meme & asks

Picture from Pixabay because pretty.

Answers to today's questions at The Friday Five @ DW

1. What is the last book you read and what book(s), if any, are you currently reading?

The first book in Åsa Larsson's Rebecka Martinsson crime series "Aurinkomyrsky" was the last one I read. I'm currently reading the second in the series "Sudentaival". These are re-reads actually. I read them 10+ years ago for the first time, then this year saw that there's been a fourth book published in the series so read that one, discovered I didn't remember the first three nearly at all but remembered liking them a lot, so wanted I'd re-read them now. The original language is Swedish but I read the Finnish language versions, and I think they've been translated into English too.

2. How about moving pictures? Are you a fan of any TV show or movie right now?

I'm a fan of many movies and tv shows, all the old ones (I never really drop anything, just add new loves) like Xena, Dark Skies, Game Of Thrones, Stargate, The Last Of The Mohicans. But right now I'm really excited to be watching Star Trek: Strange New Worlds! Six episodes is out currently and I've LOVED all six. I love all the characters, and I love that it's episodic with a few character arcs that are followed in multiple episodes. I also love that it's a clear ensemble show - it's much more like TNG or DS9 rather than TOS or DSC in that way and I love that.

3. What's your favorite genre, and why?

Movies and tv shows: scifi/fantasy. Books: romance with supernatural/suspense/scifi/fantasy elements, and I also enjoy the same without much romance included as well as detective books.

4. If we were all evacuating the planet, and you could only bring 3 unique works of entertainment for posterity, which would you pick? Let's just assume that we've coordinated it so there are no repeats.

I'd want certain Star Trek series, so I guess Star Trek everything as a whole and that includes all the movies/tv shows/comics/soundtracks etc., The Leftovers sountrack and The Last Of The Mohicans soundtrack.

5. Do you make new works as well (fannish or original both count)? Or is that not your skillset/interest?

I do! Most often I make desktop wallpapers - have been making them for 20+ years now, and there is no end in sight! I used to make icons too during the Livejournal years, and I've been thinking I should try to get back into that. I also make fansites, which I count as a fan activity although it's never listed in questionnaires as such. Outside fandom, I paint, making simple little notebooks and do acrylic pouring. My only problem is that I love making notebooks but can't use them up fast enough to suit me so I don't get to make them often enough.

Image from Pixabay because pretty.

Answer’s to Jo’s weekly questions over at Dreamwidth.

1. What would a perfect city be like?

Size about my city (Turku), but which feels like you're living in the deepest countryside with neighbors in your line of sight and have woods/natural-state-fields/river/sea just a minute away. All the houses are single family homes (no apartment buildings) but the maintenance is a provided service like in an apartment building, and all the houses are surrounded by a garden or other woods. But all the grocery shops and drugstore are 10 minutes walk away, and the city center is 20 minutes by bus with a hospital, restaurants and other services. Basically like Turku is now as far as distances and services go, but add woods into everywhere and around everything, and get rid of tall buildings and replace them with one story ones.

I'm not sure how that would work with the populaton numbers but I don't care! It's my dream. Country side in middle of and surrounding a city. LOL

2. What are some small things that make your day better?

When I have little more energy than my normal because that's when I accomplish things! The day I wrote this (which is not the day I posted this) was a good day: I've been both to shopping *and* I've done some cleaning! And I'm not still out of energy, and actually I think today is one of those days I have a ghost of an appetite making an appearance so eating doesn't feel as much of a chore as it normally does! Kind small things but also big!

3. Do you have a go-to band or artist when you can't decide on something to listen to?

Not a band or artist, but a few soundtracks: Star Trek "Amok Time" soundtrack, and the soundtracks of The Piano, The Last Of The Mohicans and The Leftovers.

4. Is there a TV show or movie that you just refuse to watch?

Reality TV, any and all sports, and anything with Jack Black in it.

5. What are you interested in that most people haven't heard of?

Star Trek tv series. Star Trek's not a thing here. Most people vaguely have heard of the reboot movies and maybe about some tv show called "Star Trek", but unless they're a scifi tv fan they don't usually know what I'm talking about. Fountain pens - they've heard of them, but mostly don't know that people still actually use them and love them a lot abroad.

6. What could you do a 40-minute presentation on with no (or very little) preparation?

Star Trek!

