November 2024 Prompts - Part 1
Feb. 9th, 2025 09:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fauxkloreI got through writing a few proposals for conferences (both storytelling related and Jewish genealogy related) so I can get back to trying to do some catching up here.
1. Are You Hard or Easy on Yourself? I try to be fair to myself but probably lean a bit too much on the being hard side.
2. What Teacher Would You Like to Thank? There are a few possibilities. Maybe my elementary school music teacher, Mrs. Rowena Myers. Maybe Johanna, who was one of my better piano teachers. Maybe “Guru Hank” Paynter, who supervised my undergraduate thesis.
3. What Health Tips Have Worked for You? I think the most important is trying to get enough sleep.
4. How Do Male and Female Roles Differ in Your Family? When I was growing up, I think our family roles were pretty conventional for the 1960’s in many ways. Though my father did cook some of the time. Probably the most unusual thing was that my mother did all the driving. My father had a driver’s license but he didn’t like to drive. When my folks bought a new car in 1967, Dad backed it out of the driveway, drove around the block, pulled back into the driveway and never drove again in his life.
5. What Are Your Longtime Interests or Passions? I’ve always liked reading, music, needlework, languages, and science. I wanted to travel, but wasn’t really able to until I finished college, though I’ve certainly made up for that since.
6. Do You Have a Hard Time Making Decisions? No. Oh, wait, yes I do.
7. Were You Ever the ‘New Kid’? Since my home town didn’t have its own high school, all of us from there were the new kids when we started high school. And then, of course, I went away to college and to grad school.
8. How Much Freedom Did Your Parents Give You? My brother and I had a lot of freedom. By my early teens, I was allowed to go to New York City on my own, for example.
9. What Motivates You? I always like an interesting challenge. That’s why I do puzzles, for example.
10. Have You Ever Posted, Emailed or Texted Something You Wish You Could Take Back? I think everyone has done that at some time.
11. What Challenges Have You Overcome? Getting through grad school.
12. What Do You Wish You Could See, Hear, Read or Experience for the First Time All Over Again? The first time I heard Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition,” was pretty overwhelming.
13. Would You Quit if Your Values Did Not Match Your Employer’s? Definitely.
14. Are You More Or Less Religious Than Your Parents? Definitely more than my mother. Probably less than my father, though I think it was more about community involvement than religion per se for him.
15. Do You Recognize Yourself in Descriptions of ‘Generation Z’? I’m way too old to really pay attention to descriptions of Generation Z.
16. Do Machines Represent a Threat to Humans? Machines themselves don’t currently represent a threat to humans, but programmers do.
17. What Good Can Come from Disagreements? Polite disagreement is a good way to flesh out how people are thinking about controversial issues.
18. Is Modern Culture Ruining Childhood? I think some aspects of modern culture are less than ideal for having a happy childhood, but I’m fairly sure my parents would have felt similarly about things that were popular when I was a child.
19. What’s the Most Memorable Thing You Ever Got in the Mail? I once got a copy of a summer camp yearbook over a year from when it was mailed to me. It was stamped “accidentally missent to the Bahamas.”
20. How Did You Learn About Sex? From my parents’ copy of Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid to Ask, which was on plain view on their bookshelves.
21. How Often Do You Interact With People of Another Race or Ethnicity? I live in a fairly diverse neighborhood, so it’s pretty frequent.
22. Do You Suffer From Anxiety? Sometimes.
23. What Are Your Thanksgiving Traditions? We always had a pretty standard American Thanksgiving dinner. I think the most unique thing we did was having out little candles in the shapes of turkeys and pilgrims, And we always cleared off the dinner table and put out a jigsaw puzzle. I was well into my teens before I realized this was my mother’s trick for getting us to clear off the table and put away the leftovers.
24. Will Your Family Members Disagree With Each Other About Politics This Thanksgiving? I don’t think we ever discussed politics at all. We might have talked some about housing policy since that was my father’s career.
25. What Do You Look Forward to Most – and Least – During the Holiday Season? I like trying to find interesting Chanukah candles.
26. What Does Santa Claus Mean to You? Nothing really, since that isn’t my tradition.
27. What Is Your Most Prized Possession? I have a really beautiful necklace that had allegedly belonged to my great-grandmother. I also have my grandmother’s silver tray and wine carafe.
