Weekly Meme (5 Questions!) week commencing 14/5/12

1.  What music would make up the soundtrack to your current life?  (You can name songs, artists, particular albums or just go with a single song or artist, etc. if you want.)

2. What is your favourite planet or other heavenly body (you know what I mean!) and why?

3.  What are three things about yourself than someone wouldn't normally guess just from knowing you casually.

4.  What is in your handbag / backpack / briefcase (whatever you use daily) right now?

5.  Money not being an object what would you go back to school / college / university to study?
 

1.  What music would make up the soundtrack to your current life?  (You can name songs, artists, particular albums or just go with a single song or artist, etc. if you want.)

Lots of trad Irish tunes plus throw a bit of Kate Rusby in there as well.

2. What is your favourite planet or other heavenly body (you know what I mean!) and why?

Xena, the planet discovered in 2005, it's 'behind' Pluto.  It's mysterious and it's been there all the time, but we didn't know about it; how cool is that?

3.  What are three things about yourself than someone wouldn't normally guess just from knowing you casually.

I was a punk rocker with a mohawk at age 19!  I used to consider myself Wiccan.  I've hung out with Hare Krsnas for a few years.

4.  What is in your handbag / backpack / briefcase (whatever you use daily) right now?

My diary, pens, hair clips, spare tampons, cloth shopping bag, wallet, keys, flyer for a stress reduction workshop, lip balm, ibuprofen.

5.  Money not being an object what would you go back to school / college / university to study?
Transpersonal psychology.

1.  What music would make up the soundtrack to your current life?  (You can name songs, artists, particular albums or just go with a single song or artist, etc. if you want.)

Cars2 Collision of Worlds, Bethel Loft Sessions, Chopin Nocturnes

2. What is your favourite planet or other heavenly body (you know what I mean!) and why?

Saturn- I like the rings

3.  What are three things about yourself than someone wouldn't normally guess just from knowing you casually.

I don't like the color of the guy's hair in CSI Miami, I love watching Nordic crime series, I'm not a real blond

4.  What is in your handbag / backpack / briefcase (whatever you use daily) right now?

nappies and wipes, credit cards and lip balm

5.  Money not being an object what would you go back to school / college / university to study?

Music performance- piano- master's and dr
 

1.  What music would make up the soundtrack to your current life?  (You can name songs, artists, particular albums or just go with a single song or artist, etc. if you want.)
No idea.  I'm not really into music.  I like what I like, but I don't really connect it to my life in any meaningful way. 

2. What is your favourite planet or other heavenly body (you know what I mean!) and why?
Pluto.  It's the "planet" of my star sign (Scorpio) and I'm sad that it's been demoted.  Plus, I've always liked the god, Pluto/Hades.  He's just misunderstood .

3.  What are three things about yourself than someone wouldn't normally guess just from knowing you casually.
I used to have really bad acne, and spent years on Accutane.  I was once a pretty decent figure skater.  I am an amateur science nerd and wanted to be an astronaut as a child. 

4.  What is in your handbag / backpack / briefcase (whatever you use daily) right now?
Sunglasses, mascara, hairbrush, headphones, medical tape, tweezers, handkerchief, keys, pencil case, hair clip, purse. 

5.  Money not being an object what would you go back to school / college / university to study?
Applied Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition PhD
 

1.  What music would make up the soundtrack to your current life?  (You can name songs, artists, particular albums or just go with a single song or artist, etc. if you want.)
I've been listening to a lot of blues and soul lately. It's the kind of music that I just feel in my gut when I listen to it, and I just love it. Lee Moses, Buddy Guy, Big Mama Thornton to name a few.

2. What is your favourite planet or other heavenly body (you know what I mean!) and why?
Venus, mostly for the name. Also because I find it interesting how it's sort of similar to Earth in a few ways, and perhaps could just as easily have been another Earth if the conditions were right.

3.  What are three things about yourself than someone wouldn't normally guess just from knowing you casually.
I love punk music (I dress pretty normally and don't have any tattoos or piercings). I can sing pretty well. I'm a beer and whisky kinda gal.

4.  What is in your handbag / backpack / briefcase (whatever you use daily) right now?
Keys, wallet, lomography fisheye camera, spare film, bobby pins, ipod, pen, pad of paper, a melted junior mint that I have yet to address. 

