1. What hot-button topic gets your blood boiling?
Security versus freedom.

2. If you could travel to any one famous place/sight/attraction RIGHT NOW, where would you go?
A real Irish pub, in Ireland, overlooking meadows or the sea.

3. How many online friends have you met in real life?
Probably about a dozen or so. Mostly all at once, in Toronto.

4. Were any of them internet psychos?
Not one.

5. Which kind of lizard do you like best? Iguana, chameleon, gecko, skink, or GILA MONSTER?
Chameleon. I hate those little bastard geckos and their stupid insurance, too. =)

6. Do you speak more than one language? If not, which one would you like to learn?
Not really, although I know a smattering of several romance languages. I'd like to be fluent in Japanese (which was my college minor, and which I've almost totally forgotten).

7. What's your favorite foreign word?
Schadenfreude.

8. Quick: chocolate desserts or dough-and-fruit?
Chocolate.

9. How much wood could a woodchuck chuck?*
As much wood as a woodchuck could chuck.

10. Which gives you more of a thrill: great photography, fantastic illustration, or a really good book?
Definitely a book.

11. Should pets have "people" names?
Let's see -- my pets in the past ten years have been Jackson, Chelle (pronounced "Shelly"), Patrick, Buster, Dash, Connery, Guinness, Bandit, Rodeo, Gus, and Damejudidench. So I guess it depends on the pet. (The first five were dogs. The next two, birds. The next two, cats. The last two, mice.)

12. Are you doing something you love with your life? What are you doing? or alternately, what SHOULD you be doing?
No, I'm not. I'm working in insurance, but I ought to be spending all my worktime writing novels.

I think you ought to be doing that, too. Although I know how real-life and that darn bill-paying obligation get in the way.

1. The way the high school students act at school really gets my blood boiling, sometimes.

2. L'Arc de Triumf (is that spelled right?)

3. Too many to count, probably over 75.

4. No, not a one.

5. If I had to choose, I'd say Lizardek!

6. Yes, I speak Swedish, too.

7. Dough and fruit.

8. The only woodchuck I ever met was too sick to chuck wood, so I really don't know.

9. Great photography.

10. Sure, why not?

11. I like what I am doing just fine. I'd like to be helping others more, though, like through Habitat For Humanity or something.

re 5: mwah!

1. What hot-button topic gets your blood boiling?
So many. Really, I have to tune out a lot or I get furious about things that I can't really do anything about to the point where it makes me unpleasant to be around.

2. If you could travel to any one famous place/sight/attraction RIGHT NOW, where would you go?
Famous? Right now? Right now I want to go someplace really warm and peaceful by the ocean so if you can think up a famous place that fits that bill, that's where I want to go.

3. How many online friends have you met in real life?
A dozen, give or take.

4. Were any of them internet psychos?
Not that I'm aware of. ;-)

5. Which kind of lizard do you like best? Iguana, chameleon, gecko, skink, or GILA MONSTER?
You're kidding, right?

6. Do you speak more than one language? If not, which one would you like to learn?
I can make myself understood in limited ways in Swedish and I once knew enough German to get by - probably if I were to go there, it would come back to me. I should learn Swedish though.

7. What's your favorite foreign word?
I don't know if I have one.

8. Quick: chocolate desserts or dough-and-fruit?
I'm 50/50 on that one.

9. How much wood could a woodchuck chuck?*
A cord.

10. Which gives you more of a thrill: great photography, fantastic illustration, or a really good book?
Fantastic illustration.

11. Should pets have "people" names?
Sure!

12. Are you doing something you love with your life? What are you doing? or alternately, what SHOULD you be doing?
No. If I knew what I should be doing, I guess I would be doing it since the reason I don't like what I'm doing is that I don't know what else to do. Did that make sense?

re 5: of course I'm not kidding! Don't you recognize compliment-fishing when you see it? :P hahahaha!

1. What hot-button topic gets your blood boiling? I'd rather not say

2. If you could travel to any one famous place/sight/attraction RIGHT NOW, where would you go? The grand canyon

3. How many online friends have you met in real life? 2

4. Were any of them internet psychos? Not a bit

5. Which kind of lizard do you like best? Iguana, chameleon, gecko, skink, or GILA MONSTER? I like them all equally

6. Do you speak more than one language? If not, which one would you like to learn? Nope. Tried to learn French for a long time.

7. What's your favorite foreign word? slouvaki

8. Quick: chocolate desserts or dough-and-fruit? CHOCOLATE

9. How much wood could a woodchuck chuck?* I'm embarrassed for you for even asking this question.

10. Which gives you more of a thrill: great photography, fantastic illustration, or a really good book? I can't quantify that.

