June 2025 Blog Prompts
Aug. 26th, 2025 01:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fauxklore1. Have you ever made a huge change to your hair - cut or colour? I have dyed my hair various times. The most interesting is probably the time I got magenta cellophane immediately before having new passport photos taken. Australian immigration looked at me a bit strangely a few weeks later.
2. What is one thing that happened today that you really want to remember 10 years from now? I’ve really just spent the day mostly on errandy stuff, e.g. laundry and sorting through receipts, none of which is memorable. The news is full of one Trumpist outrage after another and I’d like to think that will all be over long before 10 years from now. So, frankly, I got nothing.
3. Are you happy with my job, life, and situation? What parts are good? What parts are bad? What a badly phrased question. I’m reasonably happy with my life, but know nothing about yours. The major thing I need to work on is decluttering my living room.
4. Where would you go to relax and why? I’d love to spend a week or so at the Sylvia Beach Hotel in Newport, Oregon. I’d probably choose the Agatha Christie room.
5. What trait did you admire in a relative, friend, classmate, or coworker today? I’m proud of one of my friends for writing honestly about her mental health struggles and what she’s been doing to address them.
6. What is the weather like today? How do you feel about it? I think the weather in June was hot and muggy. But the weather right now is quite pleasant, sunny with a high in the mid-70’s Fahrenheit.
7. What's the most difficult part about being you? I have high standards that I can’t always live up to.
8. Good or bad, what is your hometown best known for? Uh, there were a few couple of famous mafiosi who lived there. And also one former U.S. Senator.
9. Describe an incident at a beauty or barber shop. Does getting a chocolate pedicure at the spa at the Hotel Hershey count? Or, even better, the fish pedicure I once got?
10. What musical instrument(s) do you play or wish you could play? I took several years of piano lessons off and on. I also did two years of viola in elementary school. I’ve fooled around with various other instruments, ranging from the accordion to the tin whistle to the bowed psaltery over the years. But (to steal a joke from my Dad) my best instrument is the stereo system. I wish I could play the didgeridoo, but I've never been able to make sense of circular breathing.
11. Tell about one of your first away-from-home experiences. I went to three different summer camps. Two of them were relatively normal. The one that I went to for two summers in a row is the source of some of my best stories, since it was run by a socialist zionist organization and we had events like Capitalist Day.
12. What makes you feel safe? I guess I feel safest in familiar environments, but that includes places like home (duh!) and comfortable hotels and many major cities. Frankly, I rarely feel unsafe.
13. Have you ever been to a surprise party? Was it for you or someone else? Was it a good surprise? I don’t remember anyone ever throwing a surprise party for me, but I did go to a few surprise parties for other people when I was a teenager. The best one was for two people whose birthdays were close in time. (Their birthdays may have been the same day, but I don’t remember.) At any rate, the host told Marc it was a surprise party for Vicki and told Vicki it was a surprise party for Marc and gave them arrival times about 15 minutes apart.
14. What does abundance mean to you? Abundance is just a step beyond enough. There is a step beyond abundance that is really too much, e.g. the quantities of books and of yarn in my house.
15. Name 3 friends that shaped your childhood. My best friend for several years was Kathy, who lived down the street from me and who I spent part of nearly every day with. We spent our time listening to music, playing hopscotch, hanging out in our secret place (a clearing in the middle of an empty lot, which later became a shopping center), and memorizing things like “Jabberwocky.” I was also very close to Norman, who I shared a crayon box with in elementary school. I remember being the only girl at his birthday party one year in elementary school. And, hmm, Carol was one of the two other girls in my Hebrew school class and was the first peer who told me what getting a period was like. Her exact comment was “it’s literally a pain in the ass.”
16. If you suddenly had an extra room in your house, what would you do with it? I’d like it to be an art and music room, with a piano and shelves for my yarn stash.
17. What needs to be true for you to feel empowered to speak up in a group? I really don’t have any hesitation in speaking up in a group.
18. Describe your ideal book club. My long-standing book club works for me because: 1) we read a wide variety of books, 2) everybody actually reads the book, and 3) we talk about the book instead of just general chitchat,
19. What’s your favourite animated movie? I have a long-standing fondness for Fantasia, which I think was one of the first movies I ever saw. But I also have a soft spot in my heart for The Aristocats.
