Kinda funny.....this was a huge topic of debate in my class this last term with my students. There was the more general debate over "What is a lie?" and "Is it ever right or okay to tell a lie?", and a lot of the examples that were brought up had to do with romantical type relationships. But I put this to ANY sort of relationship.

It all depends on the situation. How much do you think you'll hurt the other person by telling the "truth" as you see it? How much do you WANT to hurt the other person? How much do you want to open yourself up to hurt? This is the main reason we tell lies anyway -- to avoid hurt and keep our circles of society functioning. Diogenes knew his quest was fruitless, absolutely, because we all lie a hundred or a thousand times every day with our mouths, our eyes, our hands, our bodies, our deeds (or lack), etc. We are enculturated with lying. We learn from our parents, both directly and indirectly. "Go be nice to Grandma." "I don' wanna." "Do it anyway, it's polite." Polite is driven by lies of many levels. I don't think it's ever possible to be completely honest because we can never share our complete mind with someone else.

It's amazing how often I fantasize about being honest. About being completely forthright to people who I think REALLY need to hear my version of the truth. I not only want them to hear it, but see it, taste it, feel it. I know it'll never happen...I have as much interest as many people in not wanting to make waves, in not creating a ruckus when I don't have to. Especially face-to-face. I can't control myself as well when I'm trying to be honest in the flesh, so I run away instead. That's as honest as I can be. I already know I'm a fantastic liar. It's so easy. People, despite what they say, more often expect to be lied to than to be told the truth. Not to be cheesy and movie quote-ish, but I'm not sure that any of us could handle someone else's truth, not in its entirety. Relationships of all types would crumble.

See, I'm basically working on a work of fiction that has to do with this topic, hence my blah blah blah on and on about it. It fascinates me how often we "lie," whether its deflecting, or omitting, or dismissing, or flat-out bald-face lying. There are so many ways to lie, and we're used to it. It only hurts me, personally, on the rare occasion when I have to choose between losing a friendship through lying or losing a friendship through telling the truth. People would say, "If you're going to lose the friendship anyway, then tell the truth." But it's NEVER that simple.

Easy enough. MJ.

My answer to this question is usually the same every single time. Weather control. To have control of the most powerful forces known to man? Oh yeah.

But nowadays I find myself moving away from that answer and instead choosing mind reading/mind control (basically the same thing). I want to know what people are thinking, gorramit, and I want to bend them to my will.

Um, yeah. Did I mention I'm a villain?

"Wanna breed?"

"Tempting, but.........no."


In all seriousness, I've never heard a GOOD pick-up line. Ever. I don't think they exist. They exist in levels of badness that range from goofy/funny to downright "I want to bash your face in" stupid.

That said, if someone uses a pick-up line on me (and it has happened, surprise surprise), I don't judge what s/he says, generally, but how s/he says it. If it's a cleverly bad line, and the person says it with a sense of fun somewhere behind the eyes, then it's good. If it's the most horrible line ever but the person saying it says it with an obvious goal of mocking the line, then it's good. If it's a generally bad line but the person saying it is serious, drunk, or seriously drunk, it's NOT GOOD. Usually one can tell when someone is using a pick-up line seriously or as a way to break the ice by being funny or witty with it.

Just to clarify, if you're going to worry about bad luck after breaking a mirror, then that WOULD make you superstitious.

But anyway, I think it's funny how so many people tend to cherry-pick their super (or stupid)stitions. If we believed every single superstition that we knew about, we'd probably just have to kill ourselves to get it over with, put us out of our misery.

Me, I've got particular ones, and I don't even know why. I do throw the salt over my shoulder when I spill it. Sometimes I think that's mostly because I like the excuse to throw seasonings around, but whatever, I still do it. I don't step under ladders, but that's just common sense. I have no issue with cats of any color crossing my path, but I do go out of my way to avoid breaking mirrors. Again, that's just common sense. Kinda dangerous, you know, with or without the "bad luck." I am not at all afeared of the number 13.

Since I'm studying folklore, it kinda makes sense to me that I would have at least a couple of superstitions, even as I dismiss the general concept. We can't escape enculturation, and I grew up with my mom throwing salt over her shoulder, for example. So there it is.

Unlike prettyh, I haven't been to all that many concerts in my life. So most of the ones I HAVE been to are memorable.

I think the one that sticks out most in my mind is the Pete Gabriel "Growing Up" show. Him bouncing in a huge ball on stage, running around with his daughter on Segues...yeah. Awesome show. The other one I most remember is the Genesis show (both of these were at the Hollywood Bowl), especially when it started raining and Tony's keyboard stuff shorted out near the end. I remember how people were grooving and not giving one hot damn about the rain. That's dedication, my friends.

