Trivial Pursuits

Sounds About Right

Let's get quizzical.  Quizzical.  I'd like to get quizzical.  Let's get into quizzical.

You Should Get a PhD in Liberal Arts (like political science, literature, or philosophy)

You're a great thinker and a true philosopher. You'd make a talented professor or writer.

What Advanced Degree Should You Get?

I didn't expect them to say I should get a Ph.D in medical humanities, but nevertheless, this is right on.

Link via Frequent Citations.

Cities

American Cities That Best Fit You:

75% Chicago

65% Philadelphia

60% Los Angeles

60% New York City

55% Atlanta

Which American Cities Best Fit You?

Interesting.  I lived in Chicago for some time, and were it not for two little problems, I'd agree that it is the greatest city in the world: (1) it's an island unto itself; and (2) the weather sucks.  As for # 1, TP does not dig on the Midwest.  No offense if you love it, but I've spent enough time there to know it ain't for me.  Chicago itself is amazing, but I'm not happy about anything remotely near it.  As for # 2, TP likes cold weather, but you can believe that the weather up there sucks @ss.  Cold is one thing, but grey for 6 months out of the year makes TP a dull boy, indeed.  And because summer is only a few months long, there's not so much A/C in Chi-town, which, for those of you who don't know, is a serious problem, b/c Chicago in summer rivals most Southern metropoli for humidity and overall grossness. 

Factor in the heavy unionization, and it seemed like we got garbage strikes almost every summer I lived there.  Fetid piles of garbage + 90 + temp + 90% humidity + relatively little A/C = EXTREME SUCKITUDE.

I think I also prefer the South.  Or Texas.

Second on the list is Philly, which is ridiculous.  The town smells like a garbage dump, and if I was going to live anywhere in the NE, it would only, could only, be NYC.  Never Philly.

Third is L.A., which also strikes me as odd.  Though I've never been to L.A., I cannot imagine I would like it very much, in all honesty.  I mostly grew up in Miami, which is L.A. on the East Coast.  Except better, frankly.  Even if my CFB team is currently not as good as USC.  Dammit.

I love NYC, but, quite frankly, I think living in NYC is difficult unless you've got mad bones to spread about.  Otherwise, you're living in a cubicle, and constantly getting pissed off because of all the amazing events and shows you cannot take part in because they're too damn expensive. 

Atlanta is a great city.  I think I could live there, if not for the slight complication that Texas is better.

Where the heck is Houston on this list? I LOVE Houston.  I don't know if I'll be here to the bitter end, but w/o a doubt, it is my favorite place I have ever lived in.  Houston-bashers beware -- thems'll be fightin' words.

(Via Chief Metrosexual)

Memey Meme

From Centinel:

1. You're stuck inside Fahrenheit 451, which book do you want to be saved?

Heart of Darkness.

2. Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?

No.

3. The last book you purchased?

Under the Black Flag: the Romance and the Reality of Life among the Pirates.  It's the definitive scholarly treatment of the Golden Age of Piracy.

Avast ye scurvy dogs, prepare to be boarded.  And as for you over there, it's your turn to swab the poop deck.  Swab it, I say.

4. What are you currently reading?

The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century by Charles Homer Haskins, and i six nonlectures by the Man Himself, Edward Estlin Cummings.

5. Five books you would take to a deserted island?

The Inferno, by Dante (John Ciardi translation)

The Trial, by Kafka (Adrienne Truett tells me that the Muirs' translations are terrible, but I'm not familiar with any others, so I'm open to suggestions)

Norwegian Wood, by Haruki Murakami (Jay Rubin translation)

Trainspotting, by Irvine Welsh

Eleanor and the Four Kings, by Amy Kelly.

I'm supposed to send this to three other bloggers.  Fine.  I choose R. Alex Whitlock, Adrienne Truett, and Kevin Whited.

Well Duh

Your Dominant Intelligence is Linguistic Intelligence

You are excellent with words and language. You explain yourself well. An elegant speaker, you can converse well with anyone on the fly. You are also good at remembering information and convicing someone of your point of view. A master of creative phrasing and unique words, you enjoy expanding your vocabulary. You would make a fantastic poet, journalist, writer, teacher, lawyer, politician, or translator.

What Kind of Intelligence Do You Have?

via Ms. Heidi.

He's Imfamous [sic] . . . He's More than Famous

You are Jack the Ripper. Yours were some of the
most brutal murders recorded in history--yet
your case is still to this day unsolved. You
came from out of the fog, killed violently and
quickly and disappeared without a trace. Then
for no apparent reason, you satisfy your blood
lust with ever-increasing ferocity, culminating
in the near destruction of your final victim,
and then you vanish from the scene forever. The
perfect ingredients for the perennial thriller. You are quite the mysteriously demented one.

Which Imfamous criminal are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Quiz Time

You are Envy!
Wow... what a dreamer. Always wanting what you
can't have, and always dreaming of having more
then you do. It's not the worst sin, and we're
all guilty of it - but you take it to the
extreme! You are prone to depression, often
from things you can't obtain. Be a bit more
positive, you have a lot that others want too
- so don't sit there being all green! On the
positive side, you tend to be a smart person -
and can often achieve the goals you set
yourself.
Congratulations on being the overall harmless, and
pretty normal one of the 7 deadly sins :)


?? Which Of The Seven Deadly Sins Are You ??
brought to you by Quizilla

Via Slithery D.

Misanthropy

Fight Club!


What movie Do you Belong in?(many different outcomes!)
brought to you by Quizilla

Apparently, this quiz caught me in one of my more misanthropic moods. And contrary to what some of you regular readers might think in terms of my training, I don't like violence. In fact, I'm terrified of it. I train to learn to live with that fear, to learn how to react in a life or death scenario without the fear and the panic utterly controlling me. I'm not too interested in fighting 'for fun.' In fact, I don't think it's fun at all. I did have some aspirations of doing an MMA competition someday, b/c it would be amazing to face that fear and fight in spite of it, but I like my brain a bit too much to willingly take on the minimal risk I would face of serious injury.

Thus, for me, the first rule of Fight Club is to STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM IT. So, why do I train?

I heard my instructor talking with a yoga instructor one day, inviting her to train with us. She declined, saying she was a pacifist. My instructor nodded and said, 'Too bad some people aren't.'

I train not because I believe in force and violence, but because others do. And when someone attempts to use force and violence on me and mine, I will visit it back on them tenfold. I will walk (or run!) away. They will not. Honi soit qui mal y pense. Evil to him who thinks evil of it.

Quizzizle

Well, u-- um, can we come up and have a look?


What Monty Python Character are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Sweet. I once won a debate tournament by giving an extemporaneous speech on the topic, "What is the average air speed of an unencumbered African swallow?" Not kidding.

Link from OMC.

Quizizzle

You're an Etch-a-Sketch!! You're the creative,
artsy type who doesn't need to actually utilize
a single muscle group in order to have fun.
Doesn't matter though, you're still cool.


What childhood toy from the 80s are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Link from Owen.

Poets

You are ee cummings! An experimental grammatical
poet, ee cummings was surprisingly boring as an
actual person. He wrote on topics of sex and
war, and pioneered a new almost concretist
style of avant-garde poetry which makes very
little sense to the uninitiated.


Which famous poet are you? (pictures and many outcomes)
brought to you by Quizilla

As if I would be any other poet. For those good readers of TP who are unaware, I absolutely adore ee cummings, and have felt so for years. However, I completely disagree that cummings was a "boring" person in real life; he lead a fascinating life. I also don't think his poetry makes little sense to the "uninitiated," whatever that means. cummings is difficult, but aren't most good things?

Lina via Owen.