20. What’s the biggest life decision you’ve ever made? How did it affect you? Choosing to go to MIT opened up a lot of opportunities for me. I made that decision because I knew so many people who had decided to change their majors from what they originally planned and I was reasonably sure anything I chose to do would be in the math / science realm. (I’ve often joked that my brother holds the Michigan State record for changing majors.) This worked well since I had originally planned to major in chemistry and ended up in mechanical engineering. And, while I found Dartmouth very attractive, I felt that I wanted to live in a city, rather than a rural area.
21. What is your favourite vegetable? There are many vegetables I like, but I think I’ll opt for carrots, due to their versatility. I particularly like roasted carrots with a tahini glaze. But I also use carrots in stir fries and make carrot-ginger soup.
22. Which disease known to humankind do you hate the most? Explain why. I’ve lost too many people I cared about to various forms of cancer.
23. What would be your ideal birthday present, and why? I am much more about experiences than about things, so I’d suggest theatre or concert tickets.
24. This morning, when you got out of bed, you ….. Before bed tonight, you will…. These are pretty much the same every day. When I get out of bed, I do my various daily puzzles, starting with the New York Times crossword. Before I go to bed, I read for at least half an hour.
25. Who would you most like to be like if you could change your personality? Maybe Mallory Lewis, the daughter of Shari Lewis. She puppets Lamb Chop, so has a fun sassy alter ego.
26. What are some colors you see the most in your every day life? I’ve been using blue bed linens lately, so that should be right up there. I tend to wear a lot of black and red, so those should also be on the list. And my furniture is mostly wood, so you can throw in brown, which is a color I rarely wear.
27. What is your most prized possession? I have a necklace that my great-grandmother allegedly bought in Shanghai. I am skeptical of that story, but it’s still a necklace I like a lot.
28. What animals frighten you and why? Having grown up on Long Island, sharks are at the top of my scary list, followed by polar bears. I also tend to be leery of certain breeds of large dogs, though I’m fine with others. I suspect that dates back to a neighbor who was attacked as a child and had an ear bitten off.
29. What kind of fairytale creature would you be? I think I am well-suited to be either a fairy godmother or the wise woman who lives at the edge of the forest.
30. What is an exciting or crazy trip you have taken? Before my 40th birthday, I took a leave of absence from work and spent 6 months traveling on overland trucks through Africa, followed by taking the Saint Helena mail ship from Cape Town to the U.K.
2. What is one thing that happened today that you really want to remember 10 years from now? I’ve really just spent the day mostly on errandy stuff, e.g. laundry and sorting through receipts, none of which is memorable. The news is full of one Trumpist outrage after another and I’d like to think that will all be over long before 10 years from now. So, frankly, I got nothing.
3. Are you happy with my job, life, and situation? What parts are good? What parts are bad? What a badly phrased question. I’m reasonably happy with my life, but know nothing about yours. The major thing I need to work on is decluttering my living room.
4. Where would you go to relax and why? I’d love to spend a week or so at the Sylvia Beach Hotel in Newport, Oregon. I’d probably choose the Agatha Christie room.
5. What trait did you admire in a relative, friend, classmate, or coworker today? I’m proud of one of my friends for writing honestly about her mental health struggles and what she’s been doing to address them.
6. What is the weather like today? How do you feel about it? I think the weather in June was hot and muggy. But the weather right now is quite pleasant, sunny with a high in the mid-70’s Fahrenheit.
7. What's the most difficult part about being you? I have high standards that I can’t always live up to.
8. Good or bad, what is your hometown best known for? Uh, there were a few couple of famous mafiosi who lived there. And also one former U.S. Senator.
9. Describe an incident at a beauty or barber shop. Does getting a chocolate pedicure at the spa at the Hotel Hershey count? Or, even better, the fish pedicure I once got?
10. What musical instrument(s) do you play or wish you could play? I took several years of piano lessons off and on. I also did two years of viola in elementary school. I’ve fooled around with various other instruments, ranging from the accordion to the tin whistle to the bowed psaltery over the years. But (to steal a joke from my Dad) my best instrument is the stereo system. I wish I could play the didgeridoo, but I've never been able to make sense of circular breathing.
11. Tell about one of your first away-from-home experiences. I went to three different summer camps. Two of them were relatively normal. The one that I went to for two summers in a row is the source of some of my best stories, since it was run by a socialist zionist organization and we had events like Capitalist Day.
