It’s all about me

I’ve been a bit tardy about some of these personal Q&A things. So here’s a bit of catch-up.

First off, this past week’s Thursday Thumb-Twiddler:

1. Someone at your office thinks the calendar you’ve put up is rude and tasteless, though HR hasn’t — yet — agreed. Do you take it down? Does it matter what the subject matter is (art, humor, etc.)? Does it matter what you think of the other person? I sometimes worry about this — being an art lover, I’m occasionally concerned that some page on a Pre-Raphaelite calendar will get someone up in arms (I’m particularly sensitive about it, being in management). But, so far, it hasn’t come up. If it did, I would probably take it down unless it seems completely beyond the Pale.

2. A person at the office offers to loan you some software CDs for you to install at home. You know this is illegal, and there is a possibility that you could be caught doing it. Do you do it anyway? If it’s something that I would ordinarily buy, I would buy it.

3. Do you contribute to a charity? If so, how do you decide how much? We contribute to United Way at the office, and to our church at home. I try to contribute enough to feel like I’m sacrificing something. I don’t tithe 10% by any means, but I’m well aware that I live much more comfortably than many others, and try to give something back to others.

And then, there’s the previous week’s Thursday Thumb Twiddler …

1. How responsible are you for the happiness of others? We were joking about this on vacation. Making yourself responsible for the happiness of others is a guarantee for heartburn (if not ulcers). Being aware of others’ happiness, and trying to foster the conditions in which others can be happy is the right thing to do. But you can’t make others be happy. That’s up to them.

2. Where’s the strangest place you’ve ever been? Hmmmm. Offhand, I’d say Portmeirion, an “Italianate” village on the coast of Central Wales, which served as “The Village” in The Prisoner.

3. If you could only do vacation travel (a) to places you’ve been to before, or (b) to places you’ve never been before, which would you choose? I’m dull, boring, and conservative. I enjoy visiting places I’ve been to before. I like new places, too, but I had no problem with revisiting a number of old haunts in Wales and London.

Then there’s last week’s Thursday Threesome.

Onesome. Big. Anything “big” happen to you lately? Come now, what’s the biggest thing in your life these days? Katherine. Followed by Margie. I expect those to remain the biggest things in my life for some time.

Twosome. Band. I didn’t do the band, but I did choir when I was in school. Tell us: what kind of extracurricular activities did YOU do when you were in school? Choir, yes, though never the big choir in my high schools. Theater, which I continued into college. School Newspaper (writing and cartooning). Mostly, though, Speech (whence many trophies that still clutter up boxes in my basement).

Threesome. Music. Our topic of the week is music, so why don’t YOU share little about your personal tastes in music. Favorite band? Favorite song? Have a song you love to sing along with but hate to admit it? Now’s the time to fess up! My musical tastes are pretty eclectic. I like classic 60s folk, 80s girl bands, techno, J-pop, movie soundtracks, doowap, not to mention classical music, mostly though not exclusively Barocque. Enya and Loreena McKinnett. Humor, too — Weird Al and Tom Lehrer. Keeping in mind, though, that “conservative” thang I mentioned above, the music I like tends to be the music I hear.

Finally, there’s last week’s 3xThursday.

1. Have you done your taxes yet? How did you have them prepared? Did you use any software? File online? Haven’t done them yet. Buyt, yeah, that’s gotta get on the To Do list pretty quickly. The past few years I used TurboTax, and will be using it again this year.

2. What would you like to have done to your old body when you die? How would you like to be remembered? I don’t care much about the body, but I want a very nice memorial stone — I like the idea of future generations looking at it and wondering who I am. As fro the actual ceremony — well, something formal and religious and stuff like that, to be followed by one hell of a party. I wouldn’t mind showing up as a deity in someone’s game, either.

3. If you could make any changes to your current system of taxation what would you do? realistic changes only please. None of the Tim Eyeman crap. I don’t know that I have many specific ideas. Most of the “sweeping reforms” I know of, in any direction, tend to have a lot of “unintended consequences” that nobody wants to admit. I hate paying taxes. I’d hate to see society pay the cost of my paying much less.