draliman on life

It’s time for another Share Your World, hosted by Cee!

What do you do to make a living or during the day if you are retired.  If you are a student what are you studying?
I work in IT for a small internet-based company. I write code, review other people’s code, help other people write code, test code, put code live, look after servers, look after databases, provide support…

Have you ever participated in a distance walking, swimming, running, or biking event? Tell your story.
No. Doing so would place unnecessary strain on our National Health Service :-).

What is usually your first thought when you wake up?
Weekend/Public Holiday/Annual Leave: “Yay! Let’s get this day started! Oh, the possibilities!”

Work day: “Ugh. Morning already? Ugh. How can it be morning already? I only just went to bed. Ugh.”

Complete this sentence: Look out behind you, it’s a…
…monkey.

How great would that be? Monkeys are cool. They even have a cute name. Monkey. Hee hee :-).

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

If you could have three wishes granted for you alone, what would they be?
Ah, for me alone. Finally a “wishes” question where I can be selfish and not wish for world peace and the desire to open a donkey sanctuary.

I wish for the power to bend the universe to my will bwahahaha. I don’t need the other two wishes, since I can now do anything I want with the first one.

What is the most incredible natural venue that you’ve ever seen in person?
I’ve seen so many great places, it’s hard to choose. I don’t know that they would classify as “incredible”, rather “beautiful”. I’ll go for St. Nectan’s glen, since I have some pictures handy. Obviously the little cairns and tree decorations were put there by humans, but the glen itself is natural.

Now, the definition of venue is “the scene or setting in which something takes place”. So let’s make this a “venue” by imagining that in days gone by, pagan ceremonies were conducted here. Probably witches dancing around naked :-).

Is your hair short (total neck and ear showing), medium (covering ears and neck), long (below shoulders) or extra long (at least halfway down your back)?
Short. I tell the barber “8 on top, 4 on the back and sides” (that’s 8th’s of an inch I think). I have it cut every 4-5 weeks so it stays pretty short.

List some of your favourite blogs.
Ooh, I can’t do that! I’d hate to miss any out. I follow a lot of people who write for Friday Fictioneers and Mondays Finish the Story, plus a number of other blogs. I’m sure you’ll see my little gravatar around the place!

Here’s my regular Share Your World post, hosted as ever by Cee over at her newly redesigned blog, Cee’s Photography. Thanks for hosting, Cee!

If you were a pen, what type, style and colour would you be?
A pen? Hmm. I’ve imagined being a multi-billionaire, a top footie player, an international playboy, but never a pen. Black ink. Nothing too fancy. But with some sort of clicker mechanism on the end. Having my head dragged across paper all day would be bad enough without someone constantly chewing on my ass.

How many languages do you you speak?
That depends on what’s meant by “speak”, from a “fluent” point of view.

UK English, obviously. Most American English words and spellings (thanks US TV!) and some Australian English slang. French (enough to get by in restaurants and the like) and German (enough for simple conversations).

Do computer languages count? ASP.NET, VB.NET, C#, ASP, VBScript, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, JQuery, T-SQL, PowerShell.

Are you a listener or talker?
Definitely a listener, especially around people I don’t know. I need to get a sense of people before saying too much so that I can slip into the conversation unnoticed.

Rather Have:  Which would you rather have, 2 million dollars or true love? 
Is this true love that will remain that way, or the true love which quickly fades into tolerance (he asked cynically)? I think maybe the cold hard cash in my pocket would be the way to go here.

I’m about to take the plunge and click the “upgrade to Windows 10” button! So if I go quiet for a little while, it’s because I’ve screwed my laptop. Yay :-). Wish me luck…

Here is my post for Cee’s Share Your World for this week.

What made you feel good this week?
Nothing in particular, really. Life just trundles along. Everything is nicely stable on the contentment scale. I did visit St. Michael’s Mount. I’ll do another post with pictures, but here’s a little taster.

For potlucks or parties do you cook it yourself, buy from a grocery store, or pay for catering?
I don’t really go to potlucks or parties, but I would certainly buy something from a shop. Pay for catering? That sounds a bit too high class for any sort of party I would be invited to. And me cooking would likely lead to some sort of unfortunate mass poisoning incident :-(.

What is your favourite part of the town/city you live in.  And what Country do you live in?
I live in England. I guess my favourite part of my village is my house. There isn’t a lot more here. The shop, the village hall and so on.

Complete this sentence:  My favourite place in the whole world…
… is anywhere with lovely scenery. Ireland, Scotland, Cornwall, Wales, anywhere I’ve been and seen lovely places.

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Week 34 already. Where has the year gone?

Thanks as always to Cee for hosting this challenge, on top of all the photography challenges she hosts as well!

Was school easy or difficult for you? How so?
Yes. Both. The work was okay, I usually got good marks. But the whole school thing. Yuck!

Who was it who said school is “the happiest days of your life”? Or did that saying just pop up out of nowhere? It’s a big fat lie, anyway.

As an adult, with bills and responsibilities and all the rest, at least you’re in control of the big mess you’re making of it :-).

What is your favourite animal?
To have as a pet, it would be a cat. As for animals in general, I like cute. Koala Bears are cute. Even if they’re lying about being bears.

Here’s a picture of a raccoon I bought from Goldfish’s online store. Goldfish can make anything look cute in her pictures.

How cute is that?

If you had to have your vision corrected would you rather: glasses or contacts?
I’ve worn glasses since I was around 10, and have to wear them all the time.

