When Would You Want To Be?

This week The Panel wrestled with the question of, "If you could live at any time, when would you choose?"

Stephanie launched the answers off:

I'm really bad at playing along with the whole hypothetical-question-about-an-alternate-life-or-identity game. I mean, I don't think I'm doing spectacularly well at this whole "life" thing, but I'm a pretty happy little girl all things considered. There are elements to this world and this society and this time period that irk me, but still, as a whole, I still can't help but feel like they're still somewhat fascinating. Which is, actually, how I feel about lots of other time periods, other places. I don't feel any spectacular draw to any special historical era, and I can't imagine my personality or character flaws being any better suited to a time that isn't now. It might be a stupid piece of reasoning, but as near as I can tell, this is exactly when and where I belong -- even when I don't like it or if I can't understand it. Pretending or imagining that there's anywhere else I ought to be or would want to be seems like a waste, like I'm not being grateful or appreciative of the specific opportunities and miseries I can be subjected to in the here and now. Yes, I am crazy, and yes I realize this is a horrific and moronic touchy-feely piece of nonsense. But we all have to believe in something, don't we? There isn't a whole hell of a lot I really hold with -- this is (I think) one of those things. So there.

I asked Jen and got this:

Oh, why did you pick this question? It's so hard to answer, so hard to decide. I'd love to be a time traveler because to be able to witness certain events would be mind blowing.

First thing I'd do is find out who murdered the princes in the tower. Then I'd find out the truth behind the Casket Letters. There are a ton of things with American history I'd like to figure out. What's up with "Roanoke"? Where the hell did they go? And helllooo, Black Dahlia? But history isn't all mystery of course. I'd go back and hang with Jesus for a while, too.

I think you get where I'm going. The only time I'd be interested in actually "living" in would be now. Post-penicillin, post-vaccine, post-prohibition. I think I was meant to be in this time, as this person. As crappy as it can get, its still pretty cool. And I got to live through the 80's. The music was awesome and the clothes were even better.

Justin relied with this:

I would have to pick this time period for the simple fact that Twitter didn't exist in previous ones and, because of that, I would have never met Jennifer.

What a sweetheart. You ladies missed out on a great catch.

OK, so I want to close out this week.


I don't know of any other time I would want to be. I lived through enough of the cold war to learn not to trust the Russians and that there is evil in the world. I also learned sometimes people are evil just to be evil.

I lived through the 80s and saw the beginning of the technology explosion. I saw the first home PCs, jumped on the internet and got involved in computers.

All that and I don't have to be worried about being burned at the stake. I'm happy where I'm at.

You Are The Weakest Link - Goodbye

Your intrepid host was completely stumped for any ideas after last week until the sugegstion came from Jennifer of "Who would we vote off the "Island" and why?"

The juicy possibilities which presented themselves were too good to ignore. I therefore give you the votes.

Drunk Olympics

This week The Panel wrestles with the question of "What was the craziest thing you have ever done to a drunk person?"

What kind of mayhem can our crew come up with?

Worst Dating Experience.... EVER!

I decided to annoy the members of The Panel this week with a retelling of the exploits of their worst dating experience.  To my surprise I was met with DENIALS OF DATING???

Seriously people?  Don't you get out?  What do you do, just sit around on Facebook and Twitter all the time... ?

Oh yeah, that's what we all do.

FORTUNATELY for me, Justin, MK, myself and a SPECIAL GUEST POSTER decided to share wayyyy too much information for your enjoyment!

Favorite Baseball Memory

This week The Panel tackles a trip down memory lane and we try to come up with our best Baseball memory. Without further ado, lets see what everyone has to offer.

Takin’ care of business

I’d asked this on my blog before and couldn’t come up with a good question for the blog, so I asked this:

If you’re the only one in the house/apartment, do you close the door when you go to the bathroom?

Answers after the jump

• Jen: I always close the door. If there is a door on the inside of another room, I close the door. It is a privacy issue that I don't negotiate. I don't want to walk in on you(generalize please) and I don't want you(generalize please) to walk in on me. I don't want anyone to EVER think that I have needs in "that way"

• Mollie Katie: I always close the door. And lock it. It really doesn't matter if the room is the bathroom or not, I tend to do this everywhere, like my bedroom or dorm or basement. I have privacy issues. As a child, my sister used to sneak into my bedroom at night when I was asleep and do things like cut my hair or draw on my face. So I have privacy issues.

• Houston: When I am alone it is a rare treat for me.  It's kind of like when the lady in the commercial gets into the Calgon bubble bath, leans back and closes her eyes with blissful relaxation.  That is what solitude is like for me.

Unfortunately the only way I can get it is by closing the bathroom door.

Now I'm not a stuck up guy and I have no problem with occasionally calling a buddy in to observe the crowning achievement of my day's work.  I may or may not have a few submissions under various pseudonyms at ratemypoo.com; in other words I am a normal,everyday guy.

But with five kids every moment of solitude is precious.  It's the time to get caught up on the local news, twitter (best play to read Robert Gibbs' tweets about crap is the crapper) and whatever else I can drag into my fortress of solitude. 

Besides... I HAVE to shut the door. It is court ordered for everyone's safety.

• Michelle: Door closed. Even when there is no chance of anyone walking in on me, still door closed. I had some well thought out theory involving psychology and vulnerability, but as I procrastinated [include link to procrastination post here please] and can not make my thoughts function, we'll leave it at that.

• Justin: Usually, but not always.

I mostly close the door out of a force of habit, but occasionally I won’t. Probably just out of sheer laziness.

Facebook games

This week I asked The Panel about Facebook because I’m lame and couldn’t come up with anything else…

What, if any, Facebook games do you play and why do you like them?

Answers after the jump:

This post is kind of like MythBusters, just without all the explosions

Happenings in my life (which will be explained below) got me thinking about something I’d always heard, but wasn’t sure about. So, I decided to ask The Panel about it. Here’s the question I sent out:

Is the way to a man's heart really through his stomach?

I figured this would be an interesting question for the gang to tackle. Let’s see if I was right:

New year, new resolutions?

So, they tell me it’s 2010 and, since it’s 2010, we should have some New Years resolutions. But are they really worth it? That’s what I asked The Panel this week.

Here are their answers:

• Kristin: New Year's resolutions are great and useless. They make me feel better about myself, give me hope for the new year and its fun. In the back of my mind I kind of know that most of the resolutions I make just are not going to happen, but maybe that's part the problem. Self-fullfilling/self-defeating prophecy.

I hope to change that in 2010. My first resolution is to follow through. This year- well, in the past 6 months I have changed a great deal and I know that there are many more changes to come in this new year. Some for the better, but its not going to be easy. I want and need to make my resolutions stick. Starting now. Happy New Year!

• Houston: New Years resolutions are ways that we remind ourselves that life is pretty much hopeless and we are doomed to failure.

In short, they prepare us for work so we get off on the right foot every year... very useful.

NOT!

[Ed: More after the jump!]