39 posts tagged “qotd”
How could you better “green” your life? What’s holding you back?
Sponsored by One Million Acts of Green brought to you by Cisco..
I could be green in my life in a few different ways. One of the main ways I pollute is actually through smoking. I pollute the cigarette butts into the environment. Granted, I could do much worse, however I think of the sheer number of butts I've contributed to the environment and it's horrifying.
Luckily, I've set myself to a quite date of May 1. I find I'm more able to follow through on challenges in Spring, when the weather is nice and my mood tends to be at its best, so it'll be a good time for me to make this goal again. I've tried quitting unsuccessfully several times now, but I'm really getting my mind into it as opposed to going "ok, no more" as I've done in the past.
Another way I could do it is by walking/biking more. Winter has been shitty in this respect because, well, it's been a rough winter here in New England and driving, in a lot of ways, has been safer. I'm lucky enough to have an apartment complex where it's a short walk to most of the things in life I need - a super market (3 actually), drug store (2 of those), any other supplies I would need (staples, AAA, even Starbucks). I'm going to be making an effort to walk more because it's good for my physically, I need my vitamin D and I can put less toxins into the air that way. It's just a good thing all around.
I can also shut down my computer at night and make a recycle box for the apartment with returnables (there's no program in my complex for recycling, sadly).
I also may be in the market soon for a more fuel efficient vehicle, which would also help. Eating less fast food (a huge contributor to land fills) is also in order.
The changes I'm making in my life for some selfish reasons are really going to have a huge positive effect on the environment.
One thing at a time, right?
Yesterday was the first day of the Chinese New Year. The Chinese year 4707 is the year of the ox. What's your Chinese zodiac animal and what does it say about you?
This is what Wikipedia says:
The Ox is thought to be the sign of prosperity through fortitude and hard work. The Ox is a power sign, like the Rat, Snake, Dragon, Tiger, and Monkey. They're quite dependable and possess an innate ability to achieve great things. As one might guess, such people are dependable, calm, and modest. Like their animal namesake, the Ox is unswervingly patient, tireless in their work, and capable of enduring any amount of hardship without complaint.
Ox people, according to tradition, need peace and quiet to work through their ideas, and when they have set their mind on something it is hard for them to be convinced otherwise. An Ox person has a very logical mind and is extremely systematic in whatever they do, though they have a tremendous imagination and an unparalleled appreciation for beauty. These people speak little but are extremely intelligent. When necessary, they are articulate and eloquent.
Traditionally, people born under the influence of the Ox are thought to be kind, caring souls, logical, positive, filled with common sense and with their feet firmly planted on the ground. Security is their main preoccupation in life, and they are prepared to toil long and hard in order to provide a warm, comfortable and stable nest for themselves and their families. Strong-minded, stubborn, individualistic, the majority are highly intelligent individuals who don't take kindly to being told what to do.
The Ox, it is thought, works hard, patiently, and methodically, with original intelligence and reflective thought. These people enjoy helping others. Behind this tenacious, laboring, and self-sacrificing exterior lies an active mind.
The Ox, according to tradition, is not extravagant, and a modern interpretation of this is that the thought of living off credit cards or being in debt makes them nervous. The possibility of taking a serious risk could cause the Ox sleepless nights.
Ox people are truthful and sincere, and the idea of wheeling and dealing in a competitive world is distasteful to them. They are rarely driven by the prospect of financial gain. These people are always welcome in small gatherings because of their humble composure and reverent nature towards the host. They are reputed to be the most beautiful of face in the zodiac. They have many friends, who appreciate the fact that the Ox people are wary of new trends, although every now and then they can be encouraged to try something new. People born in the year of the Ox make wonderful parents and teachers of children.
It is important to remember that the Ox people are sociable and relaxed when they feel secure, but occasionally a dark cloud looms over such people and they engage all the trials of the whole world and seek solutions for them.
I actually think it's pretty accurate on the whole.
Are you voting for the party that you're registered for?
I'm very proudly not registered with any political party. I think political parties in the US are used as tools for division and are really prohibitive of progress.
This question is also RIDICULOUSLY biased to people who live in the US. I'm sure there are other elections somewhere tomorrow, but why couldn't this question come up during the Canadian Referendums last month?
What is the one word that perfectly describes your day today?
submitted by [this is connie]
Lame.
But I intended it that way.
What are 10 things you've done that other people probably haven't?
Submitted by Janette.
