🤔10 Things You Didn't Know About Me....

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I was nominated by @riverflows to answer ten questions, in response to @blog-fictions initial post. I like these kinds of posts, they're just a bit of fun, and a great way to get to know about some of the quirkier aspects of people in the community.

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1) If you could trade lives with anyone for a day who would it be and why?

Krista Tippett, the producer, host, and brains behind the very excellent podcast On Being. Mostly because I reckon she has the best job in the world: meeting and having intelligent, meaningful conversations with some amazing people. In fact, this podcast is what kept me sane and hopeful over the last six months as I was going through my own 'dark night of the soul'.

Pools of sorrow, waves of joy are drifting through my opened mind, possessing and caressing me.
— The Beatles

 

2) What would you do on Mars for fun?

I've read a lot of SF literature, and the whole human settlement on Mars thing has been done extensively. The one book that I love set in this world is Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars (I still haven't read the two follow up novels, Green Mars and Blue Mars after all these years). The main thing I would love to do would be to explore the natural Martian landscape, before human civilisation comes and terraforms it, changing it from its wild, natural beauty.

Going native, so to speak. Exploring the deserts and perfect, natural wildness before we tame it. And yes, it's gonna happen.

Oh man, wonder if he'll ever know
He's in the best selling show
Is there life on Mars?
— David Bowie

 

3) If you could get yourself anything what would you get?

After remembering my road trip days and writing about in a recent post I've become somewhat nostalgic for travelling on the open road.

I'd get myself some kind of Camper-van. It doesn't have to be a VW Kombi (as cool as they are), but I'm not talking anything as ridiculous as a Winnebago either. Something that's a 'normal' size van, with good storage, a bed, a fridge, twin battery system, solar-power generators, and all the kit I need to live on the road. It would have to handle itself on unsealed roads (but not necessarily a 4WD), and have a canopy that extends from the side (to still enjoy the outdoors and stay dry if it's raining.

And of course, it would have to have a killer sound system!

Will I walk the long road? Cannot stay.
— Eddie Vedder

 

4) Describe the perfect kiss in 3 words

Long. Deep. Presence.

I know you know
We believe in a land of love
— New Order

 

5) What is the first thing you notice in the opposite sex?

It's just..... something...

Something in the way she moves
Attracts me like no other lover
Something in the way she woos me
— George Harrison

 

6) If you had access to a time machine where and when would you go?

Well, look - if I had a Time Machine (presumably a TARDIS), I would travel "through all of time and space". But one place I always imagine is Melbourne back in the 19th Century, when it was still a young town, but booming from the Gold Rush, a time when it was the wealthiest city in the whole world.

I always imagine what the centre of town must've looked like in those days, not to mention to have witnessed the goldfields up in Ballarat, and see the mighty Eureka flag raised against the injustices of authoritarian government.

Australia before Federation was fucking awesome. All the best art and poetry was written in those days. The time of swagmen, squatters, and bushrangers. A time when ordinary folk really could create their own world.

We'll sing a rebel song,
As others did before us;
and we'll raise a rebel flag,
join in rebel chorus.
— Shane Howard

 

image source

 

7) What is the strangest thing you believed as a child?

God.

I won't believe in Heaven and Hell
No saints, no sinners, no devil as well
No pearly gates, no thorny crown
You're always letting us humans down
The wars you bring, the babes you drown
Those lost at sea and never found
And it's the same the whole world 'round
The hurt I see helps to compound
That Father, Son and Holy Ghost
Is just somebody's unholy hoax
And if you're up there you'd perceive
That my heart's here upon my sleeve
If there's one thing I don't believe in
It's you, dear God.
— XTC

8) Do you believe in aliens and why?

Carl Sagan's novel Contact is probably the most profound story that covers the science and philosophy of the notion that there is other sentient life out there in the universe. To quote from it (via the film):

It seems preposterous to me that we are the only sentient beings. Or that our planet is the only one that can hold life.

Of course the other question is when? There may well have been civilisations elsewhere in the universe, but perhaps they long since died out, or their planets destroyed, their sun gone supernova.

Whilst I certainly don't believe aliens built the great Pyramids of Egypt, I think the evidence that we've had contact in our history is fair. That doesn't mean I think its absolutely true - we just don't know, at the end of the day.

I also think its plausible that perhaps we are the aliens who came and settled on Earth from elsewhere, or that somehow our sentience is the result of alien interference.

Again, I'm not claiming this as absolute truth. I just claim it's plausible.

Jesus came from outta space
And traveled from beyond the stars.
He came down for peace on Earth
And left in a second-hand car
— Supergrass

 

9) Tell us about something you really regret

Generally, not really. I'm pragmatic in that I have to live today with the consequences of my choices in the past.

But I do regret that I didn't quite live life as fully as I could have, especially during the years before becoming a parent. Mostly because I lacked the confidence in myself, and was always 'waiting' for tomorrow to come around. I had some wild ideas, and never followed them through, also influenced by plenty of nay-sayers around me. Had I trusted my intuition and found ways to make those happen... well, things would be very different.

But then again, hindsight is always 20/20!

Last year, today seemed a long way away,
And ahead of me
— The Church

 

10) Do you feel any of the above questions did not make any sense?

Why does anything ever need to make any sense, really?

Nonsense, paradox, and mystery are sexy.

As we get older and stop making sense,
You won't find her waiting long
— Talking Heads

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The rules are simple :

 

• Make a post to answer these below questions and on that post nominate two or more friends as I have done below. Your nominated friends would then make a post to answer and then nominate their friends on it and the trend would go on...

• Every post that's been created should contain the link to the original post here

• Use the main hashtag as #alicequestions

• Nomination not compulsory for participation

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I'm going to nominate @bearone, @beggars and @choogirl. Please don't feel obligated...
And if you're reading this, and want to do it - go for it!! Let me know if you do - please tag me!

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MADE FOR STEEMIT
Soundtrack for this post can be found on this month’s playlist
STEEMIT SOUNDS: SLIGHT RETURN