Senseless Accumulation of Information

I'm actually not that fond these blog quizzes, especially the long ones. Who cares to have a big collection of random things about me? These things are just filler. But I was procrastinating this afternoon, and just kind of felt like doing something mindless and inflicting it on everyone. Feel free to skip/skim it. A real post coming soon.

· How tall are you barefoot? 5 feet 4 inches
· Have you ever flown first-class? Many times! But never on my own dime.
· One of your favorite books when you were a child? The Black Stallion
· A good restaurant in your city? In Beijing? I have never been disappointed by "Famous Chef from Jiangnan", but then I'm not a Chinese restaurant connoisseur. I also like "Fat Cow" and nameless hole in the wall student dive across from the Beida west gate. For Western food: the Vineyard near Yonghegong, and Kro's Nest (for pizza).
· What is your favorite small appliance? Laptop, I suppose. Is that small? Is it an appliance?
· One person that never fails to make you laugh? Pocket of Bolts. He keeps trying until he succeeds.
· What was the first music that you ever bought? Really not sure at all. U2's The Joshua Tree was probably one of the first CDs I bought at least.
· Do you do push-ups? When I remember. I can do one-sixth as many as Pocket of Bolts regularly does, which means about 9 or 10.
· What was one of your favorite games as a child? Building small dams.
· When you were twelve years old, what did you want to be when you grew up? A writer.
· Your favorite Soup of the Day? Potato leek, maybe?
· Have you ever met someone famous? No.
· Date Of Birth? November 29.
· From what news source do you receive the bulk of your news? Blogs--scary but true.
· Current worry? Will I ever finish my dissertation and get a job?
· Current hate? The hot plate in my kitchen.
· Favorite place to be? Walking near a large clean body of water.
· Least favorite place to be? Wide awake at night in bed worrying.
· Do you consider yourself well organized? Not especially, but I consider organization to be an eccentric art form which, applied intensely but selectively, leads to interesting effects.
· Do you believe in an afterlife? No.
· Where do you think you will be in 10 Yrs? At a university...somewhere. (Safe bet.)
· Do you burn or tan? Both, in moderation.
· Are you more optimistic or pessimistic about the future? Mine, or the world's? Depends on how I'm feeling when you ask.
· What did you fear was going to get you at night as a kid? Leprosy or nuclear war.
· What’s in your pockets right now? Nothing.
· Last thing that made you laugh? My Chinese friend's story about her family's parrots. The mother parrot was called "heroic mother" (after Mao's short-lived encouragement for Chinese people to produce as many as possible babies for the revolution--oops), since she has laid so many eggs. But quarrels with the "less-than-heroic father" so much that there never seem to be any baby parrots.
· Worst injury you’ve ever had? 17 stitches on my right wrist due to iguana bite.
· How many TVs do you own? Zero.
· Best compliment received? Oh...there are so many...
· What leaves you speechless? The combination of having to speak Chinese and it being important for me to speak well and clearly.
· What is your favorite book? This is a dumb question and I think it's irritating. You don't go asking a mother which one is her favorite child, or at least you shouldn't. A better question is what did you think of the last book you read. It was LeCarre's The Night Manager, and I liked it but in the end found it extremely depressing.
· Last meal you cooked for the opposite sex? I think I cooked an omelet for Pocket of Bolts when he was here at Christmas. Maybe?
· What were you doing at 12 midnight last night? Hanging out at a bar called D-22 listening to a drummer girl beating on a keg. Well, you asked! Actually, the fact that I have an answer other than "sleeping" (for once) is the whole reason I decided to do this silly quiz in the first place.

As found at Not that Desperate.