9 posts tagged “qotd”
What are some of your favorite holiday traditions?
Submitted by sami711.
My absolute favorite Christmas tradition is what my family does on Christmas Eve. One year my step-mom had been planning such a huge Christmas dinner that when Christmas Eve came around she had no plans on what to feed us. So my Dad quick came up with the idea to have a fire and roast hot dogs thinking it would not only entertain my brother and I, but also feed us. It was a little of the "We bought you an amazing gift, and your favorite part is the box" syndrome. All we talked about that year was how we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows for Christmas Eve, and of course the next year we HAD to have it. It became our family's little Christmas Eve tradition, along with teasing my step-mom about the fact that her favorite way to eat her hot dog is to completely burn it and then bury it in every single condiment and coleslaw. And me asking every 30 seconds "Daddy, is my hot dog done yet?" I can't wait to pass this tradition on to my kids, even if its not the most traditional of traditions.
What's your favorite heartbreak song?
Submitted by esta86.
"Break Your Heart" by the Barenaked Ladies. The vocals on this song are so powerful, it gets me every time. And its especially good for wallowing if you're in that kind of mood.
How did you pick your Vox name? Does it mean something?
Submitted by LeendaDLL.
"Little Miss Understood" is a play on words. First, for those of you who know my real full name, its a little bit of a play on that. Though, mainly its a different spelling of one of the lines from the song "Misunderstood" by Better than Ezra. Its one of my favorite BTE songs, among many because it describes a girl who probably could be described as crazy, but the song artists prefer to think of her as just "misunderstood." I loved the idea that who you are depends on that person's perception of their own life, their environment, and the kinds of interactions they have with you. This describes my life in so many ways. In school I was always part of many different groups of friends, none of whom were every really friends with each other. It always seemed to me that my friends saw me as whatever context they knew me in - my orchestra friends saw me as a goofy orchestra nerd. My tennis friends saw me as an athlete. My calculus class friends saw me as a giant math geek. On more than one occassion I've shocked someone because my "party girl" came out when all they had ever seen of me was the Quantitative Methods tutor who had to leave a session early to go volunteer at Special Olympics. And I've had more than one friend rolling on the floor laughing when I told them I was on the Honors Program, because I'm entirely too silly and too easily confused to be that smart. So you see, maybe I'm both a little crazy and a little misunderstood.
Play any instrument or speak any language, which do you choose?
Question submitted by cruftbox.vox.com.
Well, I already speak fluent German, and can read Russia a little. I wish I could speak Russian fluently, and French. I think the rest I could probably pick up on my own after awhile, those three would probably cover enough that any other language would be fairly easy to learn from there. I love being able to speak a second language fluently, its such a different perspective to be in a culture and speak their language rather than just being a visitor. The Germans were always amazed I could understand them and a few even called me the "clever american girl".
Though, the students there also thought that "American Girl" translated into "easy". There was an Italian guy at the school I went to named Ziggy. And Ziggy would, in his handsome Italian accent ask me to go for a "walk" in the vineyards with him. I knew what he really mean by "walk", and he didn't even have to say it in Enligsh for me to know. And I would look at him and say "Your name is ZIGGY." He was cute, but not cute enough to overpower his own name.
What was your most memorable or favorite school field trip?
This is SO EASY. And SO about Geeky. Again! We both used to be morbidly afraid of rollercoasters. I have since conquered my fear and just prefer not to ride most of them because I don't like them. She says she doesn't like them either, but she's lying. She's afraid.
You may find this hard to believe but we were giant nerds in junior high school. We actually used to read books, and then talk about them and trade them. I mean, sure we talked about boys, and how much we hated math, and that really creepy history teacher but we also were giangantic nerds who talked about books and music and the Enlightenment. We also both were in the orchestra together, and every year the orchestra went to Hershey Pennsylvania for a music competition. Followed immediately by a day at the park. What are two girls petrified of rollercoasters to do in an amusement park all day? Ride a very small version of a Ferris Wheel. Enclosed of course, none of that wild air on your face! All day, over and over again we rode this ride. We're talking 5 solid hours of the same ride repeatedly. Not even an interesting ride.
But we talked endlessly and tried to catch the leaves from the nearby tree. The next year, after she had moved I went back with the orchestra and tried to talk to myself about the Enlightenment but it just wasn't the same. Plus, I was talking to myself, which didn't bode well for chances of seducing Mike "Geeky's LOVER BOY" Hughes. So I pulled some leaves from that tree and put them in an envelope and mailed them to her. She kept them for six years before finally throwing them away. True story. Its okay if you cry, our other roomate does every time.
My Mom likes to tell the story of my first fireworks display. I apparently was very scared and started crying "The sky's cracking up! The sky's cracking up!"
Probably the most unique display I've ever seen was from the Disney cruise ship a couple of years ago. There's just something neat about being in the middle of the ocean and seeing fireworks. With Goofy. Everything in life is better with Goofy.
I love the fourth of July - it always means its getting close to my birthday! I hope you have a good one!
I have always had a love of literature, so this was a difficult question for me - to pick just one book! So many books have opened my mind to new ways of examining my world, and different views of people, but I would have to say A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving has probably had the biggest impact on my life.
I had the great privledge of taking my required literature course in college from a fantastic professor Dr. Cote, who decided to focus her course on science fiction/fantasy books and chose an amazing list of books I had never read before. I truly fell in love with all but one book we read that semester. Among our assigned reading was A Prayer for Owen Meany. Its a story about a young man searching for meaning in his life and his friend, Owen Meany who somehow, someway just KNOWS his meaning in life. It doesn't sound very prolific but what really impacted me about this novel was the descriptions of the emotions the characters experience, and the unique but believeable circumstances they find themselves in.
In particular John Irvings descriptions of how the main character deals with death really impacted me. He describes how when someone dies you miss them slowly over time like "scent fading from pillows." This is exactly how I respond to death. I am always sad when it happens, however to some outsiders I think I have come across as unemotional. In reality I am grievous at their loss, though over the course of many days - not really all at once. I find myself missing them over the course of many years at Thanksgivings and Graduations and Weddings. I've found many people don't understand my reaction but John Irving captured my emotion perfectly, and I felt a little less alone in this world.