7. If you were dictator of your country, what would you do?

Force all the rich and well off people to pay their taxes just like the poor people have to. Tax planning (read: evasion) wouldn't be allowed anymore). Introduce basic universal income that would be enough to live by and that wouldn't be below poverty line. Stop the insane difference between a regular person salary and the business owners/CEO etc. salaries and golden handshakes etc. No one person could own salary/property/dividends etc. over 100 million put together, and also corporations would have limit too but higher. The excess would be taxed off and used to fund UBI and things such as public healthcare that benefits the entire society and not just the obscenely rich few.

8. Is there a product or service you love so much that you'd happily be that company's spokesperson?

No! I'd hate being a spokesperson for anything because I hate doing presentations and public speaking and being a center of attention for anything, so it'd have to be a truly fabulousty amazing thing! Which I don't believe exists in enough amount to overcome my loathing.

9. Why did you decide to do the work you are doing now (or if you're retired, the work you were doing prior to retirement)?

I'm not working currently and haven't since 2008 due to health problems. I think I should be on disablity retirement (because honestly, no employer will ever hire someone with as many absences and challenges with functionality as I have), but that's has been denied everytime. So I switch between long-term sick leave (months to a year), and unemployement benefits. But I'm a librarian by profession, and that's what I did before getting ill and I loved it.

I chose library work right from the start, it's the only thing I ever really wanted to do. I've also done general office work and like it fine too, so I'd be okay with having an office job too! Library because I love books and I love reading, libraries are great places, the library people just feel like my kind of people, there's interaction with customers so I get my social interaction needs filled that way. Libraries are also usually quite peaceful and quiet places to work and not as hectic as elsewhere, so before my migraine went chronic, myhead liked that. I also liked getting to teach our customers to use computers, which we did a lot and libraries still do but now with older generations. Also we put up all sorts of little exhibitions - art, books on a theme etc. Not to mention getting so see all the new books coming out among the first! I really like library work!

10. We have no control over where we're from, but do you wish you could have been from somewhere else?

Not really, no. When I was a kid I wanted to be from some place exciting like New York or Miami, or London or Cairo, or having a little more exciting parents - ie. ones that were so into going biking, hiking and all kinds of outdoor activities and excersices. To my mind that was boring and weird because none of my friends and their parents excersiced like that. But as an adult, I'm happy to be a Finn and come from where I come from and be who I am.

11. What are some things you've had to unlearn?

A big thing I had to learn, and had a huge impart in my life was that I can't do everything like a "normal", healthy person anymore. I had to learn to pace myself out, because if I didn't I'd pay for it in the evening or for the next week.

Also, all kinds of biases such as what society at large tends to think of a person who goes unemployed for more than a few months, or can't work because of illnesses or injury, because historically the view was that people who don't work are lazy trash, and some parts (read: right wing) of society still think that. And all the traditional thinking about sex and gender. All that is still very much a work in progress but I try to be forward thinking and inclusive.

12. New internet rules restrict everyone's free access to email, a search engine, and five sites of their choosing. To access any other site, you have to pay $1 per visit. What sites would you include in your five free sites, and what sites would you be willing to pay to access? (Sites you need to access for work-related purposes would be provided/paid for by your employer.)

Wow, what a bullshit plan!! As a poor person who's struggling to cover all of my monthly bills, that would stop me visiting pretty much all sites except the free ones and maybe one or two pay-sites in addition, and the pay-sites only maybe twice a month. It'd also severely, severely cripple my ability to follow news :/ I can't imagine that majority of sites would survive because I don't believe people are willing to pay for like 99% of the sites they visit. Internet would die. And/Or darkweb would burst with new people.

Also for Finland: all the government sites such as KELA, unemployment services, police, municipal services, banking sites etc. would need to be free to access as well because those services are very hard to get face-to-face or on phone and people's livelyhoods and things like paying bills and reporting taxes, getting IDs and passports and various lisences that are mandatory and required by police and various government/country/city instances etc. depend on online access to to those sites. All iof these services are expected/strongly recommended to be used online now! This stupid limit would cripple people-at-large ability use the public services as well.

So five free *purely* entertainment sites then: AO3, tumblr, my own domain course, my webhost's site, yle.fi... if any of these still exists then. I'm pretty sure yle.fi would be the only one of these to stay alive and maybe AO3!

