The Never Ending Toadfish Interview Cycle!

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

a)  Music:  recorded professionally in a studio?  Or a concert recording?  Or live #at# a concert?  Or...you really hate music and wonder what's all the fuss about?  Explain why
Oookay... I spend a few years in a conservatory so the hating music thing... well, I would think that there is something fundamentally wrong with a music hater...
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The better the musicians the better live music is and something will be lost in the recording, this is particularly true for classical music, a recording of a great orchestra will never do justice to the work, the musicians or the conductor when compared to the live experience. For pop music it's a bit different, while the energy of a concert experience can't be replicated the quality of sound is frequently lousy in a concert venue (the bigger the worse) and I'm convinced that the process of amplification destroys the richness of the instruments hence even unplugged events lose something in the process. That being said, studio recordings are carefully crafted products, clean enough to listen subtleties that you would rarely pick at a live engagement making both things (live vs studio) two very different products with different virtues and downsides.

So err.. depends?

b) Whatever the venue, do you prefer professional-with-talent music or amateur-barely-talented?  Or perhaps no-talent-at-all-but-very-cute little kids making the music?   If you answered "hate music" in a) for b) tell us which of the above you hate the most...
The more professional and talented the better. An amateur may lack experience or publicity but if there's talent it may be interesting. Now barely talented or untalented? Go to the shower and sing/play there, I don't wanna hear ya, ok?

c) I like cheese.  Any sort, really, so long as it came from animals and not vegetables.   Do you consider "velveeta" (or equivelent) to be cheese?  Edible?  Something best used to adhere posters to walls?  Explain, please.  Feel free to elaborate at length the virtues of your favorite cheese or cheese-like-substance.
Are you talking about that usually yellow supposedly dairy substance used in cheap burgers/sandwiches? Oh, the cheap thing used as dip for chips... ? Isn't it the same thing? Well, erm, I guess you can eat the stuff occasionally, but don't call it cheese, mkay? Try those chips with real cheese and you'll notice the difference.

Elaborate? A world without cheese (young, aged, soft, hard, white, yellow, green, blue) is a very sad world indeed. Something must be done to capture the methane from the cows but keep the cheese flowing!!!

Bonus: if you like cheese, what sort of music do you like to listen to while snacking on your favorite cheese?
Any. If the music is too good I might not eat the cheese, and if the cheese is too good I might not put attention to the music...

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Darn! Pachy got me...
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1. Are you scared of spiders?
Yup, big ones, I had one of those coming up my leg when I was a kid and despite no injure I still have bad vibes about it. I try to rationalize the fear and can watch them even perhaps let them in my arm, but I have to use a bit of self control for it.

2. Are you scared of any other animal? (excluding humans)
In general I'm not fond of arthropods (although I can admire their beauty) but the one that comes up to the hate & disgust (more than scared) are roaches, particularly the big ones that grow in tropical/sub tropical climates. I guess it can count as irrational fear but I really, really feel bad at the sight of one and have trouble killing them (not for lack of hate, mind you). Not sure why they disgust me so much.

3. Could you fend for yourself if left out in the wild?
Depends on 'the wild' we are talking about. As a camper in my younger days I know a trick or two but it will depend on what is available to survive.

Bonus: Do you know the difference between the Immaculate Conception and the Incarnation of Christ? (without looking it up)
Sigh, yes, I bloody do, I was raised catholic, so yeah, I know, bleah*.  

* I hope I'm not offending anyone, but I'm less and less fond of 'the church' nowadays, besides I wonder how many productive things I could've learn in all those catechism lessons I had as a child.

1. What do you feel when someone answers first in this thread while you are answering?

2. Is it possible to have organized religion without it being subverted for the gain of the few?

3. Is there a practical, viable way to make politics a respectable profession?

[Opsa]

Wow, good questions Zone!

1. What do you feel when someone answers first in this thread while you are answering?

I feel like my last piece of warm pie has just fallen on the floor.

2. Is it possible to have organized religion without it being subverted for the gain of the few?

I really don't know. It seems that organization requires rules, which in turn seems to attract people who want to bend them in their favor. Maybe the only way around this is to remain unorganized.

3. Is there a practical, viable way to make politics a respectable profession?

See above. As long as someone's in charge there will always be someone else who isn't, and wants to be, who will mess it up for those who are trying to do their work.

In both religion and politics the problem appears to arise over power struggles. So:

1) Is it possible to avoid power struggles in religion and/or politics?

2) Is it possible to avoid power struggles in the average children's play yard?

3) Can humankind play nice?

[Swatopluk]

1) Is it possible to avoid power struggles in religion and/or politics?
No, see below
2) Is it possible to avoid power struggles in the average children's play yard?
No, see above
3) Can humankind play nice?
It can play, but once it is for real: No!

Because these are not very deep answers, I'll leave the questions for the next one.