28. What Are You Grateful For? Books, good friends, cats
29. Did You Take Part in Any Post-Thanksgiving Shopping? No. I try to avoid shopping the last few months of the year.
30. Under What Conditions Do You Do Your Best Work? Complete quiet.
1. Are You Hard or Easy on Yourself? I try to be fair to myself but probably lean a bit too much on the being hard side.
2. What Teacher Would You Like to Thank? There are a few possibilities. Maybe my elementary school music teacher, Mrs. Rowena Myers. Maybe Johanna, who was one of my better piano teachers. Maybe “Guru Hank” Paynter, who supervised my undergraduate thesis.
3. What Health Tips Have Worked for You? I think the most important is trying to get enough sleep.
4. How Do Male and Female Roles Differ in Your Family? When I was growing up, I think our family roles were pretty conventional for the 1960’s in many ways. Though my father did cook some of the time. Probably the most unusual thing was that my mother did all the driving. My father had a driver’s license but he didn’t like to drive. When my folks bought a new car in 1967, Dad backed it out of the driveway, drove around the block, pulled back into the driveway and never drove again in his life.
5. What Are Your Longtime Interests or Passions? I’ve always liked reading, music, needlework, languages, and science. I wanted to travel, but wasn’t really able to until I finished college, though I’ve certainly made up for that since.
6. Do You Have a Hard Time Making Decisions? No. Oh, wait, yes I do.
7. Were You Ever the ‘New Kid’? Since my home town didn’t have its own high school, all of us from there were the new kids when we started high school. And then, of course, I went away to college and to grad school.
8. How Much Freedom Did Your Parents Give You? My brother and I had a lot of freedom. By my early teens, I was allowed to go to New York City on my own, for example.
9. What Motivates You? I always like an interesting challenge. That’s why I do puzzles, for example.
10. Have You Ever Posted, Emailed or Texted Something You Wish You Could Take Back? I think everyone has done that at some time.
11. What Challenges Have You Overcome? Getting through grad school.
12. What Do You Wish You Could See, Hear, Read or Experience for the First Time All Over Again? The first time I heard Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition,” was pretty overwhelming.
13. Would You Quit if Your Values Did Not Match Your Employer’s? Definitely.
14. Are You More Or Less Religious Than Your Parents? Definitely more than my mother. Probably less than my father, though I think it was more about community involvement than religion per se for him.
15. Do You Recognize Yourself in Descriptions of ‘Generation Z’? I’m way too old to really pay attention to descriptions of Generation Z.
16. Do Machines Represent a Threat to Humans? Machines themselves don’t currently represent a threat to humans, but programmers do.
17. What Good Can Come from Disagreements? Polite disagreement is a good way to flesh out how people are thinking about controversial issues.
18. Is Modern Culture Ruining Childhood? I think some aspects of modern culture are less than ideal for having a happy childhood, but I’m fairly sure my parents would have felt similarly about things that were popular when I was a child.
19. What’s the Most Memorable Thing You Ever Got in the Mail? I once got a copy of a summer camp yearbook over a year from when it was mailed to me. It was stamped “accidentally missent to the Bahamas.”
20. How Did You Learn About Sex? From my parents’ copy of Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid to Ask, which was on plain view on their bookshelves.
21. How Often Do You Interact With People of Another Race or Ethnicity? I live in a fairly diverse neighborhood, so it’s pretty frequent.
22. Do You Suffer From Anxiety? Sometimes.
23. What Are Your Thanksgiving Traditions? We always had a pretty standard American Thanksgiving dinner. I think the most unique thing we did was having out little candles in the shapes of turkeys and pilgrims, And we always cleared off the dinner table and put out a jigsaw puzzle. I was well into my teens before I realized this was my mother’s trick for getting us to clear off the table and put away the leftovers.
24. Will Your Family Members Disagree With Each Other About Politics This Thanksgiving? I don’t think we ever discussed politics at all. We might have talked some about housing policy since that was my father’s career.
25. What Do You Look Forward to Most – and Least – During the Holiday Season? I like trying to find interesting Chanukah candles.
26. What Does Santa Claus Mean to You? Nothing really, since that isn’t my tradition.
27. What Is Your Most Prized Possession? I have a really beautiful necklace that had allegedly belonged to my great-grandmother. I also have my grandmother’s silver tray and wine carafe.
28. What Are You Grateful For? Books, good friends, cats
29. Did You Take Part in Any Post-Thanksgiving Shopping? No. I try to avoid shopping the last few months of the year.
30. Under What Conditions Do You Do Your Best Work? Complete quiet.
