{"id":297,"date":"2005-02-03T11:23:18","date_gmt":"2005-02-03T16:23:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.net\/?p=297"},"modified":"2015-02-24T22:33:39","modified_gmt":"2015-02-24T22:33:39","slug":"62-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/?p=297","title":{"rendered":"On 62 Questions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Keith R.A. Decandido<\/a> posted a list of sixty-one biographical questions–numbered to sixty-two, skipping number eleven.<\/p>\n

I took a crack at answering them myself, and added a question, to bring the total number to sixty-two. Read away!
\n<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. First name?<\/b>
    Allyn.<\/li>\n
  2. Were you named after anyone?<\/b>
    Allyn Atworth Gardner, my great-grandfather. In 2003 I wrote about this     in more detail<\/a>.<\/li>\n
  3. Do you wish on stars?<\/b>
    No, I don’t wish on stars. What’s the point, really? I have consulted tarot cards and the I Ching<\/i> at various times, but that’s not wishing.<\/li>\n
  4. When did you last cry?<\/b>
    Christmas Eve<\/a>. I received a letter at work from one of the store’s young customers, and I was so touched by it that my eyes welled up, and I sat down in the backroom and cried some more.<\/li>\n
  5. Do you like your handwriting?<\/b>
    I’ve long forgotten how to write in cursive–the only thing I can render in cursive now is my signature. I print, and I like my printing. It’s bold, bouncy. It sometimes gets mistaken for a woman’s handwriting. It didn’t used to be that way–ten years ago my writing was very erratic. But I like it now.<\/li>\n
  6. What’s your favorite lunch meat?<\/b>
    Turkey.<\/li>\n
  7. What is your birth date?<\/b>
    24 June.<\/li>\n
  8. What is your most embarrassing CD?<\/b>
    A CD of Hobbit gangsta rap.<\/li>\n
  9. If you were another person, would you<\/i> be friends with you?<\/b>
    There are times in my life when I would have answered, “No,” and truly meant it. Today? I probably would.<\/li>\n
  10. Are you political?<\/b>
    I follow politics. I vote. I fall left of center on the political spectrum.<\/li>\n
  11. Are you a daredevil?<\/b>
    I have little call for it in my life today, but yes, I will do things just for the endorphin rush.<\/li>\n
  12. Do looks matter?<\/b>
    I think so.<\/li>\n
  13. How do you release anger?<\/b>
    I break things. I throw things.<\/li>\n
  14. Where is your second home?<\/b>
    I don’t have one.<\/li>\n
  15. Do you trust others easily?<\/b>
    Trust is earned, not given. That’s something I hold to because of work, and I find it applies through life. Ronald Reagan said famously, “Trust, but verify,” and though I don’t hold much with Reagan, I can endorse his sentiment.<\/li>\n
  16. What was your favorite toy as a child?<\/b>
    Broke Blanket. It was a blanket I owned that I wore out, and it had a giant hole in it. Hence, “broke blanket.” Or, there was the book on the history of the Maryland-Pennsylvania Railroad that ran between Baltimore and York–I couldn’t read it, but I loved to sleep with it and wore it out.<\/li>\n
  17. Which class in high school do you think was totally stupid?<\/b>
    World Cultures, the tenth grade social studies class in West Virginia. It was a mix of world history and world geography, but with no focus on anything. Geography and history had both been touched upon in junior high school, so I couldn’t see what made World Cultures different enough to justify them again<\/i>.<\/li>\n
  18. Do you have a journal?<\/b>
    No.<\/li>\n
  19. Do you use sarcasm a lot?<\/b>
    Yes, to the point where my staff cannot tell at times if I’m serious or not.<\/li>\n
  20. What are your nicknames?<\/b>
    I despise nicknames. I get upset with people who call me anything other than “Allyn.”<\/li>\n
  21. Would you bungee jump?<\/b>
    I would. See the question on daredevils.<\/li>\n
  22. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off?<\/b>
    No, I don’t untie my shoes. I just pull them off. Neither do I untie them when I put them on. I just jam my foot in.<\/li>\n
  23. Do you think that you are strong?<\/b>
    Physically, I can hold my own. Emotionally, I have my up days and my down days.<\/li>\n
  24. What is your favorite ice cream flavor?<\/b>
    Mint chocolate chip.<\/li>\n
  25. Shoe size?<\/b>
    10 1\/2.<\/li>\n
  26. Red or pink?<\/b>
    Red.<\/li>\n
  27. What is your least favorite thing about yourself?<\/b>
    Sometimes I get lost in myself to the point where I tune out the people and things around me. Sometimes I do that a lot.<\/li>\n
