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

[deanarae.livejournal.com]

If I got a master's degree in agricultural science (which is something I would love to do, were it possible anywhere near where I live now... and maybe free) I would opt for horticulture. While bugs and hogs are probably fascinating options, I have always wanted to be a farmer, of the vegetable variety. It's my dream deferred. Although I did pass a very tempting "Pigs for Sale" sign on my way into work this week.

The question about novels is the most difficult one, mainly because it has been many years since a novel really hooked me. It's likely that the same novels would not have the same effect on me now, years later, but from where I stand now, I would have to say "The English Patient," by Michael Ondaatje sticks in my head. I remember that, nearing the end of the novel, I began to read very slowly because I didn't want to be done with it. "Song of Solomon," by Toni Morrison was another that I loved, although I no longer remember why, only that I loved it. And, if the criteria is really to reach down to my soul, I guess I have to include "Jane Eyre," which I read and hated in 8th grade, then read again and loved when I was living in Seattle and in a somewhat desperate state. I can say it reached down to my soul because I could only read little bits at a time before I would start to cry for Jane and myself and have to stop.

I don't have enough familiarity with the Dr. Seuss library to have a favorite. For some reason, I never had Dr. Seuss books as a kid. I do like Seuss though. In fact, I have an anthology of Seuss stories that I was just looking at for inspiration that I think I should consider reading!

I have one brother, 5 years younger. We are decidedly not close. In retrospect I see that we had competing mental illnesses growing up together. We are very different from each other - as if he'd made it his vocation to be as different from me as possible.

Great sunsets over open fields shouldn't be too much of a difficulty for me these days. I live in a rural area, most of the way up a large hill. There's a spot I can walk to, if I'm feeling energetic, where I have a clear view of Albany, to the West. For an open field, I'd probably need to hop in the car as it's a bit further than I'm really fit for walking these days. But once there, there's a spectacular view to the West. This is not only useful for watching sunsets, but also for watching Albany's fireworks.

Do you ever feel like you've gotten yourself in over you head when you put out these offers?

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

The only one thaat got me in over my head was the rose meme, in which I still owe 5 answers from last May :). I'll do them, some day, out of a sense of enjoyment and obligation, and the poor recipients will say "2006? What?".

I prescribe for you the following:
A. Green Eggs and Ham
B. Horton Hears a Who
C. The Grinch who Stole Christmas (though if you've seen the special, you know it)
D. One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish
E. The Cat in the hat (if you've seen the movie, you most definitely do not know it).

They'll take you 30 minutes at the local children's library to read, and they are worth the trouble.

I am virtually positive you can get a distance learning degree in agri.
:)