Speed Friending

[callistra]

I just remembered that this is kind of a meme and I'm supposed to ask *different* questions too...

Ok..let the meme begin...

Speed Friends (like Speed Dating but Not)
Take no more than five minutes to answer these questions then post a few of your own on your LJ.

1) What book do you think I should read?
2) What do you take pleasure in?
3) What is your favourite memory?
4) What are you most proud of?
5) Do you think the world is mostly happy or mostly sad? Why?

Comments

My responses to babalon_93's meme...

[callistra.livejournal.com]

1) Should read...? I should read my Notebook: subscription more. :-)

2) At the moment, I take pleasure in quiet moments by myself. I also take pleasure in noisy happy giggly moments with my baby. I also take pleasure in lying, relaxed and exhausted next to my husband, thinking of him and Vincent.

3) Favourite memory... I would ask some hard ones... I loved running my Gothic Ball. It's still a highlight. Three seperate headaches! John. John is my walking memory too... what am I doing again...? A number of situations at Swancons.

4) I am most proud of my family. I am proud of who I am, (it has taken work after all!) and I am proud of my marriage and our determination to work on it together. I am also proud of my growing cooking skills.

5) Sometimes, I think it is mostly sad. So many bad things going on in the world, but I think then that my view of the world is also presented to me by a system where bad news is valued over good news, where governments appear to want people to live in fear, and where every day the sun rises and sets in beautiful colour. But even if I negated all the views I get from media, just the people who walk around me at shopping centres all seem to unhappy, and unable to delight in something as simple as a smile.

[baby-elvis.livejournal.com]

1)What book do you think I should read?
From the Mixed-up files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler, by E.L. Konigsburg. It's a kids book.

2) What do you take pleasure in?
Calm, I really take pleasure in feeling calm.

3) What is your favourite memory?
Gosh, um. One that springs to mind is celebrating my honey's b'day by racing paper boats down the stream at the Pioneer Women's Memorial at King's Park.

4) What are you most proud of?
Having helped some young women through some tough times.

5) Do you think the world is mostly happy or mostly sad? Why?
I think it mostly exists in between - I am a big fan of contentment. But I think there's a lot of places where the political, economic or basic food and water situations are so awful that sadness, fear, anger and a sense of powerlessness reign.

[mikey-ob.livejournal.com]

1) Oh the Places You Will Go by Dr Seuss
2) Cooking, and then sharing food with people
3) Sitting in a park with Anna and just relaxing as the day goes by
4) That I seem to have a knack for finding good in everyone
5) Mostly sad with a happy person bursting to get out. We are taught to be sad and not encouraged to be really happy...we are told that we will be happy if we buy something...externalising things never makes you happy.

[callistra.livejournal.com]

We're hoping to get all the Dr Seuss books for night time reading *grin*

[vegetariansushi.livejournal.com]

I would like to give you a warning, here. Before you present any Dr Seuss books to sprog, sit down -- by yourself -- and read them aloud half a dozen times each. I realise that you will feel like a moron, but do it anyhow. If you are sick of the books after half a dozen read-alouds, for the love of cheese, reconsider the damn books. Seriously. Or -- this is better -- buy them in board book form, which is a shortened version aimed at younger kids. Because I will tell you now that there is nothing like reading seven Dr. Seuss books in a freaking row, and then being asked to read them all again. I love reading to Maura, but I have a once a day limit on Dr Seuss at this point, because the nonsensical singsong rhymeness of it all drives me absolutely INSANE.

Oooh this is fun!!

[http://users.livejournal.com/doctor_k_/]

1) What book do you think I should read?

Tove Janssen's Moomin books. Utterly delightful kids books by a melancholy Finn.

2) What do you take pleasure in?

Many things. Sleep, sensual pleasures eg food, wine, endorphin rush from running, and delighting in the company of my friends. Being reminded again, and again, at how fabulous and varied and wonderful all my friends are.

3) What is your favourite memory?

Saturday night at Burning Man : )

4) What are you most proud of?

I enjoyed answering this one at E's place the other day. I am proud of holding together an unorthodox life, despite my upbringing, despite my family's horror. My life is unusual, rich and fulfilling, and I'm proud of my different path through life.

5) Do you think the world is mostly happy or mostly sad? Why?

Happy. I believe most people are at least content, if not happy. In many places where poverty is immense and overwhelming, people are much more in touch with the happiness of family, friends, small achievements.
Must get my shit together with that 'Measuring Happiness in Bhutan' talk I was going to organise...

[illiadic.livejournal.com]

1) The Wind in the Willows (full version with the beautiful intro's to each chapter)
2) A tidy house / growing garden
3) sorry cant print that
4) The fact that my students told me they think I am the best lecturer in my department
5) I think many people in the world have to live in bad conditions but people seem to make the best of any situation. So I would say the balance tips to happy.

[cassiphone.livejournal.com]

1. Olympic Games, by Leslie What
2. Rare moments of leisure. Family. Fresh tuna.
3. The steady gaze of my baby the first time we encountered each other.
4. Thriving baby; thriving relationship
5. Mostly sad for many people; but mostly happy for me.

[vegetariansushi.livejournal.com]

1. Ahab's Wife by Sena Naslund Jeter -- It's an absolutely gorgeous book that's essentially fanfic for Moby Dick, though you needn't have read one to appreciate the other. (I've never read all of Moby Dick.) It's one of my favourite books, and has rich, layered characters of both sexes.

2. Sleep. And food. I sort of take what I can get in both regards, a lot of the time, but when I can have a ten hour stretch of uninterrupted sleep time, or when I have a really good meal -- my mood is better for days.

3. Maura

4. Maura

5. I've been waffling for three minutes now, but am almost out of time. So I think that I ultimately have to say sad, with brief flashes of happiness. I think that if the universal we were happy, there wouldn't be such a need to accumulate material whatever; there wouldn't be such a push to be better than people. If we continue the way that we are, I'm convinced that we're headed for extinction, and that's -- you know. Sad. I think that many people are content with their lives, but they're still not happy, and they're too afraid of losing what contentment they have to go out on a limb and risk it for happiness. If that makes sense out of my head, which it may well not.

[lilysea.livejournal.com]

1) What book do you think I should read?
Ditto on Tove Janssen, who is fabulous and to be treasured. Also _A Tour Guide in Utopia_ by Lucy Sussex and _Magic or Madness_ by Justine Larbalestier.

2) What do you take pleasure in?
Looking at paintings and sculpture. Natural beauty - trees, water, birds.
Delicious food. Spending time with friends. Delightful scents (essential oils, incense). Reading well written, thoughtful books. Seeing theatre.

3) What is your favourite memory?
Seeing art in Europe, and also the gorgeous natural landscapes in Norway.

4) What are you most proud of?
Hmm. Tricky question. Probably surviving moving to another city and meeting new people. It was very hard, but I managed, and now my new city is also a type of home.

5) Do you think the world is mostly happy or mostly sad? Why?
I think the world has the potential to be mostly happy, but at the moment is mostly sad for most people (especially those living in the developing world) due to poverty, racism, sexism, homophobia and environmental destruction. Having said that, there are many, many joyful things in the world that are worth savoring and celebrating, especially if you were lucky enough to be born in a wealthy country like Australia. I would like to see a world where everyone got to realise their full potential, whether they were born in Mozambique or Melbourne. I would also like to see people be able to choose to work less hours in Australia, so they had more time to savor the good things about life. I think this would make people happier.