Big life changing questions

At any moment there are a number of emotions running through a person's mind and body.  Some are fun and whimsical and some are deep and meaningful.  Big life questions are very revealing to the mixed emotions a person has rushing at any moment of time.  I have most often chosen the fun, maybe silly and irreverent, attitudes about approaches to life and different situations.  Here are a few answers to some Big Life Changing Questions that communicates who I am and what I am thinking, (at least on the days I answered these questions).

1. Are you happy about where you are in your career?
I have been happily retired since the year 2000!  I spend a lot of professional and personal time using the skills and networks I established while working, to volunteer for various organizations and ministries.

2. Which of your family members are you closest to?
My wife, then my children, then my brother. But I'm pretty close to some of my former students and international friends like they were family.

3. How did you picture your life at this age when you were young?
Pretty much just as it is now!

4. What is the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning?
Feed my dog, get a cup of coffee, watch the news while I scroll through my emails.

5. Do you try to spend time at night without your phone?
Sort of… I have my phone next to me in the evenings, but it’s on a charger overnight in another room when I sleep.

6. When is the last time you wrote a letter to someone?
Recently. I’m a professional letter writer.I write letters for fund raising that is sent out to thousands of people per year.

7. What was your favorite hobby as a kid?
I was, and still am a Numismatic. Numismatics is the study or collection of currency, including coins, tokens, and paper money. But I specialized in foreign coins because of my childhood paper route.  I sold papers on the ships at the Newport Naval Station.  The sailors would come back from foreign ports and want to buy my paper using foreign coins.  I took them and started a good collection!

8. What is your love language?
I blush, swoon, and melt when words of appreciation, gratitude and admiration are sent my way!

9. Do you believe in astrology? Why or why not?
I DO NOT!  I think it’s Satanic.

10. Do you feel like the Internet has had more of a positive or negative effect on society?
The Internet has absolutely had the biggest POSITIVE effect on society than anything (not anybody) else in history!

11. If you could change one thing about your personality, what would it be?
Listen twice as much as I speak.That’s why God gave me two ears and one mouth.

12. Do you ever procrastinate?
I’ll answer this question later…

13. Where do you want to travel to the most?
Kathmandu, Nepal, Northern Europe, and South America

14. Who was your first crush?
I couldn’t say, but ever since the first grade, and all through school, I would look around the room and pick out the prettiest girl in the room. I was always infatuated with them and probably had a crush on them.Then I learned that the prettiest is rarely the most beautiful.

15. What was your most embarrassing moment?
There have been a couple, but too embarrassing to ever speak of again!

16. What is your biggest pet peeve?
Drivers who don’t use turn signals. Their car must be low on Blinker Fluid!

17. What is your favorite place to be in the world?
At home, eating dinner with my entire family

18. What is the craziest lie you’ve ever told?
I’ve often told white lies with a bit of humor.But, I’m not a very good liar.

19. How do you deal with stress?
Have my dog, a Black Lab named Addy, sit in my lap while I tell her what’s up!

20. What habit are you trying to quit, or form?
I am trying to quit interrupting people so much. I am also trying to write more often on my various my blogs posts.

21. If you had to get a tattoo right now, what tattoo would you choose?
I’m not a tattoo kind of guy, but if I had to, it would be a Chicago Cubs 2016 World Series Championship tattoo.

22. If you could only eat one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?
A good hearty, plate of red meat, spicy marina sauce spaghetti

23. What is the best gift you’ve ever received?
Salvation from my sins.  Thank you, Jesus!

24. Do you believe in aliens?
No, but I do believe in the presence of celestial beings among us.

25. Do you think you’ve ever encountered a ghost?
Yes, I have.  But only in my dreams. It was very real none-the-less

26. What do you think the most overrated holiday is?
All of the holidays that were made-up by Hallmark just to sell cards.
i.e. grandparents day, siblings day, children’s day, etc…

27. What is your favorite scent?
Sunday dinner. My wife’s cooking!

28. What is your favorite outfit?
Summer: Cargo Shorts, T-shirt/Polo shirt, Tilley hat, sunglasses and my Chacos!
Fall & Winter Attire: Blue Jeans, long sleeve T-shirt/Hoody and my HOKA’s

29. Would you rather get a facial or a massage?
A massage. A Deep-Tissue Chinese Massage in Hengyang, Hunan, China

30. Would you rather go swimming in a pool or in the ocean?
A pool.I play, snorkel, float and splash in the ocean, but I don’t swim.

31. What is your favorite type of vacation?
Travel to a foreign country. Go to a small town or village. Visit the local grocery store. Have dinner with a local family in their home.

32. What is the most you’ve ever spent on something you absolutely did not need at all?
~ $300 on a Classical guitar… I didn’t need it, but I WANTED it!

