"Things Have Changed" gets Liebster Award!

This coveted honor is now mine because Artsieaspie said I could have it if I wanted it.

Basically, this is a blog hop game.  But it's also a 'share the love' thing--Liebster is German for 'beloved.'  And I heard a long time ago that All You Need is Love, and I still believe it.

So, the first thing is I'm supposed to share "eleven random facts" about myself.


Eleven Random Facts

1.  I was born in 1952.

2.  I'm adopted.

3.  My father was an electrician.  He Worked with his two brothers in a small contracting business started by my grandfather.  Eventually, failing, the business was bought up by a larger firm and my father worked for them for a few years before retiring.  He was depressed by this turn of events.

4.  My mother was a school principal's daughter from Washington state.  It was a large family; she had seven brothers and a sister.  She met my father by mail during WWII.

5.  I grew up in Hammond, Indiana. This is an industrial area way up in the extreme northwest corner of the state, up against the state line, Chicago, and Lake Michigan. It's an area known as 'the Calumet Region,' very much looked-upon as "not really part of us" by the rest of Indiana.  Economically, politically and environmentally, it's sort of a mini New Jersey.

6.  I once played Mrs. Santa Claus in a play put on by our Cub Scouts group.

7.  Around my senior year in High School, I published two issues of a mimeographed Science Fiction fanzine.  Also around this time, I wrote, and played Dr. Zarkov, in the 8mm film production "Flash Gordon Returns."  

8.  I graduated from Valparaiso University, a private Lutheran school in eastern reaches of the Calumet Region.  I earned a BA in Political Science.

9.  I once won second prize in a poetry contest, and collected $10.00.

10. Much later, I won a 'song parody' competition and was awarded a boom box.

11. Past occupations include "Cost Analyst," (a government job), and IT Network Manager.  Currently I'm 'sort-of retired,' making minor amounts of money refurbishing and selling vintage audio equipment.

There!  Now, on to Part Two, which is to answer eleven questions put by Artsieaspie:

Answers to Artieaspie's Questions:

1. Who are you?  (In as great or little detail as you feel like sharing)

See first eleven 'random' facts.

2. What's the story behind this blog?

It's named after a Bob Dylan song.  The real story is I was pissed at the owner of another message board I'd been frequenting for a long time, so I planned to post essays here instead of on his board.

3. Right or left-handed?  Or, something else?

Right, but not overwhelmingly so.  Can mouse left-handed, for example.  My left eye is dominate, so some things get crossed-up.

4. Does evil exist?

Fundamentally, this question is asking 'do moral good and bad exist,' in a objective and binding sense.  I believe so, and you now know the entirety of the creed of my faith.

5. Do the ends justify the means?

Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't.  It very much gets down to cases.  It's easy to make big errors here.  

6. If we use our brains to understand the world around us, but we don't understand how our brains work, do we understand anything?

Yes, but incompletely   The universe is stranger than we can imagine.  

Some philosophers make a problem out of trying to figure out how it is that anything exists.  But just try to imagine what it would be like if nothing existed.

7. Loud socks or plain?

Plain.  In general, flamboyance isn't me.

Of all the silly reasons people find to judge others as unworthy, fashion is about the silliest.

8. Do you think Lady Macbeth's reference to the "milk of human kindness" means human kindness, or humankind-ness?  Or something else?

Receiving kindness is agreeable and beneficial, like receiving milk.  

Always try 'literal' first.  If it works, then stop.

9. Justice or fairness?

Kant said 'Let justice be done, though the heavens fall.'  That's the problem with making god out of anything, it makes stuff like the FALLING of the HEAVENS seem necessary, the 'thing to do' even.  

Too much justice gets unjust; too much fairness gets unfair.  Best just go for a pragmatic mix of each.

10. What's a key point in your life, where had you made a different decision things would be very different for you?  What would you and your life be like today if you'd chosen differently?

Key points are still ahead.  If I make good choices, I may make it possible for more people do better.

11. Now, bearing in mind all those answers.... who are you?

I am what I do.

Paying It Forward

OK!  Now, part three of the game is to come up with eleven new questions, and bestow the Liebster Award on eleven new blogs.  I believe the criteria is that the blogs must have fewer than 200 followers.  Unstated, but implied by the award name, is the requirement that the blogs, in my estimation, be 'lovable enough.'

Well, I know a few deserving blogs, but not eleven.  So I'll go find more.

Back tomorrow* with eleven bloggers, and questions for them!


* Maybe.  'I procrastinate' should be in the random facts somewhere....