Tag Archives: personal questions

March 22, 2020

One Door Closes…. Another Opens

By Thoughts and Rants in Jogging Pants

Gonna be home for a few days. Weeks even? Who knows? Corona Virus is a thing, and if you’re consuming this while it’s fresh, then you know more than you’d like to about social distancing. If you’re reading it years from now, congratulations, you survived. Here’s to hoping this is soon just a punchline to some shitty joke. In the meantime, what to do? Great time of year to watch Sports!! Hockey and Basketball playoffs coming soon, Baseball about to start up. What? They’re all cancelled? Oh man. Binge watching TV and movies I guess. What else? Good time to listen to music. I mean really listen. Like we used to. When we had those album covers we could read while the record was spinning. For me? Well I do have this blog. I’d argue that it’s at least 5 years past it’s prime, but hasn’t necessarily gone into retirement yet. Hey, if George Foreman could win the heavyweight title in his 40’s, I could surely get this thing chugging again. After all, my readers have nothing but time, and I have nothing but time. Surely my son, (who is soon to be bored out of his skull, if not already) would love to just give Daddy the kind of space he requires to do a bunch of writing every day….. NOT. Plus my wife needs the chair I’m sitting in to work from home. So there are obstacles, and my output over the coming weeks will be direct evidence of my resolve. So if this is the last you hear of me, don’t be surprised, but nevertheless, HERE WE GO!

What to write…. This blog in it’s prime was very ranty. I was younger I suppose. More full of piss and vinegar. I can feel myself mellowing. Not so entertaining. I could rant about social distancing. It would be so ‘of the moment’. To be honest though, I really feel like people were never quite designed to go through something like this. It will be very interesting to see how compliant the entire world will be simultaneously. I’m really not that angry with people right now. Again, if you’re reading this years from now, WE MADE IT!

Starved for something to write about, I thought about a prompt of some sorts that would ask me questions that I could just answer. Slight cop out, but should get me through my first session. I stumbled across another WordPress blog that had just such a list. I’ll attach the link as a shout out. It’s from 9 years ago, so who knows if she still writes or whatever, but I didn’t do too much research on the other, because I had to start typing. https://efcarletti.wordpress.com/2011/12/28/50-good-questions-to-ask-yourself-and-others/

I did not compare these questions with others on the net. I just committed to answering them. I have not even read them all. My answers will be below each question

50 good questions to ask yourself and others

1. What are your nicknames? What do you prefer to be called?

I’m a giver of nicknames. Not always a receiver of one.

2. What books on your shelf are begging to be read?

‘Acid For The Children’ – Flea ‘Muhammad Ali – Through The Eyes of the World’ – Various…..Currently reading ‘The Beastie Boys Book’…. I never read, but this week I’ve read a lot.

3. How often do you doodle? What do your doodles look like?

I don’t. I guess I mind doodle? It looks crazy

4. What do you do if you can’t sleep at night? Do you count sheep? Toss and Turn? Try to get up and do something productive?

I mind doodle lol

5. How many days could you last in solitary confinement? How would you do it?

Not sure. I feel like I could last a while. I think I would just develop other personalities and invisible friends and make the best of it.

6. Do you save old greeting cards and letters? Throw them away?

I save them, but never go through them. Maybe I will though.

7. Who is the biggest pack rat you know?

My mom. Sorry mom.

8. When making an entrance in to a party, do you make your presence known? Do you slip in and look for someone you know? Do you sneak in quietly and find a safe spot to roost?

Depends on the party and it depends on how I feel at the time. I’ve done all 3, but if it’s people I know well, I make my presence known, because that’s more fun.

9. What is your strongest sense? If you had to give one up, which would it be?

Humour lol. I guess that’s not the answer. I’d give up smell maybe?

10. How many times a day do you look at yourself in the mirror?

Couldn’t attach a number to it. Every time I pass one.

11. What is the strangest thing you believed as a child?

That my face would ‘stay like that’

12. What is one guilty pleasure you enjoy too much to give up?

I think I enjoy teasing people. I try not to be mean about it, or at least know ahead of time if the person can ‘handle’ it or not. I do it to my son. He hates it. I hated it when I was his age. I’d like to think that I’m preparing him to deal with it later in life when it’s not me that does it, which is possibly true. I think you need to learn to laugh at yourself. Once you can laugh at yourself, it takes the sting out of other people laughing at you. I think. Or maybe I’m causing mass psychological damage to everyone I know. Sorry.

