Questions meme thing

[firstfrost]

I've been infected with a meme from dpolicar, but I admit I've gotten a little confused about the directionality of propagation. So, here's the simplified version, which goes both directions:

Leave a comment if you want me to ask you five questions. Leave a comment if you want to ask me five questions. Questions, they're all good.

But I'm still not doing any of those fill-in-the-friend random mad lib things. :)

1. You have the option of spending N days in an isolation chamber (perfectly comfortable, but completely alone), in exchange for which N of the people on your friends list (randomly selected) get an extra year of healthy life. What value of N do you choose? ("0" is a permissible answer).
   
   The answer to this depends on whether this implies a world in which I can easily vanish for N days. If I have to take it as vacation days from work, then I think I only take two weeks off (so N of 16), because that's about the amount of vacation I have uncommitted. I might be able to manage more with negotiation with my boss. I don't think I'd go for "I quit my job to spend extra time in the isolation chamber".
   
   On the other hand, if that isn't part of the problem that I'm supposed to be worrying about, then I have 44 people on my friends list, so I pick 44. A single day for a year is a fair trade, so I think I have to scale it up. There is a line that I would still draw - if I had hundreds of people listed, I don't think I could spend a year myself to buy them each a year - not only would I be too miserable, but a year is enough that I'd feel too much like I had left my life behind. I think the line might be somewhere around two months.
   
   But I'd hate it. Hate hate hate. (Even more so without zephyr; I'm not sure if computer interaction counted). Right now (that is, last night when I was starting these answers) I'm sitting in the computer room (the smallest room in the house). tirinian is playing Starcraft and harrock is playing a computer wargame with a bazillion counters and I'm typing this. There's no actual interaction going on, but I'd rather be here than in another room.
   
   
2. Describe the perfect Thanksgiving for you.
   
   I'm not sure any modern Thanksgiving is going to live up to some of my fuzzy childhood memories of going to Grandma's and putting black olives on all my fingers. But, failing that: a small mob, not more than will fit at one large table. Mostly good friends of mine, but adding in a couple of people who are good friends of the other people there, so I can get to know them better. Someone who's better than me at making sure that we try to remember the optional Meaning of the holiday, and not just hanging out with friends with good food. It'd be extra perfect to have my sister and her family there as well (which would help push it out of the "hanging out with friends" category), but that seems implausible.
   
   But this was a really hard question, because I don't have a perfect Thanksgiving. In part it's that I don't invest a lot, emotionally, in holidays. And in part, I think that I don't have many perfect things that I aspire to. I'd like to have a good Thanksgiving. I usually do. I don't need a perfect Thanksgiving, I don't even think about what that would be.
   
   
3. Given the choice of living the rest of your life in a male body, or missing one leg, which would you choose, and why?
   
   Missing one leg. It would seem a cruel trick to foist a husband on harrock when he signed on for a wife. If it weren't permanent, though, I'd totally want to try being male. (Thinking about it, I think I identify slightly more as straight than I do as female. If I swapped to a male body, I think I'd be more interested in women.)
   
   
4. Think of five people you truly admire.
   What do they have in common?
   
   A while ago I mentioned the three people I want to be when I grow up: mijven, chenoameg, and zacheiss. All three of these are people who are better than me at things that I try to be good at - character and relationships, logistics and homeowning, and Computer Stuff, respectively. To keep to that theme, I'll add mjperson for GMing, and Anne Hunter (the only one I've not met in person), for work superpowers and possibly more multiple timelines than me.
   
   
5. You get to summon one fictional character to live in the real world for a year. Do you? If so, who, and what do you expect the result to be?
   
   Well, timing is sort of difficult, but I'd really love Jed Bartlett for president for a year. Early West Wing episodes have a pride in being liberal and humanitarian that I was very fond of. And government by a combination of ideals and intelligence is, I think, what I'd want the president to aspire to no matter which party he was from (of course, he might not be as amazing without the writers on his side). I'd hope for a calming of the vicious political atmosphere, no stupid constitutional amendments, and ... well, I don't really know what easy TV resolution to hope for in Iraq. But at least policy there based on military intelligence.

Comments

Question and Leg...

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

I'd like questions!

And I'm with you on #3. It does seem like having made a commitment to my husband trumps having two legs. Mind you, legs are great, and I'm a fan of mine. Also I have plans for my female bits, and we're not near perfecting the uterine replicator yet.

So I manage to avoid the tricky question of how important my gender is to me.

[seborn.livejournal.com]

I'm running low on questions right now, but I will gladly burden you with some later if you'll burden me.

[kelkyag]

Yay, putting olives on all of one's fingers! I wonder if I have enough chutzpa to do that this year. :) I bet there won't be any olives, just to thwart me.

