Friday 5 for January 17: This week in the news

Friday 5 for January 17: This week in the news

The following questions come from the Friday 5 blog.

1. Has the death of a famous person (not connected to you personally) ever made you cry?

Anyone famous is far removed from me, so the answer to this is "NO".

2. Have you ever sent money as relief aid after a disaster?

I sent $40 many years ago as disaster aid after Hurricane Iniki in 1992.

3. How will the recent declaration affirming alcoholic beverages as cancer-causing affect your consumption?

It won't. I don't drink alcoholic beverages at all. Never did. Never will.

4. What is the most bizarre (or difficult to understand) movie you’ve seen?

For the longest time it was 2001: A Space Odyssey until I read the book.

5. How willing and able are you to separate art from artist when a musican, actor, writer, or other creator is discovered to have behaved very badly?

Yep. I am able to separate the recordings the artist made from the bad behavior that they display in the public record. This would include The Rolling Stones, The Who, Rod Stewart and many other music artists who have trashed people, hotel rooms or worst, taken drugs. Many such as Jim Morrison, Keith Moon, Janis Joplin and others have died from drug abuse. All bad behaviors, but none of it has prevented me from enjoying the musical recordings they produced.

Friday 5 for January 10: On (a different) deck

Friday 5 for January 10: On (a different) deck

Let's see if I can do a better job answering these in 2025. 

1. If everyone carried personal cards (instead of business cards), what would you put on the line just beneath your name, where job titles usually go?

Don't Spam Me.

2. What’s your favorite card game?

I'm not a card player. The one card game I play the most is Classic Solitaire, the kind that you find on almost every computer based platform. See graphic above.

3. How confidently and competently do you shuffle a deck of cards?

I don't drop them, unless it is 52 card pick-up.

4. To whom did you last send a non-holiday, non-birthday greeting card?

Sympathy card to the family of a friend that died a few years back.

5. When did you last jot something down on an index card?

It was less than a year ago, but I can't find the card and I don't remember what I wrote. I do have a small pack of blank 3 x 5 cards.

Questions from the usual source.

_______________________

Friday 5 for January 3: On deck

1. What book are you going to read next?

For Love of Country: Leave the Democrat Party Behind by Tulsi Gabbard. Bet you this one ruffles some feathers. 😀

2. What movie will you most likely see next?

I have a ton of movies saved to my to view lists at TUBI TV and Amazon Prime Video. Can't decide which one next, though Oppenheimer is on my most wanted to watch list for now.

3. What are you doing the day after tomorrow?

Since I am answering this on a Saturday, the day after tomorrow is Monday, so the thing I will be doing is going to work. 😀

4. This is going to be a great year, but what are you looking forward to next year?

Getting older and another step closer to my grave, if it doesn't happen this year.

5. What are you looking forward to opening once you’ve used up the current product?

Another SD memory card. Yippee.

Friday 5 for January 20: Now I lay me down

Late start for 2023. My first Friday 5 Answers for the new year... The Year of the Rabbit today.

Hello, and welcome to this week’s Friday 5! Please copy these questions to your webspace. Answer the questions there; then leave a comment below so we’ll all know where to check out your responses. Please don’t forget to link us from your website!

1. What keeps you up at night?

Apps on my smartphone... podcasts, music, audiobooks, video. Ugh... blue light disease.

2. How well do you operate on insufficient sleep?

I need to take a nap around 2:00 in the afternoon. Now I can't. So I have to try and get at least 5 hours of sleep the night before...

3. Under what conditions do you get your best sleep?

Probably when I have two bad days in a row of little or no sleep. At the end of that period I can zonk out fairly well... smartphone be damned.

4. What unusual places have you slept in?

A darkroom... long, long ago... you know a place where there is no light and you are supposed to develop film and process photos...  Homeless.... three weeks straight..... long ago. Other than that, one night in a 1985 Toyota Tercel.... 

5. What’s a good song about dreams or dreaming?

There are plenty of dreams or dreaming songs... Here are a few in no particular order....

• Dreams - Fleetwood Mac
• Dreaming - Cliff Richard
• Dream On - Aerosmith
• All I Have to Do is Dream - The Everly Brothers
• Dream Lover - Bobby Darrin
• Dream Baby - Roy Orbison
• Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) - Eurythmics
• Blue Hawaii - Elvis Presley ... dreams come true in Blue Hawaii.
• Dreamlover - Mariah Carey
• Your Wildest Dreams - The Moody Blues
• #9 Dream - John Lennon
• Girl of my Dreams - Bram Tchaikovsky

I hope you enjoyed the music. Sweet dreams!

Friday 5 for August 12: X³

 

The five questions this week come from its usual source, the Friday 5 Blog.

Here are the Qs and my As:

1. One lump or two?

Two if I am drinking hot chocolate or something like that. I donʻt do coffee.

2. What was in the last box you received in the mail?

Amazon Echo Dot 4 $19 on Cyber Monday Nov. 2021. See photo here. "Alexa, play Song Quiz..." "Alexa turn on the light." "Alexa play The Beatles"... "Alexa, what time is it?"

"Alexa, kill yourself"... (boink).... heheheh...

3. In those places where you prepare your own soft drink, how much ice do you put in the cup?

None. I only drink water.

4. How do you have your workspace decorated?

With clutter.

5. What’s your favorite dice-driven game?

None, though I recall Monopoly have dice. Been ages since I played that. Otherwise none. Not a roll the dice kind of guy.