12. What makes you feel safe? I guess I feel safest in familiar environments, but that includes places like home (duh!) and comfortable hotels and many major cities. Frankly, I rarely feel unsafe.
13. Have you ever been to a surprise party? Was it for you or someone else? Was it a good surprise? I don’t remember anyone ever throwing a surprise party for me, but I did go to a few surprise parties for other people when I was a teenager. The best one was for two people whose birthdays were close in time. (Their birthdays may have been the same day, but I don’t remember.) At any rate, the host told Marc it was a surprise party for Vicki and told Vicki it was a surprise party for Marc and gave them arrival times about 15 minutes apart.
14. What does abundance mean to you? Abundance is just a step beyond enough. There is a step beyond abundance that is really too much, e.g. the quantities of books and of yarn in my house.
15. Name 3 friends that shaped your childhood. My best friend for several years was Kathy, who lived down the street from me and who I spent part of nearly every day with. We spent our time listening to music, playing hopscotch, hanging out in our secret place (a clearing in the middle of an empty lot, which later became a shopping center), and memorizing things like “Jabberwocky.” I was also very close to Norman, who I shared a crayon box with in elementary school. I remember being the only girl at his birthday party one year in elementary school. And, hmm, Carol was one of the two other girls in my Hebrew school class and was the first peer who told me what getting a period was like. Her exact comment was “it’s literally a pain in the ass.”
16. If you suddenly had an extra room in your house, what would you do with it? I’d like it to be an art and music room, with a piano and shelves for my yarn stash.
17. What needs to be true for you to feel empowered to speak up in a group? I really don’t have any hesitation in speaking up in a group.
18. Describe your ideal book club. My long-standing book club works for me because: 1) we read a wide variety of books, 2) everybody actually reads the book, and 3) we talk about the book instead of just general chitchat,
19. What’s your favourite animated movie? I have a long-standing fondness for Fantasia, which I think was one of the first movies I ever saw. But I also have a soft spot in my heart for The Aristocats.
20. What’s the biggest life decision you’ve ever made? How did it affect you? Choosing to go to MIT opened up a lot of opportunities for me. I made that decision because I knew so many people who had decided to change their majors from what they originally planned and I was reasonably sure anything I chose to do would be in the math / science realm. (I’ve often joked that my brother holds the Michigan State record for changing majors.) This worked well since I had originally planned to major in chemistry and ended up in mechanical engineering. And, while I found Dartmouth very attractive, I felt that I wanted to live in a city, rather than a rural area.
21. What is your favourite vegetable? There are many vegetables I like, but I think I’ll opt for carrots, due to their versatility. I particularly like roasted carrots with a tahini glaze. But I also use carrots in stir fries and make carrot-ginger soup.
22. Which disease known to humankind do you hate the most? Explain why. I’ve lost too many people I cared about to various forms of cancer.
23. What would be your ideal birthday present, and why? I am much more about experiences than about things, so I’d suggest theatre or concert tickets.
24. This morning, when you got out of bed, you ….. Before bed tonight, you will…. These are pretty much the same every day. When I get out of bed, I do my various daily puzzles, starting with the New York Times crossword. Before I go to bed, I read for at least half an hour.
25. Who would you most like to be like if you could change your personality? Maybe Mallory Lewis, the daughter of Shari Lewis. She puppets Lamb Chop, so has a fun sassy alter ego.
26. What are some colors you see the most in your every day life? I’ve been using blue bed linens lately, so that should be right up there. I tend to wear a lot of black and red, so those should also be on the list. And my furniture is mostly wood, so you can throw in brown, which is a color I rarely wear.
27. What is your most prized possession? I have a necklace that my great-grandmother allegedly bought in Shanghai. I am skeptical of that story, but it’s still a necklace I like a lot.
28. What animals frighten you and why? Having grown up on Long Island, sharks are at the top of my scary list, followed by polar bears. I also tend to be leery of certain breeds of large dogs, though I’m fine with others. I suspect that dates back to a neighbor who was attacked as a child and had an ear bitten off.
29. What kind of fairytale creature would you be? I think I am well-suited to be either a fairy godmother or the wise woman who lives at the edge of the forest.
30. What is an exciting or crazy trip you have taken? Before my 40th birthday, I took a leave of absence from work and spent 6 months traveling on overland trucks through Africa, followed by taking the Saint Helena mail ship from Cape Town to the U.K.
