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dikaiosunh
Aug. 13th, 2005 12:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jackofallgeeks1. Reply with your name and I'll respond with something random about you.
2. I'll tell you what song/movie reminds me of you.
3. I'll pick a flavor of jello to wrestle with you in. I reserve the right to name a champion.
4. I'll say something that only makes sense to you and me.
5. I'll tell you my first/clearest memory of you.
6. I'll tell you what animal you remind me of.
7. I'll ask you something that I've always wondered about you.
8. If I do this for you, you must post this on your journal. You MUST. It is written. (or typed, even)
2. I'll tell you what song/movie reminds me of you.
3. I'll pick a flavor of jello to wrestle with you in. I reserve the right to name a champion.
4. I'll say something that only makes sense to you and me.
5. I'll tell you my first/clearest memory of you.
6. I'll tell you what animal you remind me of.
7. I'll ask you something that I've always wondered about you.
8. If I do this for you, you must post this on your journal. You MUST. It is written. (or typed, even)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-08-13 06:51 pm (UTC)So I'm late. Sue me.
Date: 2005-09-02 01:25 am (UTC)You are the single lasting positive effect of my jaunt into
2. I'll tell you what song/movie reminds me of you.
Damn, there was a song I was- Ah, yes, "Wheels" by Cake. In particular, there was a bit about "muscular cyborg german dudes dancing with sexy french-canadians," but then, I suppose you're noth french-canadian, huh?
3. I'll pick a flavor of jello to wrestle with you in. I reserve the right to name a champion.
I'd wrestle you in raspberry jello. I've always liked raspberry jello. I think. It's been years since I had any. No Champion; I'd fight you myself. I'd lose, but hey...
4. I'll say something that only makes sense to you and me.
Well, I don't know if this will make sense to you, but I know it won't make sense to anyone else here (not really, anyways) -- I really like insulting someone i n such a way as to get them to say "I don't know if you're being sincere or not, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt." 'Enlightened' is a fun word.
5. I'll tell you my first/clearest memory of you.
I'm bad with memory, but I'm fairly certain you and I went three rounds in
6. I'll tell you what animal you remind me of.
A fox, and not just because you're attractive -- you seem to have a keen sort of wit that is belied by your appearance.
7. I'll ask you something that I've always wondered about you.
Wow. Uhm, I can't think of something that I've always wondered about you, but... well, at the moment, I'm wondering, "Are you getting back with Martin? And if so, didn't you guys have a bad break-up, mostly his fault? And if so, why with the getting back? Do you use your powers for Good, or for Awesome?"
8. If I do this for you, you must post this on your journal. You MUST. It is written.
Hey, I don't make these rules; you heard the gender-nondescript person.
no subject
Date: 2005-08-13 08:18 pm (UTC)(This is perhaps the most fun-looking meme I've seen in awhile. I think I'll post it in my journal regardless of whether or not you "do this" for me. :3)
no subject
Date: 2005-09-02 12:24 am (UTC)You are probably the first person I remember kissing. And you can take that to the bank. (Though I'll note this has little pride for me, 'like a dead fish' isn't quite a compliment.)
2. I'll tell you what song/movie reminds me of you.
Wow. Uhm. Wow. There's a song that reminds me of you, something about perserverence in the face of insumountable adversity, but for the life of me I can't remember what it is. I have a tune, but no lyrics come clearly to mind, making it difficult to Google. If I figure it out, I'll let you know. Odds are, it's one I got from you.
3. I'll pick a flavor of jello to wrestle with you in. I reserve the right to name a champion.
OK, for you, I'm thinking cherry jello, to bring out your hair. And, uhm, as my champion, the comic in me wants to name Liz (get it? get it?), but I think I'll choose Louis instead. He'd prolly have a more difficult time with the jello, but a piece of me would be amused to see you two wrestle in jello.
4. I'll say something that only makes sense to you and me.
'I'm not looking at her face.' Then something about a septic tank in Spanish, I think. Poor grandma.
5. I'll tell you my first/clearest memory of you.
A day which will live in infamy, in Mr. Blandin's mind if no where else. First day of Freshman year at Catholic High. Period One: Earth Science. I walk it, pass by a girl I remember recognizing as you, sitting in the front of the row I chose to sit in the middle of. She turns to me, smirks a little, and says "Hello, AlfaOmmega." 'Wow,' I though, 'she's kind of a dork.' -embarrassed laugh- But things went up from there.
6. I'll tell you what animal you remind me of.
A mountain lion, now that I think of it. There's something very predatory, very calculating and surprisingly intelligent about you that makes me think 'large hunter cat.' I think the cat bit is mostly cause I associate felines with females.
7. I'll ask you something that I've always wondered about you.
OK, now don't take this the wrong way, because I'm sure I'm the last one you want to hear it from, but there's a little bit of me, back in the corner of my skull, which has wondered, "OK, really, how attracted to girls is she?"