Other memorable concert honorable mentions include Fleetwood Mac (2+ hours of incredible energy from the entire band), Green Day (Billy Joe screaming out "Los Angeles" every two seconds, even though he was in Long Beach), Simon & Garfunkel (getting the awesome seats because they had shut down the nosebleed section), and that concert that hunny, Dan and I went to where Polyphonic Spree was opening. I barely remember the actual concert (good Christ, was it the Air concert or Dead Can Dance?) over us making fun of "Polyphonic Spew" because they were simply AWFUL. Oh, and the bee on the bus.

Despite everything ever, I do have some belief in astrology, if only because I feel that everything in the Cosmos is connected, so I don't see it as unreasonable that the movements of the stars/planets would bear on us somewhat, just as the moon bears on a woman's monthly cycle. Again, I realize there are lots of caveats and what-have-you, but there is also evidence that people born at certain times do bear some similar, VERY generalized traits.

The trick with astrology is not to be TOO general about it, which is why looking up a horrorscope in a newspaper is ridiculous. Everyone's chart is unique, and we all have more than one influence (we are not ruled by our Sun Signs alone), not to mention the influence of society and culture. Oh yes, despite the stars' influence, we CAN be trained by society out of some of our natural tendencies, sometimes without even realizing it. Sometimes those tendencies will out, and sometimes not. But popular astrology is, as I said, ridiculous.

So, when someone tells me that s/he is a certain sign, all I can do is shrug because I don't know the rest of his/her chart. And that doesn't even take into account his/her upbringing. Astrology is not the end-all be-all of someone's character; it should be used as a tool for possible insights into someone's character.

No, no, and no. Never, no matter how shitty any of it was. Tiffany doesn't believe in trying to turn back time. The past is for remembering, for learning from, but not for reliving. Or, from a different point of view, the past doesn't need to be relived because once a moment happens, it is always happening, and has always been happening.

Living the present and looking forward, always.

Mrs. Billings, fourth grade. She brought me to Jesus. It didn't stick, but technically, I'm "saved." Whew.

I think this is funny because my hubby talks UFOs every day. Me personally, when I hear someone talk UFOs, it depends on what exactly they're saying. "I think there's intelligent life in the universe besides us" is way different than "I've been abducted by the grays and they put a chip in my head."

Generally, I believe that, with as many planets and star systems out there, with all the infinite possibilities of life and imagination, there have to be other intelligent beings. I'm skeptical, however, that any of these beings have had as much contact with us as some people think. Until the aliens make themselves known to the entire world in a way that is without doubt, all "evidence" remains speculative.

Not very likely. Just sayin'.

Okay, I'm sure this is going to be the answer for a lot of people. But I distinctly remember as a kid thinking that this commercial was the shiznit, and I'd cackle maniacally (as well as any child can cackle maniacally) every time it came on. Now it's a classic, but I associate it very intimately with my growin'-up days in California, so there.

Despite the funny, though, I never turned out to be a "Wendy's kind of people."

It looks like a demonic fox. Always has. And I absolutely do not care what that says about me.

I was going to do a silly answer, but in the face of it, I couldn't go through. Hands down, The Breakfast Club.

I honestly don't know how I can answer this question. There are so many awesome songs. Maybe I can pick a favorite or two from each album?

Thriller: Thriller (duh), and Beat It. But honestly, pretty much the whole album.

Bad: Hands down, it's Smooth Criminal, followed by Bad and Man In the Mirror.

Dangerous: Gonna go with one here that probably isn't typical: Who Is It.

HIStory: Especially hard here, because I honestly felt this was a better album than Dangerous. I love They Don't Care About Us, Stranger In Moscow, Earth Song, and Little Susie. I also love his rendition of Charlie Chaplin's "Smile."

Invincible: Honestly, I'd have to listen to this album again to be fair. It wasn't my favorite by any means, but there were a couple songs I really dug. One of them is Cry, and another is The Lost Children.

There are other songs floating out there that I jive with, too. "Leave Me Alone" is one of those.

Honestly, the last time I stayed up ALL night was in high school. Specifically, the seniors had a (school-sponsored) party, and after that I went out with my regular crew of friends, and we wound up staying up until 5am. It amazes me how innocent it all was. None of us drank, or did drugs (except caffeine), and we were just hanging out. But I remember having one heckuva time.

How deliciously morbid. I really don't have any idea. I don't enjoy food enough to really care. That said, I'll have to think about it some more.

The hum of humanity. And the dentist's drill.

I've long been a fan of Cadbury Eggs. It's a tossup between those, candy corn, or candy canes.

depends on what they did.