9 Questions While Watching TS Elliot Kick Ezra Pounds Butt
I am feeling quite lonely today. Existentially lonely, to be more specific. Wondering if it matters, wondering what I am doing anything for, questioning the whole ball of wax really. It happens from time to time – we sit, and we wonder. Sometimes this wonder lasts for years; sometimes I just need about 30 minutes of quiet alone time. But it happens. It might happen to you. Might not. You might be blessed. I tend to think I am blessed, but every now and again I sigh and think about Jeff Buckley and wonder what the point of that was. So the questions might seem melancholy, or I might just break on out of it. Either way, we’re off and running.
- So, a trapped on an island question: Which five books would you bring? If you could have a solar powered DVD player and monitor, which 5 movies? You are going to be there for two years, so think long term.
- Do you fish? Do you eat the fish that you catch? Do you look down on fish because you can catch them so easily? Not as in just pop the hook in, and kapow: fish; but more that you just need a hook, some disguise, and pow. I don’t fish. I like to sit in the boat and talk to my brother though. I really like my brother more than anyone else I know.
- If you cut your finger with a pocketknife, accidently, how do you know if you should go get a tetanus shot? The bleeding stopped and it’s not that big of a deal, but I am just wondering if I am going to get lockjaw.
- If you were 18 to 25, would you sign up to join the military? I think I would. At the time, I was scared that I would lose who I was, but I don’t think so now. I wonder if that was just a thought through aging. I do not support the war, but there is a nobility in serving your country in that manner. A manner so very simple, yet so very important. It is funny, how all the talking we do about war and peace and this and that, does not change the fundamental nature of the world, or the fundamental nature and need for soldiers. I learned this from my friend Melissa, who while not a soldier, taught me so much.
- When you were in high school, did you eat hot lunch or bring your own? Have you heard about a band Freedown playing a show in the area?
- What will define the first decade of the 21st century? What defines the decades of your life? I am only in my 30s. So I do not have a lot of defining yet.
- When you sleep with your wife or husband or partner, do you do spoon, or how do you sleep? If they get up to go to the bathroom does it wake you up?
- Do you think you’re going to vote for Mayor? I heard that real governing takes place on school boards and city councils. I hope you vote.
- Do you think that as your life changes through career and family and aging, that which gives your life meaning changes? Do you think of objects or talismans as something that you care for? For example, after my father passed I asked if I could have his comb. He had the same comb since I was a kid, and I remember being a little boy and watching him comb his hair. The memory always stood out. I think we lack this sort of permanence now, I feel blessed to be my parents’ son, because I think that theirs was the last generation that did not have the department store lifestyle of disposability. Now what shall I pass on – my Target-bought CD player? I got a shortwave from my dad. I also got an antique radio as big as a fridge. My father’s desk is still there. I use a conference table, or something from Ikea.
Bonus Round
Letter A: What is your favorite video game? Your first video game? Your first video game system? My favorite is probably Metal Gear Solid. My first, in my memory is probably Pac Man, up at the Telemark lodge with Pat and Sean Palecek. It was by the pool. I worked in my grade school kitchen washing dishes each day for $1.50 an hour to buy an Atari 2600.
Appendix 54.3: Did you pay your taxes yet?
Andy Laub said:
2. No
3. “If you cut your finger with a pocketknife, accidently…” Thanks for clarifying.
4. No
5. Sometimes
6. iPods, blogging, hybrids and “green”-ness, war, cell phones, terrorism
9. I think that family is especially effective in changing your priorities, but you’re right; everything is more disposable these days. I also think that everything is more quickly becoming obsolete. Planned obsolescence?
A. My favorite video games are those that give you the opportunity to just escape into a new environment, and with a great amount of open-endedness so you never have the same experience twice. The game that made me a gamer was Super Mario Bros.
54.3. Yes
March 14th, 2008 at 2:02 pm #
Jim Rosenberg said:
2. I haven’t fished for a while, but I grew up addicted to fishing. My favorite was always trout, which is not actually a fish. It’s a trout, which is different. (If you don’t fish for trout, you may not understand.)
3. If you cut yourself and you haven’t had a tetanus shot, go get one. You should get a tetanus shot at least every 10 years, whether you need it or not.