13. Who performs the most random acts of kindness out of everyone you know?

Jade (speaking of people I love to tease). She is the queen of intentionally doing ridiculous things, and feeling zero shame about any of it. For a couple of years we worked together and she was my boss. If I made the mistake of offering to go on a Starbucks run, I would have to rhyme off 7 obnoxious details about her drink like the amount of sugar or whip cream, and it was never just the standard amount. I don’t think she goes a month without doing something that by most standards is completely bizarre, and posting it on social media for all her friends to either lol, or eye roll at. Every pic she takes of herself has a Jade face, where she looks like she’s getting shot out of a cannon. She was a fun boss and good friend. When my father passed away, she would cook food, and bring it to my mom’s house (I don’t know if my mom even knew who she was). When my wife had to go to the hospital for a day, she insisted on ordering us a dinner from Uber Eats even though we hadn’t hung out a lot during that time. I’ll never forget those gestures.

14. How often do you read the newspaper? Which paper? Which sections?

Wow. Like I said, these questions are from 9 years ago, so I’ll answer this one like it was 9 years ago. Every day. Toronto Star or Toronto Sun, Sports page, and whatever else I have time for.

15. Which animals scare you most? Why?

Rats are fucking nasty, I don’t know why.

16. Are you more likely to avoid conflict or engage it head-on?

Depends on the day. Instinct is to avoid, but my learned behaviour is to engage head-on, after a cooling off period preferably.

17. What was the most recent compliment you’ve received and savoured?

Somebody at work took me aside and thanked me for teaching them so much. That meant a lot.

18. What is something about yourself that you hope will change, but probably never will?

I always secretly admire people who can wake up in the morning, seem rested, and have a great breakfast routine, where they mentally prepare for the day. Oh and do yoga and or workout in the morning. When I wake up in the morning I push the snooze button 14 times, and fly through the condo like I’m escaping from a fire, and I’m at work with a coffee in my hand and a breakfast bar in my pocket to be consumed later, probably no more than 30 minutes after my head is still on my pillow

19. Are you a creature of habit? Explain.

Yeah. Maybe. No. I don’t know.

20. Are you high maintenance? Explain.

I would say no. However I offset that with being completely unreasonable over small details, so yes. (Just asked my wife. She spoke to me about it for 20 minutes, and says EVERYBODY thinks so.)

21. When was the last time you really pushed yourself to your physical limits?

Once or twice a week I play basketball against people that are usually 10-20 years younger than me. It takes me 2 days to recover. How much longer can I do this?  I guess as long as the back holds up.

22. Do you have a whole lot of acquaintances or just a few very close friends? Why?

I’ve usually just rolled with a few close incredibly long tenured friends.  Shout out to them.  Apparently I’m high maintenance 😉

23. Are you more inclined to “build your own empire” or unleash the potential of others?

Both, but to build an empire, I need others to unleash the potential of me. I’m too lazy to do things alone. I need the right partnership to get shit done.

24. What’s a strange occurrence you’ve experienced but have never (or rarely) shared with anyone?

I saw an alien spaceship land and……….I have a blog. If I witnessed a strange occurrence, you would know by now.

25. What do you think about more than anything else?

5 way tie and it depends on the day. Family/Friends/Work/Sports/Music

Well…. That’s 25 out of 50 questions. As my high school teachers would confirm, that gets me a D and a pass. I’ve learned some very important things here today. Talking about myself is exhausting. I am HIGH maintenance according to my wife and possibly many others. Blogging starts out fun for the first 300 words, and then gets sucky and boring past 1000.

Anyways… for those that read to the bottom. Stay safe and wash your hands 🙂 For those that don’t read to the bottom, stay safe and wash your hands as well.

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August 12, 2013

50 Things About Me

By Thoughts and Rants in Jogging Pants

I stopped taking the train. So many of my blog topics resulted from craziness I would witness on public transit. I’m out of ideas man…. fresh out! So I decided to cheat a bit this week. You know those annoying surveys that people fill out on Facebook, and then try to get you to fill out?? I decided to fill one of those out and post here for my faithful readers who wanted to get to know me a bit better (as I’m sure it’s totally keeping you up at night that you don’t know me well enough….. or not so much). Some of these surveys were designed for teenagers. They were basic as shit. I had to root through a few lists before I found one that I didn’t hate as much. Questions 2 and 3 grabbed my attention. Right to the point. As I’m writing this, I haven’t even read the rest of the questions, but I promise I will answer them relatively honestly 🙂

1) Favorite object in your room?
My bed…. this is way too easy.

