Poll of Randomosity Fifteen

It's another Poll of Randomosity! Here's my FIFTEENTH set of TEN random questions for us to answer together:

1) Do you believe the past can be changed?

2) What is the proper Valentine's Day etiquette with a girl you've only communicated with online and never met, if she stopped answering e-mails when you asked for her number and you didn't know her physical address?

3) Do you think the use of metaphors a sign of genius thinking?

4) What is the best way to make money?

5) Are you tough?

6) Does this dress make me look fat?

7) What's my drug of choice?

8) Are you good with small talk?

9) Would a mask really conceal your identity from people who know you?

10) Pourquoi?

For me, the answers are:

1) I definitely believe everything happens for a reason, that there is a plan we just can't see. If time travel were possible, I also ascribe to the Grandfather paradox. If you went back in time and killed your grandfather before your father was born, you would cease to exist. If you never existed, you could not go back to kill him, therefore you either could not change the past, or in doing so you would create an alternate divergent reality. The events in your life would have to remain the same in order to bring you to that point, but now a second parallel divergent timeline would be running alongside it. Maybe dreams are glimpses of other universes. Maybe for every choice we face, all possibilities play out in a multiverse.

2) I'm leaning toward “no”. I did the secret admirer thing once, and that only led to a lot of awkwardness after I found out the girl I gave the gift to was already involved with someone else. Worse, I found out years later from one of her friends that she had apparently told other girls about it, presumably to warn them. Now, despite the fact that my new acquaintance is the friend of a friend, I think it would be creepy and stalkerish if I tracked down her home or work address and had flowers or candy or some plush thing sent there. I believe you can only act on the knowledge that she provides. So do I send her an e-mail message? Write a poem? Sketch her portrait? Again, I don't know her situation. She's a stranger more than two hours away, and I'm wary of any romantic gestures toward someone I haven't met or gone out with. That’s a hell of a “never mind” if it leads to meeting her and I realize she’s not what I want. My only concern is the opposite, if her silence is intentional because she felt I hadn't earned her number yet, and if I let that day pass without acknowledging it then I screw up big time. I guess it's a non-issue since I've accepted being friend-zoned, but I hate the idea that doing nothing would confirm her instinct that I wasn't a good candidate. Obviously I'm thinking way too much about this. Stupid greeting card industry manufactured holiday....

3) A friend of mine at work thought so, based on a book-on-tape she was listening to. For me, metaphors are just common sense thinking, not genius. When there's something really complex that I can't understand, or something complex that I need to explain to someone else, I simply find a parallel for something much simpler and easier to relate to. Don't know about codes and templates? A new system of design software might be daunting. Ever play with Colorforms? Suddenly, the unfamiliar is less daunting when compared to something simple and more familiar. Smart? Maybe. Genius? Doubtful.

4) It's not a savings account, and it's definitely not spending my life in an office. Ideally, for me, I would want such great investments that my money made enough money to grow exponentially so I didn't have to work. That would either involve a much larger nest egg, or higher risk stocks or real estate investments, and I might be horrendously bored without a full-time job. It's good to dream, though. At this point, even when I see CDs yielding decent interest, it's less exciting because I know it means I will owe even more taxes.

5) I have endurance, and I'm good at concealing emotional pain behind humor. Underneath, I'm too sensitive and definitely not as tough as I'd like to be.

6) You hesitated, and now I'm really self-conscious about it.

7) Well what have you got? I don't go broke, and I do it a lot.

8) I'm terrible at it, and it's not just a nervous around pretty girls thing; it transcends gender. I've been known to run in to someone at a deli I might know from seeing in the hall at the office, say “hello”, and then stand there in awkward silence for five minutes until one of us gets our order and leaves. Sometimes I might switch up “hello” with a beefier “How's it going?”, while other times you'd be lucky to get a half-nod or a grunt before I found the ground more interesting to focus on. If I don't know you very well, I don't know what to safely talk about. I don’t mean to be rude; I'm just a social misfit.

9) On some cold days, I have walked in to town on my lunch break wearing a ski mask, mirrored sunglasses, and another knit cap on top of all of it. No flesh shows. People from work always greet me, sometimes by name. Maybe it's the way I carry myself, or that they recognize my shoes or some other part of my outfit. I'll have to try wearing a full costume next time, and see if that makes a difference. If nothing else, it will help me with my lack of conversation topics.

10) Je ne sais pas.

And you, my loyal readers? Where do you stand on these inquiries?