prompts - Part 1
Mar. 3rd, 2023 08:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fauxklore1 – Serpent Day: How do you feel about snakes? Would you ever keep a snake as a pet? I am fine with snakes, though I prefer to keep my distance from them for the most part. I do have a rather notorious picture of myself taken at the Python Temple in Ouida, Benin. You have to expect that when you go to a Python Temple that somebody will fling a snake on you. And, indeed they did.
I have no desire to have a snake as a pet, largely because I’d be squeamish about feeding it mice.
2 – Optimist Day: Do you consider yourself to be an optimist or a pessimist? I’m generally fairly optimistic.
3 – Take a Cruise Day: Have you ever been on a cruise? If not, would you want to? Cruise ships cause major environmental damage: a large cruise ship can have a carbon footprint greater than 12,000 cars, while passengers on an Antarctic cruise can produce as much CO2 emissions on a seven-day voyage as the average European in an entire year. The industry is a major producer of waste, with the total amount of rubbish produced by a large cruise ship exceeding a ton per day. And let us not forget that they are also essentially floating germ/virus labs (even before Covid). So do you still want to take a cruise? I have been on several cruises, but on small ships (mostly under 100 passengers), not the floating hotel sort of cruise ships. For me, cruises are a practical way of seeing places that are otherwise inaccessible. For example, I’ve taken cruises to Antarctica and to the Galapagos Islands. I’ve taken two eclipse cruises - one from the Solomon Islands to Palau (via eastern Papua New Guinea and the Federated States of Micronesia) and one from Tahiti to far southern French Polynesia (almost entirely at sea). I’ve also taken a coastal ferry from Goose Bay - Happy Valley to/from Nain in Labrador and another mostly cargo ship from Bergen to Kirkenes in Norway, as well as the R.M.S. Saint Helena, a mail ship from Cape Town, South Africa to the U.K. via Saint Helena, Ascension Island, Banjul (the Gambia), and Tenerife (Canary Islands). The largest ship I’ve taken was a ferry between Iceland and the Faroe Islands.
4 – Ice cream For Breakfast Day: Have you ever eaten ice cream for breakfast (or for any other meal)? I’ve eaten gelato for lunch more than once in Italy.
5 – World Nutella Day: Do you like Nutella? How often to you eat Nutella? I like nutella, but don’t eat it often, since it isn’t exactly healthy.
6 – Chopsticks Day: Can you eat with chopsticks? If yes, how often do you use them? I learned to eat with chopsticks when I was in grad school and the cheap vegetarian Chinese restaurant in my neighborhood didn’t offer forks. I’m quite comfortable using them and often use them at home when I make Asian food.
7 – World Ballet Day: Have you ever been to a ballet performance? If not, is this something that might interest you? Have you ever had ballet lessons? I’ve been to many ballet performances, enough to have a good idea of what sort of ballets I am likely to enjoy. In general, I prefer narrative ballet adaptations of a single work, instead of the programs of several shorter ballets. There are exceptions, since there are some shorter ballets I like a lot, e.g. The Firebird and Rodeo. I despise the current modern trend of ballets in which the performers start dancing before the music starts. As for ballet lessons, I took ballet classes for 6 years when I was growing up and another one semester ballet class in college, though by then I preferred taking jazz dance. (I also did a lot of folk dancing and, more recently, took Bollywood dance for a few years, until the teacher got married and moved away,)
8 – World Opera Day: Are you an opera buff? I wouldn’t say I’m an opera buff per se, but I do like some opera. I am a big fan of light opera, e.g. Gilbert and Sullivan, for example. I also sometimes go to see the short modern operas that a local company called Urban Arias puts on.
9 – Read in the Bathtub Day: Do you read in the bath? Have you ever been reading in the bath and dropped your book into the water? A hot bubble bath, a glass of champagne, some chocolates, and a nice trashy novel is pretty much my idea of paradise. I have, alas, sometimes dropped said trashy novel into the water, but it’s worth it.
