Want to know how _____? ask me now.

[fredericks]

Ask me a question(s) about any or all of the following:
1. Friends
2. Sex
3. Music
4. Drugs
5. Love
6. LiveJournal
7. Religion, politics, philosophy, or whatever

Comments will be screened but run the risk of being made visible if I find the questions and the responses they invoke interesting enough.
Hmm - can you comment on screened comments without making them visible? One way to find out, I guess.

Comments

[emily-goddess.livejournal.com]

1. What makes someone a "friend"?

2. Do you believe that humans are instinctively monogamous or polyamorous?

3. Which is the more crucial element in a song: good lyrics or good music?

4. How old were you when you first tried alcohol?

5. Is love really all you need? Is love alone enough to make a relationship work?

6. Ever had any drama on your own journal?

7. Are you particularly religious? Have you ever been?

Hmmmm...this looks familiar.

[fireslide.livejournal.com]

1.Friends: Consider some people to be friends(RL) that don't reciprocate the feeling?
2.Sex: Does the act ever lower your self worth in you own mind?
3.Music: Any secret passions?
4.Drugs: Tell people you do when you don't? Tell people you don't when you do?
5.Love: Hopeless or Hopefull?
6.Livejournal: Use it less when in a relationship?

I already have the questions posted on my LJ, feel free to ask me some if you like.

[fredericks.livejournal.com]

1. What makes someone a "friend"?
In the broadest sense (and I'm speaking personally, of course) a friend is someone with whom I feel comfortable. It happens rarely, you see, and so when I'm around a body and I find myself not worrying about saying the right thing or having to censor myself I know things are going well. Someone who's resilient, because I'm a fairly difficult person to tolerate over long periods of time. Someone who's completely honest yet knows the difference between being truthful and being tactless. You know, I'm having a hard time defining this.

2. Do you believe that humans are instinctively monogamous or polyamorous?
I'm unsure. I'm leaning towards instinctly monogamous because it's the way I've been raised and what I've been around. I want to say that polyamorous is another way of saying "indecisive", but then again that comes really close to the whole "bisexual is another way to say 'confused'" so ... no clue.

3. Which is the more crucial element in a song: good lyrics or good music?
Good music. It's the only way to get through works by Tori Amos; for instance "tuna robber/little blubber in my igloo"...wtf does that mean? She does play a mean harpsichord, though. A lovely melody and diminished minor chords can make me swoon. I don't pay much attention to lyrics until the third or fourth listen through.

4. How old were you when you first tried alcohol?
I've been getting little sips of champagne on my b-day since I was 7 or so. Didn't really try beer until college. Not much of a hardcore drinker.

5. Is love really all you need? Is love alone enough to make a relationship work?
No, not at all. Relationships require monetary investment, trust, openness, and understanding. Love greases the cogs and makes thing lovely, but if you don't have everything else you might as well kiss it all goodbye.

6. Ever had any drama on your own journal?
*snort* Sort of. I try to avoid it, but I have had worms opened during a couple of posts on race a couple of months back. It wasn't anyone on my FL causing the problem, which was the most annoying part.

7. Are you particularly religious? Have you ever been?
It waxes and wanes. Right now I'm in a waning period. My faith's pretty shaky and I can't remember a time when I could say it was strong, but I do go through periods where I enjoy the churchgoing experience (sitting in Mass/service, serving in the church, etc). I served as an usher at my small RC church when I was in elementary and I used to love to go to church, but not for the whole religion aspect but for the usher-work (I was a weird little girl). Nowadays I think I go to church for the piece of mind the rituals lend me, but I wouldn't consider myself religious. Searching might be more accurate.

Re: Hmmmm...this looks familiar.

[fredericks.livejournal.com]

1.Friends: Consider some people to be friends(RL) that don't reciprocate the feeling?>
No. If there's no reciprocation there's no friendship. Usually (in my mind) it's the other party that will initiate the friendship because I'm either too shy or too oblivious to figure things out.

2.Sex: Does the act ever lower your self worth in you own mind?
Once in a blue moon. I'm a former Catholic who's still working off of "your body is the temple of God/no masturbation, no sex outside of marriage" thing so the guilt slams me on the occasion. I'm generally successful at napping it off (and you'd think I'm joking but I'm sort of not).

3.Music: Any secret passions?
Ha. My passions are strewn all over LJ because I believe I have some semblance of anonymity. No real secrets, I guess, aside from my wish to form a Renaissance recorder quartet/trio/group. I wish I knew some more people in my neighbor with whom I could jam.

4.Drugs: Tell people you do when you don't? Tell people you don't when you do?
I don't take illegal drugs because I've never really wanted to. I don't lie about taking them either - no peer pressure for me.

