draliman on life

Here is my post for Melanie’s Share Your World.

Do dogs ‘talk’ (communicate) with their own species?
Presumably. Who else are they going to talk to properly? I expect different dog species have a bit of trouble communicating, though. And dogs from different countries woof in different languages,

Have you ever had to work on Christmas Day?
No, no more than just a few bits I’ve had to check on and off, but done from home.

If someone gifts you something that you immediately loathe, do you pretend to really like it anyway or are you brutally honest about your opinion?
I would pretend to like it. No need to be nasty.

Which popular drink, found during the Christmas season most often, is called “milk punch?”
I imagine it would be eggnog, which sounds a bit gross to be honest.

How many ghosts show up during “A Christmas Carol?”
I immediately thought “three”, of course, but then I Googled it to see and there were in fact four – I had forgotten about his old business partner, Jacob Marley!

Are you all about the holly and jolly or more about remembering the alleged ‘true’ meaning of Christmas?
I’m more about the ‘true’ meaning of Christmas.

Presents.

Please share a memory or thought about the holiday season if you’d like, whatever kind of celebration you may observe.
Christmas always used to be about Gran coming down to visit from Scotland for a couple of weeks. We had things we always used to do, like going to a little place nearby and buying satsumas. She’s been gone a good while now, twenty years I think.

Here is my post for Melanie’s Share Your World.

Do you enjoy receiving Christmas cards through snail mail?
Yes, it’s nice to get stuff like that through the post. I don’t get much stuff through the post any more since so much stuff is online. At least that means no bills through the post anyway!

Do you like the taste and/or smell of peppermint?
To a certain extent. Not if it’s too strong.

What is your least favourite holiday side dish?
We only have “side dishes” at restaurants and I don’t eat out at Christmas. If we’re talking “my least favourite thing to put on my plate”, then carrots. I’m not keen on carrots.

What is the coolest (best) gift you ever gave someone?
I can’t think of anything. I’m not great with gifts.

Bonus question because I thought it was nifty: What is a Christmas song that makes you cringe?
l’m with Dawn on this one – “Last Christmas” by “Wham!”. It’s overplayed and annoying. And it’s not really a Christmas song either. It’s about unrequited love and just happens to mention Christmas. It could as easily have been set at Easter.

Here is my post for Melanie’s Share Your World. This week’s logo features special guest star Santa!

What is truth?
Wow, straight in with the deep philosophy.

Truth is something said or written which agrees with the actual facts. On top of that, everyone has their own truth. And then there’s that “history is written by the winners” thing. If everyone believes something happened, then it happened, whether it actually happened or not.

Or are we retrospectively causing something to have happened through belief, creating our own truth and bending reality to our will?

It’s too early for this sort of thing 🙂

What’s one thing people would never know about you just by looking at you?
Lots of things! And they’re secrets. So there 🙂

Do loud noises bother you?
Yes, they do. There for I am unable to perform tasks such as vacuuming and cutting the grass.

I know. It’s a tragedy.

If you were guaranteed the correct answer to just one question, what would you ask?
“Mortal, you may know the correct answer to one question. What would you ask of me?”

“What, just one question?”

“Yes, just one question. You have your answer.”

“Wait, what? No! That wasn’t my question! Aw, shit.”

Here is my post for Melanie’s Share Your World. And here’s the new logo. I have saved it as “share-psychedelic”.

What’s your remedy for the Holiday blues?
I don’t really get them. I get January blues. Because January is rubbish.

Your favourite beverage (if it differs) during the holiday season? If it doesn’t differ, just answer the ‘what’s your favourite beverage” part.
I just keep drinking my cloudy fizzy lemonade and diet Coke.

This one has been asked before, but what’s your take on pumpkin spice?
What’s pumpkin spice? Spice with crushed dried pumpkins? Sounds a bit dodgy to me.