10 – Umbrella Day: Umbrella or raincoat? Do you carry an umbrella or raincoat “just in case” if the weather looks doubtful, or do you take your chances? What types of umbrellas do you like? Do you keep umbrellas in different places, e.g. one at work, one in your car (if you have a car), to avoid being caught by unexpected rain? Whether or not I carry an umbrella depends on the weather forecast. I do keep one in the car at all times and kept one in the office when I was working.
11 – Make a Friend Day: How easy is it for you to make friends? Do you have many casual friends, or just one or two close friends? Ii think it gets harder to make friends as you get older. I have a few close friends who I do things with often, as well as several “situational friends,” i.e. people I know from a specific activity (e..g book club, crafts group, etc.) but don’t often spend time with otherwise.
12 – World Marriage Day: In your opinion, is marriage an outdated institution or has it stood the test of time? Should we seek to preserve it, or might there be a better alternative for committed couples? Marriage is a fine institution, but I have no desire to be institutionalized. I would like to see the separation of religious marriage from civil commitment for a number of practical reasons.
13 – Clean Out Your Computer Day: When was the last time you cleaned out your fans and dusted off your motherboard? Have you looked at your graphics card to see if its cooling fan and fins are clean? For that matter, when did you last clean out or even opened the case? Or have you ever cleaned out your computer or had someone clean it out for you? I have a laptop. Cleaning it is not practical, except for blowing a very infrequent spray of compressed air around the keyboard.
14 – Organ Donor Day: Are you signed up/registered to be an organ donor? Do you regularly or occasionally donate blood? I approve of organ donation, in general, with some caveats regarding respect for the donor’s body. For a number of reasons involving foreign travel (e.g. somewhat regular use of antimalarial drugs) they won’t take my blood.
15 – World Hippo Day: How much do you know about hippos? Have you seen one outside a zoo? I know that hippos kill more people in Africa than any other animal except man. Basically, their instinct when frightened is to run for the water and they trample anyone in the way to death. I have seen them in lakes in Africa, from a safe distance.
16 – Innovation Day: Are you the creative sort who can easily come up with new innovations, or are you better at following-up with developing other people's ideas? I am far better at coming up with ideas than with implementing them. Once I have an idea, I’m satisfied and, thus, tend to lose interest in it. This is why I need henchmen.
17 – My Way Day: the day where you are encouraged to do whatever you want, however you want. Have you ever treated yourself to a day like this? What did you do? Being retired, most days are like this. I can sleep late, eat whatever I feel like, read, listen to music, do crafts, and so on.
18 – Battery Day: How many things in your house are unusable without batteries? (If they don't run on mains power.) A lot of things run on rechargeable batteries, e.g. my phone and tablet. I have things like flashlights / headlamps that I use when we have a (mercifully rare) power failure.
19 – World Whale Day: Have you ever been whale watching? Tell us about it. I have been whale watching several times. The most dramatic was my Antarctic cruise. On our first landing, shortly after we got in the Zodiacs to go ashore, two humpback whales breached just a few feet in front of us and the naturalist driving the Zodiac followed them for a while.
20 – Love Your Pet Day: Do you have pets? Tell us about them – cats, dogs, other species? How many? I don’t have any pets since I travel too much for that to be practical. We had a cat for a while when I was a teenager. We also had several small animals at various times when I was younger. I remember turtles and mouse, for example.
21 – International Mother Language Day: What is your native language? How many languages do you speak fluently or near-fluently? How many languages besides your native language have you studied? My native language is English. I don’t speak anything else anywhere near fluently, despite having studied several languages. I went to Hebrew school for several years (5 or 6), as well as having Hebrew classes at one summer camp I went to and taking a shorter Hebrew class when I was in college. I took 4 years of German and 2 years of French in high school and a year of Russian in college. I’ve also taken various short classes including Italian, Chinese, and Polish. I’ve been studying Spanish with DuoLingo since November.