1) Is it possible to avoid power struggles in religion and/or politics?

2) Is it possible to avoid power struggles in the average children's play yard?

3) Can humankind play nice?

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

1) Is it possible to avoid power struggles in religion and/or politics?
Not completely but perhaps control them to an exempt. If you think about it democracy (whatever that thing is) allows certain level of control that prevents the most egregious transgressions.

2) Is it possible to avoid power struggles in the average children's play yard?
Depending on how empathy is thought to them, there is a chance to minimize the worst offenses but any success will be limited by the nature of the (human) beast.

3) Can humankind play nice?
Remove the psychopaths and there is a chance of fair play.

1. What are your thoughts on the western paradigm of beauty?

2. Do you have a particular childhood memory you want to share with us?

3. What is the dish you hated as a kid that now wouldn't live without?

[Scriblerus the Philosophe]

1. What are your thoughts on the western paradigm of beauty?
It's ruled by status symbols, just like every other paradigm. But certain things lucky men and women have will never go out of style because it's in our biology to like women with an hourglass figure and men with certain features.

2. Do you have a particular childhood memory you want to share with us?
I was 12, and my school district does this thing where every sixth grader who wants to can go to a camp in the mountains (supposedly to teach you how to survive if you get lost up there--I hardly remember a thing).
The Sierra Nevadas are glorious and huge, and in most places there's no light pollution, and that camp was fun! I dissected an owl pellet (we found a mole skeleton), went for a long nature walk (it was early September, so plants were fruiting and it was wonderfully warm), made an obsidian arrow head, and the last night, we did astronomy. I've only ever seen a handful of other places with that many stars visible and I've always been awed by them.

3. What is the dish you hated as a kid that now wouldn't live without?
I wasn't a picky eater as kid and I think I may be more picky now than I was then. But anything involving peppers. I didn't do them as a kid, and now I eat them like apples.
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1. Was there anything you ever read that made you feel like just an over sized monkey?

2. How do you feel about disorder?

3. What's your least favorite household task (cleaning the gutters, scrubbing the toilet, etc)?

[Kaliayev]

1. Was there anything you ever read that made you feel like just an over sized monkey?

Oh hell yes.  The Archaeology of Knowledge by Foucault, when I was 19, which I gave up on after three pages.  And A Critique of Pure Reason by Kant a year earlier, which I had no choice but to read.  Those two seem the worst offenders I can recall, though no doubt there are thousands of papers that helped give me that impression as well.

2. How do you feel about disorder?

I'm fine with it.  Too much, of course, can be a pain at times, but too little and things become dull.  Disorder allows for flux and chance and other random events and as someone who generally dislikes things staying the same for too long, I approve.  Plus, its the permament state of existence of my bedroom.

3. What's your least favorite household task (cleaning the gutters, scrubbing the toilet, etc)?

Without a doubt cleaning the bathroom.  The reasons it needs to be cleaned so often are exactly the reasons I dislike it.

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1.  If you could be in any city in the world right now, where would it be, and why?

2.  Can an omnipotent being create an object too heavy for it to lift?

3.  Mushroom or tomato soup?

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

1.  If you could be in any city in the world right now, where would it be, and why?
Probably Paris, more so this time of the year. There may be better places but I don't know them yet (I still have some traveling to do). Why? Great food (I'd do it just for the bakeries ), a vibrant cultural life, a language I like (and need to improve), an easy and affordable way to move around, and lots and lots of stuff to see.

2.  Can an omnipotent being create an object too heavy for it to lift?
That is an interesting question, I guess you could rephrase it as can and omnipotent being in this universe go out of it to lift it? I guess that illustrates how oxymoronic the concept of omnipotency really is.

3.  Mushroom or tomato soup?
Thai mushroom soup with noodles. 

1. Birds, love them, hate them, indifferent about them, crazy about them, making you crazy? Explain.

2. Describe the perfect computer.

3. How is your dream house?

[Darlica]

1. Birds, love them, hate them, indifferent about them, crazy about them, making you crazy? Explain.
Birds are not my favourite animals, I don't dislike them (except pigeons ) they can be beautiful, intelligent and interesting. Magpies, ravens and small seagulls are favourites since they are very resource full and can be hilarious to watch. We always feed the small birds during the winter with all kinds of grains coconuts and stuff, now in Mars and April we have a LOUD chorus of twitter and squeaks every morning.    

2. Describe the perfect computer.
Problem free.
No need to do updates every other day.
Easy to connect to other appliances.
Silent
If laptop all above + pretty light. 

3. How is your dream house?
+5 rooms, a nice big kitchen, preferable a waterfront view (close to nature anyway), a fireplace in the living room, a conservatory would be nice.


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A) Lake or sea?

B) What's your plan s for Easter?

C) Do you like eggs (the real ones not the candy variety)?

