Category: Friday Fives

Friday Fives

1. How many TVs do you have in your home?
Three.

2. On average, how much TV do you watch in a week?
About 20 hours. About two hours a day and then loads on Sundays. I work nights so the choices are slim. It would be much worse if I were home in the evenings.

3. Do you feel that television is bad for young children?
Bad parenting and bad parenting choices are bad for young children. There is good television out there for kids. That said, I was raised in front of the television and in the words of Homer Simpson – ” Mmmmmm, Tele-vision.”

4. What TV shows do you absolutely HAVE to watch, and if you miss them, you’re heartbroken?
The West Wing, Friends, HBO’s Sunday night stuff, especially The Sopranos, The Wire, Six Feet Under. And I am now taken by Law And Order Criminal Intent.

5. If you had the power to create your own television network, what would your line-up look like?
TV Land! I don’t know. Ed and I talked about an all sports rerun channel once, but now that is ESPN Classic (shakes fist). Tony and I thought a network of all television pilots, all the time would be fun. All the shows that never made it and the pilot episodes of current running shows. It could work.

via Fridayfive.org p.s. this isn't a current list. After my posting about my dad, I needed something fun and light and not too personal.

Friday Fives

1. Do you remember your first best friend? Who was it?
This is a very hard question. My mom babysat any and all kids in the neighborhood, and there were always tons of cousins and neighbors around the house. In kindergarten and first grade my best friend was Clancy Kingsbury, who moved to Rapid City, SD when we were in 8th grade. But we were virtually inseparable until then.

2. Are you still in touch with this person?
I talked with him once since that time. So, no.

3. Do you have a current close friend?
Again, a very hard question. I am still close to many of my college friends and have good number of work friends that I am close to. But Ed and my sister Julz are at the top of the close friend chart. Our close knit trio is more than family.

4. How did you become friends with this person?
My sister and Ed went to kindergarten together and they have known each other forever. Julie insisted that Ed and I become friends and since then, we have. It is good to have a weekend beer drinking buddy to go carousing with. We have a similar outrageous sense of humor and laugh at each other’s jokes and banter.

5. Is there a friend from your past that you wish you were still in contact with? Why?
I have lost contact with most of my Army buddies and would like to drop in on them and catch up. Because we were stationed in Germany, miles away from home, we had very close, deep friendships and I would like to bring them back into my life.

Friday Fives

1. What were your favorite childhood stories?
Cowboy Sam and his Airplane, a series of children’s chapter books where Sam and his Indian friend would fly around the American West and help people. I remember there being a strong conservation theme to the stories.

2. What books from your childhood would you like to share with [your] children?
Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are and McKloskey’s Make way for Ducklings – the images from these two books have stayed with me all my life. Second tier choices would be Encylopedia Brown, the young adult biography series and Curious George.

3. Have you re-read any of those childhood stories and been surprised by anything?
Where the Wild Things Are. What a funny, fabulous book. It has such an uplifting message about the power of imagination. “Let the wild rumpus start!” I appreciate this more now, as a supposed grownup then I did as a child. Max is inspired.

4. How old were you when you first learned to read?
We didn’t have the most progressive school system and heck it was the early 70s before a lot of education reform. I didn’t learn to read until the first grade, which is what, six years old? That is years behind in today’s world.

5. Do you remember the first ‘grown-up’ book you read? How old were you?
Dune by Frank Herbert. Probably seventh grade so I would say 12 years old, maybe. In the meantime, I read almost all of the encylcopedia and have always loved reading short stories. I read a few collections very early on as well as read some Reader’s Digest Condensed Books that my Grandmother collected, but I can’t remember the stories. I really think I just carried the books around to look important. I am sure I wasn’t allowed to read Harold Robbins as a fifth or sixth grader.

Friday Fives

A two-fer including last week’s.

Jun 20, 2003

1. Is your hair naturally curly, wavy, or straight? Long or short?
Curly and wavy

2. How has your hair changed over your lifetime?
I used to wear it all blow dried and discoey. I had it real short in the army years. My hairline won’t let it grow long.

