Question Time

[gurdonark]

Three notes to self:

1. Time to re-read Great Expectations
2. Perhaps it is time to move to a camera with more than .1 megapixels
3. Time to expand my marketing skills.

Note to you:

Today it came to me that I read so many of you so very assiduously, and yet I feel that often I miss essential threads.
Sometimes I put one of you in NY, when years ago you moved to MA, or some such. Sometimes I read your elaborately-plotted lives and realize that I have questions to which you have answers if it were only polite to ask. I'm not really talking about
those matters of personal experience which only prurience would cause one to invade (not that I lack any degree of human flaw in any particular respect, but I like to think my flaws are measured and suitably boring). On the other hand, the exercise perhaps benefits from an element of unpredictability about the questions. I mean to ask those plot points which a courteous person would not ask for fear of seeming intrusive, out of place, out of reckoning, inattentive, or just darned incisive.

I rather like those odd UK parliaments with their Question Times. I propose to you something to which you may agree by entering a comment. I propose that you grant me amnesty to ask you a question or questions about your life that I would ordinarily feel too shy to ask directly. The "amnesty" means that I know, before I ask, that asking anyone a question about a novel rather lacks decorum. I also know that many of my questions could be solved by assiduous reading.

You are not bound to answer, and you are free, if you do answer, to answer obliquely. You'll see as readily as I do that
it will be more fun for you if you can be more revelatory, in a very public setting, but I don't want you to tell me something
you'd regret sharing. I am not encouraging you to tell me secrets, as secrets have this beautiful banality about them that
I do not always require of life.

Would you like to grant me amnesty to ask you a question or questions? If so, just type in the comments--I grant you amnesty.

Comments

[elainegrey.livejournal.com]

I am always curious about my oblique angles!

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

You know I find you a very interesting person, and I like that we share a similar view of the importance of pursuing one's personal creative urges.

I have three questions:

1. Tell me about the circumstances and timing of how you got from NC to CA;

2. Your journal has a lot of focus on a particular set of work dilemmae that I don't pretend to fully understand.
What would be your dream evolution of your career, to avoid the labyrinthine issues you sometimes now face?

3. How did you come to join the Friends?

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I think about how our age difference is not so great, and yet I think you identify a great deal with the 1960s/early 1970s counterculture, while I identify with it barely at all. Here are a few notions you might explore, if you are a mind to do so:

1. How old were you when you married? What were you like in the days before you met your spouse?

2. Where did you grow up? Did you have a happy childhood?

3. Your third world touring was so interesting. What would you do if you had the time and resources to do it, in terms of an alternative travel/lifestyle choice? A Peace Corps type thing? Move abroad? I know you've pondered all that, but what would your druthers be?

4. Swedenborgian, perhaps?

[tx-cronopio.livejournal.com]

I grant you amnesty!

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

there's a lot in your journal I don't fully know.

Do you profess at a university, or are you academic in some other way?

Native Texan or transplant? if a transplant, from what greenhouse?

Where did you do your education?

What is the best place to go hiking in your area?

[missprune.livejournal.com]

ooh yes please, I always think one's life could be an open book!

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Please write for me a succinct but detailed paragraph which states the principles you put forward in your books in a single credo--not omitting what you think about contacts between souls, and also including your thoughts on how people access these alternative states of being. As nuts and bolts or as theoretical as you prefer.

What kind of rn were you? Hospital? What type of ward? clinic? what kind of practice?

[tuscendi.livejournal.com]

I grant you amnesty and I will answer honestly and to the best of my ability. Even though I doubt that I'm one of the people you're curious about. I greatly enjoy getting to know lovely people such as yourself so safely and conveniently around here and I feel that you are a person to be trusted.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I know that you appreciate classical music, which is something I like to think I appreciate as well. My first question is very mundane--tell me some 10 recordings you enjoy, or 10 pieces if particular recordings do not come to mind.

Also, I believe that you mentioned something about a lintgering but dormant commitment dating to the 1960s.
Is there a reason why it lingers rather than being terminated in the conventional way? I sense a story there, if you wish to tell it directly or obliquely.

[kayre]

Amnesty granted, with no expiration date. :)

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Thanks. It's that degree in theology which puzzles me.
Was this something you did to become a music person at a church, or did you once have aspirations for a different type of ministry? Were you ever tempted to get licensed to preach?