5.  Money not being an object what would you go back to school / college / university to study?
I used to want to do a PhD in Art History, but if money were no object, I think I'd probably like to go for Photography or Graphic Design. Something creative that doesn't require drawing. 

1.  What music would make up the soundtrack to your current life?  (You can name songs, artists, particular albums or just go with a single song or artist, etc. if you want.) Come As You Are by Pocket Full of Rocks.

2. What is your favourite planet or other heavenly body (you know what I mean!) and why?
Venus because of the whole Goddess of Love thing.

3.  What are three things about yourself than someone wouldn't normally guess just from knowing you casually.
I'm very faithful. Not religious, but faithful. I don't discuss it normally as I feel it makes some people uncomfortable. I love Christian Rock. I've done a stay or two in the psychiatric ward due to a nervous breakdown.

4.  What is in your handbag / backpack / briefcase (whatever you use daily) right now?
Lip Balm(I can't go anywhere without it), Comb, debit card, photos, planner

5.  Money not being an object what would you go back to school / college / university to study?
 I wish I had done what I wanted to do when I was in high school. I wanted to be a veterinarian. I would love to do it.

1.  What music would make up the soundtrack to your current life?  (You can name songs, artists, particular albums or just go with a single song or artist, etc. if you want.)

I am struggling with a recent sorrow in my life, so I've been listening to a lot of moody stuff like early Radiohead.

2. What is your favourite planet or other heavenly body (you know what I mean!) and why?

The moon. My mom tells me that even when I was a little girl, I loved seeing the moon in the sky. It always seems comforting to me although I don't know why and my star sign is also ruled by the moon.

3.  What are three things about yourself than someone wouldn't normally guess just from knowing you casually.

Although I've not done any in a long time, I like doing needlework/cross stitch. I travel with my own pillow because "strange" pillows give me insomnia. I believe in reincarnation.

4.  What is in your handbag / backpack / briefcase (whatever you use daily) right now?

Phone, wallet, nail file, 3 lip balms, keys, folding brush, cuticle cream, post it notes, a fiver, security badge for work, pen and one of those eyeglass cleaning cloths.

5.  Money not being an object what would you go back to school / college / university to study?

Nothing. I'd skive off traveling. 

Fun questions Andee!
 1.  What music would make up the soundtrack to your current life?  (You can name songs, artists, particular albums or just go with a single song or artist, etc. if you want.)

Currently the songs that are making rotation in my earphones include Funk & Soul music (all kinds- love the horns! – really enjoying the Haggis Horns), Scottish Folk music, and Big Band/Swing music.   So that’s it for today, ask me in a few days and it might be the Grateful Dead, Bluegrass, and Eminem.  Ask me in a week and it may be Irish music, Jazz, and the Rolling Stones.  In a month’s time, it may be Bee-Bop, Hip-Hop, and Classical.  My musical tastes are hugely diverse.  

2. What is your favourite planet or other heavenly body (you know what I mean!) and why?

Mars.  Red Planet.   Mars, the Bringer of War  movement from Holst’s The Planets is one of my favourite pieces of music.  Plus the name of a good chocolate bar, lol

3.  What are three things about yourself than someone wouldn't normally guess just from knowing you casually.

1.)   I am horribly accident prone- I fell into an icy river when I was about 6 years old and nearly drowned and was hypothermic.   I got third degree chemical burns from glacial acetic acid and also punctured my finger with a broken test tube in organic chemistry lab in university.   I got hit by a car when I was 9 years old.  I have broken both legs and dislocated my hip in very stupid accidents.  I could probably go on and on...

2.)   I have an ‘invisible illness’ –an autoimmune connective tissue disorder. I look fine on the outside but live with a lot of pain.

3.)   I have an amazing family and I am very close with all of them.  

4.  What is in your handbag / backpack / briefcase (whatever you use daily) right now?

Wallet, coin purse, personal and work mobile phones, assorted daily medications and pain meds, keys, cheque book, prescription sunglasses, couple of pens, (ha, this nerd pulled out my bag to check!)  

5.  Money not being an object what would you go back to school / college / university to study?
 
I actually want to go back and get a PhD in Engineering Design, which I have been seriously considering for a while for interest and career advancement.  
However, if it were just for fun, I would just like to take lots of different art classes.  

1.  What music would make up the soundtrack to your current life?  (You can name songs, artists, particular albums or just go with a single song or artist, etc. if you want.)