33. Have you ever accidentally sent a text complaining about someone to the exact person you were complaining about?
No! Has anyone ever done that?

34. Would you ever consider naming a kid after yourself?
Yes, in fact one of my Chinese students asked me to give their newborn son an American name.  I named him Shane, (after my family name of Shaner).
 
35. If you could never have coffee or never have dessert again, which would you choose?
I would choose to give up the dessert… no wait, the coffee… no, the dessert,…
 
36. What is the last time you laughed really hard?
Every time I try to tell a certain “Dad” joke… I just can’t get through I because am laughing so hard!
 
37. When did you stop believing in Santa?
What?… Wait...  Are you saying there is no Santa?
 
38. Did you ever pull out a tooth just to get money from the tooth fairy?
No.
 
39. Is there a food you’ve surprisingly never had?
Is it surprising that I’ve never had Caviar?
 
40. Would you rather take a shower or a bath?
Nothing better than a long and hot Shower
 
41. What is the first book you remember really loving?
The Little Prince
 
42. What is your most hated movie?
Any horror movie – I just hate them and won’t watch them.
 
43. If you were live in a home from a book, TV show, or movie, which home would it be?
Downton Abbey
 
44. What TV show could you watch over and over again?
I don’t like to watch TV re-runs or most movies a second time… But I would watch the movies, Sandlot, A Christmas Story, The Christmas Chronicles, and Back to the Future I and II, every single time it’s on TV.
 
45. Which actor would play you in a movie?
Richard Dreyfuss, (I’ve been told I look like him).
 
46. Do you care about the Academy Awards, or do you think they’re dumb?
I hate them, and have refused to watch them for over 30 years!
 
47. Who do you think is the best reality-show villain of all time?
Donald Trump, in his own, The Apprentice. “You’re Fired” reality TV Show!
 
48. If you had to be in a musical, which musical would it be and who would you play?
I would love to be Professor Harold Hill in The Music Man.
 
49. Have you ever seen anything on Broadway? What would you want to see?      
No.  I saw a play at an “off Broadway” theatre site in New York City once.  It was awful!  I’d love to see Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat on Broadway.  I did see that twice in Chicago starring Donny Osmond.
 
50. What was the first CD you ever bought?
Hmmm, I don’t remember.
 
51. What was the first band you ever saw live?
The Cowsills! I was a guest of Barry Cowsill, my 6th and 7th grade classmate!
 
52. What is the first movie you remember seeing in a theater?
My dad had a part-time job as a projectionist at a movie theatre, so there were too many to remember which one was first. But, I’ll go with, “To Sir With Love,” with Sidney Portier.
 
53. Do you like to listen to albums in full, or would you rather listen to a playlist?
Both, and often!
 
54. Do you have a favorite painting?
No.

55. Would you say you know a lot about art, or would you say you know almost nothing about it and actually you’re not even particularly interested in it at all?
I wouldn’t say I know a lot about art, but I love and appreciate good and creative art of many kinds when I see it.
 
56. What is your favorite franchise?
Franchise Restaurant – Panera Bread
Franchise Food Service – Baskin Robbins
Franchise Sports Team – The Chicago Cubs
Favorite Brand? Apple phones and computers, Nikon cameras, Martin guitars
 
57. Who is your biggest fictional crush?
Wendy Peffercorn from Sandlot!
 
58. Who would you cast in The Secret History movie?
IDK, because I’ve never heard of The Secret History movie
 
59. Do you think movies should be shorter in general, or not?
GENERALLY – The bad movies are 90 minutes or less. Not enough time to tell a compelling story.  Average to good movies are 100 – 110 minutes.
GREAT/EPIC movies are always at least 2 hours or more!
 
60. What is the most inspiring book you’ve ever read?
A Million Miles in a Thousand Years – by Donald Miller
 
61. Who is your best friend?
My wife Donna
 
62. If you could choose to have lunch with anyone from the past, who would it be?
My mother.
 
63. If you could change one thing about your friendships, what would you change?
I want them to be sports fans. Almost none of my friends are sports fans.  If I had two tickets to a ball game, I have nobody that I could call to say, “let’s go!”
 
64. Have you ever fallen in love with a friend but been too afraid to tell them?
Nope!
 
65. Do you actually like Sally Rooney’s novels?
I don’t know because I have no idea who that is.
 
66. Do you feel like you maybe post to social media too much, or not?
I used to post too much. My volume of posts went way down when I gave up posting negative, and political rants because I found out that it never changed anybody’s mind! BTW – Nobody changes somebody else’s mind on social media.
 
67. What is the biggest lie you’ve ever told to your kids specifically?
That I was the real Spiderman! No, really, I am!

68. Would you still choose the same significant other if you had it to do all over?
Unequivocally, and without a doubt, YES!

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