12 Questions and Answers

My friend shared this post with me last night, knowing that I like asking and answering random questions, and suggested I take a look and make my own post in response. The author, Alhen (@hobotang), posed a series of 12 random but thought-provoking questions, and after answering them himself turned it into a "challenge" for others. I accept the challenge, in the interest of getting my creative muscles going again. These are excellent leading questions, and I thoroughly enjoyed the thought exercise!

Normally I'm not a fan of nominating (i.e. pressuring) people into participating in a chain post, but this one is so fun that I'm going to tag and quietly challenge my fellow Photo Games teammates @jarvie, @caseygrimley and @gabyoraa, and suggest that anyone reading this go ahead and make their own #twelvequestions post to help us get to know you a little better. #NoPressure :)

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1. What 3 meals would you have before heading to the International Space Station?

Starting off with an easy one.

a. Popcorn, because I love popcorn and while I'm not sure if they can make it on the ISS, I know popcorn with oil and seasoning just wouldn't be so much fun to prepare and consume in zero gravity.
b. Fresh salad. I eat salad regularly whether or not I am going to the ISS, but I would make a special point to enjoy my last one before takeoff. The astronauts get fresh produce sent up on resupply vehicles, but making a proper salad out of it would present the same problems as with popcorn: zero-G would make eating salad annoying rather than pleasurable.
c. Fresh ice cream. I've had astronaut ice cream and it's not a valid substitute.

2. What section of the newspaper would you be?

The comics section - that part of the comics section in which reside the intelligent strips, the ones that hide deep truths under a veil of humour.

3. If you were immortal, what age would you choose to stop aging at and why?

I assume this question pertains more to my physical stature and appearance, since my brain would still age and grow with experience.* Since I don't want to be treated like a kid for the rest of my life, nor do I want to appear old just for the sake of appearing wise, I would answer somewhere around 32, a good balance between youth and middle age, a sweet spot for athletic potential. If given the choice I would rather be physically useful, and not have to complain about back pains for all eternity.

*Interestingly, they say that you stop feeling mentally older once you reach a certain age - around approximately 20: most people, if asked, will say that they still feel young inside even if they look old and feel old in other ways. I'm 31 but don't feel like it; I still feel like I'm a young adult on good days, or even a child on better days. Maybe we're already more immortal than we think.

4. What sport would you compete in, if you were in the Olympics?

I love hockey, but that's too easy an answer. If the Winter Olympics, I would compete in Biathlon. Something about biathlon always captivated me, since it requires a rare blend of disciplines: needing to push your body to the limits to ski like mad, then flick a switch to enter a calm zen-like focus to hit targets while under both physical and mental stress. It's one of my favourite sports to watch, and if I could either ski or shoot straight I would take it up as a winter hobby and participate recreationally.

In the Summer Olympics the question becomes more difficult. I don't seek public glory so much as quiet respect and recognition within a smaller community, so I wouldn't pick a high-profile sport like sprinting (though I like to sprint). I love table tennis and archery, so it's tempting to pick one of those, but instead I'll take a long-term approach to the question and say triathlon. Again, it's a sport that combines multiple disciplines, and since the thought experiment is granting me world-class skills in an event of my choosing, then I'll pick a sport in which I can become healthier, learn to swim and (hopefully) be able to compete for many years without completely wrecking my body. And if I do well and inspire people with my performance, like Canadian Simon Whitfield did for me in past Olympics, then all the better.

5. If you had to go back in time to live the rest of your life where/when would you go?

I have questions about this question. How would this work, exactly? Would I retain my current experience, or would I simply be living again, starting from scratch? If the former, then I would start at the beginning, maximizing my time and potential for understanding and seeing old experiences in a new light. If the latter, then I might as well just go back one second and not trouble physics any more than is necessary, since everything I have experienced, I will simply experience in the same way and end up in the same place as I am now.

If the question is more like "if you knew the movie Groundhog Day was going to happen to you, but you were able to pick the day/week/period of time, what time would you pick?" then I would say February 2010, when I volunteered at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. My answer is biased by the previous question, but I'll go with it anyway.

If, however, the question is "if you were forced to take a one-way trip on a time machine, when would be your destination?" then I'll have to think a little harder, and begin by asking "what can I hope to gain from this opportunity?"

Assuming I can't travel back to the future (I have to live the rest of my life in the time I choose, says the question), then there's no possibilty of passing on information for scientific and historical value (unless I were to record my findings for someone to find later, but since the Lost Annals of Derek have never been found, I'm assuming that whatever I were to write has already been lost or destroyed). I might satisfy my own curiosity on a few points, but I don't know if that's sufficient reason to go anywhere and anywhen. Of course, it's tempting to want to go back to Austria in the early 1900s to give a copy of Jordan Peterson's 12 Rules For Life to a young Adolf Hitler, but life and history don't work like that, and since the past has already happened, whether or not I return to it, I can't expect to enact any real change in anyone except myself, so, the question is, how can I become a better person by living in the past?