13. Who inspires you to be better?

I'm not the kind of person who finds other persons to be inspiring because they're good or noble or something. Certain persons and artists can and do inspire me to try things, or encourage me to stick with it. That's the kind of inspiration and motivation I experience.

14. Is there something dumb or ridiculous that you did that actually turned out pretty well?

I'm sure I did some dumb-and-low-effort-not-my-best-even-though-I-knew-I-should-put-proper-effort-into-it things in school because I hated school but that actually turned out okay or even well because the other kids didn't have base skill in them like I did because it was a hobby of mine, or we did it as a family while the others didn't. Looking back the only reason I didn't get taken to task about them is that the teachers didn't know I could've done it better. But apparently it wasn't anything huge because I don't remember any specific instance.

15. What are the best and worst things about aging?

The best thing definitely is not caring about other people's opinions anymore! I'm so much more comfortable in my own skin now that am approaching the big five-o than I ever was in my childhood/teenage years or in my 20s.

The worst thing is that I can't trust my body anymore - it seems to be falling apart, revealing one chronic illness or pain after another. I can't trust it to do what I need it to do.

Image from Pixabay. Because pretty.

Answers to this week's question The Friday Five @ DW.

1. Do you buy and use canned food?

I frequently use canned fruits such as peaches, pineapple and those canned fruit cocktails (the salads, not drink) which contain several fruits. I also frequently use canned meatballs in brown souce and just cook rice, macaroni or spaghetti to go with it. Occasionally I also eat some canned tuna. Occasionally for baking/ice cream making, I use condensed milk and coconut milk/cream.

2. What is your favourite canned food?

Canned peaches!

3. Do you like some canned food better than the fresh or dried version of it?

Canned peaches!

4. Do you have a can that just sits at the back of the cupboard? has anything weird happened to it? or do you still plan on using it in the future?

I don't think so... too lazy to get up and check right now.

5. What is the weirdest thing you have seen canned?

Can't think of anything weird. I tend only to pay attention to what I'm looking for and ignore the rest.

Answer’s to Jo’s weekly questions over at Dreamwidth.

16. What’s more important: doing the right thing or doing things right?

It depends on the case. I tend to think both are important.

17. What do you hope never changes?

I can't think of anything that I don't want ever to change. Change is important and necessary.

18. What’s the best way to start the day?

Waking up on your own once you have slept enough. Waking up to an alarm clock and being forced to get up and go somewhere/do something immediately is awful.

19. Can people with vastly different cultural backgrounds live together peacefully?

I think it's possible, but all parties must want it and be ready to work for it, to put effort in it.

20. Do you have a "and then it got worse" story? Will you share it?

Basically my whole health history since 2008. I've written a lot about in the tag/category "health".

21. Have you ever eaten so much of something you made yourself sick?

Not as an adult, for sure. I'm not sure if I ever did that as a kid? I sure did eat so much at times to feel uncomfortably full, but I don't recall ever eating myself sick.

22. What are some fun and interesting alternatives to war that countries could engage in to settle their differences?

Chess! Or maybe one of our Finnish weird competition such as eukonkanto (wife-carrying) or that competion where pairs tie one leg to their teammate's leg so that they now have only three legs. And then compete against others by hopping to endline. Those two are appropriately silly competitions!

23. What's the weirdest or rudest thing a guest has done at your house?

Turn on all the lights. It's also smart because I don't always remember to do it myself when I have people over (I usually only have a weak kitchen light on for the kitchen/living room/foyer. My eyes don't like normal brightness ceiling lights, they're too sensitive.) I'm so used to it that we actually laugh about it now, and I've straight out told everybody to turn on the lights if I don't remember to do it.

24. Do you swear? What's your favourite swear word?

Sometimes when I'm really pissed off. "Helvetin kuustoista!" is my favorite swear. I also might string together many swear words if the situation requires it: "voi helvetti saatana vittu kusipää paskiainen vittu paska!".

25. What fictional character is amazing in their book/movie/TV show, but would be insufferable if you had to deal with them in mundane, everyday situations?

Any loud, high energy person that talks all the time! There's a couple of them that I've often thought I wouldn't be able to stand them in real life but they're really fun in fiction, but I can't name one right now! And then there's Rodney McKay who I can't stand in fiction, and I doubt I'd tolerate them any better in real life either.

