When you stop and think about what you have in common with anyone, let alone the person you have chosen to spend your life with, it seems like it should be a no-brainer, right? Here, the question is looking for the “top 5 things” which implies there are at least 6 and probably many more. Of course, after my recent post about the qualities of friendship, this seems like a rather strange topic to me. Continue reading “What are the top 5 things that you and your spouse have in common?”
Friendship is such an interesting topic. It seems like there should be a checklist someplace you can go through to decide if someone is a friend or not. I mean when you’re asking yourself what qualities you value in your friends, wouldn’t it make sense to have a list of qualities in general? I did an article once, about online dating services, and in several of them, the participants had to answer extensive questionnaires which were then matched up according to a mystic algorithm and involving the sacrifice of a rubber chicken. Continue reading “What qualities do you most value in your friends?”
At the time of this writing, I am 53 years old. This means I’ve celebrated my 21st birthday twice at this point, which in turn means the original celebration, way back in 1988, was a long time ago and my memory is going to be faulty at best, revisionist at worst, and most likely completely wrong. Continue reading “How did you celebrate your 21st birthday?”
“What is art?”
“I can’t explain it, but I know it when I see it.”
It’s an old joke, to be sure, but it’s kinda true, especially for me. I know very little about art, especially intrinsically. What I mean is that everything I do know, I’ve had to seek out and learn on my own. I have no built-in sense of the technicalities of art beyond the most basics. I think this is partially true because I have no artistic abilities, pretty much at all. When I was directing my short film some 25 years ago, I tried my hand at doing storyboards and they ended up looking like anemic stick figures. Even longer ago than that, I tried to teach myself special effects make-up* (thanks to Tom Savini’s seminal books) and was so excited when the sculpture that took me days to finish looked vaguely like a cat person (which, to be clear, was actually my goal). Continue reading “Who are your favorite artists?”
We’ve got ourselves another deceptively simple question here. As a journalist, I have a fundamental problem with these closed questions. Queries about “favorite something” or “tell me about your” prompts are great for sparking a lengthy answer or discussion, something which can get to the heart of something bigger, perhaps, but “Did you have a car in high school?” A simple yes or no, followed by what kind (if the answer was affirmative) or maybe what you desired (if the answer was negative) and you’re done. Continue reading “Did you have a car in high school?”
Again, we’re faced with a “what are your favorite X?” type question. This time around it’s movies instead of books, but the storytelling aspect still holds tight. And again, I’m left trying to decide to answer with a straight-up list or to approach it as some sort of esoteric exploration of life and art.
Odds are, when the answer finally emerges, it’ll be a combination of both. Continue reading “What are your favorite movies?”
This week’s question about my favorite books is, as you’ve probably guessed, going to be a bit more difficult than merely spitting out some title and moving on. Then again, this is my 16th answer, just over 30% done for the year of this project, and if you haven’t figured out by now that none of these answers are that simple for me, well then, you haven’t been paying attention. Continue reading “What are your favorite books?”
This seems like an odd question to me. “Tell me about an adventure you’ve been on.” Sure, but really, isn’t that the same as a number of the questions I’ve answered already? I suppose it depends on what we consider an “adventure” right? But also, due to my having blogged about trips and travels regularly since the summer of 2013 (and a bit more haphazardly before that) haven’t I already covered most of my adventures?
Do I take the easy way out and just say “well, life is an adventure” and leave it at that? I don’t think that’s in the spirit of the game. So no, I need to think of an adventure I’ve not talked about before or delve deeper into one I have. But this also means I need to explore the idea of what, exactly, an adventure is. Continue reading “Tell me about an adventure you’ve been on”
Most of these StoryWorth questions lend themselves to a decent amount of discourse and, as has already been noted, the purpose of this blog is to leave a record, it only seems natural I should make the most of that discourse opportunity. That is to say, when I answer these questions, I want to approach it as an exercise to get the most out of it. Continue reading “Are you a morning person or an evening person?”
The first, immediate response to this week’s question is ‘which time?’ I think, over the course of 43 years or so, I moved out of my parents’ house a total of six or seven times. Some much more successfully than others.
The first time I moved out shouldn’t even count since I was only gone for about 18 hours in total, but if I don’t mention it, the folks will certainly give me a ton of grief. Therefore, I want to briefly discuss it, and then put it to bed forever. It went something like this: Continue reading “What was something you were surprised to learn when you moved out from your parents’ house?”
For me, this question about what famous or important people I’ve encountered in real life is a bit different as I’ve spent most of my adult life involved in various aspects of entertainment, often with people who would get recognized and stopped for autographs while walking down the street. Continue reading “What famous or important people have you encountered in real life?”
Photography has changed quite a bit since I was a kid, so the exploration of today’s question, about the best photograph I’ve ever taken, feels like it’s going to be a bit roundabout and circumspect. I mean, first off, we have to talk about the word “best” don’t we? What does that even mean? “Best” according to whom? Continue reading “What is one of the best photographs you’ve ever taken?”
It’s an interesting question this week. The problem, really, is that I wasn’t so much interested in sports teams when I was a kid. At least not of the big four organized sports leagues (NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL). Of those, I suppose baseball would have been my game and the Dodgers my team, but that didn’t really have much to do with me. Continue reading “Which sports teams were you a fan of as a child?”
High school was such a long time ago, I’m not sure how this answer is going to come out. I graduated in 1985, which basically means that most of the folks I graduated with have kids who have also already graduated from their own high schools (and have probably already celebrated their own 10-year reunions and started to forget about their own experiences, so what chance do I have of having actual coherent memories, all of which is just crazy to think about.) Anyway…this is about my own favorite teacher(s) so let’s see what we’ve got. Continue reading “Who was one of your favorite high school teachers? What made them great?”
I have a feeling this is a deceptively complex question. How has the county changed during MY lifetime seems like it should be easy, I mean after all, I’ve been around for more than half a century, and in that long, things are bound to change, right? Continue reading “How has the country changed during your lifetime?”
Getting the Hang of Thursdays 