8. If I do this for you, you must post this on your journal. You MUST. It is written.
As above, I don't make the rules, but technically you already fulfilled this bargain.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-04 12:30 am (UTC)2. Do let me know. I'm interested.
3. I'd totally wrestle Louis in Jello. Don't know if I'd be able to manage my famous Triangle Choke there, but...
4. HAR.
5. You thought I was a dork. Dude. o__o POT KETTLE BLACK.
6. That's very flattering, thank you. Mike, on occasion, refers to me as "Panther-cat". So that's similar.
7. ::laughs!:: Well, that's actually something I've been trying to figure out myself. I'm not attracted attracted to girls. Sometimes what I take to be attraction at first is really more a type of admiration, me strongly wanting to share in a part of them that I find particularly alluring. I do find androgynous women to be really hot, and of course, women like Monica Bellucci and Angelina Jolie are impossible not to goo over at least some of the time...basically, if ever I find that I am genuinely attracted to a girl, it wouldn't surprise me, but it's always been men for me. :3
no subject
Date: 2005-09-04 02:20 am (UTC)5. yeah, yeah, pot, kettle, black; but hey, I'm just sayin'. :p
7. The similarities here make me think that you've had more influence on me than is readily apparent.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-04 02:34 am (UTC)7. Wait...what? I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to explain what you mean. If not here, then over the phone or over AIM.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-04 03:10 am (UTC)7. Do you ever get on AIM? The most pertinent bit, though, is "it's always been [girls] for me."
no subject
Date: 2005-08-13 10:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-02 12:35 am (UTC)You are probable the most frightening-looking-but-least-frightening-being person I know. I think.
2. I'll tell you what song/movie reminds me of you.
Erm... well, truthfully, I can't say I know one that reminds me of you, really. I could look...
3. I'll pick a flavor of jello to wrestle with you in. I reserve the right to name a champion.
OK, you get lemon jello, though I'm not sure I know why. And I definitely name mu buddy Louis as my champion; he's bigger than me.
4. I'll say something that only makes sense to you and me.
Uhm... hrm... I wanted to say something about Changeling, or Eberron, or the players involved therein, but... I'm out.
5. I'll tell you my first/clearest memory of you.
Uh... were you even in the Changeling game? How did I meet you? I think I remember you being at one of Kirt's Unsung games...
6. I'll tell you what animal you remind me of.
For the life of me I don't know why, but I keep thinking, 'bipedal lizard.' Then I think of a trenchcoat and a fedora, bad lighting, and a film noir grainy quality. It's really weird
7. I'll ask you something that I've always wondered about you.
Uhm, wow. I think I may have asked you before, but I'm a little curious as to your impressions or opinions on religion, generally, and your own spiritual sense (if any) in particular.
8. If I do this for you, you must post this on your journal. You MUST. It is written.
Part Un
Date: 2005-09-02 01:38 pm (UTC)My aversion to religion is, odd as it may sound, more moral than metaphysical. I mean, I think the evidence available to us favors disbelief. But if it was just a matter of saying, "well, you think there are immaterial intelligences and I don't," it'd be an interesting but not central question. Sorta like: I believe quantum theory is true, but it wouldn't change my life to find out I'm wrong.
The quip I heard (not sure where to attribute it) is: "without religion, good people would still do good things and bad people would still do bad things. But to get good people to do bad things? For that, you need religion." That's flip, but it's not a bad summing up of how I feel. I don't think religion is inherently going to make you evil or whatever, and religious folks and secularists are pretty much neck-in-neck for evil people: for every Torquemada, there's pretty much a corresponding Stalin (and vice versa). And there are plenty of people I've met for whom their religion is very much a wellspring for their goodness. But I tend to think that those people are people who would be good anyway. If you're genuinely good, you don't need religion as a pretext. And if you're good only because you think some punishment awaits you if you slip up, then you're probably going to do the moral minimum and find weasley ways of getting out of being good. Same thing for secularism - if you're a shitty person, maybe you'll use Darwin as an excuse for being a bastard. But I bet those same people would just as happily use the bible as an excuse for being a bastard.
So, I guess, in many cases I see religion as something of a moral wash. The problem is that I see it causing otherwise good-seeming folks to get confused - either because they spend their time on supernatural avenues of helping people that I don't believe will work (Story: I was just reading about secular vs. ultra-orthodox tension in Israel. One source of tension is that the ultra-orthodox do not serve in the military. When asked about it, one of the UO folks interviewed said that what they did was just as important to Israel's defence as the IDF. Oh, because you preserve the culture of Judaism, etc. ensuring that there is something left to fight for, etc. asked the interviewer. No, was the reply, our prayers are what defeated the Arab armies, not the IDF.), or because they substitute rigid dogma for their own moral judgment, and so get locked into a warped view of what is good and what is evil.