I'm never good at this question; I like a lot of music, and I connect to a lot of music, but not so much in a way to describe my own life.

2. What is your favourite planet or other heavenly body (you know what I mean!) and why?

I am fascinated by the study of cosmology and the beginnings of our universe, so the cosmic microwave background holds a special place for me. I know it doesn't seem exactly 'heavenly', but every time you hear static on the radio, or a television, or wherever, approximately 2-3% of it is leftover noise from the big bang almost 14 billion years ago? I find that absolutely amazing, even if I can't quite get my head around a lot of the mechanics of it.

But I suppose if we're talking celestial objects we can see, I'd have to say Orion and Sirius. Probably because it was the only constellation I knew as a kid, and I used to lay in my yard staring up at him and making up stories about him until bed time.

3.  What are three things about yourself than someone wouldn't normally guess just from knowing you casually.

1. Math is very challenging for me, but I think calculating a formula's derivative is more fun that any number puzzle.
2. I write literary erotica. A lot of people know I'm a writer, but only my closest friends know about that side of my work.
3. I was a total tomboy as a kid; I climbed trees like crazy, and played with frogs. Somewhere along the way, I've turned into a bit of a girly wimp....

4.  What is in your handbag / backpack / briefcase (whatever you use daily) right now?

Phone, wallet, headphones, a worry stone made from goldstone, a whole mess of pens and pencils, a few issues of "One Story", checkbook, passport, chapstick, sunglasses and a digital voice recorder (which my phone and completion of university lectures have rendered obsolete, but I still carry for some unknown reason).

5.  Money not being an object what would you go back to school / college / university to study?

Astrophysics. I plan to do this someday, anyway (although in the real-life scenario, money is very much an object). Meanwhile, I study physics and astronomy in my spare time, but given my weakness at maths, I would benefit from a classroom setting.

1.  What music would make up the soundtrack to your current life?  (You can name songs, artists, particular albums or just go with a single song or artist, etc. if you want.)
I could never narrow it down that much.  The songs I identify with change with what is happening in my life.  In the 80's, it was rock and new wave.  In the 90's, it was the grunge.  Now, it's most likely a compilation of rock, a dash of pop with a splash of Irish Rovers and Fisherman's Friends.   

2. What is your favourite planet or other heavenly body (you know what I mean!) and why?
The Pleiades.  I just love how lovely they look through a telescope (took Astronomy in high school).

3.  What are three things about yourself than someone wouldn't normally guess just from knowing you casually.
 - I'm a total clutz...I trip over my own two feet too many times to count.
 - I love carpentry, putting things together and working with wood.
 - I was into Paganism in my 20s...still intrigued by it and it tends to make more sense to me than other organized religion.

4.  What is in your handbag / backpack / briefcase (whatever you use daily) right now?
2 lip balms, keys, wallet, Charliecard with my monthly T pass on it

5.  Money not being an object what would you go back to school / college / university to study?
Art history

The moon. My mom tells me that even when I was a little girl, I loved seeing the moon in the sky. It always seems comforting to me although I don't know why and my star sign is also ruled by the moon.

I have to be honest.  The moon is my true answer as well.  My moon sign is Cancer and ascendant is Cancer (both are ruled by the moon).

I'm really enjoying reading everyone's answers, I'm finding out so much about everyone.  Glad you all like my questions.

1.  What music would make up the soundtrack to your current life?  (You can name songs, artists, particular albums or just go with a single song or artist, etc. if you want.)
No particular songs, as such, but we have just discovered The Real McKenzies and have been listening to them a lot. I've also been listening to a lot of Pink Floyd and Ramones. From time to time I listen to some Christmas tunes, because they are my year 'round stress relief.

2. What is your favourite planet or other heavenly body (you know what I mean!) and why?
I've always loved Orion. I can't really explain why because I have since I was a little girl. I also love Pluto, and have really had a soft spot for the little fella since he was told he was no longer a planet. Poor little thing.

3.  What are three things about yourself than someone wouldn't normally guess just from knowing you casually.
1. I was in the school spelling bee when I was in 3rd grade, and purposely misspelled my first word because I couldn't cope with the rest of the school and all the parents looking at me... although I sat there and spelled everything correctly in my head, including the winning word. That was one of the downsides of being a shy kid.