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

I just couldn't resist.... 

2. Describe the perfect computer.

Could not resist:  HAL from 2001, except without the homicidal tendencies.

Basically, voice-operated.  Faultless.  Logical to a fault.  Self-learning.  Adapts itself to the user (not the other way 'round).  Mobile.  Atomic-powered (so no need to plug in or recharge).  100% full-time high-speed access to the world wide web.  Self-aware enough to automatically defend itself against zombie/virus attacks.   Smart enough to learn, and filter out the e-mails I don't want to see, but to answer the routine ones I need to, but find tedious.

Learns what sort of news I like and what sort I need to hear, and filters the rest into a summary, presenting the former.

Basically, an improved, auxiliary brain...

...and while we're at it?  Scratch the voice operation-- have it directly connected into my cortex.  I'll just think at it, AKA the computers in L. Neil Smith's universe...

[Opsa]

A) Lake or sea?

It depends! I love the smell of the sea, the sound of the sea, the shells, etc.  I love few things more than sitting seaside and letting the environment take all my stress and iron it out like a tablecloth.
BUT
If I had to choose where to put my home (and wouldn't I love to have this choice), I would put it by a mountain lake. It would be less likely to flood, less likely to suffer from hurricanes/typhoons, less likely to be overrun by tourists in the summer. I would still be able to get the reflected sunlight and watch the waterfowl and fauna, and if it was northern enough, I might benefit from skating fun when it iced over in the wintertime.

If only my ship would come in! I'd settle for a rowboat at this point.

B) What's your plan s for Easter?

Nothing big. We used to have Mr. Ops' father over for dinner, but he is not well enough to travel these days. Maybe we'll go visit him, this time around. We'd have to invite ourselves, though- he never thinks to ask anyone over. Can be a bit awkward.

I did buy a chocolate bunny for the Opsalette, though. (Okay, and some pastel M&Ms for us big kids!)

C) Do you like eggs (the real ones not the candy variety)?

I do. I'm a dairyvegetairy and eggs supply good protien that is more challenging to find in a vegan diet. Plus, I like the way they taste. Especially in omlettes and Egg Fu Yung. And don't get me started on hard boiled. Oh, to be Paul Newman's stand-in for the egg-eating scene in Cool Hand Luke! Where's my salt shaker? Still, I don't get to eat them very often, as Mr. Ops has high cholesterol. That's probably why I am so enthusiastic about them.



Uno) Do you celebrate any holidays that belong to religions not your own (if any)? If so- Why?

Deuce) Do you believe in luck?

Tracy Ullman) What's happening season-wise in your part of the world?

[Scriblerus the Philosophe]

Uno) Do you celebrate any holidays that belong to religions not your own (if any)? If so- Why?
Yes. Christmas, St. Patrick's day, Easter...
MY holidays are Mole day, Pi day, Moosemas, Mungday, St. Tib's day, Festivus, etc. but the others are cultural. My family is Catholic and Catholic lite (Lutheran), so those are sort of what I was raised on.

Deuce) Do you believe in luck?
Sort of. Random chance that falls in your favor is luck.

Tracy Ullman) What's happening season-wise in your part of the world?
Spring. It's now dry, blustery and alternating between warm and cool.
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1. Favorite book series?

2. Have you had good experiences buying stuff online?

3. What's the worst that could happen?

[Griffin NoName]

1.  Favourite Book Series 

Rather un-high-brow, a typical very English detective: the Inspector Lynley series by Elizabeth George. It's just as good in the TV makeover series as well. Except they announced there won't be any more of those.


2. Have you had good experience buying stuff online? 

Due to degrees of incapaity I buy virtually everything on line. Nearly always really excellent. Arrives quickly, good condition, no quibble exchange/refund if wrong, just what I ordered and expected. And I don't just stick to known sites either. The bad ones are so rare they really stand out.


3. What's the worst that could happen?

To me personally as oppposed to all humankind, a long slow lonely isolated painful chronically awful death. Like being unable to tell if we hit the bottom of the market before hand, it is hard to tell if it has already started but the signs aren't good at present.

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1.  Why do we spare animals slow horrible death but not humans?  How can anyone think that this is OK? (faith arguments excluded).

2.  Why do animals relatives have no say?

3.  Which country will get the most medals at the 2012 Olympics and which the most in which individual event and how much will this cost Londoners?

[Earthling]

1.  Why do we spare animals slow horrible death but not humans?  How can anyone think that this is OK? (faith arguments excluded).
Because people love their animals much more intensely than they love other humans, and more significantly, they empathize with animals. People spend their whole lives carving out their own space where other people aren't allowed, both physically (my house, my yard, my car, my cubicle) and mentally (my ideas, my memories, my secrets). This isolates us, in both directions -- you have your "stuff" that you won't tell me, and I keep my thoughts about you and your stuff to myself to maintain "decorum". If I allow myself to care enough about you to advocate for your euthanasia, others hearing about it have to address the possibility of facing a similar situation, and that's too uncomfortable. It's easier for them to ignore your pain (and mine) than to accept the possibility that they will have to make a similar choice some day, so the option is legislated away. Because animals are assigned a lower value by society, it's easier to conceal the pain one goes through in deciding to euthanize a pet, and easier for others to ignore it. This allows the isolation booths of individuals to remain inviolate.

