End of November Memage
Nov. 29th, 2024 05:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatIt was a frustrating morning, followed by a day of gray clouds threatening rain but not quite accomplishing it? Which was fine - I had to pick up a few odds and ends from the store anyhow. I'm ignoring Black Friday, which becomes increasingly pointless as the years roll by anyhow? I mean we live in a capitalistic consumer driven society propelled by sales on a daily basis. And often pushing us all to buy things we do not need. The biggest sales were laptops, tvs, and anything regarding Taylor Swift.
I rewarded myself with pumpkin pie, and a book - I finished September House, which after plodding along for about a hundred or so pages, finally picked up and ended at a gallop.
Without further ado, memage:
22. Have you ever handmade decorations for your home for a seasonal holiday/celebration?
Not recently, but yes - I did it as a child. We made our own Christmas Tree ornaments. Needlepoint. And my mother also decorated huge sugar cookies shaped as Christmas ornaments, which she wrapped in plastic, tied with a bow and hung on the tree. We'd each get a cookie for each day the tree was up. We decorated it on Christmas Eve and took it down shortly after New Years.
I've not done it since. I'm not crafty. I draw, paint, take photos, and can do ceramics. But sewing, needlepoint, etc - isn't my thing. I don't like needle work. Me and needles are unmxy things. I keep trying and keep being reminded that no, this is not my thing. (I'm kind of stubborn and dense, in that it takes a long time for me to give up on something. I call it pit-bull mentality.)
23. In 2013 the 50th anniversary special episode "The Day of the Doctor" - the first episode to feature the 12th Doctor, Peter Capaldi. Who is your favourite Doctor (if you have one)?
Ten aka David Tennant. I'm also partial to the present one, and like Nine quite a bit (mainly because I liked that actor - he was so unconventional for the role). I feel like I already answered this question in a previous post??
24. Do you bother to track your steps every day with your phone or a wearable fitness tracker?
I have a smart watch - also the phone does it. Neither are highly reliable. I mean the watch counts tapping my foot while sitting as taking steps.
My brother made fun of it - and said he'd walked faster and further than his wife, but according to their phones she'd taken more steps on a hike they'd done together.
25. Have you ever tried to learn a new language with Duolingo (or a similar app)? How did you get on?
Yes. I tried. I got nowhere, except incredibly bored. I honestly think the only way you can learn a language is if you are immersed in it. I was talking to a guy from Serbia, former Yugoslavia, which he told me no longer exists, and he explained that learning English here was easy - US is a big country and we all get the same shows and movies. It's not so hard here. (He was the cable repair man. Nice guy. Even if he couldn't really repair it - the problem is located in a cable box outside the building. They need to come and repair it separately.)
26. Robert Goulet was born on this day in 1933. He sang “You’ve Got a friend in Me” in Toy Story. Have you seen all the Toy Story movies?
Really? Robert Goulet sang that? I looked it up, he did. Wheezy's Version was sung by Robert Goulet.
Anyhow, yes, I've seen all the Toy Story movies. I like animation. So I tend to watch a lot of it. And the Toy Story movies are satiric fun. Most I've seen on television. I think I only saw the first two in the movie theater.
27. Are there songs that remind you of times in your life? Care to share the title of one and why?
Yes.
* I couldn't listen to the Bob Dylan song "Don't Think Twice" for years, because of an ex-boyfriend who sang it at coffee house as a kind of slam break up song. Soured me on Dylan. Finally heard the Joan Baez version, which is great (Dylan wrote it and sang it about Baez, and her remastering of it is wonderful.) Joan Baez's Don't Think Twice It's Alright
* Joni Mitchell's Both Sides Now.
* Janis Ian's "Seventeen" - High School, listened to that one constantly. Then years later got to see Ian perform it in person and got to tell her in person how much I loved that song.
* Peter Paul and Mary's Puff the Magic Dragon - heard it a lot as a child.
* A lot of folk songs such as Barbara Allen, Mockingbird - childhood
* Rush's Tom Sawyer - reminds me of my final year of Junior High, when I spent the night with a bunch of friends, we toured an amusement park, and listened to Rush most of the night, and sang this song together.
* Peter Gabriel's Biko - I saw him live in London in 1987, and we got up and waved lights when he sang this. Kate Bush then joined him. His songs were on a mixed tape that my brother made for me - when I was in college. I took the tape with me to London for a summer theater institute, and we played it while traveling around Britain for a week off between classes.
The other song that sticks with me from that mixed tape is Pink Floyd's Albatross/Echoes. I also saw Pink Floyd live at Denver Stadium in 1988.
I lived in a Folklore Theme House in College, and was friends with a lot of musicians who played acoustic guitar, wrote and sang their own songs and others songs. So a lot of their songs stick with me? As do the songs they sang. This could be a lengthy post. I also tried to teach myself acoustic guitar and wrote songs myself in high school and college, and had piano lessons as a child. And was in choirs, and a musical - only to discover I cannot hold a tune to save my life. But music has always been a part of my life. So this could be an insanely lengthy post, if I named all the songs that have influenced me.
28. It’s Thanksgiving Day in the US – what are you thankful for (even if you don’t celebrate today)?
That was yesterday. I'm thankful for a nice apartment, with heat, and not overly heated today (amazing considering how cold it is outside), Wales (friend), gluten-free pumpkin pie, kindness of strangers, rain, sunshine, mother, my family, magnetic photo frames (they have those now), music, books, the ability to draw and paint and tell stories and write....
29. In 1893 Women voted for the first time in a national general election in New Zealand. Do you use your vote?
Yes. I voted in the recent election. My father had a saying, if you don't vote - you get the president you deserve and you aren't allowed to complain about it.
