Life As It Comes

Friday Five11 Comments

In an effort to blog more regularly (I’ll get up that NZ synopsis soon, I promise), Cory and I have decided to do a Friday Five.

However, instead of using pre-generated questions, we’re going to let you ask them. So have at it. The comments are open. I’ll choose my favorite five questions to answer (and maybe a bonus if they are all good ones) on Friday.

Update: To clarify, anyone can list questions, you don’t have to list five, and I will be picking five from all the submitted questions.

Answers:

1. What’s something you thought was hilarious at the time, but now you’re a little bit ashamed of?
When I was in Junior High, I came to school one day, and all the teachers would yell at or pick on all the students with blue eyes for no reason. Students were getting assigned detention, etc and had to wear pieces of tape on their clothes to signify that they were of the “undesirable” eye color. I remember this distinctly: I went to my locker after one class and made a comment to another student about how this was very discriminatory but that I was getting a kick out of the experience (I have brown/hazel eyes). I justify feeling that way now because it was something mysterious and out-of-the-ordinary, but I probably could have/should have been more outraged on behalf of my classmates and/or more somber about the experience. At the end of the day, we had an assembly for our grade-level (I think), and we all watched the made-for-TV-movie The Wave. Apparently our little social experiment was based loosely on that movie and was meant to show us how easy it is to fall into a groupthink-mentality and discrimination, even when on your own you might feel differently. It is also often used as a teaching tool to discuss Nazi Germany. I definitely learned my lesson though on that day and was ashamed to find out that I am capable of every treachery, every sin just the same as any other human.

2. What is something you’re willing to compromise on? Something you’re not willing to compromise on at all?
I’m willing to compromise on getting my way in certain situations (though less so in the last few years, since I used to do this too much previously), but I am not willing to compromise in ways that I object to morally or ethically.

3. How long can you hold your breath and how does this rank among other white, male engineers?
I think my answer would have to be: “I’ve never discovered my max.” When I was in Junior High (again), our Sunday School class had a contest to see who could hold it the longest. I won easily with a time that was over 1 minute (I don’t remember what it was), but I stopped soon after everyone else stopped. Cursory Googling has revealed that there are differences between the average above-water and below-water times as well as differences among cold water versus warmer water and deep water versus shallow water. All-in-all, the highest I saw in search results was 15 minutes (inhaling pure oxygen beforehand) by some Lithuanian performance magicians. You may recall that David Blaine attempted a breath-holding feat not long ago on national TV. I believe he made it to some 8 or so minutes after being submerged underwater for days at a time prior to the attempt. I think the average is somewhere around 2 or 3 minutes before losing consciousness for people who have not trained lately or do not train.

4. Do you find that you’re frightened of the ocean? Why/why not?
I think I would be frightened of a plane I was on crashing into the ocean. I also would be frightened of being shipwrecked in the ocean. However, these fears mostly have to do with sharks, dehydration, third-degree sunburns, and death more so than the ocean itself. No, I wouldn’t consider myself afraid of the ocean.

5. If/when you have a house built, what are 3 features you would want included?
1 bowling alley
2 jungle-gym
3 planetarium
… kidding …
immodest list:
1 water garden landscaping/pool
2 theatre room
3 smart-home computer system
modest list:
1 tall counters and shower heads
2 screened porch/deck
3 elaborate kitchen