Saturday Six: Episode #397

Last week, I turned the tables on some of you who answered a recent edition of the Sunday Seven. Those who played that week had to come up with questions they’d ask me over dinner. The questions I got were so good, I couldn’t resist using them for the Saturday Six. I’ll answer the questions myself this week, but today, it’s all about you!

Thanks for dropping by and I hope you enjoy this week’s set of questions!

Be sure to check back this week and click on the links of bloggers who play along in the comments below! It’s a great way to find blogs you may not have visited and keep the conversation going!

Here are this week’s “Saturday Six” questions. Either answer the questions in a comment here, or put the answers in an entry on your blog… But don’t forget to leave a link to your blog so that everyone else can visit! Permission is not granted to copy the questions to message boards for the purpose of having members answer and play along there. Enjoy!

1. From Cat.: What’s the best part about where you live? The history is the greatest thing about northern New Jersey - within easy distance of my house, there are the 300 stone steps, the 3,000 year old petroglyphic rocks tucked away on a teeny side street of Parsippany, Tripod rock in Kinnelon, hundreds of sites where the Revolutionary War went on and/or George Washington stayed; and Manhattan, Boston, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. are all in driving distance. What more can one ask? Oh, yes - I can ask for the ocean - the Atlantic Ocean is just an hour away!

2. From Cat.: What can we do about so-called Christians who really aren’t? At least, they don’t look like they’ve ever read the Gospels. At least, not the Gospels you and I seem to have read. Wow, I have no idea how to answer this. I'm not a Christian and would never claim to be a religious person if I was not - which is fairly close. I will say that since I have become an EMT I very much believe in a soul as a definite part of all living things (I don't believe that only humans have souls, however, and I am unsure if that is doctrine or personal beliefs depending on whom one speaks with); having walked many a person to the grave, I am convinced we all have souls that go on when the body dies.

However, I am spiritual, not religious. I find too many people fit into the category you, Cat, described. I don't understand it, though, and as humans, well, too many people make the choice to not be devout but proclaim they are. What can you do? I don't know that you can. As I understand it, that would be St. Peter's job to know and what to do with those people, right? I guess the only thing to do is leave it in his hands. As it stands, after a time I would have to think those people become identifiable as any relationship grows. One can't hide that kind of "double-sided-ness" too long.

(I feel like I should try to answer the question, even if this is an educated guess. I welcome your thoughts, as you might give me more insight to this question.)

3. From Strange: Where did you grow up? I grew up first in Demarest, New Jersey until the age of two and a half, so I have no recollection of that. All I have from it are a couple of scars from the time I was two and fell into a bunch of cacti that were kept in the window under where I would sit and look out. The scars are under my eyebrows but when I get them threaded, I can see them.

Then my parents got divorced so I grew up in both Wallington, N.J. and Truckville, PA. From age 13 I grew up in Wayne, N.J. Since then, I've moved steadily westward and now we are in Parsippany, until we retire and then I want to live in Palm Springs, California. That's the whole story!

4. From Strange: What do you like to do in your spare time? What don't I do...? I read a monstrous amount - I always read a lot, but now that I am "retired" I read 800 page books in a week! Which is a good thing... I will still need to live to the ripe old age of 300 to read all the books I own...

I am also a fantasy artist; a blogger (I suppose that is rather obvious, now); I enjoy organising and there is no end to what can be organised; an EMT that can't ride but is heading up the committee to buy a new rig and will be the Treasurer come 1 December for the next year; I also love seeing nature and hiking, although I can't do it the way I used to; and I write letters. I don't mean e-mail and I don't mean typing, either - I mean hand-writing long letters to friends in the United Kingdom, Czech Republic and New Hampshire. What else do I do? I guess that is it. I want to take painting lessons, too. That will have to be a gift - I haven't the income for it.

I love studying astronomy, geology, plate tectonics, volcanology, meteorology, etc. Anything that ends in "ogy" sounds good!

I also collect bank notes; candles; fancy pens; crystal spheres (I don't pretend to have any psychic abilities, I just love geology and the fact that nature creates these); and writing paper. I use all of these things and don't collect anything that is not practical or displayed.

5. From Strange: If you could visit anywhere in the world where would you go? Oh, where wouldn't I go? I have a huge, endless list of places. Unfortunately, the phrase "in the world" limits me from my very top choice - the Moon. I want to be an astronaut, even though I would never pass the physical! I've always wanted to go to the Moon!

6. From Aislínge: What made you decide to start your blog? An inspiration, a need to empty your head, a complaint of something, or something entirely different? I heard about blogging from my cousin, Renee, who had (or maybe still has) a blog on LivePress. That was in early 2005. But that was not the inspiration. The thing that made me go from thinking about it to actually doing it was an article in People Magazine in August 2005 about over-40 virgins. I read the article and HAD to write about it. The posting is called "First Topic: 40-Year-Old Virgins" and it was my second post, dated 21 August 2005. (The first post was to introduce myself, on the same date. That same day I also wrote the post "A Day in My Life", about being an EMT on a drill. The beginning of it all!) I started out slowly but then gained speed and realised that all the junk floating around in my head could go in here, freeing up more space for more... junk!

Gosh, this is fun!

If you have a Reader’s Choice question you’d like to see asked (and answered), send me an email! I’d love to include it in a future edition of the Saturday Six.