3. How do your normally wear your hair?
A dab of hair wax and then slicked back with a part.

4. If you could change your hair this minute, what would it look like?
Cary Grant. Now that is a hairdo.

5. Ever had a hair disaster? What happened?
The year’s 1979 through 1982, also known as high school. I had to grapple with gels and blow dryers each morning and it didn’t go well.

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Jun 27, 2003

1. How are you planning to spend the summer?
Job hunting? Polka lessons? Maybe I will join the professional rodeo circuit?

2. What was your first summer job?
Washing windows door to door with a friend.

3. If you could go anywhere this summer, where would you go?
I have a hankering for Vegas, baby.

4. What was your worst vacation ever?
The first trip to Spain while in the army. A bus tour with a ton of US soldiers on a hot cheap ass beach and staying in a terrible hotel with four of us in one room. That was some very poor planning. The second time was much, much better. On the other hand, Spain is very cool, if you can get past the annoying disco and tech music that is always playing all the time, everywhere. That is where the champagne and the Spanish wine comes in.

5. What was your best vacation ever?
A childhood trip to Disneyland and California comes to mind, as does a trip to Durango. Once, our family spent a week at the Hilton (now the Adams Mark) in Denver and did the tourist thing and didn’t tell any family or friends in Denver we were even in town. It was cool. But the best vacation was another trip while in the Army. My roommate and I went to Geneva. We drove from Stuttgart and took only back roads. We told everyone we were Canadian and talked with bad English accents and just had a great three day weekend. It was what a great American road trip was supposed to be, although it was in Switzerland. Go figure.

Friday Fives

1. What’s one thing you’ve always wanted to do, but never have?
Travel much, much more and especially in Asia and East. Never been there and would love to go. I have a hankering for a vacation in Vietnam or something like that. I see the whole thing as a cross between Anthony Bordain and Calvin Trillin.
2. When someone asks your opinion about a new haircut/outfit/etc, are you always honest?
I guess it depends on who is asking. But with fashion I am fairly forgiving. With guys it is usually the truth and with women I play to the niceties. That’s right, I am always looking out for the ladies.
3. Have you ever found out something about a friend and then wished you hadn’t? What happened?
She was a good friend and a roommate and parts of a relationship she was secretly encouraging became known. The friendship dissolved and I haven’t even heard from her in several years.
4. If you could live in any fictional world (from a book/movie/game/etc.) which would it be and why?
Gatsby’s West Egg. Not the star, just one of the rich jet setters at the beach house for a weekend party.
5. What’s one talent/skill you don’t have but always wanted?
ESP. I want ESP. I think I would dig knowing what is going to happen before it happens. And I promise, I would NOT use the skill for good.

Friday Fives

1. How many times have you truly been in love?
Twice, if we are playing for realsies. And it hurts. All those stupid love songs on the radio are real and it is the reason why they have country music available for the masses.

2. What was/is so great about the person you love(d) the most?
Sense of humor, hot kissing, great eyes and absolute honesty. Hold on, I need to turn on some George Jones.

3. What qualities should a significant other have?
See above. No but seriously, the ability to honestly communicate, not just with your partner but also with yourself are the qualities that make a relationship work.

4. Have you ever broken someone’s heart?
I think so. I think so. > Insert more George Jones here.5. If there was one thing you could teach people about love, what would it be?
Wow, what a 60s hippie question. It was Tom Robbins I think (Maybe in Still Life, with Woodpecker, but it could be Jitterbug Perfume) anyway, he writes about love being like cigarettes, beats, vaginas and imortality a lot, but he once said “We waste time looking for the perfect lover, instead of creating the perfect love. ” That about sums it up.

Friday Fives

1. What do you most want to be remembered for?
Being a good, reliable guy who can always make you laugh.

2. What quotation best fits your outlook on life?
“There are many little details to life, and most them can be stored in a little drawer in the kitchen and forgotten. But don’t forget where you put them. You may want them later.”

