• If you could only choose 1 cd to ever listen to again, what would it be? – One? Only ONE? Ack! I live and die by my music. Okay, okay, if that’s how you want it. The special edition ‘Toy Matinee.’ There’s not one bad song on the original version, and one of the bonus tracks (Blank Page) quite eloquently states my own artistic frustration. Kevin Gilbert, we hardly knew ye. People, you must buy ‘Toy Matinee’ and Kevin’s solo work, ‘Thud.’ Do it now. I’ll wait. Go on.
  
• If you could only choose 2 movies to watch ever again, what would they be? – This is a tougher question. In this fantasy scenario, I’d say that one film would be Miyazaki’s ‘Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind’ in some sort of complete, uncut and either well-subbed or well-dubbed form. (Let’s assume I have a DVD player and can have it both ways.) The botched dub of ‘Nausicaa’ known as ‘Warriors of the Wind’ was my first exposure to feature-length anime, and I still treasure it most highly. I’m not sure what the other film would be. You could set me up with one out of a number of other Miyazaki films (‘My Neighbor Totoro’ or ‘Princess Mononoke’ or even ‘Kiki’s Delivery Service’) and I’d be quite content. I can’t imagine which live-action film I could stand to be limited to, I’m afraid.
  
• If you could only choose 3 books to read ever again, what would they be? – Most of the books I read are parts of series. I’m going to bend the question and count each series as one work. So there, nyah nyah. 1: Anne McCaffrey’s “harper hall” trilogy. 2: The Eddings’ “Belgariad”. 3: Stephen Donaldson’s “Mordant’s Need” double-book set. If I really wanted to abuse the question, I’d take McCaffrey’s entire Pern set and all of the Eddings’ Belgarath-centric works, but that would be greedy. Oh wait, I am…
  
• If you could only choose 4 things to eat or drink ever again, what would they be? – French bread pizzas, those Stouffer’s things. Orange juice. Vegetable-beef soup w/ crackers. Hot cocoa.
  
• If you could only choose 5 people to ever be/talk/associate/whatever with ever again, who would they be? – Let’s see, who would I be willing share my cocoa with? And how do I answer this question without pissing off everyone I leave out? Sheesh. What a mean question. If I take Wendi and the kids, that leaves only two slots. If I’m allowed to discount my family, I could select: Mari Toshimitsu, Benjamin Studtmann, Heather Dvorak, Steve McMullen and, say, some random really cool famous person. And yes, I know I haven’t talked to Steve in years. And also, yes, there are online friends I didn’t name, but most of those I haven’t really met so I wouldn’t (yet!) feel comfortable adding them to my list. See how hard it is to do this without slighting large numbers of people? The Friday Five folks should be ashamed of themselves. Sheesh.
  

Friday Five

• What size shoe do you wear? – Nine and a half, wide. Make of that what you will, ladies.
  
• How many pairs of shoes do you own? – Usually only a couple pair at any given time.
  
• What type of shoe do you prefer (boots, sneakers, pumps, etc.)? – I like any kind of comfortable good-looking shoe as long as it’s black. Black goes with everything, especially my black pants.
  
• Describe your favorite pair of shoes. Why are they your favorite? – Let’s see.. there’s a big hole in the top where I insert my foot. There are laces criss-crossing most of the upper portion of the shoe. Underneath you find some sort of rubber-like substance with traction patterns. Oh yes, and the shoes are all black. They’re my favorite because I can walk around in them.
  
• What’s the most you’ve spent on one pair of shoes? – Money? $60, if I remember correctly.
  

One gets the impression that this week’s Friday Five was contributed by a woman who owns a lot of shoes, doesn’t one?
Friday Five

• What are your favorite ways to relax and unwind? – Listen to music, read a book, play on the computer.
  
• What do you do the moment you get home from work/school/errands? – Close the door behind me. After that? Well, it depends doesn’t it?
  
• What are your favorite aromatherapeutic smells? – *blink* *blink* Yes, because all bloggers are into aromatherapy. Next question, please.
  
• Do you feel more relaxed with a group of friends or hanging out by yourself? – I’ll tell you what, next time I have a group of friends I’ll let you know. I’ve never had a group of friends…
  
• What is something that you feel is relaxing but most people don’t? – You mean, something we assume most people don’t feel is relaxing. We’re not mindreaders, after all. Well, maybe you are, but I’m not. Uh, anyway, I don’t have a good answer for this question. Sorry.
  

Friday Five

• Would you say that you’re good at keeping in touch with people? – Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Depends on the person, depends on how close of a friend (s)he is, depends on the nature of our relationship. In other words, like most things in life “it depends.”
  
• Which communication method do you usually prefer/use: e-mail, telephone, snail mail, blog comments, or meeting in person? Why? – Yes, no, no, yes, and especially yes. I’m not a “phone person,” and I couldn’t even tell you why. That’s just how it is. You might not suspect it of me, but I really prefer to meet face-to-face. Email and instant messaging and blog comments are merely little ways to keep in touch between real get-togethers.
  
• Do you have an instant messenger program? How many? Why/why not? How often do you use it? – Once again, note that the Friday Five is actually the Friday Ten Or So. *sigh* I started with ICQ, got Yahoo! for the hell of it, and eventually gave up and went AIM. I’ve dabbled in Jabber, but it tends to universally suck dingos. ICQ has gotten flakier and more spam-prone over the years, and Yahoo! is just plain “nucking futs.” AIM is the IM system of choice. And yes, if I’m connected to the Internet at all I can be found running at least AIM if not all three.
  
• Do most of your close friends live nearby or far away? – Um. Let’s see, Mari lives in the Portland metro area. Heather moved to Cali. Ben lives in town but he only gets in touch once every four-to-six months then vanishes again. That’s all of my close friends, folks. There are some other folks who I hope grow into being close friends, but…
  
• Are you an “out of sight, out of mind” person, or do you believe that “distance makes the heart grow fonder”? – Yes.
  

Friday Five

So it’s been a largely content-free week here at greyduck.net. I apologize for that. It’s not much fun to check a website regularly for new content only to find none.

And this post is no exception: I’m NOT doing the Friday Five this week, as I simply have nothing I want to share about my schooling. You, of course, are free to go forth and answer the questions as you see fit.
Friday Five

Turns out Melpster and I are a bit alike:

take the what amusing entity are you? quiz by kimburk