I identify pretty strongly with being female, when I think about it. I wonder whether that would change if I were physically transmuted, or whether it'd seem all wrong. (It occasionally occurs to me to be a little unsettled that anyone else would care. It's a topic with a lot of weird associations.)

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

I was saddened to discover some years ago that the standard black olives don't actually fit on my fingers any more.

[kelkyag]

Jumbo olives! No, really, one can purchase olives graded by size. I think jumbo isn't actually the largest. I'm not sure even the really large ones will fit on my thumbs, but they'll certainly fit on my fingers. I'll have to find you some. :)

Re: Question and Leg...

[rifmeister.livejournal.com]

I would definitely choose to keep the legs and switch genders.
It's really tough to dance with one leg.
I don't think I'm especially attached to being male.

Re: Question and Leg...

[greyautumnrain.livejournal.com]

Funny, I was also thinking that it would be really tough to dance with one leg. On the other hand I wouldn't be able to dance with my husband if I were male; he's very straight. Its really a catch-22, either way Warren ends up with someone he can't dance with.

Re: Questions for you!

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

1. If you could give yourself an ability (about the size of an Assassins' Guild ability card, nothing too unbalancing) what would it be? How about if it was just for ten days?
2. What is your most "decadent" possession? (That is, something that makes you think "This cost too much, or I really don't actually need it, or I should have gotten then sensible version - but I'm still glad I have it!)
3. If you could edit your past, to have done things differently here or there, would you? If you would, how much change in who you are now would you be willing to accept?
4. Someone arranges for a master of portraiture to paint you. How would you want to be painted? Colors, pose, setting, style... whatever you have an opinion about.
5. If you could cause one device to be invented, suitable for sale at Home Depot, what would it be?

Query Queue

[kirisutogomen.livejournal.com]

Leave a comment if you want me to ask you five questions. Leave a comment if you want to ask me five questions. Questions, they're all good.

1. Do I have to leave a comment that I want to ask you questions, and then leave another comment with the questions?
   
2. Can I just skip straight to asking questions, not bothering with the comment letting you know that I want to ask you questions?
   
3. Would I have to leave a separate comment if I want you to ask me questions?
   
4. Does it have to be five questions?
   

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

1. You get to write one book which is guaranteed to become a runaway best seller. What would it be about?
2. If you could make one major aesthetic change to the place where you live or the place where you work, what change would you make?
3. Would you rather have a soundtrack to your life, or footnotes?
4. What is the most surprising thing you've ever done?
5. If you could magically teach everyone over the age of 14 one particular skill or talent, what would it be?

Trivial Trade

[countertorque.livejournal.com]

One day of isolation for 1 year of life? Why would you need a job? Just charge people $50k/day to be on your friends list.

Are there people who really feel isolation for 1 day is that bad? Sometimes I long for it. I'd be the MF'ing Fountain of Youth.

Re: Trivial Trade

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

You couldn't pay me enough to have a job that required that I saw nobody else for the rest of my life. :) Or even for a year.

Isolation for one day would be about my limit before getting lonely; the interesting part of the question is not the one-day version, but how many days before it stops being worth it (to me).

Re: Trivial Trade

[countertorque.livejournal.com]

My experience is that the first 2 weeks and the last 2 weeks are the stressful part. All the time in the middle just seems to fade together. Granted, I haven't been totally isolated. Just isolated from everyone I know.

Re: Query Queue

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

1. Do I have to leave a comment that I want to ask you questions, and then leave another comment with the questions?

   No, just one comment is sufficient to convey both intent and content.

2. Can I just skip straight to asking questions, not bothering with the comment letting you know that I want to ask you questions?

   Ah, you misunderstand "Leave a comment if you want to ask me questions." That does not mean "Leave a comment saying that you want to ask me questions" - the content of the comment is entirely unspecified. Of course, if the comment does not contain questions, you have thwarted your own intent. Alas for you.

3. Would I have to leave a separate comment if I want you to ask me questions?

   No. It might be wise to couch such a request less hypothetically, but I'll ask you some questions anyway, and then put the blinky helmet on you you can ignore them if you don't want to answer.

4. Does it have to be five questions?

   Yes.

5. Why?

   Five is the symbolic Number of the Question. Who, what, where, when, and why.

Re: Trivial Trade

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Having never had to go anywhere near as far as two weeks myself, I may be assuming an increase when it's really a plateau. But I also think that people to interact with is better than no people to interact with - I didn't get *lonely* at a four day training seminar where I didn't know anyone, just a little rattled. (Okay, it helped that during the time off we got to run around Disney World...)