BunkBlog

From the AltFriday5:

1. What’s in your medicine cabinet? Toothpaste, pepto

2. What’s in your wallet? A tiny amount of cash, ATM card, Driver’s license, 3×5 cards

3. What’s in your bag/briefcase/backpack/purse? The only bag I have is my gear bag, which I only take on trips, so it’s got a video camera, spare batteries, spare tape, digital camera, and epi-pen for the boy.

4. What’s in your glove box? Maintenance records, insurance card, auto documents

5. What’s in your imagination? Can’t wait for work to be over, weekend to start, Kat to arrive, Boy to carve clay at the Chicken Farm, party on Sunday…yeah, active imagination today.

1. What was the first CD/Record/Album/Artist you ever bought and what format was it in? (Vinyl/Cassette/CD/MP3 Download)? Heck if I remember. I’m thinking it was something on a cassette but otherwise…it’s been far too long.
2. How do you usually listen to music? (iPod/Walkman/Stereo/Radio) Generally on my Sandisk Sansa MP3 player. I listened to the radio when there was a station that didn’t suck.
3. What is your favorite genre of music and why? The non-country genre. Heck, check out my music archive – I’ve got all sorts of stuff in there. I just ripped my old Ministry and Sinead O’Connor CDs this weekend. Good luck finding a pattern there.
4. What is your opinion on music video shows and music televion? I miss them.
5. Do you usually agree with who the winners of the Grammy Awards are? I usually don’t care.

From the altfriday5:

1. How well do you understand your country*’s electoral system? Give us a quick summary of how it works. Diebold makes machines to count all the votes they can. The votes get counted in secret, via processes no citizen is allowed to know. Whichever corporation bought the most votes chooses the next President.
2. What, if anything, do you not like about your country’s electoral system? If you were in charge of reforming it, what would you change? The opacity.

3. What, if anything, do you like about your country’s electoral system?? Even small states get some vote. There is no legal way to keep anyone (non-felon, etc) from running for office.

4. Some countries use fixed dates for elections , and some allow them to be called as needed, within certain limits. Which do you think is the better system? Why? Fixed dates are what I’m used to, so the other system seems more chaotic to me.

5. Some countries use proportional representation and some use majoritarian (or some combination thereof). Which do you think is the better system? Why? I’d prefer a proportional system, as it requires more compromise and coalition-building, instead of just saying the 51% rule and the 49% shut up and color.

*Where “your country” = the one that you can vote in, or will be able to vote in when you are of age

The Questioner says: Don’t forget your links!

1. Name one of your flaws. I’m a gigantic smartass.
2. Have you ever won first place?  In 7th grade, I won first place for the science fair (Tesla coil and Jacob’s Ladder) and also for an art contest (some elephant sketch).
3. Who is the last person to make you smile?  Probably one of the ladies at work.
4. Describe a time when you should have tried harder.  High school.  Specifically, the “getting into college” period.
5. What are you good at?  Folding paper, building computers, animated GIFs, sex, cooking, baking.  A few things, all of them indoors.  Huh.

From the altfriday5:

1. Which languages do you know? How did you learn them (e.g. natively, from classes, by immersion)? English – native; Korean – school and immersion; Spanish – school but lost most of it.

2. Which language would you most like to learn? Why? Swahili – duh?

3. Have you visited any places where you did not know the predominent language? If so, which ones? Was it hard to manage? Mexico – my Spanish blows. Fortunately, I’ve only gone to tourist spots so the English of the locals was good enough.

4. Which language do you most enjoy hearing, seeing, or expressing? Why? Spanish, it sounds very musical at times.

5. Which languages, other than the one(s) you know, are you exposed to your daily life? Arabic, Russian, Farsi.

The semi-return of the Friday Five.