4. Actually, I DID that when I was 18. I was a staff sergeant when I left at 24. It was an interesting experience.
5. I ate hot lunch most of the time, but sometimes we went to the Pine Bar.
8. Most definitely voting.
Letter A: My first video game was Pong, which was a pretty crude offering in b&w. I’ve been into Mario Kart for years.
54.3: No, not income taxes. But I have my Turbotax update on hand.
March 14th, 2008 at 3:31 pm #
dwestcott said:
Ezra Pound’s….couldn’t resist.
2. As a child I went fishing with my grandfather. We’d walk from Sherman St. up 10th Ave. to get to his fishing spot across from Rib Mt. Marine (where it used to be located), down the embankment to the wooded shoreline of Lake Wausau. There, I’d get my hook stuck in the tree branches 2 out of every 3 casts. We’d catch sunfish and take them home to my grandmother to fry up for dinner. Good memories. As an adult, I still fish…if it’s sunny and warm, there are snacks and “beverages”, a luxury boat, an option for water skiing.
3. Ironically, I sliced my finger while cutting potatoes for some fish chowder I was making for my grandfather. I didn’t get it checked out and to this day that area of my finger has never regained feeling.
4. I would follow in my father’s footstpes and join the marines. Heck, he was a drill seargent, I went through basic training in Kindegarten.
5. I either ate hot lunch or walked home for lunch. West had an open campus back in the days and I lived across what used to be “the field.”
8. I’m defnitely voting.
9. I think your core values stay true…it’s the outer core that gets influenced as you experience life’s lessons. I most definitely place romanticized value on objects. In the last few years, however, I’ve been hooked on those HGTV shows that teach you to get rid of your clutter, simplify. As I mature through the years, I’m letting go of things I once thought I could never part with.
Letter A: Pat Palecek…little Pat from the old Wausaqua Water Ski Show days!?!?
Appendix 54.3: No. I’m a true procrastinator.
March 14th, 2008 at 4:28 pm #
Dino Corvino said:
Yes. Little Pat
March 14th, 2008 at 4:42 pm #
dwestcott said:
Dino - did you ever watch the water ski shows when Pat was in the club? Down at Memorial Landing and later at DC Everest Park? I hear there’s a reunion this June for all Wausaqua folk!
March 14th, 2008 at 5:43 pm #
Alex said:
1. Books and Movies (in no particular order)
Books
The Long Walk. Stephen King/Bachman Books
Mission Earth Series. L. Ron Hubbard
Hardy Boy’s. # 1-60 or so.
Twinkie, Deconstructed. Steve Ettlinger
Survive on a Desert Island. Claire Llewellyn
Movies
Saving Private Ryan.
Star Wars 1-6.
Band of Brothers.
Cell Phone Video of Wife and Dog.
Virtual Fireplace.
2. I fish all the time. I go ice fishing every weekend, and take out the boat in the summer. My godfather used to take us fishing out on Lake Tomahawk growing up. I don’t look down on fish, I thank them for the serenity and usually let them go. Unless I am really hankering for a fish fry.
3. Knife cuts are my second biggest fear.
4. I almost did. I went in and took the entrance exam even. Then I promptly had to avoid the recruiter for a long long time. If I was in a position to join today, I would.
5. I always ate at school. My Dad worked there so he was always accessible in case of lost lunch tickets. I always had the same thing, two cheeseburgers and fries. I would trade the fries for a second white milk.
6. Triumph and Disaster. It has been working for years.
7. The dog took over my spot. I think they spoon.
8. Can’t.
9. When the time comes I want my fathers pen.
A. My favorite video game is Madden currently being played on the 360. I wait in line every year at 11:59 for it’s release. My first love was Track & Field. I would change in my report cards for tokens at an arcade in the Shopko Plaza, Rothschild. I still can school anyone, anytime.
Appendix 54.3: Doing them this week over spring break. I am hoping I don’t have to pay anything. In fact, most likely it will be the opposite.
