questions

Asking your friends a question every day

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An illustration of a question mark appearing from a wizard's hat. Generated by Bing AI Image Generator

A couple of years ago, I asked my Facebook friends a question – what animal do you think our child wants as a pet? And as an incentive, whoever guessed correctly could nominate a charity to receive a £5 donation. The post got around 60 comments before the correct answer – a parrot – was guessed, and the £5 went to the Bradford Metropolitan Food Bank.

We didn’t buy our child a parrot as a pet – they’re expensive to buy and insure, and can out-live their humans – but it gave me an idea.

So for the whole of 2022, I asked a new, unique question to my Facebook friends. I wrote most of these in an Excel spreadsheet over the course of Christmas 2021, and then added to it over the year. Questions were usually posted in the morning, and all got at least one comment – but some many more.

I have around 300 friends on Facebook and so I tried to come up with questions that were inclusive, or hypothetical, so as not to exclude people. For example, not all my friends drive, so asking lots of questions about cars would exclude people. I also wanted to avoid any questions that could be triggering for people, so most were framed around positive experiences.

I suppose I was taking a leaf out of Richard Herring’s book – I suppose literally because he has published several Emergency Questions books – but it’s something I enjoyed doing. It also meant that I found out some more facts about my friends and got to know some of them better. It also reminded me of the really early days of blogging with writing prompts like the Friday Five.

This year, I’ve asked the same questions, but included my answers in the posts, as I didn’t usually get a chance to answer my own questions in 2022. This has also required some re-ordering of questions, as some related to events like Easter which were on different days this year.

And for 2024? Well, I’m slowly working on some brand new questions, although I’m only up to March so far. And I keep thinking of great ideas for questions, only to find that I’ve already asked them before.

Maybe I’ll publish them as a page on here someday.

A Monday Meme

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It’s been a few weeks since I last did one of these. This is one that Dave2 posted to Facebook some time ago.

  1. Who are you named after? No-one in particular, although I share a middle name with my maternal grandfather.
  2. Last time you cried? Properly? Not for a while, although I did get overly emotional at this advert.
  3. Do you like your handwriting? It’s okay. It can look quite neat when I take the time, but when I’m rushing to write things down quickly, it can be almost unreadable. Even by me. This can be a problem when you’re the one taking minutes at a meeting.
  4. What is your favourite lunch meat? Salami. Although I also like a nice piece of cured ham.
  5. Longest relationship? Christine and I have been together almost eight years now. Previous record was just show of three and a half with Hari.
  6. Do you still have your tonsils? Yes.
  7. Would you bungee jump? Yes, but I haven’t done it yet.
  8. Favourite kind of cereal? Kellogg’s Krave, or a generic equivalent. I tend to have Cheerios or Shreddies though, or a supermarket own brand.
  9. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off? Yes.
  10. Favourite ice cream? Ben & Jerry’s Half Baked. Although being lactose intolerant, I have to limit myself.
  11. What is the first thing you notice about a person? The space that person takes up, both in terms of physical and attitude.
  12. Football or baseball? Not really interested in either as I’m not a sporty person, but I’m somewhat less ignorant about football (soccer) than baseball.
  13. What colour pants are you wearing? My trousers are brown. But since I’m British and this asks me about my pants: my underwear is blue and green stripes. Ladies.
  14. Last thing you ate? Kinder Shoko-Bons – a colleague brought them back from Germany.
  15. What are you listening to? This week’s Spotify Release Radar playlist. In particular, a remix of Smalltown Boy by Bronski Beat.
  16. If you were a crayon, what colour would you be? Purple.
  17. What is your favourite smell? Sausages and burgers cooking on a barbecue.
  18. Who was the last person you talked to on the phone? An overseas organisation that we’re working with at work. If we’re talking non work-related, then that would be my wife.
  19. Married? Yes.
  20. Hair colour? Dark brown.
  21. Eye colour? Blue.
  22. Favourite foods to eat? Pizza, burgers, chips, Nando’s, steak, seafood.
  23. Scary movies or happy endings? I’m not a fan of scary films.
  24. Last movie you watched? Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2. I am Groot.
  25. What colour shirt are you wearing? Black.
  26. Favourite holiday? I really enjoyed Barbados in 2000, and Paris in 2013.
  27. Beer or Wine? Depends on the occasion, but I tend to prefer wine.
  28. Night owl or early bird? Neither; takes me a while to get going in the mornings and I’m tired on an evening. I’m more of a permanently exhausted pigeon.
  29. Favourite day of the week? Saturday.
  30. Favourite Season? Summer, although I also enjoy the run-up to Christmas.
  31. Favourite Hobby? Photography.
  32. Favourite Book? The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams. (sponsored link)
  33. Favourite Sound? The whooping noise of a GTO thyristor on trains (Jubilee Line and some London and Birmingham commuter trains)
  34. Any regrets? Quite a few, but I don’t like to dwell on them. You can’t change the past.

