50 Questions That Will Free Your Mind (41-50)

This is the last segment in the 50 questions series and away we go:

41. If you knew that everyone you know was going to die tomorrow, who would you visit today? I would throw a party and invite everyone. 

42.  Would you be willing to reduce your life expectancy by 10 years to become extremely attractive or famous? No.

43. What is the difference between being alive and truly living? Truly living is experiencing things. You can be on life support and be alive but that is not living. You are just there. You have no way to experience things.

44. When is it time to stop calculating risk and rewards, and just go ahead and do what you know is right? There are probably lots of moments where this should apply however, I think from a really young age we are taught to way the risks and rewards of things (i.e. don't touch that it's hot!).

45.  If we learn from our mistakes, why are we always so afraid to make a mistake? Well, some mistakes could be fatal not only to you but to others. Plus, you are often shunned for making mistakes. You could be fired from your job, laughed at in class, not graduate. I guess basically mistakes could lead to failure and most people (myself included) are afraid to fail. 

46.  What would you do differently if you knew nobody would judge you? Nothing really. I don't really live my life based on others opinions. I am fortunate enough that those opinions that do matter come with very open minds.

47. When was the last time you noticed the sound of your own breathing? When I woke up in the middle of the night last night.

48. What do you love? I love lots of things. I am guessing since the question is not 'who' do you love that it is referring to things. I love spinning.   Have any of your recent actions openly expressed this love? Yes, I have been spinning a lot lately, made a niddy noddy, & I am participating in the Tour de Fleece.

49. In 5 years from now, will you remember what you did yesterday?  What about the day before that?  Or the day before that? I think there are moments that I will remember. I tend to cherish the little things and I hope that I will be able to remember lots of them when I am older.

50. Decisions are being made right now.  The question is:  Are you making them for yourself, or are you letting others make them for you? I am making them for myself. Not saying that some of them aren't influenced by other things but ultimately I am making them myself. 

Tour de Fleece

So the Tour de Fleece officially starts tomorrow! It runs from July 3rd to July 25th. Am I really going to take a 21 break from knitting?? The answer yes! I am still a super new spinner and to be able to accomplish anything during the tour I am going to need to spend every waking moment spinning. That means during 15 minute breaks at work. My hour at lunch. While dinner is cooking. And so on. My goal is to just get 4oz of roving spun, plied, & set. It probably doesn't seem like much to those people spinning on a wheel or those that have been spinning for a long time. I just finished my first 4oz on Tuesday. It took me about 2 months, granted there was lots of knitting going on in that time and a lot of learning taking place. Hopefully, I will get this done and maybe even be able to start on some other roving. For those of you who are not spinners and are not aware of what the Tour de Fleece is you can read about it here! Basically, it is a challenge to see how much you can complete during the Tour de France. You are not competing with other spinners just seeing what you can accomplish for yourself and there are others spinners there to motivate and inspire you along the way. I really excited about the inspiration portion. Seeing new techniques that I haven't seen or stumbling upon tips that will make me a better and more efficient spinner. You can join different teams...I have joined the rookies since this is my first year and I have also joined a wild card spindlers team. There are prizes to be won and so much more. If you are on Ravelry and have not yet joined you should do so. Since I will already be spinning for 21 days I am going to go ahead and extend it an extra 9 days to complete one of my 101 in 1001 challenges, which is to spin everyday for 30 days.  

In other news I have picked up some ingredients for the daring cooks challenge and I just found out the daring bakers challenge. I went to the store without my daring cooks challenge recipe list and lets just say I had looked at 2 recipes and kind of got a few of the ingredients mixed up. That's what I get for shopping without a list. The good news is I was planning to make them both anyway so I already have a few ingredients on hand for the second one. I can't wait to share pictures and recipes with you unfortunately the rules state that I am unable to do some until July 15th. Well, off to get some knitting done before I am cut off!!

50 Questions That Will Free Your Mind (31-40)

So here I am again tackling those 50 questions. I feel like I should have finished this by now. I don't know what happens to all my time. I wake up at 10am on Saturday and think okay I have 14 hours to get stuff done today and before I know it the 14 hours are gone and all I have done is knit or spin. I really want to get some cleaning done. It's hard for me to do when Walt is home. Sometimes I want to just ship him off for the day and get some work around the apartment done. Not that I don't love him because I do, he is just so darn distracting. :) Well, onto the 50 questions.