11. Should pets have "people" names? Absolutely. And people should have pet names. (my cats are Jackie and Brenda and my daughter's 2nd name is Pepper)

12. Are you doing something you love with your life? What are you doing? or alternately, what SHOULD you be doing? I do love it but I think I'd love doing something else more. I'd love to illustration children's books.

mmmm...slouvaki! We ate tons of that when we were in Turkey and Greece on our honeymoon. :) I think you should be illustrating children's books, too! What a great idea. :)

1. not many topics get my blood boiling because i tend to over-analyze everything from different perspectives all the time.

2. churchill, alaska, was the only place that popped into mind right now. polar bears! :-)

3. see list on my userinfo and then add about 5 people

4. ALL of them were your ordinary friendly neighborhood/long distance internet psycho! :-)

5. komodo dragon

6. yes

7. "discombobulated"

8. chocolate

9. hmmm... let me chuck that and get back to you. :-)

10. if i make it myself it would be photography because that's the nearest thing i would be really great at

11. yes

12. getting a second free education isn't exactly bad, but i really don't have a clue what i should be doing with my life. :-/

Discombobulated is one of my faves, too, though for me, it's not a foreign word :)

1. What hot-button topic gets your blood boiling?
Human rights violations and injustice.

2. If you could travel to any one famous place/sight/attraction RIGHT NOW, where would you go?
Easter Island.

3. How many online friends have you met in real life?
About 4 I think.

4. Were any of them internet psychos?
I don't think so... ;-)

5. Which kind of lizard do you like best? Iguana, chameleon, gecko, skink, or GILA MONSTER?
Tuatara.

6. Do you speak more than one language? If not, which one would you like to learn?
I speak 6 languages, but definitely not all of them fluently. ;-)

7. What's your favorite foreign word?
Affengeil! ;-)

8. Quick: chocolate desserts or dough-and-fruit?
Chocolate desserts.

9. How much wood could a woodchuck chuck?*
De postkoetskoetsier poetste de postkoets met postkoetspoets.

10. Which gives you more of a thrill: great photography, fantastic illustration, or a really good book?
A really good book.

11. Should pets have "people" names?
I think it's a bit weird, but then I'm not a pet person.

12. Are you doing something you love with your life? What are you doing? or alternately, what SHOULD you be doing?
I'm translating part time and I SHOULD be doing it full time. But that's just a matter of time. ;-)

I'm trying really hard to say #9... that's a tricky one!

1. Lots of stuff make my blood boil. Politics in general, so I had to stop following it for health reasons.
2. I am with Ellen. Where ever there's a nice warm beach by the ocean.
3. Seven, I think. Eight counting Erik. ;)
4. Only the one I married...
5. Sandy took my answer. I like the Ek sort the best!
6. I used to be able to read and write a little French, but that all disappeared when I took up Swedish.. which I am at a I-could-probably-get-by level with. That's the one I'd pick for learning the rest of the way, of course.
7. Can't tell you because I have used variants of it as my password for years. SHH! :) It's really dumb, though. I wish I could tell because everyone would laugh.
8. I'm pregnant. Both.
9. A decent woodchuck-sized amount.
10. A really good book.
11. Sure. I decided just last night that if we ever get a dog or a cat, we are naming it Kajsa. Because I would kind of like to give it to a baby but we can't. (M's stepcousin's name.)
12. Umm. I shouldn't answer this while I'm at work.

Actually, I don't really understand why you guys feel like you can't use a name just because it's also being "used" by someone in your family or circle of friends. So what? If you love it, use it anyway!

I really like Kajsa, too. We thought about that one for quite awhile before Karin was born. Her farmor actually calls her that sometimes. :)

1. What hot-button topic gets your blood boiling?
Well, it's only really a hot button topic on wedding related message boards, but I used to really get completely irritated at the white gold vs. platinum debate. Who would even think that such a debate would exist? But it does, and lordy do people ever get all bent out of shape about it. Not me, of course. But the people getting bent out of shape? THEY get me bent out of shape.

2. If you could travel to any one famous place/sight/attraction RIGHT NOW, where would you go?
I have no idea.

3. How many online friends have you met in real life?
Five, I think.

4. Were any of them internet psychos?
Not as far as I know.

5. Which kind of lizard do you like best? Iguana, chameleon, gecko, skink, or GILA MONSTER?
I think a gecko is the only one I would consider touching.

6. Do you speak more than one language? If not, which one would you like to learn?
I speak English, and a tiny little bit of German. I would love to learn ASL. And I think it would be really useful to speak Spanish in America.

7. What's your favorite foreign word?
Tschüss!

8. Quick: chocolate desserts or dough-and-fruit?
Chocolate!

9. How much wood could a woodchuck chuck?*
Quite a lot, I suppose.

10. Which gives you more of a thrill: great photography, fantastic illustration, or a really good book?
Book.

11. Should pets have "people" names?
No.

12. Are you doing something you love with your life? What are you doing? or alternately, what SHOULD you be doing?
I love being a stay at home mom. I don't know if I will love it forever, but I really do love it for now.

white gold vs platinum? LOL

Random sampler...