2. I struggle with math. I don't know if there is such a thing as number dyslexia, but I read numbers in a twisted way quite often. Something might say 7620 and I might see it as 2706 or 7026, etc.

3. I have worn the same shoe size since 4th grade.

4.  What is in your handbag / backpack / briefcase (whatever you use daily) right now?
A pink flowered hippie print zipper bag with tampons, antihistamines, paracetamol and bandaids, a bottle of antihistamine eye drops, a green, pink and orange hippie print zippered bag with a ton of pens, wallet, coin purse, a tube each of original Chapstick, Carmex, Chicken Poop lip junk, and strawberry Chapstick, eyeliner, a London Underground map we were given with our tickets (although we didn't use it, because hubby has an app for that), a pack of gum, small notebook, a pack of Kleenex because occasionally I'm out and about and will manage to pick the stall without toilet paper, and prescription sunglasses.

5.  Money not being an object what would you go back to school / college / university to study?
Psychology of some sort.

Fun questions, Andee!

Fun questions, Andee!

TamaMoo, check your pm's! 

Checked and replied a couple minutes ago. 

1.  What music would make up the soundtrack to your current life?  (You can name songs, artists, particular albums or just go with a single song or artist, etc. if you want.)

Adele's 21 for the last few months. I'm not entirely sure why.
The last few days though, I've had We Are Young in my head by Fun in my head. I think it's just because it was on Gossip Girl this week (*sigh*, such an awful yet addictive show) but it's a great graduation anthem. And also a reminder that I don't really feel that young anymore.

2. What is your favourite planet or other heavenly body (you know what I mean!) and why?
I don't think I have one. I've never been particularly interested in space. Ironically, my school district had not only one but two planetariums growing up, located in the middle schools. We took 2-3 field trips a year to one all through elementary school but the planetarium was run by a mean, grouchy old "dragon" lady who showed the same circa 1970 "shows" almost every year and effectively killed any interest anyone had in the subject. It usually meant a good nap for me, since the seats reclined and it was dark. As an adult, I realize that that's a huge shame but I can't look at stars or constellations or whatever without dredging up memories of the mean dragon lady.


3.  What are three things about yourself than someone wouldn't normally guess just from knowing you casually.
1. Although I'm an atheist, religion fascinates me and deep down I wish I could believe in something since it can be fairly comforting. My BF basically thinks that religion is all things evil and while I agree that it can do a lot of bad sometimes, I think that it can do a lot of good, as well. And can be comforting. I totally get what Dan Savage is saying in this story on This American Life: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/379/return-to-the-scene-of-the-crime
When I heard that for the first time (while driving so not ideal), I was absolutely sobbing.

2. As much as I like urban living and living without a car, I really like to drive. It's fun! I just don't like having to do it every day.

3. I read porn for a book report as a sophomore in high school. My teacher assigned a banned book project and handed out a list of suggested books to read for it mostly consisting of fairly innocuous reads such as Harry Potter, Heather Has Two Mommies and The Catcher in the Rye. I randomly picked a book I'd never heard of, called The Sleeping Beauty Diaries (http://tinyurl.com/7mz3owc) (the cover was much plainer on the version I read--plain black--so less of an indication of what I was buying. Anyway, I realized within a few pages that this was NOT a fairly innocuous read. Fascinating, sure, but probably not what my teacher had in mind. I wrote the paper about it anyway and got an A+, although my teacher was kind of horrified she hadn't gone over the list more carefully and ironically, censored it for future years. 


4.  What is in your handbag / backpack / briefcase (whatever you use daily) right now?
My purse is always such a mess. So there's my ipod, my phone, my wallet, Kindle, a GPS, some pens, a bottle of ibuprofen, a bunch of loose ibuprofen pills floating on the bottom from when the bottle came open, a bunch of loose receipts, coupons and random bits of paper, a lipstick, a chapstick and a lipgloss, a make up compact mirror, a fold up umbrella, a reusable water bottle, a book (Bossypants) and a hairbrush. Yea, my purse is huge and I never clean the damn thing out.


5.  Money not being an object what would you go back to school / college / university to study?
I don't think you could pay me enough to go back to school. I totally burnt out from it and just can't do it. I SHOULD go back to grad school with the intention of having an actual career. If I were to do that, I'd go back to get an MS in Nutrition or to get an MA in International Relations or maybe an MPP in Public Policy.