A Medium Challenge: Ten Things About Me
They say you can learn a lot about a person by seeing who their friends are. In real life on this side of the keyboard, I have only a small circle of friends — it has to be small in a town of only five hundred people. Here on Medium, I am blessed with a larger friendship circle. But, do we really know each other?
This morning I woke up to a challenge — you know, that glove thrown down at the foot of the challenged. My first response was my usual, “pretend you didn’t see it.” But that has never worked. Once seen, it is burned into the brain. So, robin wilding, challenge accepted.
Thanks Robin.
1. What is your favorite drink?
Chai tea, or maybe green tea? No, definitely chai. Still, I do like my morning coffee. Damn this is hard. A good red wine is always appreciated. But, if I have to choose one in has to be chai. Oh, and just to clarify it, no milk in my tea or coffee, or sugar for that matter unless it is a nice hot frothy latte. Damn, this is a hard question.
2. What is your favorite color?
This is complicated. What colour to wear? Yes, I sometimes wear clothes. What colour to use? What colour to . . . ? Okay, enough dithering. I think it’s green, either that or blue or brown. You see these are all the dominant colours of nature. I always say green because I’m French Canadian, what is affectionately known as a “frog.” I am also part Irish, so there’s that as well. I guess that settles it. Green.
3. If you were to win the lottery, what are the top three things that you would do first?
Well, the first thing to do would be to start believing in miracles. I never, repeat never buy lottery tickets. So to win would be only attributable to some divine intervention. So what would I do with the money?
Another hard question here. Windfalls of money usually have a bad ending for the receiver. I don’t need the money so I would get rid of as much of it as I could to others, but not in amounts that would disable them. First candidates are trust funds for grandchildren. Then, fund a shelter for women and children in a nearby city. That should take care of the evil green.
4. What is your favorite cuisine?
Just about home-made anything. I’m not a picky eater and I am a decent cook. My wife is a modern-day Mother Earth which includes being a master chef when it comes to the culinary arts. However, there is one cuisine that has me eat just a pinch too much — Italian.
5. Would you give up your phone or social media forever?
Phone? I do phone as little as I can get away with already. And believe me, according to my spouse, not nearly enough. I don’t do social media on phones. Phones are for . . . . talk and text . . . . and taking photos when the camera is not handy.
Social media? I will let you in on a secret here. I have been on social media since the early 90s, before there was WWW as we know it. Yeah, I’m that old. Back then it was listservs with text messaging not limited to x amount of characters.
Facebook and others? If it wasn’t for my children, grandchildren and extended family, I would burn them to the ground. Toxic places.
Now when it comes to a few, such as Medium, it’s a different story. Nope. Not going to give it up. I could if I had to, but I would want to lose this.
6. What is one thing that you are really good at?
Sitting quietly with a smile pasted on my face at any social gathering. It’s the best defensive move that has been invented. Okay, I know that wasn’t what was meant, but it is a skill, my best skill.
I take good photos and I am a skilled writer. But what I probably have excelled at the most is being a teacher. I was a teacher for decades. I include the role of mental-health counsellor as being a teacher as well. And that has been my calling if you will since I was still in elementary school a few millenia ago.
7. Do you love dogs or cats more?
Tough one. I pretend to not like cats. But cats seem to see right through it. That said, I have to give the nod to dogs. But I need to make things crystal clear here. They are not fur babies for me. They are loveable animals, not people.
In my retirement, with the focus on travel, we don’t have any pets. Honestly it is easier to have people look after children than it is to house and care for pets when we are on a jaunt to someplace around the globe.
8. Are you a coffee drinker?
Yes. Black with no sugar or cream please. You can also serve me an expresso, or specialty frothy coffee. I even like iced coffee in the summertime. Every morning I grind up coffee beans and the aroma is to die for. And the taste — there are no words.
9. What languages can you speak?
English and French almost fluently. I qualify this because of a limited vocabulary for both languages. It sounds like both are fluent, but with so many missing words, it is sometimes a struggle. Sometimes I can even use franglais. a unique language on the streets of Montreal. Think about it, having a vocabulary of say 20,000 words is really decent. But when a language has hundreds of thousands of words? Well, that is barely a dent in any given language.
I am able to get by in Spanish as well thanks to our winters spent in the south (Mexico, Costa Rica, Belize, Ecuador) and two months spent in Spain. My abilities in Mandarin are piss poor. I do remember how to count and a few basic phrases — but that is about it. Oh, and a smidgen of a few other languages can be thrown into the mix.
10. Can you use chopsticks?
Like a pro. I lived in China for four years and became very proficient eating noodle soups and wonton soups with chopsticks. It is actually easier than using a spoons when it comes to noodles in soup.
Now for the evilness part, nominating others to take on the challenge. Here goes:
Dan Carlson | Meandering Naturists
Have at it comrades in arms. Looking forward to what you have to say in your defence.