2) Have you ever smoked heroin
No. I haven’t injected it into my veins either.

3) Do you own guns?
No. I’m Canadian.

4) What flavor do you add to your drink at sonic?
What’s Sonic? I’m Canadian.

5) Do you get nervous before doctor appointments?
Yes. Like a cat in a room full of rocking chairs.

6) What do you think of hot dogs?
I think it’s the best meal you can get for $3.

7) Favorite song?
Electric Relaxation – A Tribe Called Quest

8) What do you prefer to drink in the morning?
Coffee

9) Can you do push ups?
I think so, but I wouldn’t know.

10) Can you do a chin up?
As long as we’re just talking about one, then yes.

11) What’s your favorite piece of jewelry?
My wedding ring. I don’t wear any other jewelry.

12) do you like blue cheese?
Yes. Love it!

13) Ever been in a car wreck?
Yup. ‘wreck’ seems like it would mean a major collision. Only one of those, but I’ve definitely hit stuff with my car on other occasions. In fact, my car is at the body shop as we speak.

14) What’s one trait that you hate about yourself?
I’m a procrastinator. I’m way more effective when I just do stuff.

15) Middle name?
Sorry, I know I said I’d answer everything, but paranoid about identity theft etc.

16) Name 3 thoughts going through your head at this moment?
Man, I hope this blog doesn’t suck. These questions better get better or this blog is gonna suck. These answers better get better or this blog is gonna suck.

17) Name 3 things you bought yesterday?
I was not at a store yesterday, but to make this answer more interesting, if money were no object and I could go back in time, I would have bought a car, a house, and an entertainment system.

18) Name 3 drinks you drink regularly?
Water, coffee, beer.

19) Name 3 foods you eat regularly?
Chicken Wings, Salmon, Steak.

20) Current worry?
That I’ll hate my next job.

21) Current hate right now?
I hate how summer is zipping by at light speed. Summers used to last forever. Every day seems like 5 minutes to me.

22) Do you spend Christmas with extended family?
Yes on my wife’s side. My family is super small, and our extended family is out-of-town.

23) How did you bring in the New Year?
I don’t even remember. I’m pretty sure we were in bed, and I’m not even sure if we were awake. In my defence, I spent many years partying with the best of them, and New Year’s eve was my favourite night of the year to go out, but we just had our son in mid-October, and were sleep deprived, so…… I’m not as lame as I sound.

24) Where would you like to be right now?
Vegas baby.

25) Name three people who will complete this?
Hopefully nobody. This aint no Facebook thing.

26) Do you own slippers?
No.

27) What shirt are you wearing?
A blue and green golf shirt.

28) Do you like sleeping on satin sheets?
What am I? A pimp?

29) Can you whistle?
Yes.

30) Which hand do you use to write?
Right.

31) Would you be a pirate?
I’ve been a pirate. On Halloween. I was a pretty kick-ass pirate too, as I recall.

32) What songs do you sing in the shower?
I don’t sing in the shower, but ‘With or Without You’ by U2 is my song when in the car by myself.

33) Favorite girl’s name?
I don’t have one. Lucky I didn’t have a girl.

34) Favorite boy’s name?
Julian.

35) What’s in your pocket?
Nothing.

36) Last person that made you laugh?
My wife. When we watch baseball together, and the pitching coach comes to the mound to talk to the pitcher, she re-enacts what she thinks they are saying to each other. “Throw strikes!!” “I’ve been trying to throw strikes…. they just haven’t been strikes” “OK, but you need to throw strikes…. so I’m gonna go sit down on the bench, and you start throwing strikes OK?” “Ok, I’ll start throwing strikes”………it goes on and on, but she does a funny voice, and you really have to be there, but trust me, it’s hilarious.

37) Best bed sheets as a child?
I had a Sesame Street pillow which had that front stoop on it. This is pre-Elmo days, but I’m pretty sure Big Bird, Oscar, Grover, Bert & Ernie were there. I would assume I had matching sheets, but I don’t remember the sheets that well.