2.  Why do animals relatives have no say?
They do, but only in those cases where humans have not separated them, and the humans in question care enough to look for the input from them. Even when looked for by a sensitive, caring human, it's not easy to find, or even to be sure the relative understands waht's going on. When Devil Kitty suddenly threw a blood clot (saddle thrombus) and lost use of his back legs, with accompanying extreme pain, we had to decide very quickly between unpleasant options. His sister, Little One, knew something was wrong, but in the half hour before we were ready to leave for the emergency vet (2AM, isn't it always the way), we were not able to get any sense that she knew how serious things were. We had to euthanize Devil, and it took Little One a few days to figure out that her brother wasn't going to come back, and a few weeks to stop looking for him. I wish cats could talk.

3.  Which country will get the most medals at the 2012 Olympics and which the most in which individual event and how much will this cost Londoners?
Probably the USA will get the most overall. I have no idea who is good in which event so I'll guess that swimmer, Phelps, will win the most. It will end up costing Londoners way more than it's worth, and they'll be stuck with a bunch of lovely shiny new sports facilities that no one will use.

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1. What is your favorite musical instrument, and why?

2. What accomplishment are you most proud of in your life so far?

3. Have you ever experienced anything that you would classify as paranormal?

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

1. What is your favorite musical instrument, and why?
The French Horn. Going to school for music and spending a few years with it made the attachment stronger. I miss playing professionally, though.

2. What accomplishment are you most proud of in your life so far?
Mmm, after so many flops? So far the only accomplishment I can claim is the education of my son. He is 13 so I still have time to screw up.

3. Have you ever experienced anything that you would classify as paranormal?
When my son was a few months old we moved from a tiny efficiency to a real albeit small apartment. The place was nice, in a nice new building a block from my parents house (which was convenient because that's where we left my son during the day). There was something eerie about the place, there was always a baby crying during the day, the couple that collected the administration fee looked disappointed when I pointed out how pretty their apartment was, my wife was growing nervous by the day until one night, I went to the bathroom and when I opened the door of our room I found her standing on the bed in what looked like a state of trance. When I asked her what was happening I felt something wanted to get inside me (I don't know how exactly to describe the feeling). I shook it off and we left the apartment that evening. We spent 3 weeks on that place, broke the contract and after telling the owner what happened she first said that she had told a priest to give a benediction to the place quickly adding that she had done the same which each property she had () and that if there was something wrong with the place she would have to sell it. And about two weeks later the place was indeed for sale.

It could have been a form of self suggestion or something and we tried not to think about it until I heard an odd tale about a year later. A colleague from my dad's school lived in the building right in front of the place and she told him that the previous week a lady that lived on the second floor of the same building was found screaming naked on top of her bed in what looked like a trance and that the police had to be called.

At this point there may be a rational explanation to the whole affair (involving an interesting number of coincidences, mind you) but I frankly have trouble dismissing the possibility of a genuine paranormal event.

1. How skeptic do you consider yourself?

2. Do you have intuition?

3. Do you know a placebo that has an effect on you?

[Swatopluk]

1. How skeptic do you consider yourself?
Sometimes verging on paranoia. The problem is that I have bouts of overcompensation for that at other times.
Generally I think I am more likely to believe negative than positive claims ("too good to be true").
I think the mot that "a cynic is a disappointed idealist" has much for it.

2. Do you have intuition?
Not very effective and I am very sceptic about it anyway.

3. Do you know a placebo that has an effect on you?
The unserious answer is that some standard components of placebos trouble my digestive system and therefore have a result of course 
I need some kind of lozenge when going to sleep and it's rather unimportant what it is, otherwise the acid reflux (or the thought thereof) starts too early. The fact of taking something often has an effect on me even if I have no special trust in the effectiveness of the substance.
I also don't see much of a difference whether I drink chamomile tea (no caffeine) or black tea in the morning, it#s the fact of drinking something hot that seems to count.

1) What is your favorite "non-charismatic" animal (=nothing traditionally cute etc. allowed)?

2) What do you consider the strangest word in your/the English language?

3) Commercial fishery has a catastrophic effect on the oceans but without it many humans would die of hunger (and fish is very healthy if kept free of pollution). What do you think about that dilemma and does it influence you own consumer choices?
Warning: Fish farms consume caught wild fish. 1 ton of farmed fish requires 4-5 tons of wild fish as input.