Answers for Mr. Tom Parker

My friend, Tom, over at Crusade Against Boredom recently wrote a blog post where he asked all the questions he would ask complete strangers if he got the chance and he asked us all to tell him our answers in a reply blog post. So here are my answers:

What kinda music do you like? Why? Did you ever like any other sort? What do you think of the indie scene? What about the mainstream stuff? Is there any music you hate? What do you think of people who get off knowing about obscure bands?

• I love punk rock and punk pop, and just punk and rock in general. I also like some metalcore and post hardcore. I used to like just about anything except rap and hip-hop, but then my cousin introduced me the Rise Against, AFI and the Alkaline Trio and I was enlightened. I first started listening to metalcore and post hardcore after my friend gave me an A Day to Remember CD and I asked him for more of his music. ADtR was a good transition from punk to hardcore, I feel. Now I love Parkway Drive and especially the Amity Affliction. I prefer indie stuff to mainstream stuff, not because I have a thing against mainstream music, some of its good, just that not much of it is to my taste. I don't search out music, I find my music by being introduced to it by others, so anyone who's into obscure bands has some respect from me, particularly if they're really good, obscure bands.

Do you watch TV? What about reading? Or do you play video games? Is the modern version of reading a novel playing video games? Or is the modern version of reading a novel reading a modern novel? Do you think people do it for the escapist element? Do you? Are you comfortable with that?

• I don't have a TV at my college, so I don't watch much TV. I do borrow TV series' from the library and then have massive marathons of the entire show. Recently did Bones and am now doing Gilmore Girls. While I am sometimes disappointed to realise I'm missing Spicks and Specks, I really don't miss TV.
• I love reading, although I'm very slow at it. It took me an entire year to read 1984 and it's one of my favourite books. Currently I have a Percy Jackson obsession and am sad that I finished the series and won't get to adventure with him again.
• I play computer games, but while I enjoy them, I'm not a fanatic. I just got Sims 3, so I'm pretty obsessed. I spent three hours designing my dream house yesterday. I still haven't furnished it. Portal is probably the greatest game ever, I'm sad not to have Portal 2 yet. Scribblenauts is a close second. I also love Counterstrike and Team Fortress. I wouldn't say games are the new novel, I feel movies are more likely to have taken that role.
• I'm definitely in it all for the escapist element, music too. Just about everything I do. I don't understand while reality is anymore worth living than a dream world. Sure, if it was as simple as travelling or succeeding, than you should live in reality, but if its magic and dragons and castles and BFG's and fairy princes, then the dream world is worth living.

Do you know your family history? Are you proud of it? Do you care at all?

• I wish I knew more of my family history. I'm heading into a career focus around history, after all. I know a lot of family stories, like my grandma's early like in Holland before WW2, but I know very little genealogy. On my mum's side everyone was illegitimate, so its hard to trace back.

Do you have a life story? Or do you think events are just happening and they aren’t connected?

• So far my life is just a bunch of crazy random events, some that are happy, some that are funny, more that are painful. Even if it doesn't fit together, it'd still be a hell of a story to tell one day.

Do you believe in a god or the supernatural? Do you believe what you’d like to be true or what you think is true? If you do, why doesn’t everyone know?

• I was brought up Catholic, by when I was eleven my mum told my brothers and I we could decide for ourselves. I'm generally agnostic. I like the idea of God, but I'm against organised religion. I believe more strongly in the BFG than in the bible. For a long time now fantasy and children's stories has been what I put my faith in.

Where’s the best place to have a date? Is a movie really a good place take a girl? Is it slutty for the girl to be the pursuer in the relationship. That is, the girl is the one who gets the guys phone number, asks him out etc..

• I think all of this depends on the girl and the guy. Movie and dinner is a good standard date, if you don't know the person that well. A good first date. It also says DATE pretty loud and clear if there was the chances of one party being unclear of the whole thing. If the two already know each other well, then the date should be crafted to suit them best. Also with a girl pursuing a guy, it depends on who the girl is and who the guy is, what they're like. I would never go as far as saying its slutty. It's chauvinistic to think that only guys can go the asking out.

A guy and a girl are on a date. The night went rather well but after they leave *wherever they were* and walk down a dark alley *for some reason* they get held up by a guy demanding their money. What should the guy in the date do? Hand over his money or fight the other guy? What is the mugger had a knife? Or a gun?

• Don't try and impress the girl, try and keep her safe. The safest option would be to hand over you things, take note of everything about the guy, when he's gone call the cops, make sure the girl gets home safely and comfort her if she's upset. If you want to be a hero, try and talk the guy into only taking your stuff, and not the girls. If she has a ring that belonged to her grandmother or something tell the guy you'd happily give him all your stuff if he doesn't take her ring. That's heroic. But still, I say safety first. Protect the girl, do what the guy says, call the cops.

When someone asks you how you are, what do you think of? What, to you, defines whether your life is going well or not? Having a boyfriend, good grades, good food, …?

• Normally when I get asked how I am, I reply with the courteous "Well, thank you. How are you?" Sometimes I'll just be over being courteous and answer how I feel. That's how someone ended up with the reply "I'm somewhere between happy and a total fucking wreck". Once, when I was in hospital and doped up on morphine I replied to "how are you feeling?" with "fucked up and numb".
• How would I define if my life is going well? My life is going well when I'm not depressed and when I'm not stressed. When I look less like a corpse and more like a normal person. A moment in which I can't stop giggling and I dance as I walk and I balance along retaining walls and sing without caring. That's when my life is going well. Strangely, when my life isn't going well, it can be kind of similar. I can't stop crying, I kick things and stomp as I walk and I scream out songs without caring.

How do you define yourself? Is it your taste in music? Is it who your friends are, what you own, what your job is, what you study, …? Is it possible to not like who you are? Do you like who you are? If you don’t, would you do anything to change it?

• Gosh, I don't know how I define myself. I hardly know who I am. I am what I am. I'm a ranter, a dreamer, a nutter, a pretender, a forgetter-of-punchlines, a hoper, a wisher, a rambler, a magic-bean-buyer, a historian, a reader, a crazy-dancer, a bad-singer, a penguin. I'm the girl who gives you my umbrella when it's raining. I don't know what I am. But these are a part of it.

So, what are your answers?