March 14th, 2008 at 7:02 pm #
Boogenstein said:
1. LOTR - J.R.R.Tolkien
Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson
The Ashley Book Of Knots - Clifford. W. Ashley
American Gods - Neil Gaiman
Ah Puck is here - William Burroughs
Beetlejuice
Clerks
Lock Stock and 2 Smoking Barrels
Horse Feathers
The Geat Rock’n'roll Swindle
2. I couldn’t catch a cold, ice fishing nude!
3. Cuts like that are why duck-tape was invented.
4. No. I don’t deal well with authority.
5. Took own sandwiches. No, still never, ever heard of whoever they are!
6. Define this! Otherwise, the Bush atrocities.
7. Yes and no.
8. No, I’m not a citizen. I believe that voting gives bitching rights. In the Presidential campaign I have donated to the entrant of my choice and in my mind that allows me to bitch like a wossname.
9. The question assumes that one believes that life has some meaning. As time goes on resposibilities heap up but assigning some kind of meaning to life is wishfull thinking.
A. Asteroids
B. Yes, but they are holding back on paying me so as to collect the maximum interest.
March 14th, 2008 at 9:00 pm #
Andy Laub said:
@ Alex re: A - are you on Live? What’s your gamertag?
March 14th, 2008 at 10:00 pm #
deepintheheart said:
2) I should have been a pair of ragged claws Scuttling across the floors of silent seas
3) and I have seen the eternal footman hold my coat, and snicker, and in short, I was afraid
4) and indeed there will be time To wonder, “Do I dare?” and “Do I dare?” Time to turn back and descend the stair
7) Arms that lie along atable, or wrap about a shawl
March 15th, 2008 at 7:25 am #
robertmentzer said:
4. No. Military service is not for me, not my set of skills. But I did serve in an AmeriCorps program full-time for a year after I graduated college. Worked for an adult literacy program. That was a form of national service that I could actually do well.
6. The rise of social media and interaction on the Internet, of course.
8. I will vote, I love to vote. Voting is the highlight of my day.
March 15th, 2008 at 9:31 am #
Alex said:
@ Andy - I already sold my 08 for the PC. That is where I game online. Fab Al is always my handle on any platform. On the 360 four of us get together every year and do a fantasy draft and play 10-15 seasons. So no time for online 360. Hate the glitch players as well.
March 15th, 2008 at 2:22 pm #
Wausau Film Festival said:
1. So, a trapped on an island question: Which five books would you bring? If you could have a solar powered DVD player and monitor, which 5 movies? You are going to be there for two years, so think long term.
Book 1: The SAS Survival Handbook - Get some decent information on the tasks at hand.
Book 2: US Army Survival Manual: FM 21-76 - Service members swear by it and its free online.
Book 3: Light On Yoga - People Pay big bucks to do yoga on secluded islands. Might as well do it right and get some street cred for it (or should that be wilderness credit??)
Book 4: Atlas Shrugged - The one book I am supposed to read but haven’t.
Book 5: The Old Testament of the Bible - Helpful from the spiritual point of view. Maybe Casteneda’s book ‘The Active side of Infinity’ since it deals with confronting infinity and never trust someone who puts you on a secluded island “for only two years”.
Movie 1: Pirates of the Caribbean I - helps set the mood.
Movie 2: Rocky IV - Nothing like training for a fight with nothing.
Movie 3: Last of the Mohicans - I like the cinematography.
Movie 4: Deathly Hallows part I
Movie 5: Deathly Hallows part II - Put’em in a bottle when they are released or air drop them in.
2. Do you fish? Do you eat the fish that you catch? Do you look down on fish because you can catch them so easily?
Normally I do not fish. I do eat them though and would have not trouble catching one to eat.
3. If you cut your finger with a pocketknife, accidentally, how do you know if you should go get a tetanus shot?
As a medical professional I have to tell you to get a doctors opinion on that. As a guy who has had rusty nails go through my arm I am not worried about a little knife cut. Depends on the blade condition.
4. If you were 18 to 25, would you sign up to join the military?
Yes. Obviously. I was looking into my military options already at 23 though in highschool it was the last thing on my list of things to do. I got fed up with making sacrifices for school and art and signed-on to dedicate myself to something beyond myself for a while. It works. It helped enforced some empirical lessons from philosophy and adds some density to my personal demeanor. Thats what makes most military members “Solid as a rock”.
5. When you were in high school, did you eat hot lunch or bring your own? Have you heard about a band Freedown playing a show in the area?
I was a hot lunch kind of guy and then once a week myself and a diverse group of Wausau West Students went to George’s for lunch.
Never heard of that band.