31. At what time in your recent past have you felt most passionate and alive? Two days ago when Walt was wearing the Jackson hat that I had knit. It is the first thing that I have seen him wear that I have knit. I was so excited I was jumping up and down on the bed like a little kid. He looked so cute in it.

32. If not now, then when? Hopefully soon. Somethings got to stick, right?

33. If you haven’t achieved it yet, what do you have to lose? Everything! I don't have a lot which makes achieving lots of things tough at the moment but I certainly don't want to lose everything I have by making stupid mistakes.

 34. Have you ever been with someone, said nothing, and walked away feeling like you just had the best conversation ever? No

35. Why do religions that support love cause so many wars? They are always going to be going against people that are naturally violent. The spoken word doesn't seem to count for much anymore. People lie.

36. Is it possible to know, without a doubt, what is good and what is evil? Nothing is black & white.

37. If you just won a million dollars, would you quit your job? Absolutely!!

38. Would you rather have less work to do, or more work you actually enjoy doing? More work that I actually enjoy doing. I enjoy being busy.

39. Do you feel like you’ve lived this day a hundred times before? Yes.

40. When was the last time you marched into the dark with only the soft glow of an idea you strongly believed in? Three years ago, when I decided to date Walt. It was a great decision but a very scary one. There were lots of challenges in the being and lots of unknown but it was the best decision I have ever made and I don't regret it for a single minute.


Those are the questions for today. Maybe I will do the last 10 tomorrow and will have one more thing to check off my list. I am 5% complete on my list. I only have 66 items currently and a lot of the task span the entire time so a lot will be checked off on the last day (hopefully).

50 Questions That Will Free Your Mind (21-30) & A Few Other Things

I will just jump right into the questions:

21. Would you rather be a worried genius or a joyful simpleton? As important as I feel being happy in life is I would absolutely want to be a worried genius. I don't want to be happy because I don't know any better. 

22. Why are you, you? I just am. I don't really know how to answer this question. Maybe I am me because of my mom. Maybe I am me because of my friends. Maybe I am me because of where I grew up. Maybe I am me because of me. Maybe I am me because of everything I have been through. I would like to think that everything in life affects you in someway. 

23. Have you been the kind of friend you want as a friend? When I was younger, no. Now that I am older I think that I have. My friends mean so much to me and I would do anything for any of them. 

24. Which is worse, when a good friend moves away, or losing touch with a good friend who lives right near you? When a good friend moves away. When you lose touch with a friend who live right near you that is a choice. When a good friend moves away that is out of your control. 

25. What are you most grateful for? My mom. She has been everything to me. She has been my mother, my father, my best friend. She has loved me when I was at my worst and never judged me for anything I did. My mom has always allowed me to express myself (even when that meant dyeing my hair black, wearing black lipstick, and painting my face pale white) and even helped me express myself. She taught me how to stand on my own to feet and how to love someone unconditionally.

26. Would you rather lose all of your old memories, or never be able to make new ones? This is a really tough one. I have some pretty awful old memories but some really great ones too. Having recently lost my grandfather who was basically my dad losing every memory of him would be tough. I also think a lot of those memories make me who I am. That being said I would say lose my old ones. I see great things in my future and many amazing memories to come (I can pet a penguin for 25.00 a the Florida Aquarium). 

27. Is is possible to know the truth without challenging it first? No! How can you know it is true without making sure yourself. 

28. Has your greatest fear ever come true? No. 

29. Do you remember that time 5 years ago when you were extremely upset? Yeah.  Does it really matter now? Yes and no. The anger is no longer there but that time 5 years ago really changed me. 

30. What is your happiest childhood memory? A trip we (Grandfather, Sister, Aunt, & Myself) took in our RV to North Carolina, New Jersey, & Pennsylvania.  What makes it so special? Being with my family!

On to other stuff. I now have my first Daring Cooks challenge in hand. Unfortunately, I can't disclose any details until July 17th. I will share details and hopefully lots of pictures. As mentioned in the above questions I discovered that I can pet a penguin for 25.00 at the Florida Aquarium. I honestly thought this was one of those things I would always want to do but never get to do so it is nice to see that it is possible. The rain has been insane and it is making it really difficult for me to clean my apartment the way I have been planning. The good news is Walt's brother can use our other couch for his new apartment and our extra microwave so yeah that is 2 things out of the apartment. I finished knitting the second UF scarf. NO MORE SCARVES for a while. Unless they are mindless garter stitch scarves that I can pick up and knit when I need a break from a project or I can knit while walking. 

