May 01, 2005
They Kend Survey
I happened upon Weekend Survey 9 without ever having seen the previous eight. It has been a while since I've done one of these, but some of the questions caught my fancy so here we go. The questions were cut and pasted from the source, and some changes for context have been made, and show in italics.
1. What movies would you like to live in? (Note: This question was directly lifted from The Sheila Variations, where I found the survey. Link here is back to that original post.)
Amazingly, most of the respondents picked exciting movies to be in. I really don't want to live in a world where life is riskier and more difficult. I could do quite nicely without cab drivers who are really angels, zombies, and criminals who have to kill more people to get away with the one big score.
If I had to pick a fictional world to live in it would be one from text, specifically the world of Eric Flint's 1632. I could make something of myself in that world by applying my accumulation of knowledge and industrial computer scrap. That cast iron-framed band saw I dragged home from the old butcher shop would be worth a fortune.
2. Name one thing you do better than anybody else.
Outside of the specifically personal, which I hope we all have, my strength is as a generalist. Others outshine me in any one catagory, but there is nobody in the world who is better at GSM network engineer while not educated as an RF engineer, and better at conceptualizing oddball projects in both moder railroading and hot-rodding, to the point of working out required tools and fixtures, with the occasional hand-cranked racing tricycle or high resolution studio camera built around a scanner for variety, with a smattering of skills in metalworking and cooking thrown in.
3. What's your background?
I am in front of a wall in faded off white with a pea green stripe above where the dropped ceiling was, ornamented with a pair of taxidermied trophy fish on a piece of driftwood, said ornament having been found in an office park dumpster.
4. If your friends would be completely honest and tell you what they think about you, would you want to know?
G-wd, I hope it ain't any worse than what they tell me.
5. What's the last good book you read?
I find it necessary to combine two which I read together. After happening upon Temple Grandin's Animals in Translation it was immediately needful to also find Thinking in Pictures. Dr. Grandin is significantly autistic and designs specialized equipment which has one third of its total market in the US>
6. If you were a cartoon character, what would your name be, what would you look like, and what would you do?
Name: Joe Tomkalert
Appearance: Asperger's level geek - taped glasses and shuffle.
Duty: Wandering into a Simpson's-to-South Park range social situation and interrupt conversations with borderline non-sequitors.
7. Are you going to buy a copy of the survey creator's new book?
There is a writing sample in the post on either side of the survey post. If the stuff in the book is like the prose sample I would indeed.
8. Tell me one thing you are glad you finished.
Replacing the legs on the stupid little balcony on the smaller house.
9. Give me one piece of wisdom your mother told you.
Revolutionaries shouldn't spit on the sidewalk.
10. Name a few overrated blogs and a few underrated blogs.
I don't track ratings. I read stuff I like, however I find it, and I do return to blogs I disagree with.
Posted by triticale at May 1, 2005 11:23 PM