(1)Attained Third Degree Black Belt
(2)Backpacked part of Italy for a week
(3)Drove to Windsor, ON to see someone and have fun
(4)Acted on stage for 100+ people in a foreign/second language
(5)Given another person a concussion
(6)Dressed as an over-dramatic, bad drag twice as an original character at an anime character
(7)Gotten my heel clipped by the tire of a moving car and came out with no physical damage to my foot (just a scuff mark on the shoe)
(8)Propositioned on the street to be in a major network TV commercial randomly on a Sunday on Bourbon St (NBA All-Star game, in case you're curious)
(9)Picked up and quit smoking within a week after high school
(10)Accidentally broken all the toes on someone's foot at the same time.
Polling groups like to track the approval rating of politicians. What's your approval rating for President George W. Bush?
ZERO. It has been since he was posturing to invade Afghanistan after 9/11. I've been opposed to the War on Terror since its inception because I don't believe deposing governments ends the cycle of violence. In fact, I believe it incites it to perpetuate and worse.
I've believed that this international war of Imperialization seeks to make the US the new Roman Empire and less to secure our borders. How are our borders more secure if all of our armed forces are somewhere else. We don't have National Guard, Coast Guard, Army, Army Reserve, Marines, Air Force or Navy here -- who is here to defend us and protect us? They're all in Iraq or Afghanistan or various other places around the world who have their own military systems. We should help them build their own military and training (like we do in Germany), and keep our soldiers home.
I fail to believe that going to the Middle East and bombing it is going to solve anything. We haven't brought democracy to anyone, and you can't force a government on a people.
More domestically, he's done little to nothing to help the people at home. Even just looking at the Vet's who's returned to no funding and little rehabilitative services because that part of the budget is being siphoned into killing his brothers and sisters on both sides of the conflict (if innocent people are considered a side).
The divide between the rich and the poor is larger than ever. He's weakened the government's income system through taxes by his breaks to the rich and levies on the poor. He's vetoes bills which would offer some form of health care to under priveleged children.
He's willingly broken numerous laws -- which we know because of released White House documents. He's broken both international and domestic laws and the Congress is doing nothing about it.
I give the governmental in general a big FAILURE for the whole working thing.
Who's the most annoying person on TV?
I HATE RACHEL RAY! (that's right, I've said it.) She annoys the living hell out of me.
I can deal with Carlos Mencia's stupid noises and his not actually being from where he says he is.
I can deal with Rosie O'Donnell's angry lesbian phase.
I can even deal with most of the other people who stink of TV.
But, Rachel Ray makes me want to punch babies. It's an instant irrational response of annoyance and hatred. She.just.bugs.me.
Which band or artist which is no longer performing or alive would you have loved to have seen?
Submitted by Rev Stan.
What are the positive and negative associations that you and those around you have with blogging? Have attitudes changed over time?
This is a really weird question to answer for me, but it'd definitely fun to think about.
I think one of the greatest mixed things about the way I blog is that it gives a lot of people a sense of knowing me and knowing what's going on in my life without actually having to interact with me. There are a lot of people, especially here at school, who read my journal to know what's going on in my life because they don't have the time and/or energy to talk to me in person. While it's nice to know that people want to keep track of what's going on in my life, it's disconcerting that they can't talk to me about it.
As for attitudes associated with blogging, my personal attitudes fluctuate. It's a great way for me to express my feelings and just connect with something bigger than myself. I mean, the masses of the anonymous internet where you can think you know someone but really have no idea. It tests my trust and it tests what it really means to me to be something more than I really am in a sense. On here, I'm a college student who has too much work and too little social contact. In the real world, that's only part of the greater sense of who I am.
The blogging world is both expansive and limiting. You get known for doing something, or it becomes the expectation placed upon you in the minds of your readers. You come here, and you know I'm not going to talk about my Mom or my sister or my Dad unless something big happens. You know that I lead a pretty small existence, but have very big, if also overwhelming, hopes and dreams. You know I get filled with terror at the prospect of failing in the real world, but know that through failing I will learn the most for the next round. You know I have this determination and drive to do something, even if I don't even know what it is.
However, unless you've met me in the real world, you don't know what I sound like. What it looks like when I cry. What my smile looks like when it's not for a photo. What my distinctive laugh sounds like. What my speech pattern is. What my personal accent sounds like. You don't even know if I look like my photos (which I do, no worries... I'm not creepy like that). So, for as much as you all know me, you don't. It's a strange dance between knowing and not knowing.
It's like the first time I met 'Ness in the flesh. I knew all this stuff about her, and I knew what her voice sounded like over the phone, and I knew what she looked like in photographs. I knew how she expressed herself online.. the phrases she used and the emoticons she most frequented. I didn't, however, know how good her social skills were. I didn't know what her sense of direction was like, or how clean she keeps her room. I know things about her, but I didn't know her energy, her real person. The thing that's more than her, I guess. Luckily for us, we bonded really well and she's one of my better friends in the world. I wouldn't drive 40+ hours grand total if I didn't think so.