I have always felt a debt of gratittude to you because you told me about the program Sibelius, which I never used, but knowing it existed let me research my way into less expensive similar things that I do use.

Have you ever tried your hand at composing hymns? If so, did you ever write one that your church used? Would you ever want to do so?

Are you healed from your medical procedure yet? It sounded very taxing at the time.

[mortuus.livejournal.com]

Amnesty granted. Ask away!

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

T., this post actually originates in some way from the LDS missionaries I saw peddling by tonight. I wondered to myself, "I know some LDS women have similar things they do, and some do not--I'd ask T. if she does, but that would not be polite", and one thing led to another and voila! this post. My first question is:

1. when you were the right age, did you do some kind of mission trip/experience?

2. What happened to your notion of moving to the Pacific NW?

3. Is your job more settled down now?

4. Where did you grow up? go to college?

5. Were your parents raised LDS, or did they convert?

[daisydumont.livejournal.com]

if there's anything you'd like to ask, i grant you amnesty to do so.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

You have been through so much this past year, and you've written about it with remarkable clarity. Yet I've got a number of qustions to fill in some details:

1. How old is your son? Is he school-oriented?

2. Where did you grow up? Most of us have a favorite place we went in Summers for outdoor fun (for me, it was a grandparent's house 40 miles away or a lake cabin). Did you have one, and where?

3. What family dysfunction did you grow up around, if any?

4. What theological notion did you find utterly lovely and utterly not the answer to any issue in your life?

[marstokyo.livejournal.com]

look away, there's nothing here.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I always like to find out interesting things about interesting people.

1. How did you link up with this current gallery? I must have missed something, because it came up like a welcome desert wind.

2. Did you have any teachers who taught you to draw so well?
did you teach yourself your sense of art history, or are there mentors/professors who meant something to you in that regard?

3. How did you meet J?

4. Isn't it cool that B. went to Oberlin? He sounds like a really cool kid. What do you think he'll want to do when he graduates?

5. What does a theater cost at the gallery?

[the-lady-lily.livejournal.com]

It would be churlish not to grant amnesty once so graciously requested.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I have a good number of questions that I will pose, thankful for the chance:

1. soprano, second soprano, alto, which?

2. G man--is he English, American, or from where?

3. G-Man, met him when?

4. Did both your parents work outside the home? What did they do, workwise, whether in or out oft the home?

5. How does the actual USA compare with the USA you imagined, in anecdoctal form, of course.

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

Certainly, I grant you amnesty.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

You're always an interesting read and a loyal commenter.

1. When did your current medical challenges first onset?
How old were you then?

2. Where did you go to high school?

3. Do you play bridge? (every poll needs an irrelevant question)

4. Do you get around mostly by train, by bus, or on foot? or do you drive a car?

[friede.livejournal.com]

I always find your questions illuminating, so feel free to interrogate me.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I enjoy reading your tales about graduate school, because the way you live graduate school always seems to me to be, im some ways, the way it should be lived.

I also marvel at your artistic ability--things like your deviantart work is pretty darn impressive.

1. We share a trait that we both grew up with relative material comfort, although I perhaps had a particular advantage in that I grew up in a town in which our modest material comfort (my father was a country doctor) was seen by the community as subtantial material wealth, which gave one the odd expression of being somehwat upper middle class but treated as a Rockefeller.

Do you find yourself self-conscious that you sometimes you can find a way economically to things that peers might not can do? The immediate example that comes to me is perhaps attending conferences.

2. Your research interest and study interest is so well-honed. What started you down this interest in this field of study?

3. I rather have the suspicion that your choice of school has lived up to your expectation--but I also know you put a brave face on things when you must. How is it all working out? As fab as seemingly, or a mixed tandoori?

4. Is it hard to be old in some ways, young in others?

5. Great icon!

6. I think lately about how our strength and our banes are so often the same--enthusiasm arguably qualifies as that kind of trait for you. How do you navigate the waters when not everyone shares this apsect of your personality?

7. Would you teach at Bryn if asked?

As Tom says, "I'll tell you all my secrets, but I lie about my past..."

[theoldanarchist.livejournal.com]

Ask away!