38) Worst injury you’ve ever had?
I broke my elbow playing basketball. I was driving to the basket, and as I jumped, some short guy under-cut me, and I started to go down head first. Instead of bracing myself right away, I tried to put a little extra English on the lay-up. I ended up cracking my elbow. I did score the basket though. It was spectacular….. but I was in a cast for 6 weeks.

39) Do you love where you live?
Yes. Toronto is one of the greatest cities in the world, and Canada is one of the greatest countries to live in the world. I couldn’t be happier.

40) How many TVs do you have in your house?
2

41) Who is your loudest friend?
Hard to say. You know what they say if you can’t figure out who the loudest friend is?? It’s you!

42) How many dogs do you have?
Zero. How assumptive was that?

43) Does someone have a crush on you?
Of course. In my mind, dozens of women have crushes on me. It may not be true.

45) Did you notice that there is no number 44?
Yeah. When I copied and pasted the questionnaire, I noticed this question, but I probably would not have noticed otherwise.

46) What is your favorite candy?
I don’t know. Werther’s Originals?? The ones with chocolate on the inside.

47) Favorite Sports Team?Â
Toronto Blue Jays

48) Where is the next place you want to travel to?
That I haven’t been to? I was hoping for Switzerland. Although I do have this nasty little Vegas habit, and that is probably where I’ll end up.

49) What were you doing 12 AM last night?
Washing the dishes. FML

50) What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up?
I remembered that my son crawled for the first time last night, and I wondered if he was excited about today.

🙂

6 Comments   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Humor, Uncategorized

March 4, 2013

The Chain Always Stops Here

By Thoughts and Rants in Jogging Pants

I remember sitting in my friend’s car. It was a 1983 Pontiac Acadian. One of the last cars I ever saw that didn’t have ‘power steering’. For those of you young enough to take that for granted, you used to get quite an arm workout from driving if you didn’t have power steering. Now all cars have it, and some will do all the tricky driving for you, it’s pathetic….don’t get me started. This car (this is off topic but worth mentioning) had a sound system that cost the owner more than the actual car. What can I say…. It was the 90s. Baby Blue with a black racing stripe, and tinted windows. This car was all dressed up with nowhere to go. We were sitting in it listening to Hip Hop because it was my obsession at the time, and sounded so damn good in a car like that. You had to listen to loud music in this car. It served almost no other purpose.

We were driving along when I noticed a piece of folded up paper stuffed under the windshield wiper blade. I rolled down my window and reached out to grab it. I told my friend about it, and opened it up to read to him. He quickly yanked it out of my hand, threw it out of his window, and kept driving. I paused for a moment with my mouth wide open in amazement. “Chain Letter”, he said and kept driving.

I didn’t know what a chain letter was at the time. He explained it to me, and spoke of the dire consequences of reading a chain letter, and then not following the instructions at the bottom, which often included writing 10 other chain letters. Kids…. in 1993, that sucked way worse than it would now. It wasn’t just a matter of hitting forward, and dropping 10 names from your address book. You had to write those fuckers out. I now understood why my friend was so quick to throw out that letter (even though it could have been some girl who had a crush on him, or a letter from another driver indicating that they had nicked his vehicle in a parking lot). He knew if he read it, he was bound by those terms.

20 years later, I received a Blogger’s equivalent of a chain letter. A blogger nominated award! This one is called the Liebster Blog Award. I’ve seen these around, and only after doing some research did I understand what it was. This one comes with some terms and conditions. You first of all have to shout out the nominator, which I’m happy to do. Then you have to post the award on your site (which I don’t even know how to do…. I guess you just copy and paste?? I suck at this stuff). Then you have to answer 11 questions about yourself (which is an opportunity in itself, because I don’t know if you’ve noticed how much I’ve been reaching on my topics lately, but I have NO new ideas.) Then you have to nominate 11 more bloggers to receive this award. If everyone did this, absolutely everyone would have about 15 of these. Not super meaningful, BUT………

I believe my nominator had pure intentions (and did not mean it as a chain letter), so I’ll play along. Her name is Ashley, and you can read her blog http://everythingisblooming.wordpress.com. She seems like a very sweet 20 something girl from Wisconsin who plays the violin, and writes some pretty funny stuff. She often takes pages from her diary from when she was a teenager, and writes it out, and then criticizes herself as the older, wiser Ashley. Pretty ballsy, but funny! I wouldn’t have the courage to let you know what I was thinking as a teenager. It would be completely inappropriate. I can barely behave now.