26. If you had intro music, what would it be?

Something that goes from bombastic to thoughtful and ends in a question.

27. If you had unlimited funds to build a house that you would live in for the rest of your life, what would the finished house be like?

The Carrington manor from the original Dynasty, most likely! I love that house and the interiors that were shown in the original Dynasty. I'd also want a sort of rural look, with stone and wood and elegant, earthy colors. I'd probably do theme rooms, so the rooms would have different looks.

28. What songs have your completely memorized?

I'm not sure I can repeat lyrics completely of any song without the song playing at least in the background. But songs that I remember the lyrics as it goes on so I can sing to it? Hundreds.

29. When people come to you for help, what do they usually want help with?

Computers.

30. What takes up too much of your time?

Nothing really. Unless you count my illnesses, which I choose not to this time.

31. What would be your first question after waking up from being cryogenically frozen for 100 years?

Have Crohn's Disease and migraine been cured/solved?

Answers to this week's questions at The Friday Five @ Livejournal

1. Do you have any big plans for the summer/winter (depending upon your hemisphere)?

Summer, and nope! I just focus is on surviving it.

2. Have you ever been or are you a fan of camping?

I LOVED camping as a child. Through my ages about 0-11 my family camped as much as we could during the summers - pretty much all weekends, and all/most of the summer vacation weeks (4) Mom and Dad had. We used my Dad's Union's camping area which was open to only Union members, and our tent remained up there all through the summer. Our friends would visit us there, and my two best friends would come and stay for a couple of days or a week a several times during the summer. My friends and I would have a little orange tent we'd sleep in, while Mom and Dad slept in the big tent. It was fun! The ocean was about 3-4 minutes walk away, the camping area was surrounded by woods and small hills. We'd go hiking - both just us kids and have adventures in the woods about 15 minutes to 30 minutes away in the woods, as well as all adults and kids going hiking together for whole day trips.

I haven't been camping as an adult. I'm sure my memories of it are overly romanticized.

3. Did you ever go to a sleep-away camp in the summer when you were a kid?

No! That would've been my nightmare! I hated school, so many noisy kids and just crowds in general... summers were my rest from the noise and discomfort of having too many noisy kids and crowds around me all day five days a week. I needed that solitude of having only my actual friends to deal with during the summer to withstand the school months.

4. What is going to be the high point of the fast-approaching season?

Food, absolutely! New potatos, strawberries, rhubarb, ice cream, cool summer drinks... I eat so much ice cream and drink so many cool drinks, because they taste great but also to help keep coo, refreshedl and hydrated.

5. What is your favorite way to beat the heat/ be warm and toasty?

Aircon is my favorite - I love grocery shopping in the summer because food shops are the that are cool/cold in the summer.

I'd love to have aircon at home but aircon is not a thing in homes here or in most buildings. Indeed, hospitals have been having problems during summers because they don't have cooling aircon. We didn't used to get hot weather for long (days rather than weeks) until about 15 years ago, so most homes have to invest in standing/table fans or those pump things you mount on a wall and that can be used both for heating and cooling if you want cooling in the summer. But in the future I'm sure aircon will be included in more and more buildings in the building stage or when renovating, considering the increasingly hot and long summers.

I just have to rely running my standing fan all the time, taking cool showers as many times a day as necessary and not toweling off, and also just wetting a towel in cold water and wiping all my limbs down with that to cool off. It doesn't beat the heat, but makes it survivable even though just barely IME.

Answers to today's questions at thefridayfive @ DW

1. Where are you right now?

At home on the couch. I just finished breakfast.

2. Where would you like to be right now?

Honestly? I'm good right here! In less than an hour I'll leave to have my hair cut short and neat again by hair stylist school's students, and I've been looking forward to it for two weeks! This is the first time I'm letting a student cut my hair short, and I'm a little nervous and a lot excited! I've had my hair dyed by them before and that went great both times. I've heard good things about all the services the students in the school offer, so I thought I'd try them even though I want to cut my hair really short again! If they mess it up - it's only hair and it'll grow back!

3. Where have you always wanted to visit (but have not yet)?

USA: The Grand Canyon, Yellowstone. Egypt: Cairo, the pyramids and a cruise on the Nile, France: Versailles and Paris. Angkor Wat in Cambodia...