Re: As Tom says, "I'll tell you all my secrets, but I lie about my past..."

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I always think you have a great LJ handle, except that anyone with your handle should be 30 years older than me and not 10 years younger.

Gary, Indiana. Happy, or sad childhood?

What music did you listen to at age 18?

Did you ever have a phase of your life where you moved a lot from town to town?

Who was your best friend in high school? where is he or she now? Tell me this story in story form.

[tuluum.livejournal.com]

i grantest upon thee my most gracious and favoured amnesteeeee :D

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Many blessings upon thee, m'lady.

I'm unclear just where you stand on the great wheel of life. are you in school? in work? in between? if in school, what are you studying? if in work, what do you do. If in between what do you wish to do?

Do you like to snorkel? If I lived someplace warm, I'd go snorkeling.

What would the middlegame play like? What do you hope to achieve by age, let's say, 47?

[sirensvoice.livejournal.com]

I would certainly grant amnesty. I, too, have had this same feeling: of wanting to ask a question, but being held back from doing so by one reason or another.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I know you are very musical, but I'm not clear on what kind of music you've played. Tell me about your musical interests as a performer,and what you'd do to renew your interests when you find the time.

You've trained to acquire a new set of career options, and you've been working in your path, if I understand the facts right. Long-term, what would you like to see happen with that sort of thing?

How old are your children? How often do they live with you?

If you could speak to anyone living by skype free global telephone for a good hour, who is the one person whom you've longed to chat with but never do anymore?

[liminal-space.livejournal.com]

shoot, mister man. :)

[liminal-space.livejournal.com]

.......amnesty is granted.

(of course, i just had to hit the go button before i meant to. *flex*)

[ensenchiridion.livejournal.com]

i grant you amnesty, so long as there's something you want to ask, and so long as i can post the answers in my own journal so as to control the security level of who sees them. i always appreciate the opportunity to give thought to the sorts of questions you ask, even if it makes me a little self-indulgent.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I accept your conditions, of course.

I worry, a bit, that I'll be guilty of a Bela'-like lack of gentleness, but accept the amnesty, resolve to avoid that particular trap, and ask:

I'm all puzzled about this school thing. I have a decent understanding of your immediate certificate aspirations, but I'm never clear on where you are in the process aside from that. You teach at least one "formal" class, which suggests to me you have some degree or attainment, even as you pursue certificates about which I read at the site for your institution. Perhaps you could set it all out for me, as somehow you're qualified enough to teach, and yet seeking other qualifications.

You've explained to some extent how it is that pursuit of some of your aspirations have been delayed until your current rather-young-but-no-longer-just-post-teen age.
I'm not really asking the why did you delay so long, as to me that kind of thing is so beside the point, and people always construct little tin castles in which to imprison the way other people live their lives. It's rather to understand what choices you made that caused the interruption in your studies. I know you mentioned a job at a favorite establishment, and perhaps some other factors not best set out publicly but I'd like to know as much more detail about the logistics of the choices as you feel comfortable sharing.

You live in a situation which one might call de facto rather than de jure, if one were morphing a law phrase a bit. It is my observation that in most such domestic situations, one partner is much more in favor of the formality of de jure than the other. Does your situation have that particular tension? Here I may have nearly exceeded even the courtesy of amnesty, but I'll ask anyway.

What is the current status of the hands? Are you seeing the gradual improvement that's the way forward?

You're rather widely read and up to speed on so many things like music and film. I know that people often pull out and hurl at you phrases like "such an intellectual", which makes me remember, with amusement, a visit to a bar when I was 25 when a woman said she wanted to offer me the "constructive criticism" that my (rather frighteningly heavy black frames on my) glasses made me look "like an intellectual" as if I should be devastated by the critique (and of course I got it all wrong and felt I'd achieved what I set out to achieve with the look). I'll spare you glib phrases, if I may, but ask instead if you have any thoughts on how you've maintained such broad horizons, given that you've chosen a field that requires a lot of narrow-cast focus. I have a vague impression that you used to get involved in the local film festival,but tell on, narrator, in more free form.

How could I resist setting you the task of discussing your 7 favorite symphonies? Not symphony orchestra's but sibelius 7 type of thing.

I have rather more things to ask, but surely that's enough for now.

