106 posts tagged “qotd”

I’ve only broken one bone in my life, my left pinky during a game of fly’s-up in grade school. 4th or 5th grade, I think, but I don’t remember exactly when.

I had a hell of a time convincing anyone it was actually broken—it was only a hairline fracture and didn’t really hurt, it was just this strange sensation of warmth and a slight numbness for a week or so after it happened.

Some months later my pinky had developed a misshapen lump over the knuckle. Turns out bone had grown over the break while it healed, so my left pinky is lopsided now.

Answering:

Have you ever broken a bone? If so, how?

The title and default tag of this QotD are appropriate, because when I was a kid I had an almost paralyzing fear of my walk-in closet. It was big and dark and full of clothing on hangers and it had these large drawers full of bedding and linens. The drawers were easily large enough for me to climb inside until I was about 5 or 6 years old, so the idea that I might be playing hide-and-seek and never get found was just horrifying.

But worst of all was the hole in the closet wall at the edge of those drawers. It was a ragged hole, knocked into the wall to allow access to the crawlspace between the eaves and the house’s brick walls. But I had seen the 1980 version of The Fog, and I recalled a scene where an eerie light was emanating from the walls of an old house and a young woman reached through a hole in the wall to grab something she had lost (or possibly left behind, or whatever), and as she reached in, THE MONSTERS GRABBED HER AND PULLED HER THROUGH TO HER DEATH.

I would NOT go near that part of the closet at night, and in daylight only with every nearby light source turned on. Scared the SHIT out of me.

Answering:

What were you afraid of when you were younger that seems silly to you now?
Submitted by wandie

Ten minutes. 15 if I shave too.

Answering:

How long do you take in the shower?
Submitted by Strive2Be.

Right now I’m celebrating by being out of my apartment for the day while my building undergoes plumbing work and they have the water shut off. Apart from that, I have no specific plans for the day, possible some green beer later  today.

Easy enough. Mine’s my name, donnunn.

I started using my name for most services after I got the donnunn.com domain. Figured if I was going to put anything on that domain, Internet anonymity was out the window, so why even bother with it?

Now, whenever I become aware of a free service that looks like it might become fairly popular, I register the donnunn username on that service whether I intend to use it or not. Best examples are my pages on MySpace and Facebook (though actually I don’t think it really applies for Facebook), both of which I use rarely (and usually only to acknowledge friend requests).

If anyone’s searching for my name on the web, I want it to point to me. Or at least to cause as little confusion as possible.

Answering:

How did you create your username for VOX? What influenced your decision?
Submitted by Strive2Be.

Home is where I live at any given moment, so right now it’s Seattle.

But when I say “I’m going home,” where I mean depends on context.

My hometown is Salt Lake City. I was born there and lived there all but one year until I turned 30, when I moved to the Seattle area. The one year was for school in Los Angeles in 1990–91.

So if I say “I’m going home to see family and friends,” I mean Salt Lake City.

Answering:

Where do you consider home? Is it the place you grew up; the place you’re currently living? Why is it home?
Submitted by uncagedbird.

That would be about five weeks ago in Astoria, OR, for Julie Anne’s friend Nikki and her (then) fiancé Matt. Julie Anne was a bridesmaid.

I wasn’t officially in the wedding but I did take some photos, sort of an unofficial photographer who could capture more of the candid moments since I wouldn’t necessarily look like a photographer.

Answering:

What was the last wedding you went to? Were you in the wedding?

In... what, must have been 1998 or 1999, maybe 2000, I was chosen to serve on a jury for a DUI case.

Jury duty involved a full week of what amounted to on-call duty. Each night, we called a number and listened to a recording to find out if our jury pool actually had to do anything. The first two nights, nothing; the third night, the recording told me to be at the Salt Lake County government complex the next morning for the jury questionnaire and selection process.

Showed up early to make sure I could find parking, filled out roughly 3,000 forms, and joined the other members of my jury pool in an empty courtroom where we went through the first phase of the selection process. It was pretty vanilla, the usual questions about did we think we could render a fair opinion based solely on the facts presented, had any of us ever been fired from a job for poor performance, and did any of us have DUI records.

Then the attorneys stepped up and rattled off their preemptive dismissals in several cases, and used their explicit acceptances (I have no idea what the term for those is) in others. I was chosen explicitly by both attorneys. It was an 8-person panel with an alternate.

We broke for lunch. I had Subway from the location across the street.

Returned to the courtroom where we actually were seated in the jury box, had just been sworn in and the attorneys had made their opening statements, when suddenly the judge called a recess and 20 minutes later we were dismissed. They’d come to a plea agreement.

$17 for my time. I was lucky my employer made up the difference for my standard 8-hour day’s pay.

Answering:

Have you ever served on a jury? What was your experience?
Submitted by jacolily.

For sheer amusement value, that would be my friend Sonya’s reply my story of how I had mistaken an Applebee’s location in Glendale, AZ, for the Chili’s location I was trying to find.

Full story.

Answering:

What’s the best text message you’ve ever gotten?

Hmmm.

This would probably depend on where I was when I got arrested, and possibly on why I’d been arrested.

In Seattle I’d probably call my sister. She also lives in the Seattle area, and I’d rely on her to call our mom and other family or friends as required.

If I was in Salt Lake City, or pretty much anywhere other than Seattle, I’d probably call my mom in SLC. I don’t know why that is, other than that I think parents tend to be better at dealing with things long-distance. Though so far as I know my parents have never arranged bail bonds nor legal services, locally or otherwise. So I don’t know why I think this.

Answering:

Who would you call with your one phone call if arrested? (No lawyers!)