5.Love: Hopeless or Hopefull?
Quite hopeless, truth be told. I don't think I'm meant to find happiness with another human being. I wish it wasn't so but there it is.

6.Livejournal: Use it less when in a relationship?
Yes. It's a time thing - when I'm in a relationship or engrossed with anything I generally spend less time on the 'net. There's only so many hours in a day.

[1x2foralways.livejournal.com]

1. Friends: Who was your first childhood friend? What do you remember most about him/her?
2. Sex: Do you believe that it's possible to live without sex?
3. Music: Who has been your most powerful musical influence?
4. Drugs: Do you think some circumstances of drug use can be justified?
5. Love: Do you believe that there is truly someone out there for everyone?
6. LiveJournal: What is your most memorable LJ experience?
7. Religion, politics, philosophy, or whatever: Do you get involved in politics, or do you tend to stay away from that topic?

[anogete.livejournal.com]

Questions...
1. Friends
If you have fallen out of touch with a friend for over a year, do you still consider them your friend or just someone you know?
2. Sex
Do you think it is funny, exciting, or annoying when neighbors have loud sex that you can hear?
3. Music
If you could make the world listen to one song, what song would it be and why?
4. Drugs
Do you believe all drugs should be legalized, some drugs should be legalized, or every current illegal drug should remain illegal?
5. Love
Disregarding your family, do you think that you have been loved by at least one other person every second of your life after the age of 18?
6. LiveJournal
When reading posts from your friends list, what is your favorite subject to read about?
7. Religion, politics, philosophy, or whatever
If you were to run for political office, what would be the three most important issues that you would speak of during campaigning and what would be your stance on them?

[autumnfaerie.livejournal.com]

1) How many people in RL and OL do you consider close, close friends? Have you ever just pretended to be someone's close friend when secretly you wished they'd just leave you alone?

2)Sex toys...yea or nay? (Payback!)

3)What song moves you more than any other?

4)What's the strongest drug you've ever taken? (Legal or illegal)

5)How many times have you been in love, only to figure out later you really weren't as in love as you thought at the time?

6)Where did you get your LJ name from?

7)Do you have the same level of faith now, as you did as a child? Have you changed your religious beliefs at all? Do you have the same religion as your parents?

[fredericks.livejournal.com]

1. Friends: Who was your first childhood friend? What do you remember most about him/her?
My first childhood friend was my cousin, the only female cousin I had for a couple of years. I remember that our friendship consisted of me being teased a lot and I remember having my first sexual experiences with her (pervy, right?). In hindsight it wasn't much of a friendship. Those things help contribute to screwing people up.

2. Sex: Do you believe that it's possible to live without sex?
Yes I do. Sex is an urge that can be channeled into any number of things nowadays. Even using "urge" is wrong, IMO, but I'm bad with the explaining. I couldn't do without it, but I don't doubt people who define themselves as asexual.

3. Music: Who has been your most powerful musical influence?
As in musical artist? I'm young enough to say Michael Jackson shaped a good part of what I chose to listened to. Hearing Eddie Van Halen on "Beat It" made me less hesitant to listen to things like rock or (oddly enough) classical, basically anything my parents weren't listening to on a regular basis (my folks were heavy on the soca, calypso, R&B and soul). It wasn't that MJ himself was an influence, but what he did musically sort of gave the young me permission to listen to things to which the black people that made up my family didn't.

4. Drugs: Do you think some circumstances of drug use can be justified?
Yes. Marijuana for glaucoma and constant pain, opiods as analgesics, things of that nature. Using drugs purely as methods of escape (in a non-physiological sense) is what I don't really get. It might be too many years of having Nancy Reagan whisper "Just Say No" in my ear, but I'm not much of pro-drug person.

5. Love: Do you believe that there is truly someone out there for everyone?
Perhaps. It's not the soulmate concept where there's one perfect match out there in a sea of humans, but I think that like anything else of worth you have to work to find and hold onto that person. If everyone believed there was someone out there for them and went into every potential relationship with an open heart and mind people would be a helluva lot happier.

6. LiveJournal: What is your most memorable LJ experience?
*laugh* I don't recall any. Maybe stumbling upon the LJ of a person whom I considered a long-time friend of sorts, although "stumbling" is the wrong word..."tracked down" is a better term. I keep waiting to find a journal entry of someone who refers to be as the love of their life or something equally as poetic, sappy, and wonderful, but it has yet to happen.