[zyzyly.livejournal.com]

I grant you amnesty

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

You have a lovely photography journal, which I'd only glanced at before, but spent some time with this morning.
How did you first develop this interest, and what classes/training/reading/skills acquisition methods have you used to enhance it?

What was your "last real job"? What do you do now for economic sustenance? If you're between, I'm not intending to cause pain, I'm just not clear on the status.

Married, single, divorced, some other state?

Childhood spent in _______________? What was that like? Wax fluently on your upbringing.

[velvetink.livejournal.com]

I'm fairly new here on your list but go ahead ask away!, (I know my lj is pretty much a photo journal - not too much info about myself there).

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I like your photos. They often catch my attention.

Because your journal is only obliquely revelatory, I'll fire away with a dense particle flow from the inquisitiveness ray gun.

I think you're married, but I'm not sure--how long have you been married, if so?

How many children, and what are their ages?

Do you work outside the home? Doing what? What training/education did you obtain prior to going to work?

What got you going in photography? Do you enter competitions? Do you have further aspirations for your photography that you have not yet achieved?

If you could teach a course at the local community college extension, what would you teach?

What is your favorte dessert at Christmas?


Why the handle "velvetink"?

Do you ever do family portraits or other "professional photographer" type gigs? Indeed, as I sit here, it's obvious your work is professional in appearance, but I'm not sure if you see yourself as a professional or as a serious hobbyist.

If you were writing a 100 word bio about yourself, what would it say?

[queenmomcat.livejournal.com]

Amnesty away.

Oh, and if your (digital) camera's only got .1 megapixels, it's definitely time to upgrade...or did you mean 1.0 megapixels? (even at that, upgrading would help--the library's upgrading from a 1 to a 6 m.p. camera made a huge difference.)

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Your schools are:

Urban School of San Francisco - San Francisco, CA (1980 - 1984)
Smith College - Northampton, MA (1985 - 1989)
Indiana University - South Bend, IN (1992 - 1994)

What did you study at each? How did you come to travel so far for schools?

How did you and Stephe end up in your part of MI? How did you meet? How long have you been married?

What book would you write, were you to write a book? Particularly, what non-fiction topic would you cover?

What do you do for hobbies/fun?

[spleenless.livejournal.com]

My slow posterhood sometimes makes the connections unclear. Ask away...

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I always enjoy your journal, and it was fun to meet you in D.C.

What led you to get your MSW? Where did you go to school?
What was your undergraduate school and major?

What has been your most rewarding job?

Tell me about your children. are they artistic? are they conformist or more rebellious?

Where in Europe would you go if you had a railpass, a free air ticket, two weeks with your children staying with loving relatives, and a thousand euros?

[asphalteden.livejournal.com]

This is an exciting prospect! Go for it, when you have a chance.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Your journal is one of my favorite reads, because there's usually a lot of popcorn and not many burnt kernels. Yet I'll fill in details with my questions.

How did you get that cool job you have? How did you learn about the lead? Tell me about your interview. Were you an editorial assistant? What is your title now?

Should I subscribe to the magazine? I always mean to do so, but there is a subtle pleasure in picking it up sporadically from the stand.

How did you meet Bianca?

What kind of book or story would you like to write? More articles? Fiction? Are you writing anything now?

How did you get into ambient music? What is the your favorite rare recording?

[(Anonymous)]

ask, Bob. ~paul

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Paul==

What cities did you visit while you were in the military?

How is your health doing now? are you doing well?

How many dogs do you have, and what are their names and ages?

I wish I were at the botanical garden tomorrow. I love that place.

[deanarae.livejournal.com]

Ask away, if there's anything you'd like to know.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

If you got a master's degree in an agricultural science, would you choose entomology, horticulture, or, like my first cousin, hog raising?

Name three novels you've read that rouch right down to your soul.

What is your favorite Dr. Seuss book?

Do you have siblings? Are you close?

How far do you have to drive to see a really great sunset across an open field?

[kendokamel.livejournal.com]

Ask away!

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

If you took a degree by distance learning, what course would you take?

Is loneliness an issue you face sometimes?

What hobby would you take up if you had world enough and time, and hobbies, like coyness, would be no crime?

What trauma visited you in high school that you remember still?