What hot-button topic gets your blood boiling?
Politics: Conservative vs. Liberal. Pro-choice vs. No-choice. Intellectual freedom vs. Censorship. Global Warming vs. What-Me-Worry?


If you could travel to any one famous place/sight/attraction RIGHT NOW, where would you go?
The Pyramids at Giza

Do you speak more than one language? If not, which one would you like to learn?
I'd like to learn Italian.

What's your favorite foreign word?
Toss up between deja vu and schadenfreude. They both say so much, so succinctly, in a way that English can't.

Quick: chocolate desserts or dough-and-fruit?
Chocolate. No wait, dough-and-fruit. Ummm...both?

Should pets have "people" names?
Oh yes.

Global warming vs What-Me-Worry? good one. Argh.

I'll answer them all this time since I'm doing the procrastination thing so well anyway...

1. Holland is full so we need to send all the asylum seekers back after letting them wait in limbo for up till 7 years. And while we're at it, why don't we just eliminate double passports...

2. It's not till May, but I'm really itching to go to the Chelsea Flower Show. It isn't going to happen this year though - time wise or money wise.

3. 6

4. No, but one was very different than her online persona and that threw me.

5. I'm rather fond of reptiles and amphibians in general.

6. I speak two, but would like to add German and Spanish to that list.

7. Zeitgeist

8. Chocolate and fruit - specifically dark chocolate and oranges

9. I think woodchucks should learn to pickle peppers.

10. All the above.

11. Yes, and plants and cars and favorite kitchen appliances too.

12. Yes, I'm doing what I love best.

4 wasn't me, I hope! :D

What hot-button topic gets your blood boiling? My grandparents uniformly denigrating Muslims and immigrants.


If you could travel to any one famous place/sight/attraction RIGHT NOW, where would you go? Some place that grows olives and dates, because I'd love to see those in their natural state.


How many online friends have you met in real life? Too many to count. I was engaged to one of them!


Were any of them internet psychos? Er, psychos in real life, you mean? Maybe...


Which kind of lizard do you like best? Iguana, chameleon, gecko, skink, or GILA MONSTER? Geckos! (Skinks, too.)


Do you speak more than one language? If not, which one would you like to learn? Yes, and sign language.


What's your favorite foreign word? Mysterioso. (Also, alegria, which means Joy, but if you switch the G and the R it means allergies.)


Quick: chocolate desserts or dough-and-fruit? CHOCOLATE


How much wood could a woodchuck chuck?* about four pints before he fell over drunk.


Which gives you more of a thrill: great photography, fantastic illustration, or a really good book? Good book.


Should pets have "people" names? Of course.


Are you doing something you love with your life? What are you doing? or alternately, what SHOULD you be doing? I'm working on figuring it out (convent? nursing school? carpentry? foreign aid worker?)

Good questions!

What hot-button topic gets your blood boiling?
Anything that involves intolerance.

If you could travel to any one famous place/sight/attraction RIGHT NOW, where would you go?
Machu Pichu

How many online friends have you met in real life?
Too computer illiterate to find any.


Were any of them internet psychos?
who knows?

Which kind of lizard do you like best? Iguana, chameleon, gecko, skink, or GILA MONSTER?
I'm definitely with the EK crowd


Do you speak more than one language? If not, which one would you like to learn?
I would like to learn Swedish so I could understand(overhear)my grandkids.


What's your favorite foreign word?
anything that I say that someone else can understand - guess that means Si and No!

Quick: chocolate desserts or dough-and-fruit?
chocolate - but with raspberry and almond makes it perfection!


How much wood could a woodchuck chuck?*
wood he, really?


Which gives you more of a thrill: great photography, fantastic illustration, or a really good book?
great photography for the short haul, a good book for the long.


Should pets have "people" names?
any name that they will answer to is the right name!


Are you doing something you love with your life? What are you doing? or alternately, what SHOULD you be doing?
Yes, Energy healing and using my intuition.

Lizardmom

1. On Wednesday, it was a personal matter; someone who was offered a free trip, seven days abroad with half board but declined to go because "the destination is not interesting enough". Ok, maybe you don't want to "waste" one of your 5-6 precious weeks (!) of paid vacation on going on a trip you didn't ask for, but puleez come up with a better argument than the destination seems dull.

2. No idea. I might want to go to Boston (IIRC) in June, but not because it is a famous place. It won't happen, though.

3. Perhaps a few dozen, depending on what I call friends. Out of all those blogs I comment on, I think I have only met two people in real life.

4. Not that I noticed. Maybe I'm the one who appears more like a psycho?

5. I got to say australisk lövknipare although it is just a fictional lizard.

6. Swedish, English, fragments of Russian. The one language I really wanted to study, if my school would've offered it, is Dutch!