End of Year Quiz 2006

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In what is now an annual event, it’s about time I did the ‘End Of Year Quiz’. Read my answers from 2005, 2004 and 2003, or read on for this year’s answers.

1.What did you do in 2006 that you’d never done before?

Drive a car. Under instruction of course, I’m still learning.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

Last year’s resolutions were:

  1. Don’t binge drink. Yep, managed it. My overall alcohol consumption this year has been down overall, or at least much more spread out (so a glass of wine a few times a week rather than waiting until Friday to get totally sloshed off my face).
  2. Eat more healthily. A step back… I think my diet was worse this year than last year. Definitely going to do something about it this year.
  3. Do more work. Yep, still need to do that.
  4. Do more exercise. Some improvement again, but I’m not exactly in tip-top shape fitness-wise so more work to be done.

For 2007, I think I’ll carry on with 2,3 and 4 since binge drinking really doesn’t appeal to me anymore, and add ‘Keep my room tidy’ since that’s something I’ve really fallen back on this year.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

My cousin’s wife gave birth earlier this year – here’s a picture of the little bundle of joy from last week.

4. Did anyone close to you die?

Not exactly, but I ended up consoling someone who lost a close relative.

5. What countries did you visit?

Stayed firmly in England right the way through the year. I’ve neither had the time or the money, and Hari hasn’t had the money or passport.

6. What would you like to have in 2007 that you lacked in 2006?

A car, a proper job, and a house with just me and Hari in it. We’re looking at renting together this summer, hopefully.

7. What date(s) from 2006 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

Introducing Hari to almost everyone in my extended family, the beach party (again), visiting Haworth and getting stuck in the Lake District because of the snow.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Staying with Hari for a whole year.

9. What was your biggest failure?

Having to resit a lot of my exams.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

Again, lots of colds. No physical injuries thankfully.

11. What was the best thing you bought?

My MacBook. This is the third year in a row that something made by Apple has featured here.

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?

Hari, for sticking with me, and my friends for being cool.

13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?

I’ll let Mr Bush off this year because he hasn’t done anything much to make me hate him more, but Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, stays there, as does the Israeli government for invading Lebanon.

14. Where did most of your money go?

Once again, Apple Computer took a sizeable chunk of my cash, as did BSM for my driving lessons and the university for my tuition fees. I didn’t spend so much at the pub though.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

Hari, the beach party and going to Cadbury World, thus revealing my inner 5 year old again.

16. What song will always remind you of 2006?

“Monster” by The Automatic.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:

  • happier or sadder? Probably happier.
  • thinner or fatter? About the same.
  • richer or poorer? Quite a bit poorer 🙁

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?

Work on my dissertation…

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?

Playing World of Warcraft. Though I’ve only played it a bit these past two weeks.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?

Um, I spent it at home with my parents, and went to see the rest of my family.

21. Who deleted question 21?

The Penguin of Death.

22. Did you fall in love in 2006?

Was already in love. Thankfully I didn’t fall out if it.

23. How many one-night stands?

None.

24. What was your favourite TV programme?

Doctor Who wins again, as does Family Guy. I haven’t been watching much TV this year, to be honest.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

No, not really.

26. What was the best book you read?

Me? Read a book? Nevah!

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?

Yellowcard. Okay so most people probably discovered them about 3-4 years ago, but never mind.

28. What did you want and get?

My MacBook.

29. What did you want and not get?

I’m still waiting for that pony…

30. What was your favorite film of this year?

I actually enjoyed The Holiday even though some gave it lousy reviews. I also got to see Narnia which was thoroughly enjoyable.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

I was 22 – we went out for dinner and had a few drinks.

32.What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

Not having to study so much.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2005?

Same as usual.

34. What kept you sane?

Hari and my friends.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

Kirsten Dunst still.

36. What political issue stirred you the most?

I really haven’t been all that involved in politics this year, or at least not anything on a national scale.

37. Who did you miss?

A friend of mine from university who moved away to a new job when she finished her course.

38. Who was the best new person you met?

Didn’t really meet that many new people this year so no-one sticks out.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2006.

Playing Solitaire does not boost your academic performance.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

That’s quite hard because to be honest this year hasn’t been hugely interesting – no big events or major crises. Unless anyone knows a song about life being normal, not particularly eventful and neither really great nor really bad.