My parents don't understand blogging. They think my blog is my personal website. They know I don't use livejournal anymore and they also know that they can just go to my "site" and read about my thoughts. I know they don't because they feel like they're violating something (and they just don't get it). My sister has had about 5 blogs over time, but that's just the way it goes.
I've been blogging since I was 16 and it's so much a part of the way I interact with my world, I'm really not sure what I'm going to do without it. Whether it's while I'm abroad in the Peace Corps or if I have to go without a solid and consistent internet connection when I'm off on my own, not having this medium to express my thoughts and update people on my life will be bizarre. Despite not really missing the internet while I was in Italy. I only went online because I needed to talk to people and get in contact with them. E-mail was cheaper than a phone call.
I also know that if I just stop blogging one day, there will be people who are going to wonder what's going on in my life. I've made a blogging friend here on Vox, and I have a few readers of my blog over on livejournal, where I'm syndicated. They still care about me, or at least curious as to the shit show that is my life sometimes. They like the way I express myself or just something about me.
I think that's one of the weirdest things that people have told me. When I write my entries, I tend to shut down part of my brain and just let everything come out from the core. It's a true release. I think I've said it here before, but I hardly ever edit my posts. The most I'll do is move a post from public to private (which I've done once on this journal, and no I'm not telling you why).
I've been told by several people that they like the rawness in my posts. That it's just me and they feel as if I'm sitting right next to them telling them all of this. There's a certain intimacy in how I write that attracts them to me. They don't like it when I throw up walls or anything because they know when a wall is there. It feels hollow or fake in some way. I do have to say it feels good to know that people can feel that I am genuine.
Over time, my blog has changed from being all about me telling you what my life is and more about me talking about how my life is from my point of view. I don't you to interact with me in the sense that I demand it of you. If you all stopped reading this tomorrow, I would still write. I write for myself, which is how it's always been. But, I've stopped writing purely for the exhibitionist quality of throwing my angsty pain to the world. I write because I have something to say, even if only to my self about things that matter to no one else.
I guess my blog has become my therapist.
Share a story about your sibling(s) or a family member from when you were a kid.
Submitted by Jenny Marie.
I feel obligated to answer this since Jenny wrote it. I haven't been updating much at all recently, but I do have to answer this one.
This question is actually really difficult for me to answer because my memories of childhood are spotchy at best. I wasn't abused or anything and I don't have any reason to not have memories, but like my Dad, I don't really remember much before the age of 10.
I'm really unsure of what to write about. A lot of my childhood memories are actually very sad and painful which doesn't lend itself for anything other than an impromptu pity party (for which I have no interest in creating). I don't want to make my life sound more melodramatic than it is, or was. I'm wracking my brain for a story that's funny, upbeat or in the least bit not a joykill. I'm actually failing and that makes me sad.
I really don't think I can answer this question because I remember everything through our home movies.
Ironically, Jenny and I had a discussion about how I don't talk about my past one night in Italy. I believe it was the night was got gelato at the shop on the corner by the Ponte Vecchio. She asked me point blank why I never talk about my past or my childhood and I told her I really didn't remember it. I don't have many memories before age 10, as I said, and my very first childhood memory is me being bored on a car trip, somewhere.
That's the problem with a lot of my memories from before I was 10, they are images, scents, sounds or textures just bent in all together on each other. There's no context and no reason why I remember them. It's like a random flashback scene in a movie. You see the hand move along the windowsill but have no connection to anything else. You hope the context comes, but you may not expect it to.
I remember sitting at the window sill waiting for cars to pass by. I would wait for what felt like ages because we live on a relatively deserted suburban street during the day. I'd sink my teeth into the wood of the sill and my tongue would touch it. The taste was very bitter, but also somehow refreshing. My teeth marks may still be in those windowsills to this day, I'll have to go look and see.
My memories of events also never involve other people. They always have something directly to do with me. Most of the time, I'm alone in my memories. Alone in my thoughts, alone in a room or just feeling isolated in some way. I was a very depressed child which does translate itself out to a lot of my current disposition.
Every once in a while, when I need to borrow something from my Dad -- like cufflinks or something like that -- I come across a note I wrote when I was in early grade school. I don't remember writing it, but I know it's my writing. I talk about how I often think of suicide, but I don't do it because he and my Mom keep me alive. He still has it and I know that he always will.
I know I haven't answered the question, but I think that I don't really have an answer. I've gone through a couple stories, one of which involves my father, so I think I'm just going to count that. I need to go to bed now because I'm exhausted.