6. What will define the first decade of the 21st century? What defines the decades of your life? I am only in my 30s. So I do not have a lot of defining yet.
This question make me realize that I am too young or uninterested in what involves a defining a decade. Maybe online and mobile media.
7. When you sleep with your wife or husband or partner, do you do spoon, or how do you sleep? If they get up to go to the bathroom does it wake you up?
Single. Very Very Very Single. I would rather take up new activities then settle. Hopefully when the right gal comes around I will be smart enough to settle.
8. Do you think you’re going to vote for Mayor? I heard that real governing takes place on school boards and city councils. I hope you vote.
No, I am not voting in any Wausau Elections.
Dino you might be right about decisions taking place on school boards and city councils. A recent study of decision making groups in Philadelphia civic matters showed that there was only a 1% overlap between actual power brokers in the community and perceived power brokers in the community. Informal leadership is what gets things done the study seems to say. If you are a perceived power broker (Written about in Magazines) be smart enough to hire these informal leaders.
9. Do you think that as your life changes through career and family and aging, that which gives your life meaning changes? Do you think of objects or talismans as something that you care for?
The only thing that gives my life a sense of real meaning is learning or doing something new and being able to share that with others.
March 15th, 2008 at 3:46 pm #
swearingen said:
1. Island movies: Netflix delivers.
2. Fishing: Could never bring myself to properly bait a hook when I was a kid. Always felt sorry for the worm and would tie him to the hook rather than poking the hook through him. Somehow seemed more humane, or at least fewer guts spilling out. It amused my grandpa, who was always there to unhook the fish (bluegill, sunfish, perch, even a musky once) who were lured in by my “worm tie”.
4. Military: One who flinches at baiting a worm on a hook would likely not be good fighting material.
5. School lunch: How ’bout what were your least favorite school hot lunches? 1) Sewer pipes and glue (mac and cheese) 2) Windpipes with gravy (some government issued “mystery meat” that invariably contained chunks of severed bovine windpipes 3) John Marzetti (who was this guy, anyway?) 4) Barely (barley) beef soup 5) And what really struck fear in the hearts of school lunch children: “Cook’s Choice” (the word “cook” used very loosely here). Was always hoping they’d serve “Pizza in a Cup”…never happened.
3. and 7. If you cut your husband, wife, partner, or dog while spooning them (accidentally, of course), do you (or they) need a tetanus shot?
9. I have many sentimental objects from eras gone by, when there was a sense of stability and permanence. There is comfort in that.
March 15th, 2008 at 5:28 pm #
lisastahl said:
2. I like to lay in the the sun and listen to the water. The last time I fished I was probably 8 and in Arkansas. My Grandpa took my fish to a restaurant and the cook prepared it for us that night. I cried because I hurt the fish.
4. No.
5. Hot lunch - mostly salad bar.
7. Facing out. No.
8. Absolutely.
9. I have my Grandma’s comb (and her mother’s comb).
Bonus Round
Letter A: My first video game was Pong. I don’t play them anymore.
Appendix 54.3: Yep.
March 15th, 2008 at 6:25 pm #
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March 15th, 2008 at 11:32 pm #
Andy Laub said:
@ Alex No problem - I don’t play Madden anyway.
March 16th, 2008 at 3:43 pm #
zeenawombat said:
1. The Stand by Stephen King. I can’t answer the rest, it’s too hard to think that much.
2. I fish. I love to fish. I am almost exclusively catch and release with the exception of the beautiful rainbow trout I caught in a mountain stream in NM…ah!
3. Only if it is rusty. But I’m up-to-date on my shots.
4. No. Wage peace.
5. Open campus.
Freedown, two nights only, opening for Scott Holt at the Longshot in Woodruff, this Friday and Saturday night. You can say, “I saw them when…”
6. Indefinable.
7. There’s this big dog on my bed all the time. I am a very light sleeper.
8. If you don’t vote, you can’t complain and I like to complain.
9. I have stuff from my mom and my dad, but in the end, it’s stuff. Memories are the only things you can really keep.
A. There was this really cool video game at the arcade that was kind of dungeon and dragon like, where you could choose your character and go on a quest. I was always the elf and I was pretty darn good. Can’t remember what it was called…
54:3. Yes.
March 19th, 2008 at 12:53 pm #