4. What is the most peaceful place you’ve ever visited?

I can only think of my Mom and her partner's summer place when they still had it... it was always nice to be there because it was away from the city. Honestly, my Mom's garden is really good - they live in a small terraced house with only 15 apartments, and it's really quiet there most of the time (no kids and all inhabitants are middle aged or older), because the house is situated so that one side is a tiny forest, one side is a field, and two sides are the backs of town houses with gardens. It's like living in the country when you sit in the garden, even though there are two large shopping centers only 5 minutes drive away, and the town center is about 10 minutes drive away. But none of the sounds of traffic reach the terraced house, and my Mom and her partner's apartment is the very last one, so they're have it the most quiet of all. I love sitting in their garden in summer and just chatting; that's the most peaceful surroundings I ever experience. I myself live in an apartment complex with 4 houses and about 70 apartments by a highly trafficed road; there's always kids or other noise outside or just traffic so it's nice to get away sometimes :-D 

5. Where do you want to visit in your dreams tonight?

Honestly, I don't want to visit anywhere. Whenever I see dreams that means I slept badly, and sleep badly or not at all too much as it is. So I want a good, proper sleep.

I'm bored so have answer’s to Jo’s January weekly questions over at Dreamwidth.

January

1. After roughly two years now of living with various changes and restrictions brought about by the Covid pandemic, which, if any, measures do you think you will continue to do all the time?

Washing hands when I get home! Also using hand sanitizer if it's offered by the shops like it now. Not washing hands when I get home feels weird now.

2. When you are old(er), what do you think children will ask you to tell stories about?

I don't have children myself, nor do my friends and we're all closer to 50 than 40 so it's unlikely we'll have any anymore. I don't much like children and so have never been much around them, and I don't see that changing in the future. So I doubt there'll be children who'll ask **me** to tell them anything.

3. January 3 is Fruitcake Toss Day. Do you like fruitcake? Why does it get such a bad rap?

I don't think fruit cake is much of a thing here in Finland? There's never any on offer on cafes or when I visit someone (even as a kid), I can't remember ever seeing any recipes on Finnish baking blogs, and I myself have only baked it maybe a half a dozen times in my life time. It's fine and I like it but I don't think it has enough presence here to have any kind of reputation, honestly.

4. iOs or Android?

Android.

5. What do you do to get rid of stress?

My go to is to read a book, preferably something that makes me forget my troubles entirely for a while because I get so absorbed in the story. But sometimes that doesn't work, and that's when I do some mindfullness excercises.

6. How often do you binge-watch TV shows?

It's a rare day that I don't watch at least 2-3 episodes of a tv series in a row. That's my main way of watching tv shows these days, except for shows that I can't bear to wait to finish a season. I binge maybe half of all tv shows I watch.

7. Have you ever saved an animal's life? How about a person's life?

Nope.

8. Would you rather be able to see 10 minutes into your own future, or 10 minutes into the future of anyone but yourself?

I don't want to see into anyone's future, my own or anybody elses. That'd be terrible responsibility.

9. Would you rather lose the ability to read, or the ability to speak?

Ability to speak.

10. What Olympic (or other) sport would be the funniest to add a mandatory amount of alcohol to?

Donno, don't care. None of it is fun/funny under any circumstances, and alcohol would just make it even worse.

11. What do you think are three things that are pretty great or interesting about you?

I'm fucking patient. I'm artistic. I make actual websites (people seem to find that interesting!).

12. What's your favourite number? Why?

I don't have a favorite number.

13. Would you rather have all illicit drugs be legalized, or duelling between consenting adults be legalized?

Depends on the illicit drugs because I don't want them all legalized. Maybe dueling would be better to legalize - then idiots could kill each other off.

14. What movie would be greatly improved if made into a musical?

Donno.

15. What social stigma does society need to get over?

Unemployment.

16. What's the most creative use of emojis you've ever seen?

I don't think I've ever seen anything particularly creative? At least I don't remember.

17. Where do you get most of your news?

https://yle.fi and https://www.kansanuutiset.fi

18. In 40 years, what will people be nostalgic for?

Some of the current and older music. Slower, friendlier life style if the pace goes on like it is now.