Yay!! I did it!!

I actually accomplished all the goals in my blog from yesterday plus some and well, our kitchen looks great! It is so freeing to walk into our kitchen and it is clean and uncluttered. Maybe I will tackle our bathroom when I get home today. Bathroom cleaning list:
1. Take out garbage.
2. Throw away old razors & empty shampoo bottles.
3. Clean sink, toilet, & bathtub.
4. Pick up dirty laundry from floor.
5. Put up towels.

Seems like a longer list than the kitchen but it is a much smaller room and the projects are a lot easier. On to other exciting news....

I am still working my way through a few projects on my Day Zero Project list which you can view here. The project that I seem to be making some good head way on the past few days is the list of 1001 movies to see before you die.

 The list contains the recommended 1001 movies plus a supplemental 64 movies. You can view the list I am working from here. I am only attempting to watch 1001 movies from the complete list. They can be the suggested 1001 or include any of the supplemental movies to total 1001. I decided to do it this way for fear of not being able to find copies of certain movies as some of them date back as far as 1902. I have watched a total of 120 movies from the list so far. I watched 2 today on Hulu (Animal Farm & Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer) and yesterday I watched Dances With Wolves. The other 117 movies I have already seen.

The Daring Kitchen

So I recently discovered this sited called The Daring Kitchen. After reading all the rules and FAQ I decided that both the Daring Cooks & Daring Bakers challenges would be going on my 101 in 1001 list. It's a very interesting site indeed. Basically, once a month you are given either a baking or cooking challenge (both if you select both when signing up like I did)to complete and then blog about on the end date. This will be my first one of both challenges. The cooking challenge will be announced on Thursday ( I am so excited). I looked at some previous challenges and they included making things such as Pate, Enchiladas, Brunswick stew, & Risotto. So while I am excited about the cooking challenge, it also means that I need to seriously clean and organize my kitchen to even have a chance at completing the challenge. I do not yet have access to the Daring Bakers private forums as the challenge will not be listed until the end of the month. So a small to-do list for the evening. Wash as many dishes that will fit into the dish drainer, take out all garbage, & clean refrigerator. Sounds so easy and simple in my head at the moment but I know I will arrive home drained from the brain numbing day I have endured here at work, unwilling to do anything, but eat and watch TV.

50 Questions That Will Free Your Mind (11-20)

Here I am again answer the next series of questions that should free my mind. I have enjoyed asking both loved ones & friends these questions. It has sparked interesting conversation & helped me to learn lots about them. Let's begin:

11. You’re having lunch with three people you respect and admire. They all start criticizing a close friend of yours, not knowing she is your friend. The criticism is distasteful and unjustified. What do you do? Honestly, I don't think I would ever respect and admire these kinds of people but for the purpose of the question I do. I would say something. That is just who I am. The only time I have ever been in trouble in my life was for fighting for someone who could not fight for themselves.

12. If you could offer a newborn child only one piece of advice, what would it be? This one is really tough. I feel like there is so much you need to know coming into this world. I have heard various answers from my friends including things such as: Good Luck! Live, Laugh, & Love! I think for me I am going to go with Bobby McFerrin and say "Don't Worry, Be Happy!"

13. Would you break the law to save a loved one? Yes! Yes! Yes! I would do anything to save a loved one.

14. Have you ever seen insanity where you later saw creativity? I see this everyday in Walt.

15. What’s something you know you do differently than most people? I don't know that I do anything different from everybody. It is impossible to know that I am the only one who does something. Our world is very diverse and I sure there is somebody out there who does things just like me.

16. How come the things that make you happy don’t make everyone happy? We are all different. We all enjoy different things.

17. What one thing have you not done that you really want to do? What’s holding you back? Take a vacation. I don't have any vacation time or the funds to take a vacation.

18. Are you holding onto something you need to let go of? Nope.

19. If you had to move to a state or country besides the one you currently live in, where would you move and why? A state: Illinois. I would love to live in Chicago. Yay for snow & the bears! A Country: Ireland. I would love to get in touch with my heritage.

20. Do you push the elevator button more than once? Do you really believe it makes the elevator faster? No. I have never even heard of this.