1. How far do you currently live from the place where you were born?
About 5000 miles.

2. How many times have you moved in your life?
18

3. What was the shortest move, in terms of distance? The longest?
Shortest was probably moving from the apartment to the house in Sierra Vista. We just cut through a parking lot and drove half a block. Easy. The longest was moving from Korea back to Texas – almost 7000 miles.

4. Have you ever moved for school? Love? Work?
Sure.

5. Did your family ever move when you were a child? How did that make you feel? (either moving or not moving)
Where do you think the first ten moves came from? Didn’t particularly like moving, especially the “new kid” syndrome at school.

The friday five seems to have no particular theme besides vanity this week.

1. What does it say in the signature line of your emails? It’s randomly generated from a huge file of various tag lines, but always includes my web address.
2. Did you have a senior quote in your high school yearbook? What was it? I’m not sure, but if I did it was probably If you choose not to decide you still have made a choice. Geddy Lee is cool.
3. If you had vanity plates on your car, what would they read? No idea, maybe BLIP or GEEK.
4. Have you recieved any engraved gifts? What did the inscription say? The only ones I can think of came from my students, and they were variations of “So long and thanks for the fish.”
5. What would you like your epitaph to be? He is not here, he does not sleep.

The Friday Five for this week is all about shopping.

1. Do you like to shop? Why or why not? I like to buy. Shopping is just the time-wasting done by people who don’t know what they want.
2. What was the last thing you purchased? Christmas presents. They’re top secret
3. Do you prefer shopping online or at an actual store? Why? Online – no lines and everything is in stock.
4. Did you get an allowance as a child? How much? Yep, but I don’t remember how much. That was a while back.
5. What was the last thing you regret purchasing? I can’t recall. I avoid regret.

The Friday Five is all about Back to School.

1. Are you going to school this year? Yep.
2. If yes, where are you going (high school, college, etc)? If no, when did you graduate? I graduated High School in 1988, but I’m a junior in college now. Sad, eh?
3. What are/were your favorite school subjects? Math, sciences.
4. What are/were your least favorite subjects? Anything liberal arts. This semester, I’m thinking “ethics” is gonna suck ass.
5. Have you ever had a favorite teacher? Why was he/she a favorite? There was a teacher in high school that let me get away with murder, so that was cool. But, my favorite would have been Mr. H (long German name escapes me) from 7th and 8th grade. He’s my favorite because he gave me high-energy electrical things to play with. How many 13 year olds get to build a Jacob’s Ladder?

the friday five

# When was the last time you laughed? A few minutes ago – Alex is a nut.
# Who was the last person you had an argument with? no comment
# Who was the last person you emailed? Hmmm… probably Angie
# When was the last time you bathed? This morning.
# What was the last thing you ate? Honey BBQ rib tips from Applebee’s…yummy…

the friday five

# What’s the last place you traveled to, outside your own home state/country? Since I really don’t have a home state, I’ll have to say Nogales Mexico last June or July.
# What’s the most bizarre/unusual thing that’s ever happened to you while traveling? Snow storm in New Mexico desert.
# If you could take off to anywhere, money and time being no object, where would you go? Cadiz, Spain – followed by the rest of Europe as desired.
# Do you prefer traveling by plane, train or car? Gonna have to say plane if First Class or Business Class, otherwise car.
# What’s the next place on your list to visit? Um, Fredericksburg? Otherwise, a Cali trip in 2005 for Disneyland’s 50th Birthday.

# What time do you wake up on weekday mornings? 5:30
# Do you sleep in on the weekends? How late? If the boy lets me, maybe 8:00.
# Aside from waking up, what is the first thing you do in the morning? Pee.
# How long does it take to get ready for your day? About 15 minutes.
# When possible, what is your favorite place to go for breakfast? IHOP rules.

