67 posts tagged “qotd”

What do you think happens to you after you die?

Easy peasy!  My bones will be used as a mold for a medical skeleton model, then ground to make bone china candlesticks and my hair will be used to make small diamonds.  The rest of me will be rendered into fertilizer and used to feed an oak tree.

If'n folks are interested, there'll be a memorial service accompanying　the planting　with a comedian (TBA) emcee, and food and drinks and prizes, at a location TBA.

Then all my molecules (physical, mental, spiritual, and fictional) will return to Dea Nutrix  and get mixed in with everything else and molecules (or atoms,or subatomic particles - dice it down as far as you want) will find their way into everyone's pies and I will be ubiquitous.

Which of your birthday parties was your favourite one?
Submitted by Jack Yan.

I've never had a birthday party for myself, but I've hosted a number of successful ones for other people.  It would be hard to pick my favorite one because they range all over the place, from my sister's where she hid under the table and we had to serve her cake to her on the floor, to each of my kids' birthdays, to Itzl's Medfaire parties, to my various friends' parties, especially the one where I learned to play  Encore!, and the one where I learned to play Magic, the Gathering.

I never had a birthday party as a child because my mother didn't want to deal with planning a party for me in the same month as her own birthday.  I suppose it became a habit that was re-inforced after I married because my spouse never remembered my birthday.  By the time we divorced, birthdays no longer mattered.  A 63 year long habit is probably never going to be broken.

Do you believe that ignorance is bliss?

Sure.  Right up until the ignorant die a horrible death with a really surprised look on their face.

That's why I believe all knowledge is worth having - it can save grief, pain, time, frustration, and lives. I need to know and I utterly despise having information withheld for my "own good".  I don't want to die with a surprised look on my face,

What would you like written on your tombstone?

"No shit!  You're never gonna believe this!"   Or maybe "There's a story in this"

My death is probably going to be the result of some improbable bit of slapstick comedy that happened unexpectedly. People will laugh for years over it.  This is why I want a comedian to preside over my funeral instead of a priest.  Friends and family are asked to wear bright colors because the Goth look just won't fit with all the laughing.

You have four unexpected guests showing up for dinner in less than an hour, you haven't been to the store in days, and you want to impress them with a delicious meal. What do you serve them?

My garden is ready to harvest a few simple things already.  Dandelions, fiddleheads, parsley, sage, rosemary, redbuds, purslane, tender lettuces, and mint are ripe enough to pluck.  In my indoor garden, my tomato has a few ripe tomatoes on it, and I can pluck some radishes for a nice salad.  The herbs can go in a vinaigrette to dress the salad.  For pretty garnish, I can scatter a couple of the peeled and segmented cutie tangerines I have on top.

I have chicken wings in the freezer and several lemons to make a light and lovely lemon chicken soup.

It's been an extraordinarily mild winter and there's enough asparagus to harvest for 5 people if I thaw out the slivered beef I have in the freezer to make beef roll-ups with asparagus and provolone centers.  A side of rice, echoing the earlier soup, and pile of matchstick carrots would round it out.  

Or I can take broccoli, snow peas, carrots, bamboo shoots, and water chestnuts from the freezer and add some fresh carrots to make a stir fry with rice.

I can finish it off with a citrus mint sorbet that was freezing its way to completion in the freezer during dinner, and add some of the wafer cookies on the side.

Beverages would be herb teas and dessert would be served with a cup of rich Viennese coffee.

What are you doing to "give back" during the Christmas season?
Submitted by jacolily.

Well, see, there's the problem.  I don't "give back" during the Christmas season because I don't have a special season for giving or "giving back".  Need knows no season.

I give back all year long by running Sandwich Saturdays (in winter it becomes Soupy Saturdays) for the homeless in my town.  I donate time and effort to renovating homes for the soon-to-be-rehomed.  I hand out water and information to street corner beggars (and sometimes, sunscreen).  I've rescued strays from many different species (including human) and helped them get back to their lives.  I do search and rescue as needed.  I do spiritual counseling.  I provide blankets to both the homeless and to veterinarians.  I ship cookies to soldiers.  I teach survivalism.  I click to send rice, and other things.  That's the easy one.  I buy cows and chickens and such for destitute farmers.  I buy fair trade when and where I can.  I try to live as green as possible.  I have a small (and expanding) garden.  I write regularly to my local and federal representatives.  There's probably more, but that should be sufficient.

What gifts, big or small, are you hoping to find under your tree this year?
Sponsored by Best Buy.

None.  We don't do Giftmas.  What goes under the tree are offerings, inspirations, ornaments, and games.  We feast throughout the winter holidays and consider the pleasure of one another's company to be the best gift we can give - and that's a year 'round gift.

What's your favorite saying?
Submitted by Dylan

"All knowledge is worth having"  or possibly "Sic subire".

What is or was your favorite subject in school?

Bullshitting.  I was very good at it then, and can still be very good at it now, if I choose to engage in it.  I got a lot of really high grades because I convinced my teachers I was right, even though I acknowledged they were also right.  I explained, in excruciating detail how we could both be right without ever once referring to such things as facts.  And they often bought it.

I can speak knowledgeably on just about any topic.  Or rather, I can convince the person to whom I'm speaking that I can speak knowledgeably on any topic.  I can discuss fluently books I've never read, or movies I've never seen.  I can nod expertly at all kinds of information, and I can ask penetrating questions that cause the other person to think I know so very much more than I do.

I was a much-sought-after debate partner.

In fact, my skill at bullshitting is probably how I got my Ph.D.

The downside to being such an excellent bullshitter is that over the decades, I have actually acquired a remarkably broad range of real and solid information so I can even more convincingly bullshit others.  It is a power that I have learned to wield only rarely and only against people who are being maliciously stupid.

But that was by far and away my absolute most favorite subject all through my schooling.  It is the subject that has stood the test of time the best, and the subject that has given me the most skill and satisfaction. It is the basis for all of my other skills.

How often do you go to a place of worship? What is it like there?

With every breath I take, I am in my place of worship.  We are utterly immersed in sanctity, and it's so common, most of us don't see it, don't recognize, and certainly don't appreciate it.  Science validates this view of divinity - I have not yet encountered any theory or hypothesis that invalidates divinity, and believe me, I have searched for more than 50 years in all the most rarified levels of science and in the streets - whether it's junk science or pure science, whether it can be backed up with beautiful mathematical equations or is defended by the most ardent priest.

I have sifted through all of this, the dross, the chicanery, the meticulously tested and retested theories, and not once have I found anything to deny a divine hand in all we experience.  There has also been no hint of what this divinity may be like, whether singular, plural, what gender, if it's even remotely human-looking, or what.  I happen to believe in a layered view of the universe, and as we gain in wisdom, skill, and ability, more of that universe is revealed to us.  And the best way to know divinity is to live life as fully as possible.

So, everything is sacred. Good, bad, beautiful, ugly.  It's all sacred.  What seems good or bad to us may be seen as something utterly different by the divinity.  We have been gifted with all the things we need to live, thrive, and grow in skills and knowledge and wisdom.  Our challenge, should we choose to accept it, is to develop those gifts bestowed upon us as best we can.