  28. Who do you miss most?<\/b>
    As much as I would like to say some of my friends from college, I can’t. I miss them, but I miss some of my friends from high school more, though to quote Martin Blank from Grosse Point Blank<\/i>, “I don’t know what I have in common with those people anymore.” Still, it’s Shelly I miss the most.<\/li>\n
  29. Do you want everyone to whom you send this to send it back?<\/b>
    It doesn’t matter.<\/li>\n
  30. What color pants and shoes are you wearing?<\/b>
    I’m wearing olive shorts and no shoes.<\/li>\n
  31. What are you listening to right now?<\/b>
    “The Connection,” on NPR. They’re discussing the President’s State of the Union address from last night.<\/li>\n
  32. Last thing you ate?<\/b>
    A handful of Hershey’s Kisses.<\/li>\n
  33. If you were a crayon, what color would you be?<\/b>
    Silver. I don’t know why.<\/li>\n
  34. What is the weather like right now?<\/b>
    Rain, chaning over to snow later in the afternoon.<\/li>\n
  35. Last person you talked to on the phone?<\/b>
    A customer at the store last night.<\/li>\n
  36. The first thing you notice about the opposite sex?<\/b>
    Eyes.<\/li>\n
  37. Do you like the person who sent this to you?<\/b>
    Abso-smurf-ly.<\/li>\n
  38. What is your ethnicity?<\/b>
    Scotch-English.<\/li>\n
  39. Favorite drink?<\/b>
    Iced tea.<\/li>\n
  40. Favorite sport?<\/b>
    Baseball.<\/li>\n
  41. Hair color?<\/b>
    Black, and going grey at the temples.<\/li>\n
  42. Eye color?<\/b>
    My eyes change color from day to day. Today, they’re green.<\/li>\n
  43. Do you wear contacts?<\/b>
    No.<\/li>\n
  44. Are you single?<\/b>
    Yes.<\/li>\n
  45. Favorite food?<\/b>
    I would love to have a really good hot dog right about now.<\/li>\n
  46. Last movie you watched?<\/b>
    Young Sherlock Holmes<\/i>, Monday night.<\/li>\n
  47. Favorite day of the year?<\/b>
    Opening day of the baseball season.<\/li>\n
  48. Scary movies or happy endings?<\/b>
    Scary movies.<\/li>\n
  49. Summer or winter?<\/b>
    Summer. Though I miss snow….<\/li>\n
  50. Hugs or kisses?<\/b>
    Hugs. I’m a tactile person.<\/li>\n
  51. Do you have any favorite rants and, if so, what are they?<\/b>
    I do. The     Star Trek<\/i> canon rant<\/a> comes quickly to mind.<\/li>\n
  52. What is your favorite dessert?<\/b>
    Cheesecake.<\/li>\n
  53. Who is most likely to respond?<\/b>
    I really have no idea.<\/li>\n
  54. Who is most likely not to respond?<\/b>
    See the previous question.<\/li>\n
  55. What books are you reading?<\/b>
    I just finished Peter Tremayne’s Absolution by Murder<\/i>. I recently finished Nick Hornby’s The Polysyllabic Spree<\/i>. I’ve also been working on G.W.F. Hegel’s The Philosophy of History<\/i> and Edgar Vincent’s Nelson: Love & Fame<\/i>.<\/li>\n
  56. What’s on your mouse pad?<\/b>
    I don’t have a mousepad because I use a trackball.<\/li>\n
  57. What did you watch last night on TV?<\/b>
    I didn’t. The last thing I watched was House<\/i> on Tuesday. Before that, Arrested Development<\/i> on Sunday. I don’t turn the television on every day.<\/li>\n
  58. Favorite smells?<\/b>
    Baking cookies. Especially if they have chocolate chips in them.<\/li>\n
  59. Favorite sounds?<\/b>
    The purring of a happy cat.<\/li>\n
  60. Rolling Stones or Beatles?<\/b>
    The Beatles<\/a>, by a long stretch. I could count the number of Beatles albums I have–it’s well over fifty, counting solo albums by the former Beatles–but I have a single Rolling Stones album, 40 Licks<\/i>. I do<\/i> like the Stones, but I don’t go back to them, don’t ponder them, the way I do the Beatles.<\/li>\n
  61. What’s the farthest you’ve been from home?<\/b>
    Las Vegas.<\/li>\n
  62. Do you have a special talent?<\/b>
    Voice impressions. Particular favorites–John Hurt and Kermit the Frog. Why anyone<\/i> would want to do an impression of John Hurt I couldn’t tell you, but I<\/i> can.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    My, that was fun, wasn’t it? \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

    Now to fix some coffee….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Keith R.A. Decandido posted a list of sixty-one biographical questions–numbered to sixty-two, skipping number eleven. I took a crack at answering them myself, and added a question, to bring the total number to sixty-two. Read away!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[4107,4136],"class_list":["post-297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-memes","tag-memes","tag-random","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}