Ask me a question.

Yes, this is a sly attempt at determining if anyone actually stays to read what I put here. Indulge me.

Update: Questions and answers will be shown in the extended entry, once I get to them.

7-November-2004, more answers, such as they are.

CT asks-

From reading your archives, you indicate that 3500 years is your approximate age. Since you are not entirely sure what your exact age is, it follows that you are not sure of your exact birthday either. I was curious if you had chosen a day of the year to celebrate as your birthday. Or have decided that at this point it doesn’t matter?

I have no inkling of my specific birth date, this is true, but as I have generally dwelt amongst people for most of my life it has been necessary to choose a date from time to time. I chose the Vernal Equinox (on or around the twenty-first of March). It seems fitting.

Mr. E asked-

Please wax eloquent on your taste in music.

OK, so it isn’t technically a question, but it is a request.

To be rather blunt, my taste in music runs toward the primitive. I enjoy a strong beat and a simple tune. Classical music never caught my fancy, with the exception of Bach. Bach instills in me the feeling that I could be standing in the presence of the Almighty himself.

Generally speaking I am neither fan nor critic of popular music. A good deal of modern music leaves me unmoved, but the dance music from the edgier clubs suits me. If I can dance to it, I like it. Blues and Jazz are genres that require the proper mood or I simply find them irritating. All the assorted iterations of Rock and Roll generally fit in that same category, though I will admit the first time I heard Buddy Holly’s That’ll Be The Day it sent thrills up and down my spine.

Music performed a capella generally catches my attention, as do most live performances. As I reflect upon it now, I do believe live music of any type suits my tastes far more than recordings. Recorded music, though certainly a profound boon to mankind, feels somehow pale and thin to me- my tastes were formed in a more primitive and personal arena. I enjoy being part of the crowd at concerts, one of the few places where I actually feel at ease surrounded by strangers. This likely accounts for my fondness for swing bands from the 30’s and 40’s- I experienced so many of them live that the music can transport me back to those dance halls and clubs. In the latter half of the 20th century I was much more likely to encounter new music in recordings so the personal connection never formed.

Reduced to the simplest terms, I suppose for me music is all about “being there”.

Joe Huffman asked-

Why not check your logs to see if anyone reads your site?

Logs tell me somebody visited. They do not tell me if they read anything. I use a very simple counter and logging system. Those who created this site for me tell me I have something called “awstats” installed, but I am at a loss to discern what that means, or how to use it.

Malcolm asks-

What adventures or experiences would you like to have that you’ve been unable to do. This inability might be due to a lack of opportunity through timing or economics, or a lack of human technical expertise.

That is a rather difficult question to answer. I read somewhere recently that adventure consists of somebody you do not know having an extraordinarily difficult time of things in some place far away. I have had more than a mortal’s share of adversity, terror and pain in my life- I see no benefit to deliberately seeking out more.

That being said, I believe I would like to leave this planet some day. I was devastated when the Americans turned their back on manned space exploration, though I did and still do expect that to be a temporary situation. You really have no choice- to stay here is to embrace extinction and the genetic gods that rule you would not countenance such a thing.

I believe I would like to explore shipwrecks; however, my intense discomfort with being at sea renders that nothing more than a dream. I have never visited China or Southeast Asia, but those are mere circumstance- I could should I choose to.

Terry asks-

Have you published any of your writing? Why do you have a blog? What is your motivation?

I have never been published.

As to why I have this journal, I am not entirely certain myself. I wish to share my experiences and the journal allows me to do so in a safe and anonymous way. I am also curious as to the reactions I might encounter should people come to know of me. In this setting those who happen by are free to read in to this anything they desire. There is no threat, no danger.

I thought to abandon this last year. I am not certain why I chose to return.

Etherian asked-

In 3,500 years you’ve met many remarkable people and you’ve shared the stories of some of them with us. I would like to know if you’ve ever come across someone “famous” and what your impression was of that person when first you met them.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, popularly known as Mark Twain, is the only figure of note I have encountered that you are likely to have heard of. It was at a reception in New York, shortly after his return to the United States in 1900. I was in the company of a gentleman friend who had membership in the club hosting Mr. Clemens and even had an opportunity to exchange a dozen words with him. He was charming; yet irascible- modern depictions fail to fully encompass the depth of his humanity or the boundlessness of his ego. He could have been a terribly irritating man but for his many gifts.

Kingslasher asked-

How bright was the Crab Nebula when that star went supernova? Could you see it in the daytime? Taurus must have looked funny for years…

The Supernova of 1054 CE. When visible at night it lit the landscape as would the full moon, and could periodically be seen in daylight for several days at a stretch as a bright spot upon the sky. The reaction to it was unpleasant, first and foremost due to the belief such signs in the heavens were ill omens, second because the Church actively persecuted those who would spend their time gazing upon the stars rather than attending their devotions and duties to their betters. For instance, I was once whipped for dallying to admire the night sky.

An interesting side-note: I only looked up that event some three decades ago. Prior to that I had no understanding of the concept of supernovae.

Etherian appears again to ask-

If you don’t mind, I have a second question, a silly one for you. *coughs* What’s in your purse?

At this moment: a wallet, 2 lipsticks (Est?e Lauder, Honeybun and Copperfire), car keys, one house fob, a Palm Pilot, a 9MM automatic (the H&K compact model), two spare magazines, a small roll of duct tape, 10 large zip-ties, 2 cell phones, a passport, an antique compact, 2 rolls of $20 bills totaling $800.00, 2 pens, a 2-shot pepper spray pen, and a checkbook.

This particular bag was custom made with a holster for the pistol.

Anibubba asked-

Do you think evil manifests itself into real people? If evil exists, do angels exist too?

The short answer on both counts is no. I believe there are evil people, and I believe evil is contagious. I have used the term “evil” in this journal in such a way as to imply I might believe in some cohesive, malignant force; however, it is my experience that the evil Man perpetrates is of his own making, finding its roots in extreme narcissism and what today is often referred to as sociopathy.

I do not believe I have ever encountered an angel.

Daniel e-mailed to ask-

It’s common in the US (I don’t know about elsewhere) to tell a child to “Think!” when s/he is misbehaving. I have always thought this is an inexcusably vague admonition. If a child is being too self-centered (as, of course, children and many adults naturally are) I would rather tell them so. My question was mainly about the admonition to think without telling the child _what_ to think _about_.

There has been a great debate regarding the proper rearing and education of children going back some several thousands of years so I am not eager to pronounce upon the issue. Given that, it is incumbent on parents to properly raise and educate their children so as to integrate them in to society. At times such a responsibility has meant enforcing orthodoxy of moral, critical and philosophical outlook with respect to the world beyond the sphere of the family. At other times the emphasis has been upon forming the ability to think, to reason based upon what one knows all the while recognizing there are factors outside one’s knowledge that might impact one’s reasoning should they present themselves to be known.

The truth of the real world is that the very crucial task of shaping young minds has always been a mixture of these two goals: social conformity and informed critique. With that in mind it is best in my view to both admonish the child to think (encouraging critical processes) and to guide them regarding what to think about (socializing). The first is an attempt to take what (in young children) is mostly an emotional response and channel it in to a learning experience; the second is centered about efforts to help the child place their behavior in to a social context. Together they are an attempt to build a sense of self grounded both in rationality and empathy. Which side of that equation is given more weight is dependent upon the parents’ own upbringing and the extant social realities they face.

Somehow, I doubt you found this very helpful.

Charles offers an observation from Baghdad, Iraq, followed by a question-

But this will require a separate post to address.

Posted on October 31st, 2004 by Zsallia
Filed under: Miscellany