7. Religion, politics, philosophy, or whatever: Do you get involved in politics, or do you tend to stay away from that topic?
I tend to stay away from politics because I have a hard time formulating arguments when pressed by others. This isn't to say I don't have beliefs, but that I'm just really bad when it comes to responding to others inquiries and to save face I avoid the topic altogether (for the most part). I'm not politically involved at the moment but I keep track of what's going on on a daily basis. Btw - in a couple of years I can see myself running for local office or something of that nature.

[fredericks.livejournal.com]

1. Friends
If you have fallen out of touch with a friend for over a year, do you still consider them your friend or just someone you know?
A friend. If we've falled out of touch it's usually through my own contrivance. I have a difficult time picking up the phone (crappy, I know). If I get a ring from them we usually pick up where things left off.

2. Sex
Do you think it is funny, exciting, or annoying when neighbors have loud sex that you can hear?
Annoying for the most part. I find myself annoyed at them for disturbing my abode and annoyed with myself for being annoyed when they're obviously having a blast.

3. Music
If you could make the world listen to one song, what song would it be and why?
*grin* I should start by saying I wouldn't dare try to make the entire globe listen to what I enjoy; I've had more than enough feedback about my (lack of) taste to know what's good for me. If pressed I'd say Tori Amos' "Little Earthquakes" because Tori speaks truth, it doesn't take much to screw things up both on a global or more intimate scale.

4. Drugs
Do you believe all drugs should be legalized, some drugs should be legalized, or every current illegal drug should remain illegal?
No idea. I do think marijuana's legal status should be less harsh, but I don't see the point of allowing people that sell heroin or crack to do so (and I'm not touching the socio-economic implications of dealing drugs in this response).

5. Love
Disregarding your family, do you think that you have been loved by at least one other person every second of your life after the age of 18?
No. I want to say I know so, but that might be presumptious.

6. LiveJournal
When reading posts from your friends list, what is your favorite subject to read about?
I like to read anything my friends consider themselves passionate about. Barring that, I like to read about things I enjoy - music, fantasy/sci-fi, being a nerd. Even the occasional interesting meme is enjoyable. I'm easy to please.

7. Religion, politics, philosophy, or whatever
If you were to run for political office, what would be the three most important issues that you would speak of during campaigning and what would be your stance on them?
If I was to run for politcal office it would most likely be something small like Councilperson or Assemblyperson. Issues, though? Abortion - pro-choice, parental acknowledgement needed below age 15. Zoning laws - liquor stores keep at least 500 sq ft away from school zones. Education - no child left behind stricken, promotion on a case-to-case basis.

[fredericks.livejournal.com]

1) How many people in RL and OL do you consider close, close friends?
One, an offline woman I've known since the second grade. She's tenacious as all hell, and she's managed to stick with me through everything. I've only now come to realize how important she is to me.
Have you ever just pretended to be someone's close friend when secretly you wished they'd just leave you alone?
No. I can barely maintain a *real* friendship; trying to keep a fake one going would be way over my head.

2)Sex toys...yea or nay? (Payback!)
*grin* Ze payback, c'est a bitch. Yea. I don't have any now as I'm at home with my parents and I'd die a thousand deaths if my mother happened to "accidently" go through my things and find them, but when I was up at school I owned one or two. You're never too old for toys, I say.

3)What song moves you more than any other?
There's not really one per se, although the opening from Bach's Mass in D Minor can have me laid out like nothing. Songs with a sad tale to spin are my bread and butter.

4)What's the strongest drug you've ever taken? (Legal or illegal)
I was given Demerol after I had leg surgery. It was wonderful and horrible - wonderful because I didn't feel a damn thing, horrible because I could not stay awake no matter how much I tried. That's some strong-ass shit.

5)How many times have you been in love, only to figure out later you really weren't as in love as you thought at the time?
Ha. Perhaps twice. Once was when I was enamored with someone and I swore they were "the one", but they weren't. The other time I was in a relationship and I realized it wasn't how I thought it was.

6)Where did you get your LJ name from?
Sam Fredericks is a character from Tad Williams' "Otherland" series. Sam reminded me a bit of myself, and to say more would spoil the "surprise revelation" so I'll hold back. Needless to say I was very fond of Sam when all was said and done.

7)Do you have the same level of faith now, as you did as a child? Have you changed your religious beliefs at all? Do you have the same religion as your parents?
I think it's easier to believe in something wholeheartedly without reservations when you're a child, so I definitely think my faith was stronger back then. I grew up Roman Catholic, and I moved away from their teachings when I couldn't find the answers I wanted...or the answers I got left me unsettled. Why are we praying for the souls of people that aren't Catholic? I found myself wondering a lot - doesn't God love everyone? Right now I consider myself Episcopalian because their rituals are as close to RC as you can get and the American Episcopalian church is "progressive" in a way I like. I'm one step away from leaving organized religion behind all the time, though.