Part Deux
Date: 2005-09-02 01:39 pm (UTC)1. Of course, it's not always bad. And so I'm not going around crusading to get folks to drop their religion - though I do try to work against dangerous varieties of religion (e.g., as I see it, the brand of Christianity that Bush & Co. preach that seems to care much about power and little about care). Religion is a source of comfort and moral reflection for many people - and plus, maybe I'm wrong about those supernatural avenues not helping (though I hate to see them being pursued to the exclusion of worldly ways of helping. Another story: one of my ex-gfs, an evangelical Protestant, was in a serious car crash a couple years after we broke up. She thanked G-d for saving her, but it didn't occur to her to thank the EMTs who showed up with the jaws of life to get her out of the wreck). I don't think religion is always and everywhere bad. I just think that, on balance, it's unlikely to do much good and can do much evil.
2. There are secular ideologies that are every bit as bad as the worst religious ones on all these counts. For instance, if the only difference between my views and Stalinism was that we disagreed on the most efficient way to organize production, OK, let's just see which one works. But Stalinist communism also encourages its adherents to suppress their own moral judgment, subordinate the worth of the individual to some ideal, etc. And look where it got us. In many ways, it's pragmatism that I endorse more than materialism. The most important claim of my atheism is not "G-d does not exist" but rather (to quote again, this time from my congregation) "We believe that people determine the conduct of their own lives, and must take full responsibility for their behavior... We believe that only people can solve human problems... In resolving ethical dilemmas, whether personal or social, we seek solutions that respect the dignity and self-esteem of every human being."
3. I don't like the term "spiritual," since it conjures up images of people who abuse Native American religion (to me). But depending on how you define it, I do believe in "spirituality." I'm a materialist in the sense that I don't believe there is any STUFF besides what we encounter in the material world - people, rocks, trees, etc. But I'm not a materialist in the sense that I only VALUE material things. I believe in 'things' like love, beauty, morality, honor, etc. just as much as I believe in numbers. And I think that the genuine sources of value in life are precisely those 'non-material' things. So in that sense I'm "spiritual."
Does that clear things up a bit? Or muddy them?
no subject
Date: 2005-08-14 04:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-02 01:21 am (UTC)No one has ever gotten so much food out of me, for free, ever. Girlfriends included. In your defense, I'm sure anyone ever tried.
2. I'll tell you what song/movie reminds me of you.
"More Sex Than Me," and "Everyone's A Little Bit Racist." Don't take it the wrong way.
3. I'll pick a flavor of jello to wrestle with you in. I reserve the right to name a champion.
I choose lime jello (I think it complements your eyes), and name Rob the Robot (http://www.vidgame.net/NINTENDO/rob.htm) as my champion. Since God has a sense of humor, I'd probably win.
4. I'll say something that only makes sense to you and me.
Well, at least we know what to look forward to after 20 years of marriage, ne?
5. I'll tell you my first/clearest memory of you.
It was a dance, or something. I got invited because Becky didn't want to be Alone on National Television if Meg had a date; else, I wouldn't have been there. Something about hair and shoes and "looking like a girl" (wow did that get a glare; good thing I didn't say it); then my date left me for a gay man, and I would up outside with you smoking. Apparently I was my charming self, offered you my coat on the way home, and we've been friends since.
6. I'll tell you what animal you remind me of.
One of those big, fluffy cats, the type you might see sitting in a luxurious house, looking down condescendingly, as if to say, "you love me, and you know it. Now, bring me supper."
I have no idea why, though.
7. I'll ask you something that I've always wondered about you.
OK, not always, but... If you had known, when it was more immediate, that Curtis was probably interested in you, would you have responded favorably?
8. If I do this for you, you must post this on your journal. You MUST. It is written.
no subject
Date: 2005-08-15 02:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-02 01:40 am (UTC)You are absolutely adorable when you're asleep.
2. I'll tell you what song/movie reminds me of you.
"Hey Julie." And a number of others, but I love that song.
3. I'll pick a flavor of jello to wrestle with you in. I reserve the right to name a champion.
-grins- You get chocolate jello pudding. And as my Champion, I name Alexis Bledel. Frankly, I don't care who wins; that'd be hot.
^_~
4. I'll say something that only makes sense to you and me.
Smite, smote, smitten.
5. I'll tell you my first/clearest memory of you.
I remember you in a plaid skirt with dark pants underneath, hopping about Towson's campus, quite literally, while chatting with Louis. 'Sprightly' is the only word that fits.
6. I'll tell you what animal you remind me of.
A demure house cat. With claws.
7. I'll ask you something that I've always wondered about you.
Why aren't you Catholic? No, seriously; if you're mom was Orthodox, and you didn't know your dad for [some span of time], how is it you're Jewish?
8. If I do this for you, you must post this on your journal. You MUST. It is written.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-02 03:48 am (UTC)I USED to cross myself on a regular basis. But then I came here, and went to Jewish school... What can I say? I was happily young and impressionable. :-p