The return of The Friday Five, after a long bout of lameness…

1. If your life were a movie, what would the title be? I’m Not Old, Dammit!
2. What songs would be on the soundtrack? A lot of 80s schlock and modern techno-esque stuff
3. Would it be a live-action film or animated? Why? Live-action, because I’m not a cartoon
4. Casting: Who would play you, members of your family, friends, etc? I’m gonna have to go with Keanu Reeves, just because I can’t imagine a less expressive actor and it amuses me. Family? Friends? Don’t make me think too hard.
5. Describe the movie preview/trailer. Lots of hyperactive colors, cut-scenes of speeding cars and random flashes of military bases and three-legged dogs.

the friday five

1. How are you planning to spend the summer? Much as I’ve spent every summer since I graduated high school 15 years ago – working.
2. What was your first summer job? Same as my first non-summer job.
3. If you could go anywhere this summer, where would you go? Spanish Morocco.
4. What was your worst vacation ever? Can’t think of a truly bad vacation, but maybe I’m not enough of a pessimist.
5. What was your best vacation ever? I’d have to say a week in Rosarito and San Felipe is toward the top of the list.

The Friday Five was less lame this week…

1. What do you want to be remembered for? Humor and joy.
2. What quotation best fits your outlook on life? If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.
3. What single achievement are you most proud of in the past year? The first full-system certification of a SIGINT platform for interoperability. Sad, isn’t it?
4. What about the past ten years? Toughie…The course rewrite for the 98GKP course, I guess. Nothing else jumps out at me.
5. If you were asked to give a child a single piece of advice to guide them through life, what would it be? Think hard about your decisions, and don’t look back.

I was going to post the Friday Five, but it was just too lame for words this week. Off to San Antonio this weekend.

the friday five

1. Would you consider yourself an organized person? Why or why not? I think I am, but others contest it. I am picky about where things go, for those items I consider important. Other things just get shoved into corners as they fit.
2. Do you keep some type of planner with you and do you use it regularly? For the two years I was outside of a secure area and could use it, I kept my Palm/Clie with me at all times. Now, not so much. Use it a lot still, but not for work stuff.
3. Would you say that your desk is organized right now? At work, yes. At home, it’s covered with water bottles and books that we’re trying to sell via Amazon – so no.
4. Do you alphabetize books, CDs, and DVDs, or does it not matter? I used to, until the boy entered my life – now it’s no point.
5. What’s the hardest thing you’ve ever had to organize? Either buying a house or organizing the Army Ball seating and invitations.

1. Name one song you hate to admit you like. I can’t think of a song I’m embarassed to like.
2. Name two songs that always make you cry. Taps, but none other reliably.
3. Name three songs that turn you on. Pick three random Prince songs.
4. Name four songs that make you feel good. Toughie… Touched by VAST, Boom by System of a Down, Diamonds and Guns by the Transplants, almost anything by Barenaked Ladies.
5. Name five songs you couldn’t ever do without. Sorry, no way can I narrow it down to five. I’ll do five artists: Concrete Blonde, Prince, Wagner, Cure, Depeche Mode.

Finally one that isn’t completely lame…

1. What was the last TV show you watched? John Doe
2. What was the last thing you complained about? Probably the complete waste of a day at work today.
3. Who was the last person you complimented and what did you say? Um, I said dinner was yummy, does that count?
4. What was the last thing you threw away? The bottlecap to this cool Honey Brown beer.
5. What was the last website you visited? Something to do with “how freaky are you”.

Friday Five!

1. How many houses/apartments have you live in throughout your life? I’m going to say 23, but that includes barracks rooms (minus a couple that I was in for only a couple weeks) and I’m not 100% sure of the places I lived before 1976.
2. Which was your favorite and why? The house in Sierra Vista. It was large and comfy and had a nice backyard for Alex to run around in.
3. Do you find moving more exciting or stressful? Stressful
4. What’s more important, location or price? You can’t separate them, because the price for a house in a nice neighborhood may be worth more than the same house in a poor neighborhood.
5. What features does your dream house have? A library, a separate playroom for the boy, big kitchen with lots of cupboards and counters, big backyard, spare bedroom.