Complex Numbers

50 questions

Ran across this website:

http://www.marcandangel.com/2009/07/13/50-questions-that-will-free-your-mind/

50 Questions That Will Free Your Mind

These questions have no right or wrong answers.

Because sometimes asking the right questions is the answer.

It's probably best if you go ahead and click on that link and look at the questions, before I do what I do.

Go ahead - click. I'll wait. I'll just watch a video while you're looking.

Ready?

Okay.

1. How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are?

21. Because I never did learn how to be 21. Or 19 for that matter, but at 21 I can drink.

2. Which is worse, failing or never trying?

Failing, of course. But I wouldn't know; I've never tried.

3. If life is so short, why do we do so many things we don’t like and like so many things we don’t do?

Money.

4. When it’s all said and done, will you have said more than you’ve done?

Depends. Does blogging count as saying or doing? I'll put it in the doing column so it'll be longer.

5. What is the one thing you’d most like to change about the world?

The part where I'm not in charge.

6. If happiness was the national currency, what kind of work would make you rich?

Beer.

7. Are you doing what you believe in, or are you settling for what you are doing?

Making money is never settling.

8. If the average human life span was 40 years, how would you live your life differently?

Chances are, I'd be dead.

9. To what degree have you actually controlled the course your life has taken?

Ha!

10. Are you more worried about doing things right, or doing the right things?

Both.

11. You’re having lunch with three people you respect and admire. They all start criticizing a close friend of yours, not knowing she is your friend. The criticism is distasteful and unjustified. What do you do?

Depends. Is she cute?

12. If you could offer a newborn child only one piece of advice, what would it be?

GO BACK! GO BACK NOW WHILE THERE'S STILL TIME!

13. Would you break the law to save a loved one?

Misdemeanor, yeah. Felony, no.

14. Have you ever seen insanity where you later saw creativity?

I see insanity all the time.

15. What’s something you know you do differently than most people?

Putting my pants on. See, I heard a long time ago "He puts his pants on one leg at a time, like the rest of us." So I developed the simultaneous-leg pants-donning technique.

16. How come the things that make you happy don’t make everyone happy?

Because they're a bunch of idiots.

17. What one thing have you not done that you really want to do? What’s holding you back?

Gotten rich. Money.

18. Are you holding onto something you need to let go of?

Oops, okay, sorry; I'll type with both hands now.

19. If you had to move to a state or country besides the one you currently live in, where would you move and why?

You mean like if Palin gets elected President? Belize. Or maybe Russia. There'd be more freedom in Russia, but it'd be colder.

20. Do you push the elevator button more than once? Do you really believe it makes the elevator faster?

Yes; no, but it makes me feel better, like when I yell at the idiot in front of me on the road.

21. Would you rather be a worried genius or a joyful simpleton?

I dunno. I've always been the former. Seeing my father deteriorate into the latter, I'd say "worried genius" any day of the week.

22. Why are you, you?

Because I'm not you.

23. Have you been the kind of friend you want as a friend?

I don't know what I want as a friend so, no.

24. Which is worse, when a good friend moves away, or losing touch with a good friend who lives right near you?

The latter. Internet; duh.

25. What are you most grateful for?

Donuts.

26. Would you rather lose all of your old memories, or never be able to make new ones?

The former. It'd be like when you die in a video game and you can go back to your last saved game.

27. Is is possible to know the truth without challenging it first?

What?

28. Has your greatest fear ever come true?

No, I haven't been attacked by clowns wearing Hello Kitty earmuffs while Britney Spears sings and Sarah Palin is President in my sleep. Yet.

29. Do you remember that time 5 years ago when you were extremely upset? Does it really matter now?

Seems it does, actually. It pretty much destroyed my life. Oh, wait, I'm supposed to be funny. Sorry.

30. What is your happiest childhood memory? What makes it so special?

I don't know how to answer this one.

31. At what time in your recent past have you felt most passionate and alive?

Springsteen concert.

32. If not now, then when?

Look, bastard, don't go quoting the Talmud at me.

33. If you haven’t achieved it yet, what do you have to lose?

Everything.

34. Have you ever been with someone, said nothing, and walked away feeling like you just had the best conversation ever?

Um... no? Am I supposed to? What the hell?

35. Why do religions that support love cause so many wars?

Do you really want me to answer this? REALLY? Okay... it's because it is impossible to be moral and worship a god at the same time. Gods are necessarily divisive; at a minimum, religion divides the human race into people who believe in a particular religion, and people who don't. Or people who believe in it in the wrong way. And the only way to avoid war is to recognize that every other person in the world, regardless of race, creed, age, sexuality, or anything, is just as deserving of life as you are. You don't get that from religion. Religion doesn't teach morality; it perverts it. There, I finally said it. Okay, that's not funny either, but that's been festering inside me for a long time.

36. Is it possible to know, without a doubt, what is good and what is evil?

It is not possible to know anything without a doubt.

37. If you just won a million dollars, would you quit your job?

If I didn't OWN my job, yes, in a heartbeat.

38. Would you rather have less work to do, or more work you actually enjoy doing?

What's the difference?

39. Do you feel like you’ve lived this day a hundred times before?

What, stuck at home with three feet of snow on the ground, an empty house, and nothing to do but write and waste time on the internet? Sure, every freaking day.

40. When was the last time you marched into the dark with only the soft glow of an idea you strongly believed in?

What the hell? Is that a metaphor? Don't talk to me in metaphors. If you're going to make metaphors, write a goddamn poem.

41. If you knew that everyone you know was going to die tomorrow, who would you visit today?

My shrink.

42. Would you be willing to reduce your life expectancy by 10 years to become extremely attractive or famous?

Attractive? Sure. Then I'd be able to fit in an extra 10 years' experience. Famous? No.

43. What is the difference between being alive and truly living?

Sex.

44. When is it time to stop calculating risk and rewards, and just go ahead and do what you know is right?

If you know it's right, don't calculate. If you don't know if it's right, do the calculation. Jeeze, ask me a hard one.

45. If we learn from our mistakes, why are we always so afraid to make a mistake?

See "Logical Fallacies"

46. What would you do differently if you knew nobody would judge you?

Something involving leather, I'm sure.

47. When was the last time you noticed the sound of your own breathing?

The last time I had a goddamn COLD. Which was, lemme see... YESTERDAY.

48. What do you love? Have any of your recent actions openly expressed this love?

...

49. In 5 years from now, will you remember what you did yesterday? What about the day before that? Or the day before that?

No, because I have a horrible memory for day to day shit.

50. Decisions are being made right now. The question is: Are you making them for yourself, or are you letting others make them for you?

I've made the decision to not use the passive voice if I can at all avoid it.

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So there you go. Things I do when I'm terminally bored.