7. I can't think of any particular foreign word. Since it is a word in German, I can just as well say anders. :-)

8. Chocolate without doubt.

9. At first I was thinking of a woodpecker. I have only seen groundhogs on picture. The movie with Bill Murray is enjoyable, though. See, now I have completely avoided answering the question.

10. I doubt I've read a real, fiction book in over a decade, but I read quite a lot online. I enjoy photos and illustrations too, so it is tough to pick one. The written word is probably the most abstract and special to humans, so in the name of the superior human race ;-) I'll go with a really good book.

11. I don't care so much. If we name them like humans, it may be easier for us to remember what we call them. As long as we don't start to name our children typical pet names, I'm fine with it. Did you know that in Sweden, there is one man who has Fido as his second name? Two women are both named and go by the name Kisse. Another two women and one man go by the name Misse. When I used to have aquarium fish, I gave them names after my classmates (!) and celebrities. For example back then, Carola and Runar were a hot couple.

12. I'm playing with my computers and music, in about that order. I guess you could say these are things I currently love with my life, but I don't have anything in particular to write home about. What I should be doing? How about sleeping, now that it is 1:35 AM?

o/~ I should be sleeping, still I'm keeping these late hours I've been keeping ... and so on

1. What hot-button topic gets your blood boiling?
I try not to let any topics get me too upset. Like Pooh. Do slow internet connections count?

2. If you could travel to any one famous place/sight/attraction RIGHT NOW, where would you go?
Sydney.

3. How many online friends have you met in real life?
Maybe a dozen, but most of them were many years ago.

4. Were any of them internet psychos?
Counting myself?

5. Which kind of lizard do you like best? Iguana, chameleon, gecko, skink, or GILA MONSTER?
Definitely gila monster.

6. Do you speak more than one language? If not, which one would you like to learn?
Yeah, quite a bit of Swedish, some Spanish, a bit of Japanese and Russian that I still remember, and about 4 words in Swahili. Oh, and Australian.

7. What's your favorite foreign word?
Cheza. It means "it's your turn to play" in Swahili.

8. Quick: chocolate desserts or dough-and-fruit?
Dough-and-fruit??

9. How much wood could a woodchuck chuck?
ehh...

10. Which gives you more of a thrill: great photography, fantastic illustration, or a really good book?
Definitely great photography.

11. Should pets have "people" names?
Sure.

12. Are you doing something you love with your life? What are you doing? or alternately, what SHOULD you be doing?
Yeah, pretty much. Although I'm still trying to figure out a way to work for Ben & Jerry's.

Russell

Hello: PIE!

What hot-button topic gets your blood boiling?

Oh so many. But "röda tråden" in all of them is injustice.


If you could travel to any one famous place/sight/attraction RIGHT NOW, where would you go?

Australia!

How many online friends have you met in real life?

I have lost count!


Were any of them internet psychos?

Nope. :) All wonderful people!

Which kind of lizard do you like best? Iguana, chameleon, gecko, skink, or GILA MONSTER?

Don't like lizards. Unless they are in human form, named Liz... :)

Do you speak more than one language? If not, which one would you like to learn?

I speak two languages fluently. Swedish and English (ok, not 100% fluent but fluent enough!). I have studied German and French. I can read and understand German but have forgotton all French! I understand Norwegian well (depending on dialect though) and Danish if I hear it long enough and get used to the swallowed words! Languages are my passion. LOVE everything about language.

What's your favorite foreign word?

Oh my! I don't know...

Quick: chocolate desserts or dough-and-fruit?

chocolate I guess. Not sure what the second one is..


How much wood could a woodchuck chuck?*

Until he was full I suppose.

"Sex laxar i en laxask", "Packa pappas kappsäck", "Sju sjösjuka sjömän sköttes av sju sköna sjuksköterskor" (the last one is more a problem for non-Swedish speakers - a way to torture them with the sje-sound. *evil*)

Which gives you more of a thrill: great photography, fantastic illustration, or a really good book?

Do I REALLY have to choose!?


Should pets have "people" names?

Sure. It's up to the owner. :)

Are you doing something you love with your life? What are you doing? or alternately, what SHOULD you be doing?

Yes I am. Studying.

Now - I want to hear Liz's own answers to these questions. :)

/Mia

http://mias.blogg.se

I know a guy in Chicago who is trying to pick up a few phrases in every possible language. A friend of his had once teached him some Swedish, but over time he begun to mix up the sounds with those used in Japanese (!?). He posted a short sound clip of him trying to prounounce sjuttiosju but it sound like kuttiku. :-)

"Sjuttiosju sjösjuka sjömän sköttes av sju skönsjungande sjuksköterskor."

Try to say it as fast as possible; it is quite a challenge for us native Swedish speakers too. The tongue almost goes numb halfway through.