Is there is a person or god connected with your holiday?
No. It’s about going round visiting my family and having a big Christmas dinner 🙂

Who are they and do you believe in them?
If you do not believe in these people or gods, does the celebration/honouring of that being, bother you in any way (e.g., ignored, dismissed, angry, etc.)?
Yep, I believe in my family. They’re not made up or anything. People can believe in/honour whatever they like as long as they don’t try to shove it down my throat.

Share a song that you enjoy during this Winter season (whether it’s Christmas, Hanukkah, The Winter Solstice, Kwanzaa and so forth).
It’s the classics for me. “Fairytale of New York (Pogues/Kirsty MacColl), “Merry Christmas Everybody” (Slade), “Stop the Cavalry” (Jona Lewie)… though having one Christmas line in a song about the second world war – “I wish I was at home for Christmas” – doesn’t really make it a Christmas song any more than setting a slaughter-fest at a Christmas party makes “Die Hard” a Christmas movie…

Here is my post for Melanie’s Share Your World.

What did you have for dinner last night?
It was Saturday evening so I had sausages, baked beans and fried egg with a couple of slices of bread and butter. I usually have something like that on a Saturday while I watch a film. Yesterday I watched “White House Down” again.

Would you rather go out on a Saturday night or stay in?
I would rather stay in. If I really had to go out, Friday and Saturday would be the days I’d least like to do it as they’re more likely to be busy out.

How are you, truthfully?
One day I’d love to answer that question properly when asked in the morning at work. It’s standard in the morning – “how are you?”, “how was your weekend?” etc etc. Imagine their surprise if you actually launched into an actual full and truthful answer rather than saying the standard “fine thanks, you?” Heh heh.

What’s the best topping/ice cream combination? If you don’t eat ice cream, what’s your favourite combination dessert?
I quite like vanilla ice cream by itself. It’s nice with strawberry topping too. I also like chocolate ice cream, fruity ice cream, mint choc chip ice cream… I’ll just say “I like ice cream”, I think.

Share Your Gratitude with a thought (quote), a picture or a short paragraph.
I’m grateful I forgot it was Black Friday pretty much all day so I didn’t feel tempted to spend any money on “cheap” crap I don’t need.

Amazon had Black “Friday” all week. It’s a bit like Christmas. The longer the build-up, the less special and exciting the actual day is, to the point where I just forget about it.

Here is my post for Melanie’s Share Your World.

Can we ever experience anything objectively? Why or why not?
Definitely. I object to a bunch of stuff.

Only kidding. I would say no. Even when we try, subconsciously our preconceived ideas will always unintentionally add bias. As we recently learned, even AIs can be biased.

Do humans have a soul? Do animals have a soul?
That depends on your idea of a “soul”. Is it a sense of self, an ability for empathy, a life force? If so, “yes” to both. Though there have been some humans throughout history who didn’t seem to have one.

Why are people told to respect the dead?
Because they can’t respond to any insults, I suppose. Though there are some people I don’t respect regardless of whether they’re dead or not.

Without using the names of specific people, discuss “the ideal” President or other world leader.
Can there be an “ideal” world leader? In order to make things work, more and more compromises need to be made. I’m sure most politicians would admit to themselves that many of their lofty ideals fell by the wayside as they proceeded through their careers.

I guess the main thing is to make sure they’re in it for the people, and they leave their ego at the door. Because their entire reason for existing is now to serve.

Here’s my post for Melanie’s Share Your World.

Is copying and pasting images or information off the Internet plagiarism? Do you credit those whose work you ‘borrow freely’ or do you think the idea is repugnant?
If you credit the work you’ve taken, it’s just theft rather than plagiarism (which involves passing the work off as your own). I only grab stuff off the internet when I’m pretty sure it’s very general. There are exceptions in (UK) copyright law (teaching, parody, review, quotation etc) which would cover a good deal of stuff.

I think it’s pretty low if you actually pretend something’s your own work, but I think the word “repugnant” is going a bit far!

Do you let sleeping dogs lie?
I certainly don’t. Lying is wrong, even if you’re asleep. And a dog. Tell the truth, people 🙂

What’s the strangest pet name (for adults) that you’ve ever heard someone called?
Nope, I’ve only ever heard the standards.

