4 posts tagged “qotd”

Would you rather have more brains, more beauty, or more bravery?

Cute

This may be the fever talking (I'm sick today) but I'd say I have plenty bravery. What I really need is more nerve.

Emjay's post reminded me of past dreams about working for the FBI or the Secret Service.

Yes, if I were more people-oriented I would try out as a gun-toting investigator. I have the veracity and brains for it. I like precision. I like hot guys as well.

Bravery and the subconscious is another topic entirely. In my dream-states I tend to prefer using nearby weapons, such as shovels or high-tech gadgets. I'm often rescuing our cats from a burning house.

I liked the Criminal Minds episode called Instincts. Coincidentally when the abandoned cats showed up I began having dark hallway and locked-door dreams, which Reid mentions when he was talking about Jungian analysis in reference to his basement nightmares. Like Reid I don't believe in dream analysis. But recent events have me re-thinking all that.

Phone calls, emails, text messages, facebook, Morse code or something else... How do you like to stay in touch with your friends?

You put what in my coffee?

I would prefer morse code to texting any day. In fact I think it's a brilliant idea. I despise cell phones, quite honestly. I like good old fashioned wireless telephones (okay, somewhat modern) where I can stroll in the back yard while talking to my buddies.

One of my best cohort friends and I simply use the phone to decide when and where to meet - usually at a local coffee shop. My other botanist friend and I spent yesterday in the Herbarium at school chatting while she dried her plants - she found a carnivorous plant on her hike, too!

And while I'm at it, I may as well confess that about 90 percent of my closest friends are here on Vox. While it's convenient to chat at home, I would prefer about 30 percent here on Vox, 40 percent through email and 30 percent at local coffee houses. I like letters too. In college I would sketch strange beasts on my letters and hand-deliver them to my friends on campus, just for fun.

Feel free to message me if you want my email. I wish I could just send smoke signals or send a static wave to each of you once in a while. Maybe JLo will give me one of those nifty mirrors she gave to that little kid in The Cell. Then you all could find our meeting place.

Would you rather have one best friend or ten acquaintances? Why?

If by "acquaintance" we mean casual friend, then I can answer. But althogh the defenition varies, to me an "acquantance" is the girl who bags my groceries. So sue me, I'm into semantics.

I think the idea of a BFF is kind of for high school students, no? By the time we're through college I learned that friendships are like the lithosphere - constantly churning and changing. So I consider most of my friends either "casual" or "close". Bones is one of my few long-time friends whose idiosyncacies I can forgive and forget for a long-term freindship.

I have one very "devoted" friend from school who calls me often and lives close by. Unfortunately it turns out that she is not the greatest friend. If I tell her something personal, it's pretty much guaranteed that everyone will know soon after. Also I had a practicum interview and told her about it. The next day I found out she had called my supervisor and basically said, "Well you hired Ellie, why can't you hire me too"? Not cool.

Luckily I have other really good friends from grad school, who actually have integrity. We are all doing field work and having a great time helping each other. So the aforementioned friend is being phased out. Flexibility. Things change.

If you could enforce one rule of etiquette, what would it be?
Submitted by S@ngarang.

cherry tree

I'm an etiquette hound so there's no way I can choose just one. But I will skip the obvious ones: driving safely and not creating noise pollution are, to me, necessities.

The book Social Graces is a series of essays about etiquette; I highly recommend it! If we're talking about "optional" rules of etiquette:

**Proper titles for authorities. It makes me crazy when people call police officers or judges "Sir" or "Ma'am". The police are to be addressed as "Officer" and judges as "Your Honor". I've heard that in Jamacia, people call judges "Your Grace". I love that.

**Chivalry. Yes, it is rather "retro" but I don't think it is sexist when a man holds a door for a woman or stands up when she enters a room. In return, women should try to compliment men for their consideration and dress up nice for them. This is not sexism! It's romantic and it is a sign of a civilized society.

Can I just mention - J and I were driving through a rather mean neighborhood the other day. There was a teenager dressed in well, shall we say "gang-like" clothing at the gas station. I walked up to the door behind him; he stepped aside, held the door open for me and gestured for me to go ahead of him. I smiled and thanked him. Sometimes people who live in rough situations are the most well-mannered.

**Proper English! Don't get me started here!  :D The plural of horse is horses, not horse's. If you're talking about something that "belongs" to a horse, like its tail, then you can say "horse's", as in, the horse's tail. If a long line bothers you, it "affects" you; it does not "effect" you. Think of it this way: special effects are in sci fi movies. "Affects" means it impacts you as a person.

And please, let's kill the redundancy in this nation. "He pulled me physically out of the water" is truly a brain-grinding sentence. Think about it - can someone pull you metaphorically? Not really. "He told me verbally". As opposed to telling you mentally? Try this: "He pulled me out of the water". "He told me". Aaah, that's better. Clean sentences.  ;)