19. Do you like reality/competition TV shows? Why or why not? If so, which ones?

Couldn't care less. They're just totally uninteresting.

20. How fast do you read?

Donno. Haven't timed myself.

21. Do you like classical music? If yes, name your favourite composer(s).

I do enjoy many pieces, but I don't have a favorite composer. I just like this piece, and that piece and I don't care who made it.

22. How often do you check your phone?

Too often! If I'm waiting for a message or a package I check it even more often, even though I know the phone will usually bleet out when I get a message/package status changes because sometimes it doesn't. Although I have no problems turning my phone off for the night, or ignore it when I do something else.

23. What is your favourite thing to eat or drink in winter?

Hot chocolate is my fave drink when it's fall/winter/spring. The only time of year I don't drink it is summer because I can't stand anything hot to drink when it's hot out.

24. If you could switch two movie/book/TV characters, what switch would lead to the most inappropriate movie/book/TV show?

Donno, don't have energy to think about it.

25. How often do you stay up past 3:00 a.m.?

On purpose? Rarely. Because of insomnia? Weekly, most of the year. Sometimes a have a stretch of week or two that Insomnia doesn't keep me up, but it never goes on for longer than 1,5 or 2 weeks.

26. If you opened a business, what kind of business would it be?

Specialty shop, with stationery geared towards fountain pen users so fountain pens, fountain pen inks and fountain pen friendly paper. Also stickers, washi tape etc. And because I love chocolate, I'd maybe have some handmade chocolates as well. I'd be bankcrupt within the year because a shop like that doesn't have enough of a customer base here.

27. Who was your worst teacher/professor? Why?

It's a toss up between two teachers. First one was my Swedish teacher in comprehensive school Years 3-6... I hated Swedish and didn't want to learn it, and when the teacher came into the classroom I always felt like the room went stuffy and dark. Later on I've wondered whether she was the worst because she wasn't a good teacher, or because I just hated Swedish so much.

The other was my biology/geography teacher in Years 7-9. He couldn't keep any sort of discipline (pupils ran around the class room during the hour regardless of what he said or didn't say, some read non-school books/magazines, nobody listened to him and talked amongst themselves instead, left the class 5-10 minutes before it ended - all this without repercussions). I had zero respect for him because of it. I and my friend were always nice and obeyed our teachers most of the time and never were rowdy or acted out - except in this teacher's class. We'd talk to each other like everyone else, didn't listen to him at all, one of us always had her back towards him to talk to the other because of how we were sat in rows. Yeah, no pupil in that school respected him.

28. Who was your best teacher/professor? Why?

My first English teacher in Year 7. She was strict and demanding, and you knew that if she gave you a good grade you really earned it. She was old and retired when Year 7 was out; everybody else hated her because she was strict and demanding and suffered no rowdiness or foolishness but I was sad. I liked her, respected her and she gave me a really good base to continue to study English.

29. If you are an only child, do you wish you had siblings? If you have siblings, do you wish you were an only child?

I'm an only child and have siblings. (I'm adopted, but have biological siblings whom I've never met and have no interest in meeting). I didn't want siblings when I was a kid.

30. Do you sleep with your sheets tucked in or out? If you don't use top sheets, if you stay somewhere that does, do you prefer your sheets tucked in or out?

Out! Can't sleep any covers tucked in - I feel trapped. And I also have to get a foot out when I get hot. When we went to England on holiday, I had heck of a time pulling all the coverings out because they were always tightly tucked in. It was frustrating having to have that fight with my bed every night!

31. Toilet paper: over or under?

Over!

Answer’s to Jo’s weekly questions over at Dreamwidth.

8. Would you rather give up all drinks except water, or give up eating anything that was cooked in an oven?

I could never give up baked goods, so I guess drinks other than water have to go!

9. What would happen if a maximum income of $500,000 (or equivalent in your currency) was implemented?

I would like to think the excess was used to spread it around so that nobody would have to live below the poverty line, but what I really think would happen that the well-off/rich would just find a way around it just like they now find ways around paying their taxes.

10. If extra-terrestrials ever made first contact with us, would you prefer they be robotic or organic?

I think organic... because I think there'd be a huge change that robotic intelligence would see us (humanity) as a illogical scourge to be abolished whether it's to save the planet and nature, or to mine the planet for metals etc. they need is just a toss of a coin.