30 Have you ever participated in a ‘Secret Santa’ (either at work or with your friends/family)?
Yes. I do not like Secret Santa. It works better if you know the person and what to get them. People always end up getting things they can't use or don't want.
I rewarded myself with pumpkin pie, and a book - I finished September House, which after plodding along for about a hundred or so pages, finally picked up and ended at a gallop.
Without further ado, memage:
22. Have you ever handmade decorations for your home for a seasonal holiday/celebration?
Not recently, but yes - I did it as a child. We made our own Christmas Tree ornaments. Needlepoint. And my mother also decorated huge sugar cookies shaped as Christmas ornaments, which she wrapped in plastic, tied with a bow and hung on the tree. We'd each get a cookie for each day the tree was up. We decorated it on Christmas Eve and took it down shortly after New Years.
I've not done it since. I'm not crafty. I draw, paint, take photos, and can do ceramics. But sewing, needlepoint, etc - isn't my thing. I don't like needle work. Me and needles are unmxy things. I keep trying and keep being reminded that no, this is not my thing. (I'm kind of stubborn and dense, in that it takes a long time for me to give up on something. I call it pit-bull mentality.)
23. In 2013 the 50th anniversary special episode "The Day of the Doctor" - the first episode to feature the 12th Doctor, Peter Capaldi. Who is your favourite Doctor (if you have one)?
Ten aka David Tennant. I'm also partial to the present one, and like Nine quite a bit (mainly because I liked that actor - he was so unconventional for the role). I feel like I already answered this question in a previous post??
24. Do you bother to track your steps every day with your phone or a wearable fitness tracker?
I have a smart watch - also the phone does it. Neither are highly reliable. I mean the watch counts tapping my foot while sitting as taking steps.
My brother made fun of it - and said he'd walked faster and further than his wife, but according to their phones she'd taken more steps on a hike they'd done together.
25. Have you ever tried to learn a new language with Duolingo (or a similar app)? How did you get on?
Yes. I tried. I got nowhere, except incredibly bored. I honestly think the only way you can learn a language is if you are immersed in it. I was talking to a guy from Serbia, former Yugoslavia, which he told me no longer exists, and he explained that learning English here was easy - US is a big country and we all get the same shows and movies. It's not so hard here. (He was the cable repair man. Nice guy. Even if he couldn't really repair it - the problem is located in a cable box outside the building. They need to come and repair it separately.)
26. Robert Goulet was born on this day in 1933. He sang “You’ve Got a friend in Me” in Toy Story. Have you seen all the Toy Story movies?
Really? Robert Goulet sang that? I looked it up, he did. Wheezy's Version was sung by Robert Goulet.
Anyhow, yes, I've seen all the Toy Story movies. I like animation. So I tend to watch a lot of it. And the Toy Story movies are satiric fun. Most I've seen on television. I think I only saw the first two in the movie theater.
27. Are there songs that remind you of times in your life? Care to share the title of one and why?
Yes.
* I couldn't listen to the Bob Dylan song "Don't Think Twice" for years, because of an ex-boyfriend who sang it at coffee house as a kind of slam break up song. Soured me on Dylan. Finally heard the Joan Baez version, which is great (Dylan wrote it and sang it about Baez, and her remastering of it is wonderful.) Joan Baez's Don't Think Twice It's Alright
* Joni Mitchell's Both Sides Now.
* Janis Ian's "Seventeen" - High School, listened to that one constantly. Then years later got to see Ian perform it in person and got to tell her in person how much I loved that song.
* Peter Paul and Mary's Puff the Magic Dragon - heard it a lot as a child.
* A lot of folk songs such as Barbara Allen, Mockingbird - childhood
* Rush's Tom Sawyer - reminds me of my final year of Junior High, when I spent the night with a bunch of friends, we toured an amusement park, and listened to Rush most of the night, and sang this song together.
* Peter Gabriel's Biko - I saw him live in London in 1987, and we got up and waved lights when he sang this. Kate Bush then joined him. His songs were on a mixed tape that my brother made for me - when I was in college. I took the tape with me to London for a summer theater institute, and we played it while traveling around Britain for a week off between classes.
The other song that sticks with me from that mixed tape is Pink Floyd's Albatross/Echoes. I also saw Pink Floyd live at Denver Stadium in 1988.
I lived in a Folklore Theme House in College, and was friends with a lot of musicians who played acoustic guitar, wrote and sang their own songs and others songs. So a lot of their songs stick with me? As do the songs they sang. This could be a lengthy post. I also tried to teach myself acoustic guitar and wrote songs myself in high school and college, and had piano lessons as a child. And was in choirs, and a musical - only to discover I cannot hold a tune to save my life. But music has always been a part of my life. So this could be an insanely lengthy post, if I named all the songs that have influenced me.
28. It’s Thanksgiving Day in the US – what are you thankful for (even if you don’t celebrate today)?
That was yesterday. I'm thankful for a nice apartment, with heat, and not overly heated today (amazing considering how cold it is outside), Wales (friend), gluten-free pumpkin pie, kindness of strangers, rain, sunshine, mother, my family, magnetic photo frames (they have those now), music, books, the ability to draw and paint and tell stories and write....
29. In 1893 Women voted for the first time in a national general election in New Zealand. Do you use your vote?
Yes. I voted in the recent election. My father had a saying, if you don't vote - you get the president you deserve and you aren't allowed to complain about it.
30 Have you ever participated in a ‘Secret Santa’ (either at work or with your friends/family)?
Yes. I do not like Secret Santa. It works better if you know the person and what to get them. People always end up getting things they can't use or don't want.