22 – World Yoga Day: Do you do yoga? How do you benefit from it? I don’t do yoga. I am uncomfortable with the religious undertones of it. I do other sorts of stretching, though not as much as I should.
23 – Digital Learning Day: What are the benefits of digital learning compared to other methods of learning? What are the disadvantages? The primary advantages are scheduling flexibility and the ability to be self-paced. But I prefer group learning=, which I find more motivational.
24 – International I Hate Coriander Day: Do you love or hate coriander? If you don't like it, what don't you like about it? Coriander really refers to two different things. Coriander seed is used primarily in baking, though also in some middle Eastern and Indian cooking, and I’ve never really heard of people having issues with it. Coriander leaves are most often called cilantro (the Spanish name for them) in the U.S. and are used in a lot of Mexican food, as well as Indian and southeast Asian food. Some people have a gene that makes them taste soapy. Fortunately, I do not have that trait and I do like cilantro.
25 – Real Bread Week: Real bread refers to any type of bread that has been made without the use of processing aids or any other additives and includes any type of additive-free bread (e.g. pita, paratha, tortilla, oatcakes, roti, bagels, etc.). Do you, or have you ever, made bread? Do you use a bread maker? If you always buy rather than make bread, do you look for bread that at least claims to be additive-free, made from organic flour, etc.? I used to make bread pretty much every week, though I haven’t done so regularly in a while. I’ve never used a bread maker because I like the process of making it by hand, getting out all my aggressions by kneading the dough. I have access to good bakery bread, mostly at our farmer’s markets, so I often buy a loaf of a hearty brown bread instead of baking my own.
26 – Carpe Diem Day: Are you good at seizing the day? If not, what holds you back? I’m reasonably good at seizing the day, though sometimes I am seizing it by the throat.
27 – Pokemon Day: Are you or is anybody in your family a Pokemon fanatic? I know very little about Pokemon and am not particularly interested in learning more. I know a few of my friends play Pokemon Go.
28 – Tooth Fairy Day: Did the tooth fairy visit you whenever one of your baby teeth fell out? If you have children, did/do you have the tooth fairy visit them when they lose teeth? Why or why not? I knew it was my parents leaving the coins under my pillow, but was fine with them calling that the tooth fairy. I’ve never had children, so that isn’t relevant.
I have no desire to have a snake as a pet, largely because I’d be squeamish about feeding it mice.
2 – Optimist Day: Do you consider yourself to be an optimist or a pessimist? I’m generally fairly optimistic.
3 – Take a Cruise Day: Have you ever been on a cruise? If not, would you want to? Cruise ships cause major environmental damage: a large cruise ship can have a carbon footprint greater than 12,000 cars, while passengers on an Antarctic cruise can produce as much CO2 emissions on a seven-day voyage as the average European in an entire year. The industry is a major producer of waste, with the total amount of rubbish produced by a large cruise ship exceeding a ton per day. And let us not forget that they are also essentially floating germ/virus labs (even before Covid). So do you still want to take a cruise? I have been on several cruises, but on small ships (mostly under 100 passengers), not the floating hotel sort of cruise ships. For me, cruises are a practical way of seeing places that are otherwise inaccessible. For example, I’ve taken cruises to Antarctica and to the Galapagos Islands. I’ve taken two eclipse cruises - one from the Solomon Islands to Palau (via eastern Papua New Guinea and the Federated States of Micronesia) and one from Tahiti to far southern French Polynesia (almost entirely at sea). I’ve also taken a coastal ferry from Goose Bay - Happy Valley to/from Nain in Labrador and another mostly cargo ship from Bergen to Kirkenes in Norway, as well as the R.M.S. Saint Helena, a mail ship from Cape Town, South Africa to the U.K. via Saint Helena, Ascension Island, Banjul (the Gambia), and Tenerife (Canary Islands). The largest ship I’ve taken was a ferry between Iceland and the Faroe Islands.
4 – Ice cream For Breakfast Day: Have you ever eaten ice cream for breakfast (or for any other meal)? I’ve eaten gelato for lunch more than once in Italy.