Friday 5 for May 6: Dexterity

"Hello, and welcome to this week’s Friday 5!  Please copy these questions to your webspace.  Answer the questions there; then leave a comment below so we’ll all know where to check out your responses.

Please don’t link us from your website!" (?????)

1. How skilled are you with a chef’s knife?

I can adequately cut my vegetables, fruit, and proteins for lunch and dinner. That's it. What the heck is a "chef's knife"? I just use the cheap knife I got from Walmart.

2. How skilled are you with chopsticks?

I am a disgrace to my partial Asian heritage. I am all thumbs with chopsticks. No coordination. I can't even play it on the piano!

3. How skilled are you with a hammer?

I can pound a nail in 90% of the time without bending it or hitting my fingers. I am an expert in destroying things with a hammer... where's that old PC laptop?

4. How skilled are you with a corkscrew?

I don't drink alcoholic beverages so given that some of these things come with corks, the question does not apply to me since I do not use one.

5. How skilled are you with a needle and thread?

After watching a video of someone teaching me how to sew a button on, I can safely say that I can do that without stabbing myself.

Friday 5 for June 26: So Rank

Questions are off Scrivener's Friday 5 blog.

1. What memories do you have of an old-fashioned general store?

Small, cramped, full of merchandise stacked on shelves and usually friendly people to deal with.

2. What’s something people think incorrectly of your home state (or country) but still contains a kernel of truth?

Hawaii - Many people think it is a “melting pot” of ethnic groups and for the most part it is correct. However there still is racism and discrimination if you talk to certain people or groups.

3. What are the major differences between you and your best (non-romantic) friend?

I support the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope and my friend does not. (Top photo is of the proposed Thirty Meter Telescope that is slated to be built on Mauna Kea.)

4. What’s something you were the captain of?

Junior Police Officer (JPO) in the 6th grade.

5. What’s the story of your first private moment with a high-school romantic interest?

If it was revealed it would not be private anymore.

Friday 5 for June 20: Scattergories Part V

From Scrivener's Friday 5. Scattergories Part 5. Read all about it at the link below. Basically you let the random letter generator pick a letter for you and answer the questions below with words that begin with that letter. On first crack I got M!

1. What’s a refreshing beverage whose name begins with the letter?



Milk shake

2. What ailment whose name begins with the letter have you suffered from? Mumps

3. What horrible creature whose name begins with the letter do you resemble in your foulest mood?



Monster

4. What emotion whose name begins with the letter have you experienced in the past week? Melancholy

5. What’s an item in your purse, wallet, or backpack whose name begins with the letter?


Money

Friday 5 for April 10: Opposition

From Scrivener's Friday 5 website, this week's topic is OPPOSITION.

1. What’s a current political or social issue on which you stand opposed?

There are plenty things to oppose. Here are a few of them:

Honolulu Fixed Rail Project - Too expensive, won't solve traffic woes, mainly lining pockets for developers. Ugly as shit. Tax burden on the public is too great. Stop rail now.

President Barack Obama - Everything about his tenure as president is bad. He is trying to move to country too far to the left. I oppose Obamacare, normalization of relations with communist Cuba, rule by executive orders, outlandish spending for Hawaii and other vacations, arrogant, Benghazi, allowing illegal immigrants to achieve legal status, and much, much more.

More Taxes - Politicians are never to be trusted when it comes to managing government finances because they almost always advocate for increasing taxes. Especially Democrats and liberals. Taxes should be cut.

Need I add more to this list? Not now.

2. What forces have worked against your efforts this week?

More than you would want to know.

3. Would you rather have to climb a steep hill in order to get into your house, or climb a steep hill in order to get out?

I actually prefer flat, level ground. Hills should only be a backdrop that you look at from down below and appear in landscape photographs. Hills and mountains should also be avoided by low flying aircraft.

4. In what way have you recently made things difficult for someone else?

Now why would I want to disclose that...next....

5. In what way has the “opposites attract” cliche been true in your life?

Kind of sort of with my current close, friend.

Friday 5 for March 14 - Breath

From Scrivener's Friday 5 site:



Questions

1. What are your weapons in the fight against bad breath?
2. What activity most recently caused you to be out of breath?
3. How does your breath smell right now?
4. What are some songs in your iTunes (or other media player) whose titles contain the word “breath” or “breathe?” Which is your favorite?
5. What was the last thing you cleaned using condensation from your breath?

Answers

1. Toothpaste and mouth wash.

2. Not telling.

3. Bad because at this moment I am sick.

4. Breath songs: Not too many songs with the word "breath" in their titles. I do have a few more with "breathe". So I'll combine them and make this top 10 list:

1. The Air That I Breathe - The Hollies (1974) 

2. Every Breath You Take - The Police (1983) 

3. Take My Breath Away - Berlin (1986) 

4. Locomotive Breath - Jethro Tull (1972) 

5. Geek Stink Breath - Green Day (1995) 

6. Life and Breath - Climax (1972) 

7. Breathless - The Corrs (2000) 

8. You Took My Breath Away - Traveling Wilburys (1990) 

9. Hold My Breath - The Downtown Fiction (2009) 

10. Breathe Your Name - Sixpence None the Richer (2009)

5. Condensation from Breath / Clean? Occasionally a camera lens, as long as it is the filter in front that I am cleaning.