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.
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!
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.
The Friday Five for this week is all about shopping.
The Friday Five is all about Back to School.
# 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…
# 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…
The Friday Five was less lame this week…
I was going to post the Friday Five, but it was just too lame for words this week. Off to San Antonio this weekend.
Finally one that isn’t completely lame…