First I'd have to survive for a while. Until very recently, history is dangerous for someone like me who isn't immune to whatever diseases haven't been relevant during my lifetime. Even if I survive antique bacteria, there's the problem of trying to fit in to a society where I would have no hope of pretending to be a local, or even of telling the truth and expecting to live peacefully. I've read A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court, and I'm not as knowledgable as protagonist Hank Morgan, who, not benefiting from the internet age where we don't need to know anything until we need to know it, had impressive and wide-ranging technical knowledge about future industries that he used to gain a position of influence and help transform the medieval age he was dropped into. Nor do I remember the dates of any eclipses except the one on August 21, 2017, so I'd have a tough time aweing the masses with that bit of historical foresight. I could pretend to be mute - that would solve a lot of problems, but create others.

I like being around some people and don't want to risk meeting a dinosaur if I know I can't return home to 2018 to report on it, so there's no sense going back too far. I could say "I'd like to go back to the Garden of Eden, please, to live the rest of my life there" but God is not so easily tricked. The last few centuries B.C. would be interesting in theory, but there's not enough information to know exactly when and where to get dropped, and it would be difficult to travel around once I'm there to be in the right place at the right time to see anything I might be interested in.

Europe was unhygenic and given to war for much of the last two millenium, and while I like the history of the middle ages and the idea of chivalry and of valiant knights in shining armor wielding swords, the reality is something I don't want to touch with a 10 foot lance. The same is true of the Age of Sail. Nice to read about, but I wouldn't want to get caught up by a press gang.

I would love to know what was going on in North America one or two thousand years ago. Again, though, it's a tricky thing to pick a date and time to get dropped in, with no second chances, and I don't like taking such high risks with my life.

The late 1800s in North America...there's potential there. Opportunity to find someone who will believe that I'm from the future, and less unlikely to be burned as a witch for saying so, if I'm careful about it. It was a time of great change and people were starting to believe that anything was possible. But I don't know what I'd really gain from traveling back to this part of history. It's well-documented, so I wouldn't learn as much, but it's still long enough ago to make living inconvenient.

I'll just say "send me back a few days, to New Zealand," because I want to visit New Zealand, and that would save me half the airfare. But I'll get a one-way ticket back home to my own life pretty quickly, because I don't mind it, really, and anyway it's the time and place I know best. I can't expect to become a better person or have a more fulfilling life by being dropped into a situation that's alien and unfamiliar to me, so why bother? I hope that answers the question.

6. If time and money were no barrier what would you create?

A family, and a life of which not only I but others around me would truthfully say "that was a life worth living."

7. Have you ever completed anything on your bucket list?

No, because I haven't completed my bucket list. But if I had completed my bucket list, it's likely that many of the things I would have had on that list ten years ago would be ticked off by now.

8. What would be the most surprising scientific discovery imaginable?

For it to truly surprise me, I would first have to not be able to imagine it. And anything I can imagine is bounded by my current understanding of established science so it's hard to imagine the unimaginable. Still, I'll give an answer: I would be most surprised if the human soul was scientifically located, identified and understood.

9. Are you a good witch or bad witch?

I don't understand the question. I'm not a witch. And I don't see what being a witch or a wizard has to do with being good or bad anyway, I'm an individual regardless, and as an individual am in a constant internal tug of war between good and bad, the only question being which side goes to the gym more. Yes, if I were a wizard instead of a muggle and I had magical power over the physical realm, my predilection towards good or evil and my wisdom in action will have much greater consequences, and perhaps the draw towards power and the dark side would be greater, but it shouldn't greatly change who I am, and who I am is someone trying to recognize the bad weeds so that I can pick them and become gooder overall. I'm not sure if spells and potions would help with that. In the Harry Potter world, like in our own, there are no "honourable" counterparts to the unforgivable curses: there are no shortcuts to good, only to bad.

10. If you had to teach a class on one thing, what would you teach?

I'd teach swimming. Because I can't swim, and if I had to teach it then I'd have to learn it first, and learn it well, and while I want to learn, so far I haven't had a compelling enough reason to. This would be a good reason.

11. Which band/artist – dead or alive would play at your funeral?

I don't know who would play at my funeral, but I would have to assume they'd be alive. You'd have to ask whoever organizes my funeral if you really want to know the answer to that question, and I hope you're not in a hurry to find out for sure.

Now, if I had some say in the matter I might choose the band Relient K, because they would inject some life and humour and witticism into the event, and they're not so much older that I would be devastated for them to outlive me. I'd only want them if they're still alive, though: I don't want anyone dead playing at my funeral. My family and friends will have enough to deal with without worrying about physical laws being broken. But if I live as long as I hope to, this answer will probably change, so don't include it in my will.

12. What book, movie read/seen recently you would recommend and why?

Anne of Green Gables, by Lucy Maud Montgomery. A classic story of a girl on Prince Edward Island in Atlantic Canada. Recommended because we all can benefit from experiencing life through Anne's cheerful, imaginative eyes, looking at the world in her own way and refusing to see only what others see or to be bounded and bonded by reality.

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Because every post needs a photo, here's (approximately) a dozen sheep staring at you.