5 – World Nutella Day: Do you like Nutella? How often to you eat Nutella? I like nutella, but don’t eat it often, since it isn’t exactly healthy.
6 – Chopsticks Day: Can you eat with chopsticks? If yes, how often do you use them? I learned to eat with chopsticks when I was in grad school and the cheap vegetarian Chinese restaurant in my neighborhood didn’t offer forks. I’m quite comfortable using them and often use them at home when I make Asian food.
7 – World Ballet Day: Have you ever been to a ballet performance? If not, is this something that might interest you? Have you ever had ballet lessons? I’ve been to many ballet performances, enough to have a good idea of what sort of ballets I am likely to enjoy. In general, I prefer narrative ballet adaptations of a single work, instead of the programs of several shorter ballets. There are exceptions, since there are some shorter ballets I like a lot, e.g. The Firebird and Rodeo. I despise the current modern trend of ballets in which the performers start dancing before the music starts. As for ballet lessons, I took ballet classes for 6 years when I was growing up and another one semester ballet class in college, though by then I preferred taking jazz dance. (I also did a lot of folk dancing and, more recently, took Bollywood dance for a few years, until the teacher got married and moved away,)
8 – World Opera Day: Are you an opera buff? I wouldn’t say I’m an opera buff per se, but I do like some opera. I am a big fan of light opera, e.g. Gilbert and Sullivan, for example. I also sometimes go to see the short modern operas that a local company called Urban Arias puts on.
9 – Read in the Bathtub Day: Do you read in the bath? Have you ever been reading in the bath and dropped your book into the water? A hot bubble bath, a glass of champagne, some chocolates, and a nice trashy novel is pretty much my idea of paradise. I have, alas, sometimes dropped said trashy novel into the water, but it’s worth it.
10 – Umbrella Day: Umbrella or raincoat? Do you carry an umbrella or raincoat “just in case” if the weather looks doubtful, or do you take your chances? What types of umbrellas do you like? Do you keep umbrellas in different places, e.g. one at work, one in your car (if you have a car), to avoid being caught by unexpected rain? Whether or not I carry an umbrella depends on the weather forecast. I do keep one in the car at all times and kept one in the office when I was working.
11 – Make a Friend Day: How easy is it for you to make friends? Do you have many casual friends, or just one or two close friends? Ii think it gets harder to make friends as you get older. I have a few close friends who I do things with often, as well as several “situational friends,” i.e. people I know from a specific activity (e..g book club, crafts group, etc.) but don’t often spend time with otherwise.
12 – World Marriage Day: In your opinion, is marriage an outdated institution or has it stood the test of time? Should we seek to preserve it, or might there be a better alternative for committed couples? Marriage is a fine institution, but I have no desire to be institutionalized. I would like to see the separation of religious marriage from civil commitment for a number of practical reasons.
13 – Clean Out Your Computer Day: When was the last time you cleaned out your fans and dusted off your motherboard? Have you looked at your graphics card to see if its cooling fan and fins are clean? For that matter, when did you last clean out or even opened the case? Or have you ever cleaned out your computer or had someone clean it out for you? I have a laptop. Cleaning it is not practical, except for blowing a very infrequent spray of compressed air around the keyboard.
14 – Organ Donor Day: Are you signed up/registered to be an organ donor? Do you regularly or occasionally donate blood? I approve of organ donation, in general, with some caveats regarding respect for the donor’s body. For a number of reasons involving foreign travel (e.g. somewhat regular use of antimalarial drugs) they won’t take my blood.
15 – World Hippo Day: How much do you know about hippos? Have you seen one outside a zoo? I know that hippos kill more people in Africa than any other animal except man. Basically, their instinct when frightened is to run for the water and they trample anyone in the way to death. I have seen them in lakes in Africa, from a safe distance.
16 – Innovation Day: Are you the creative sort who can easily come up with new innovations, or are you better at following-up with developing other people's ideas? I am far better at coming up with ideas than with implementing them. Once I have an idea, I’m satisfied and, thus, tend to lose interest in it. This is why I need henchmen.
