More questions!
What was the best moment of your elementary school days?
The first thing that popped into my head was in fifth grade, I won a contest to give a speech at our graduation. But for my speech I wrote a rhyming poem that included references to all the books we read, field trips we went on, activities we did, etc. I was mighty proud of myself. I wonder if I still have it somewhere… it’s probably buried in my parents’ basement.
The second thing that popped into my head was the day we filled one of our classrooms with an inflatable planetarium. I was in love with astronomy in elementary school, so that was pretty much the greatest day ever.
Have you ever been within 5-10 minutes of the next 30-minute mark without an idea about which to write? Did you freak out, and how did you handle the situation?
Actually, I’ve been doing surprisingly well this blogathon. I’ve been an hour to two hours ahead of schedule all day. In the past I’ve had many frantic moments like the one you describe, were I flail and resort to posting picture of lolcats. …Of course, there’s still the potential for that to happen. The roughest hours are remaining.
Coke or Pepsi?
I used to adamantly say Pepsi, mainly because there was a Pepsi factory in my home town so I was really used to it. But then I went to Purdue for college, which was a Coke-only campus. Now I just don’t give a damn and try to drink both less.
What kind of music do you have hammering in your ear when desperatly writing a paper or a blogpost at 3 a.m. on the night before it is supposed to be ready?
Honestly I never listen to music when writing. That may seem weird, but I’m really easily auditorily distracted. Unless it’s lacks lyrics, I’ll lose focus instantly. And most of the music I have has lyrics. This is probably why I don’t really like listening to podcasts or YouTube videos. I basically have to drop everything to focus on them.
The one exception I have to this is when I’m coding. In that case, I put all of my Muse albums on repeat and program away.
I’m new in this town. Where do I meet hot nerdy women such as yourself. I’m a software engineer and work is all sausage.
I can’t speak for all women, but I only leave my basement to go work in the lab. You’re doomed, sorry.
Again, feel free to leave more questions for a final round. I’ll probably be delirious by the time I answer those, so make them good!
This is post 38 of 49 of Blogathon. Pledge a donation to the Secular Student Alliance here.
I strongly recommend having a selection of instrumental music for listening to while writing. Baroque music or something peppy from the minimalists are usually my first choices.
Who is your favorite satirical god: The Flying Spaghetti Monster or the Invisible Pink Unicorn?I’m following the blogathon until bedtime (6am MST), and trying to avoid work while I do it: Any suggestions to what I could be doing between your posts?
Watch a TV show online. I’m rewatching My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Earlier I was playing in an online tabletop roleplaying game. Doing laundry is often a surprisingly good one, too.
Delirious Q&A?Most awkward moment to happen at a skeptic’s gathering?Favorite color of the alphabet?How badly do you want to sleep right now?If you could dream about anything right now, what would it be?
Has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like?
Hm … yeah, I’ve got one?Were you ever been witnessed to? In all its wide-eyed, truly-innocent-believer, jesus-heals-atheism, I-really-love-submissing-to-my-dear-husband-and-so-should-you – glory?If so (even repeatedly) – what is your best witnessing-story?
I have to say, I have read the whole Blogathon from the start, and that is some quality entertainment you’ve got going on! I gladly pay for this :) You should do this more often (Just kidding)! Here’s a question: What’s the blogathon post you’re the most proud of so far?
“I can’t speak for all women, but I only leave my basement to go work in the lab. You’re doomed, sorry.”I gotta add – you can find all the smart and interesting ladies and gentlemen who never leave their basements… on the internet. If you meet one and figure out you’re in the same city, the two of you may be able to overcome your mutual reclusive geeked-out basement-residing tendencies briefly enough to get coffee or something. Online dating – saving nerdy workaholics from loneliness since 1996!
Question:Do you like the Pacific Northwest enough to consider living after you have achieved graduate student greatness? Or does the lure of the midwest still call you home?
Hey Jen,Might I suggest my band’s instrumental, post-rocky, lyric-less music as your writing background? You can listen and download for free: http://newcenturyclassics.band…
I actually have trouble with lyrical music as well. As an example, I checked up on my reader just a moment ago, and I was reading updates from your blog. I have it sorted as newest to oldest, so I got to see the remix of the hate mail video before I got to here. While it was playing, I could not comprehend what I was reading. I had to stop it. XDI have a nice little collection of instrumental music from the Baroque period to modern music to help out at times. Sometimes, though, silence is golden for work.
My favorite music for working is actually a playlist of all four seasons of Battlestar Galactica soundtracks. Bear McCreary is my productivity fairy godfather.
I mostly listen to video game music, particularly from the Final Fantasy series, but others as well. I think it fits your music criteria well, being designed as background music, so it’s generally well-behaved enough to not demand your attention, while still being nice to pay attention to.And there’s a song for pretty much any mood or context. Get pumped up to take on challenges or chill out for a bit. Sink into the depths of sadness and grief or renew your love for life. And everything in between.Listening to music you’re familiar with is less distracting. In my experience, my brain can follow along in the background, freeing up the foreground for getting thinking done.
“Honestly I never listen to music when writing. That may seem weird, but I’m really easily auditorily distracted.”I’m the same way. I keep a selection of good background stuff in a separate playlist for times that I want to concentrate on something. I recommend checking out music by Emancipator- it’s good background, no lyrics, very easy to write to.