11. When was the last time you worked incredibly hard?

Incredibly hard? I'm not sure I've worked **incredibly** hard since my school days so 30+ years ago. Hard? Yes, every year at some point when I get fed up with having so medications to take and having to keep track of my symptoms, but so far that hasn't crossed into the realm **incredibly hard**.

12. Do you know someone who really reminds you of a character in a TV show, movie or book?

Not a character, but my cousin when she was young sometimes looked like then-young Jon Bon Jovi when she smiled/grinned in a certain way.

13. What is the most annoying thing about the social media platform you use most often?

It's a toss up between shouting into void (my posts) and finding new posts relevant to interests because algorythim throws up old (popular) posts up.

14. Do you have nicknames for people in your life (not including nicknames or code names that you might use on social media for privacy reasons)?

Nope.

15. What or who has taught you most of the information you use regularly?

I read every day and everything I use/do regularly is in one way or another based on being able to read well. My parents taught me the basics of reading, and school went on to to teach more. School also as schooled me in the the basics of society and what a citizen (in theory) can find and apply/achieve/reach for. And especially library studies taught me how to look for further information when I need it.

T'Pring from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Pertains to answer to #6

Answer’s to Jo’s weekly questions over at Dreamwidth.

1. Is it more or less difficult to be successful in the modern world than it was in the past (10, 50, 100, or 1,000 years ago)?

Successful in what sense? Sheer survival? Much easier now. Being happy? Probably about the same.

2. What do you like to do in the spring?

Go into hiding. The sun is too bright!

3. Is teaching a skill that can be taught?

Yes, I think for most people. Some people are too badly organized, or too bad at being logical to teach, but most people can learn, I believe. I also believe that some people are more naturally talented at it, but they too need practising to get really good.

4. May 4 is "Bike to School Day". Is that something you did when you were in school?

Yeah, years 1-3 I didn't in the fall and spring. Years 4-6 my school was practically next door, only had to go through a tiny bit of forest to get there on a foot path, biking would've taken longer than walking. Years 7-9 I could have biked in the fall and spring, but we had to apply for school bus ticket for the entire year anyway so there was no point in not taking the bus all through the year. And I didn't/don't bike unless I have to. Later schools (vocational) was too far to bike, I had to take a bus to the first one, and a train to the other.

5. Do you always have to have the latest phone?

Nope, smartphones I've gotten a new one every three years (when Android security updates stop coming, usually). Before smartphones I would have a mobile phone for about 5 years before getting a new one. Usually the battery died.

6. What is something you are obsessed with?

Very recently - as of yesterday, I've been obsessed with Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and especially T'Pring and Spock. I've always loved T'Pring and I liked the glimpse we got of her in the pilot. I hope as we explore Spock, we'll get to know her better too. The seeds that lead to Amok Time were already there, and I hope we'll learn more of the Vulcan people and society as that relationship progresses.

But the whole pilot episode, and all the characters, I LOVED them all so much and thought the episode was very good fun! It made me laugh outloud a few times which none of the other new shows have managed. I think it's the best Star Trek pilot ever, and I LOVE LOVE LOVE that's the adventures are episodic but the relationships seem to have more continuity than TNG, more in the DS9 vein. Love that there' so much colors on the ship (the uniforms!), and that it felt future is hopeful :D I've enjoyed Picard, and Discovery to lesser extent, but the first episode of Strange New Worlds felt very much more trek to me than anything since the end of Voyager. I think maybe they got the spirit right!

It helps that I consider each property it's own thing: TOS is its own contained thing, and SNW is it's own independent contained AU, completely separate from TOS, never mind what TPTB say. I think that's the only way to look at the new shows Discovery, Picard, Strange New Worlds and remain sane and feel good about them. But I do think SNW, based on the pilot, has kept the spirit and love of Trek alive right from the start, it feels right in a way that the others don't to me. I'm very excited for the season :lol: 

7. Is there something that a ton of people are obsessed with but you just don't the point of?

Sports. Any and all! Just incomprehensible.

Image from Pixabay. Because I have a sudden ice cream craving after #28.

Answer's to Jo's weekly questions over at Dreamwidth.