I did spend a few years wearing contacts while I was at university. However, back then due to my astigmatism I couldn’t have soft lenses, I had to have “semi-hard gas permeable”. They were pretty uncomfortable, and I had a real problem falling asleep in lectures back then. You don’t want to fall asleep with contacts in. Nasty.

List:  Name at least five television shows (past or present) you enjoyed?
Oh boy. I could go on forever. I guess I’ll just name some that I’m enjoying at the moment, or have enjoyed recently (which doesn’t necessarily make it recent!).

• The Good Wife
• Dr Who (obviously)
• Grimm
• Stargate SG1/Atlantis
• Blake’s 7
• Red Dwarf
• Blackadder
• From Dusk Till Dawn (the Netflix spin-off) – darker and more gory than the film – series 2 out now!
• Bones
• Lost Girl
• Grey’s Anatomy (anything medical actually – ER, Casualty, Holby City…)

Here is my Share Your World, hosted as always by Cee at her wonderful photography blog.

What are some words that just make you smile?
“Asshat” and “douche-canoe” (not technically actual words). Thanks, Merby! Kerfuffle (according to Chrome, also not actually a word). Evidently, words which are not words make me smile :-).

You’re given $500,000 dollars tax free (any currency), what do you spend it on?
Me! Mortgage and miscellaneous debts. Pay off my car. Then save for my retirement. I might even buy friends and family a present. Like a chocolate bar or something. If I’m feeling particularly generous I might even buy them a bottle of wine! One bottle between them.

What subject would you like to study in depth, if given the time to do so?
I don’t fancy the idea of studying anything to be honest. Maybe the Jedi path. As long as the study pack comes with a light sabre so I can decapitate muggers.

Would your rather be stuck in a small plane with bad turbulence for 2 hours or be a passenger in a car racing the Daytona 500?
No.

It’s Share Your World time, and we’re at week 32 already! Soon be Christmas…

Thanks as always to Cee for hosting and posing the questions.

Are you a collector of anything?
I collect neuroses, fears and anxieties of all sorts. I’ve got loads! I’m hoping they’ll be worth something one day.

What is your biggest fear or phobia? (no photos please)
No photos? Boo. Which to choose? New places, new things, change, spiders and creepy-crawlies (obviously). Fear of fear (phobophobia). Sometimes I don’t want to do something because I know it’s going to make me fearful and I don’t like that feeling. It’s like, “fear squared” or something.

Do you prefer reading coffee table books (picture), biographies, fiction, non-fiction, educational?
Fiction for sure. The only non-fiction I read is the news. Reading for me is escape. I don’t want to hear about someone else’s life or whatever.

Blog reading is a bit different, mind, as I feel I “know” my bloggy friends to some extent and I am interested to see what they’re up to. I see that more as keeping in touch with friends.

Complete this sentence:  If I Must Be Reincarnated, In the Next Life I Want to Be…
… me again! Because I’m me, there’s no point trying to be anyone else. I’d just end up being me again.

Here is my Sharing of my World courtesy of Cee at her photography blog.

Would you rather take pictures or be in pictures?
Take pictures, for sure. Sometimes someone will get a shot of me – to avoid a picture at a Christmas party when I’m sitting at the table is tricky, but I usually manage to look the other way or turn around just before the flash goes off.

It’s not like I believe the picture’s going to steal my soul or anything! But it might be going to steal my soul though :-(.

Where do you like to vacation?
Usually at home. There are so many lovely places to go and see. I occasionally go away. Well, very occasionally. It’s more fun going away on holiday with someone else.

If you had to describe your day as a traffic sign, what would it be?

Uneven road ahead!

List at least five favourite first names.

• Chad and Brad, obviously 🙂
• Tarquin heh heh
• Samantha
• Stephanie
• Charlotte
• Scarlett

Okay, I don’t really have favourite “names”. I see a girl I like, then like the name by proxy :-).

Here is my Share Your World for this week, courtesy of Cee.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Either a train driver, a secret agent or a football (i.e. soccer) player. Sadly I was totally rubbish at football (though the teachers at school were nice enough to let me hand out the half-time juice). Life got in the way of my train-driving aspirations! Secret agent was never really an option.

What was your favourite food as a child? Do you eat it now?
Chocolate. Yes! But not nearly as much. If I start eating chocolate I get addicted, so it’s only for special occasions.

If you were invisible, where would you go?
Ooh, the possibilities. Heh heh 🙂

It would be cool to sneak into some of these government meetings to see what actually goes on.

Would you rather forget everyone else’s name all the time or have everyone forget your name all the time?
I already forget everyone else’s name. I’m really rubbish with names. They take a while to sink in and get etched into my brain. Then I’ll go to talk to someone I’ve known for months and their name will be gone. Gone I say!

That comes across as rude so I’d rather it was the other way round.

It’s time for my Share Your World post, with questions posed as ever by Cee.

What is your favourite comfort snack food?
That would have to be chocolate, I guess! Ice cream works too. I don’t know that I’d call it comfort food, exactly. Sometimes my body just says, “hey, give me sugar, dude!”.

If you had to spend one weekend alone in a single store but could remove nothing, which store would you pick? (except food or beverage)
I guess a shop with video games and such. I’m sure that would keep me busy for a couple of days!

What was the largest city you have been to? What is the one thing you remember most?
London. I remember getting lost in Harrod’s, which is also the largest shop I’ve ever been to! I also remember how much I hate the underground (=subway). Too cramped, too many people all pushing and shoving.

Finish this sentence:  It has recently come to my attention that…
… my back garden is getting out of control. I guess that’s my job for this morning.