17 – My Way Day: the day where you are encouraged to do whatever you want, however you want. Have you ever treated yourself to a day like this? What did you do? Being retired, most days are like this. I can sleep late, eat whatever I feel like, read, listen to music, do crafts, and so on.
18 – Battery Day: How many things in your house are unusable without batteries? (If they don't run on mains power.) A lot of things run on rechargeable batteries, e.g. my phone and tablet. I have things like flashlights / headlamps that I use when we have a (mercifully rare) power failure.
19 – World Whale Day: Have you ever been whale watching? Tell us about it. I have been whale watching several times. The most dramatic was my Antarctic cruise. On our first landing, shortly after we got in the Zodiacs to go ashore, two humpback whales breached just a few feet in front of us and the naturalist driving the Zodiac followed them for a while.
20 – Love Your Pet Day: Do you have pets? Tell us about them – cats, dogs, other species? How many? I don’t have any pets since I travel too much for that to be practical. We had a cat for a while when I was a teenager. We also had several small animals at various times when I was younger. I remember turtles and mouse, for example.
21 – International Mother Language Day: What is your native language? How many languages do you speak fluently or near-fluently? How many languages besides your native language have you studied? My native language is English. I don’t speak anything else anywhere near fluently, despite having studied several languages. I went to Hebrew school for several years (5 or 6), as well as having Hebrew classes at one summer camp I went to and taking a shorter Hebrew class when I was in college. I took 4 years of German and 2 years of French in high school and a year of Russian in college. I’ve also taken various short classes including Italian, Chinese, and Polish. I’ve been studying Spanish with DuoLingo since November.
22 – World Yoga Day: Do you do yoga? How do you benefit from it? I don’t do yoga. I am uncomfortable with the religious undertones of it. I do other sorts of stretching, though not as much as I should.
23 – Digital Learning Day: What are the benefits of digital learning compared to other methods of learning? What are the disadvantages? The primary advantages are scheduling flexibility and the ability to be self-paced. But I prefer group learning=, which I find more motivational.
24 – International I Hate Coriander Day: Do you love or hate coriander? If you don't like it, what don't you like about it? Coriander really refers to two different things. Coriander seed is used primarily in baking, though also in some middle Eastern and Indian cooking, and I’ve never really heard of people having issues with it. Coriander leaves are most often called cilantro (the Spanish name for them) in the U.S. and are used in a lot of Mexican food, as well as Indian and southeast Asian food. Some people have a gene that makes them taste soapy. Fortunately, I do not have that trait and I do like cilantro.
25 – Real Bread Week: Real bread refers to any type of bread that has been made without the use of processing aids or any other additives and includes any type of additive-free bread (e.g. pita, paratha, tortilla, oatcakes, roti, bagels, etc.). Do you, or have you ever, made bread? Do you use a bread maker? If you always buy rather than make bread, do you look for bread that at least claims to be additive-free, made from organic flour, etc.? I used to make bread pretty much every week, though I haven’t done so regularly in a while. I’ve never used a bread maker because I like the process of making it by hand, getting out all my aggressions by kneading the dough. I have access to good bakery bread, mostly at our farmer’s markets, so I often buy a loaf of a hearty brown bread instead of baking my own.
26 – Carpe Diem Day: Are you good at seizing the day? If not, what holds you back? I’m reasonably good at seizing the day, though sometimes I am seizing it by the throat.
27 – Pokemon Day: Are you or is anybody in your family a Pokemon fanatic? I know very little about Pokemon and am not particularly interested in learning more. I know a few of my friends play Pokemon Go.
28 – Tooth Fairy Day: Did the tooth fairy visit you whenever one of your baby teeth fell out? If you have children, did/do you have the tooth fairy visit them when they lose teeth? Why or why not? I knew it was my parents leaving the coins under my pillow, but was fine with them calling that the tooth fairy. I’ve never had children, so that isn’t relevant.
