The Bernard Pivot Blogfest

Nicole Ducleroir @ One Significant Moment at a Time is hosting this cool blogfest, with the chance of winning prizes! The blogfest is aimed at getting to know your fellow bloggers better.

All you have to do, is to answer the following questions:

What is your favorite word?

“Yes.” When people tell me that, I love it. (Except when I ask “Do these jeans make my ass look fat?”) (Note to self: Stop asking that… especially to random elderly people on the streets. They are just soooo brutally honest.)

“Yes” is a leaping ground for possibility. Kind of like “Hey, would it be okay if I borrowed your cat for this play I’m putting on in my garage?” If you don’t ask, you don’t get the cat. (As I’m fond of saying…)

I’m a “possibilities” kind of guy, so I suppose there is something to that.

What is your least favorite word?

Well, if “yes” is my favorite, it would be natural to assume that “no” is my least favorite, right? Wrong. (Sorry about that, folks…)

The “N” word is my least favorite. I can’t even force myself to type it out. There are some other, vulgar words that make the list, but the hatred that particular word entails – for no good reason – makes me sick to my stomach.

(If you don’t know what the “N” word is, it’s a racist term for someone whose skin just happens to be a bit darker and rhymes with “Tigger.”)

What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?

Creatively: booze

Spiritually: booze

Emotionally: booze

(Okay, time for the real answers: “Other impressive creative works, regardless of medium. An incredibly written song, a page-turner book, any movie featuring Pauly Shore, etc.” “Kindness.” “Positivity.”)

What turns you off?

Bureaucracy. (Note: I work in one of the most bureaucratic kinds of work environments and it drives me nuts!)

What is your favorite curse word?

Now, I actually don’t swear all that often. For one thing, I’m a pretty laidback guy most of the time. It takes a lot to ruffle my feathers. For another thing, I tend to think a bit before I speak and I generally filter out “bad” words. It seems that a lot of swearing happens “in the moment” and without giving pause. That’s just not how I roll.

That being said… I’m a terrible road rager. This is not something I’m proud about and I do work on, but there is an element to driving – probably the stress of needing to get somewhere by a certain time – that puts me on the edge. If I don’t have a deadline or whatever, the road rage issue is greatly diminished.

Anyhow, this is all a long-winded way of saying that my favorite curse word (phrase) is “You ass hat.” (That’s a relatively new one for me, but I quite enjoy saying it.)

What sound or noise do you love?

The sound of someone putting a check for $50 million in my hand. I simply cannot hear that sound enough.

(Note to anyone who has an extra $50 million and would like to help me live the dream of finally hearing that one sound I love: Find me. It's not that hard to do...)

What sound or noise do you hate?

Alarms from clocks or cars. The clocks version is worse because it means I have to wake up earlier than nature intended me to. The car version is just annoying.

What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?

Professional basketball. Now, I don’t necessarily have the height for it – I measure at a very average 5’10” – but I’m tenacious, like a wildcat or mongoose or A Flock of Seagulls (the band, not a bunch of birds… naturally). I would own the court, I tell you!

What profession would you not like to do?

Besides the one I currently have? Eh, probably Accounting. I'm much too creative and out-there for something like that.

If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?

“Good job, dude. You made it!”