I should mention that I had previously been nominated for something as well. If that person is still a reader of mine, I apologize for not acknowledging whatever that was. I thought it was spam. Maybe when I have more time, I’ll go back and find out who that was.

I will also answer all of Ashley’s questions! This is amazing actually, because I had nothing to write about, and now I do. Although, I normally like to give opinions about things other than myself, I guess I can open up a bit and tell you about me. You should know that Ashley was born on February 29th, so she didn’t have a birthday this year. If you go to her page, wish her a happy birthday (next time there’s a leap year 😉 Ha). Here are my answers….

1. What would you spend your last $50 on?
I’ve spent my last $50 more times than I care to admit publicly. My close friends know this is true. It was often on beer and chicken wings.

2. Favorite fashion accessory?
Used to be a watch, but my wrist has this horrible allergy to (nickel maybe??) and I can’t wear them anymore. I love hats, but my head is friggin enormous. It’s not that noticeable until I try on hats. They’re too small. I don’t know if shoes count, but I have a lot of shoes for a guy. I always wear a belt. It always matches. If my socks/shoes/belt combo isn’t right, I feel completely naked and vulnerable. Now you know more than you wished.

3. If you were a character on The Simpsons, who would you be?
Tough call because those characters are all so pigeon holed, Krusty the Clown?

4. What’s your go-to comfort food?
I have a few of them, but spaghetti is the one thing I’m good at making myself.

5. If you could vacation anywhere in the world, where would it be?
I would like to go to the Montreaux Jazz festival in Switzerland.

6. Do you prefer to work out in the gym, at home, or outdoors; what do you love about it?
Hate working out. What a weird question. So assumptive. However, my favourite form of exercise is playing basketball.

OH MY GOD!!!! I just realized that I’m answering the wrong questions. These were the questions that Ashley answered when she got her award, not the ones she asked….. Ughhhhh… I have to start over, but I won’t delete what I’ve already done. Consider those bonus questions. Dammit!

1.Are you a dog or cat person? Why?
If I have to choose, it’s dog because they’re usually friendly, and I like their attitude. Cats are just too smug. Not a huge fan of either

2.Growing up, what was your favorite cartoon?
Ren & Stimpy. When I watch it now, it doesn’t hold up the same, but I thought that was hilarious!! Ironically a dog and cat cartoon. Maybe I do like them.

3.If you could meet one fictional character, who would it be?
I would love to get drunk and smoke cigars with Bunk from The Wire

4.What is one of your guilty pleasures?
I’m really into Fleetwood Mac right now. I’m not sure if I need to feel guilty about that or not, but I would say it in hushed tones around certain people.

5.You’re forced to relocate immediately; Where would you choose to live?
I would probably just move somewhere that was as close to Toronto as I would be allowed under the conditions of the relocation. Too many family and friends. New York City if you really made me choose.

6.Marry, Boff, Kill: Your first, second, and third romantic partners.
Wow… personal…. Uhhh define romantic partners??? OK never mind, it’s hypothetical (my wife reads this!!!!!My mom reads this!!!!!). I’ll go with the 3 romantic partners that I’ve had lasting (over 2 yrs) relationships with. I’ll call them 1, 2 and 3 (chronological order). I’d probably kill 1 since I haven’t seen or heard from her in 15 years, boff 2 since I’d feel bad killing her, and marry 3 since I’ve already done so, and have no regrets about it. (That’s not to say that I wouldn’t feel bad killing 1…….this is a weird marry, boff, kill scenario… aren’t you just supposed to do that with people you haven’t already been with???)

7.What was your first car?
1988 Chevrolet Celebrity. I could write an entire blog about that piece of shit. Perhaps I will someday.

8.What’s your homepage?
I don’t even know how to change my homepage. Google.ca right now.

9.Name two things other than your phone or computer you couldn’t live without.
My music collection (iPod if it’s just one thing), and my bed I guess.

10.What is your favorite dessert?
Creme Brule

11.What are you currently obsessed with?
Many things. My Toronto Blue Jays pop into mind. Sooo excited about the upcoming baseball season. Go Jays!

So, those are my answers!!! The chain ends here though! Thank you Ashley for thinking of me. I won’t be posting the award or sending this to 11 people, but I had great fun with the topic anyways. The people I would send it to are all great writers, and I’m sure have an online trophy case full of these already!

6 Comments   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Humor, Rants, Uncategorized