24. Do you prefer popular music or relatively unknown music?

I don't care about that at all, except for the fact that more unknown music can be difficult to find to buy/borrow/download. Otherwise it makes no difference to me.

25. If you were given the ability to reform how your country’s leaders were chosen and how they serve, what would you change?

I'm not familiar enough with the minutiae of the voting systems to overhaul completely. But I would certainly want to make it so that people convicted of certain crimes (violent crimes, domestic violence, fraud, tax fraud/evasion, corruption, abuse of office, theft etc. where the sentence is jail time or probation, and also in all cases of ethnic agitation even when the sentence is a fine) are ineligible in future elections and if serving in a government/local government position currently, must be fired from said position. I'd also make it an issue to be pondered whether politicians who keep getting involved in matters that result in fines such as fights, ethnic agitation, drunk driving, harassing women in a provable way etc. multiple times because that shows bad judgement and according to our law, elected officials must be "known to be honest and skilled" and all the afore mentioned crimes prove something other than that. We have have too many politicians guilty to above things.

26. Records, tapes, CDs, MP3s, streaming: which did you grow up with? What is good and bad about each?

Records and tapes. CDs came along just when I turned 20, I never got into MP3 players or streaming music. Records could get scratches, tapes had a tendency to wear out or be cut in half by the cassette players.I much prefer CDs and being able to buy & download stuff from iTunes etc. I really like that now I can get only the good songs from an album - I never enjoy the all the tracks, so now I don't have to waste money or space on tracks I don't like.

I don't like streaming music. If it's free subscription, there's ads (shudder) and they won't let me play my songs when I want them but force other music on me. If it's pay subscription, I feel like I'm paying for the same music over and over again. And it's too easy for the service to delete my favorites off their service for whatever reason, and then I feel like I've been paying for nothing. I much rather pay and own a copy and download it to my hard drive.

Nowadays my music is mp3 or flac formats, on my hard drive and I use Winamp to play it. I get most of my music from Youtube now, but also buy from iTunes and borrow CDs from the library and rip them to my hard drive.

27. If everyone said what they were actually thinking, what would happen to society?

I'd like to think that things would get better, problems sorted out when people are honest with each other, and awful people wouldn't get power because everyone would literally see and hear how awful they are, so everything would get better for regular people. But I think just as easily awful people could band together and create a dystopia for everyone.

28. Did (or does) your family take seasonal vacations?

We did in the 1970s/mid-80s when I was a kid, until my Dad got sick. We went camping at my Dad's Union's camping area every summer every weekend and when one or both my parents were on summer leave. They didn't always have full 4 weeks off at the same time, so often one or the other would commute to work from the camp for a week. My Dad had the car (my Mom didn't have a driver's license at the time) and my Mom would bike (she always biked non-winter months, and it was about the same length trip whether she biked from home, or the camp, although from entirely different directions). My best fried of the time also often stayed with us for a week, and then after the summer leave, for a weekend. She and I had our own little tent beside our family tent that we'd sleep in just the two of us. I loved those summers! It was by the sea and surrounded by woods and hills, and mostly the same people were there camping every year with their tents or caravans.

As an adult I've only ever had one (1) honest-to-god summer leave. That was when I was in occupational rehabilitation in 2017, and only because the rehabilitation company's staff had their annual summer leave for four weeks in July as normal. Otherwise I've either been working (temping for the permanent employees so they can have their summer leave) or I've been unemployed which, trust me, doesn't feel like you're on leave even if it's a pretty summer because you have all the same duties and obligations as an unemployed person during winter, and you can be called up at anytime without warning. Not to mention, living alone and being first unemployed and then ill, I never have had money for a proper holiday or even for a "staycation" because even if I had some savings, being unemployed and know knowledge when the next job would be, the last thing I could do was using it for something frivolous like a holiday. So mostly I just enjoy strawberries and ice cream and my Mom's dog (when the dog was alive) and garden, and try to avoid people's questions of "What are you doing on your summer holiday?" and "Where are you traveling on your holiday?".

29. What technology from a science fiction movie or TV show would you most love to have?

Any science from any scifi movie and TV that would cure my chronic migraine as well as migraines. And it'd be a real bonus, if they had the cure for Crohn's Disease as well.

30. April 30 is "Hairstyle Appreciation Day". How would you describe your hairstyle?

Short but overgrown. That'll be fixed next week!