Theories of Relativity

Today's entry in Jonthan Carroll's blog is a list of questions. For no particular reason, I decided to answer them.

******
Do you pick coins up individually off the table, or scrape them in a sweep from one hand to the waiting other? Whichever you do, is that any indication of your personality?
It depends on how many coins there are. If there are a lot (say, more than five), I sweep. If there are only a few, I pick them up individually. Since I have done any research on the sorts of people who sweep and the sorts of people who pick up, I don't know which of my personality traits (if any) are specifically revealed by my coin collection methods. Besides, I have recently come to the conclusion that I don't do things the same way as other people.

What goes into your coffee first-- the sugar or the milk? Why?
I don't much drink coffee or tea, but when I do, the sugar goes in first, while the liquid is still hot, so that it dissolves more completely. Then I add milk to make the stuff cool enough to drink.

Do you look at yourself in the mirror when you brush your teeth, or just at your mouth?
Both and neither. I don't always look in the mirror at all while brushing my teeth.

How many times a day would you say you look at yourself in a mirror when it is not necessary?
It is rarely, if ever, *necessary* in my world to look at myself in a mirror. There is not a full length mirror in my house, and the mirror on the medicine cabinet in the bathroom is a little too high to be convenient. Working in fashion retail, however, means that I am practically surrounded by mirrors when I go to work. It's unnerving.

When you see them on the street, do you think of them as bums or the homeless?
Homeless.

Why are you angry when you don't receive mail if you don't write to anyone?
Not angry, just vaguely disappointed.

When a person says, "I don't read fiction because it's a waste of time." Are they right, or idiots?
I would wonder how much television this person watches, and what variety. Reading fiction is certainly not a waste of *my* time because it is one of the mechanisms I employ to cope with reality, even if only to escape from it. I think that reading in general is good exercise for the brain and that the subject matter is secondary.

A couple that had been married for decades was questioned on the secret of their success together.One of them replied "We're still waiting for a dull moment."
Do you believe that, or do you think they're showing off?
I believe it because I think that dull is a relative concept. I tend to be fairly easily entertained or occupied, but I am sure that many people would consider my life boring.

What do you think of people who name their children after themselves?
I think that they are investing a little more heavily in the illusion of immortality.

What tends to bother me--or at least make me wonder--is giving a child a name with deliberate plans to shorten it. If you are only ever going to call the child by a nickname or a shortened version of his or her given name, why did you bother with the given name in the first place?

You have a choice-- you can die and be reincarnated as a dung beetle. Or you can die and enter nothingness.
I don't think I want a choice regarding what happens to me when I die.