3. What single achievement are you most proud of in the past year?
It sounds so unprecise, but honestly, just getting through these last couple of years (deaths in the family, lay offs and significant family changes) without major therapy is a major acccomplishment.

4. What about the past ten years?
Graduating college. I was the first one on either of my parents’ sides to earn a bachelor’s degree and I am pretty proud of that.

5. If you were asked to give a child a single piece of advice to guide them through life, what would you say?
Learn the value of money early on and learn the skills to managed it and invest it without being stingy and cheap.

Friday Fives

1. What brand of toothpaste do you use?
Crest. I’m a Crest kid, baby!

2. What brand of toilet paper do you prefer?
Quilted Northern – the softest you can buy.

3. What brand(s) of shoes do you wear?
Bass, usually, or what ever is on the discount rack and DSW.

4. What brand of soda do you drink?
Usually a Coke, but have been drinking less and less soda everyday. More of an ice tea person.

5. What brand of gum do you chew?
Wrigley Spearmint Ice – Wow, there is a lot going on there.

Friday Fives

1. What drinking water do you prefer — tap, bottle, purifier, etc.?
Generally filtered through the tap. I have used a Brita and a Pur water filter in the kitchen for a few years and they work and taste great. I don’t understand the concept of buying bottled water – especially out of the vending machine. It is a concept that confuses me.

2. What are your favourite flavor of chips?
Salt and vinegar and kettle fried so they are extra crispy. And as a splurge, Pringles. Not really chips but yummy.

3. Of all the things you can cook, what dish do you like the most?
I am a pretty damn good cook. My three favorites, since this is number three on the list – my homemade French bread kicks ass. I make a damn fine Green Chili for a gringo and a decadent Lasagne.

4. How do you have your eggs?
Basted, sunny side up.

5. Who was the last person who cooked you a meal? How did it turn out?
My sister. She grilled some chicken and made some homemade mac and cheese and green beans. A good ol’ fashioned home cooked meal. It was awesome.

Now, I am hungry.

via FridayFive.org

1. Would you consider yourself an organized person? Why or why not?
Not at all. I seem to have inherited my father’s clutter gene. He had a garage filled to the very top with useless gizmos. parts, tools and exotica all his life and it was scattered in a slapshod manner so that only he knew where anything was. And he could retrieve anything from the ominous pile in a matter of seconds. My life is much like that. Laundry doesn’t get folded, newspapers everywhere. CD’s aren’t stored in any real sense of order.
It works for me.

2. Do you keep some type of planner, organizer, calendar, etc. with you, and do you use it regularly?
I used to religiously carry around a Day Timer. I love those little books. Two pages a day set a side to write, scribble and remind. I dumped it recently for a PDA – a Handspring Visor with a collapsable keyboard. I find I am better organized with phone numbers, birthdays and appointments but I still miss the scribbling pad.

3. Would you say that your desk is organized right now?
At work, yes. A clean tidy monument. At home, no. My desk is in my bedroom which looks like a teenagers room.

4. Do you alphabetize CDs, books, and DVDs, or does it not matter?
I have my own method. I tend to sort more by artist/genre/mood then by some dictated alphabetical system. And the reason, I found, is that when stored alphabetically, you miss some CDs that never get listened to, that you seem to forget. So I tend to place those CDs with a similar genre (blues, jazz) together, or those of a particular mood (rocking out, car tunes or what have you) in the same area.

5. What’s the hardest thing you’ve ever had to organize?
When I was 14 our Boy Scout troop nearly fell apart. And I really wanted to be an Eagle Scout. And if the troop folded, I would have to join another troop hosted by the Mormon’s across town. I took up the reins, got some parents to all donate some time to keep the troop going and ran the meetings myself, organizing camping trips and summer camps and outings and insisting that my dad and his adhoc committee get folks together to support the endeavor. It turned out, but it was a lot of work.