Do you like to dance? If yes, what’s your favourite and if no, why not?
Not at all, in any way or at any time whatsoever. And I’m sure the people around me would also rather I didn’t dance.

Here is my post for Melanie’s Share Your World.

What is the meaning of true love?
That’s a tricky question, so I’m going to repeat what a good friend of mine has to say about it. So I’ll hand you over to Ga’M’Chek, who hails from a small planet in what we call Orion’s Belt:

CHa meG’na gA m’reep, nee ganCa n’shi-do.

I think that says it all, don’t you?

Do acts of kindness have a motive?
Usually, I would say. Even if it’s just to feel better about oneself.

If we live in a civilised world why do we see so many distinctions between rich and poor?
“Civilised” is just a set of rules on how to behave, I reckon, nothing to do with making sure everyone has enough money. Besides, if there were no poor people there’d be no rich people either, and the rich people probably wouldn’t like that.

Do we love ourselves more in the virtual world than in the real world?
Some people do, I’m sure. Some people only seem to exist in the virtual world.

Here is my post for Melanie’s Share Your World.

Where’s the line between respectful disagreement and being downright mean (bullying) to someone?
They’re completely different things. The first is when two people simply disagree on something, the second is a targeted and sustained attack, usually for no particular reason.

Would you prefer to live in a world where alcohol was free or where politicians were honest?
Free alcohol sounds like chaos to me. A bit of honesty in politicians would be nice, as long as they can lie when required… “no, that wasn’t our nuclear submarine that just snuck past your main harbour…”

What’s one habit you have that your family or friends think is rather childish?
You’d have to ask them. Playing computer games, maybe?

Would you rather go to a big party and rub shoulders with the rich and famous or go to an amazing quiet garden that hardly anyone has ever visited?
Rub shoulders with the rich and famous? I can’t think of anything worse. I’ll take the garden, please!

What do you think of the idea of “trick or treat or money for a charity” as a way of making Halloween more useful?
I pretty much forgot about Halloween this year, to be honest. I did get one visitor and fortunately had some sweets in. There’s no way we could police the charity thing. And getting all the tiny tots a charity collection licence would be a real pain…

Here is my post for Melanie’s Share Your World.

Had any good conversations with yourself lately? Did you listen to yourself? And how’d that work out for you?
I always have conversations with myself. And I always listen. If I’m not going to listen to myself (for better or worse), who am I going to listen to?

What is gravity and how does it work?
Gravity is a big sucking thing. At the centre of the Earth there’s a huge gravity wave generator, or “vacuum cleaner” to the layman, which constantly spins round and round sucking stuff down. We can only hope the bag never gets full or everyone will float off into space!

What is more real – Mind or Matter?
Is either real? Is this just a dream? Are you all figments of my imagination, or am I a figment of yours?

Dum dum dummmmm.

Should a vegetarian (or vegan) eat animal crackers?
I know this is a fun question, and just for fun I looked up the ingredients of “original” animal crackers. And I found this rather terrifying statement:

“Are animal crackers vegan? While Nabisco’s recipe is free of animal ingredients, Cole & Stewart’s sociological analysis would suggest that consuming animal crackers is ritualistically anti-vegan, as it socializes speciesist sentiments and human supremacy in children.”

Bloody hell. They’re only biscuits. I didn’t realise they were turning the world’s children into supremacist monsters.

What other popular foodstuffs are corrupting the minds of our children? Let me know in the comments!

Name (describe) something you wouldn’t want to run into in a dark and deserted wood or alley.
You’ve been avoiding him for months. Avoiding all the usual places. Then one day you forget. You get careless. You take a shortcut home. In a flash of lightning you see him. Darkness returns. Was he really there? Did you imagine him? Lightning flares again. He’s closer.

Much closer.

He opens his mouth, salivating in anticipation. He speaks.

“You thought you could avoid me? None can avoid me.”

He is the End. The Omega. The nightmare become real.

He is the Tax Collector.