It’s time once again for Share Your World! Melanie B Cee has all the rules and pingbacks, in case you’d like to play along. Here are this week’s questions and answers:

• What’s something your brain tries to make you do, which you have to will yourself NOT to do? A lot, but a big one is overeat. Maybe the biggest one, although Mary helps me keep it under control.
• When someone finds out what you do, or where you are from, what question do they always ask you? No one’s asked me that in a while, mostly because (a) I’m retired and (b) I’ve lived here now more than half my life. Back in the mid-’80’s, when people would ask me what I did, and I told them I work with computers, they would start asking questions about why their Apple II was doing something, or what a message that came up on their TRS-80 meant. I had no idea, since I had never seen those machines before except in pictures and never actually sat and played with them, I couldn’t answer their questions. Finally I just told them I acted in porno movies. That stopped the questions.
• What’s something terrifying that we’ve all come to accept as a fact of life? That thanks to the Internet there are people who we don’t know who know more about us than we know about ourselves.
• Should governments make laws to protect people from harming themselves? As if it’s worked that well whenever they’ve tried it (e.g. Prohibition, the Drug War). They have no idea what they’re doing, and the frightening thing is that they think they do. They can hardly get done what they are supposed to do. And we get the bill for it.
• Please share your gratitude for this past week in the form of a photo, a quote or a thought. How about a song? Neil Diamond, "Thank the Lord for the Nighttime."

See you in the funny papers!

It’s that time again! Share Your World is a creation of Melanie B Cee over at sparksfromacombustiblemind, where you’l find all the rules in case you want to play along. And hey, why not play along?

Is "hello” enough for you these days? (credit to Rory) Short answer: Y. Long answer: Yes.

Do you believe in Murphy? For those who aren’t familiar with Murphy, here’s a wee explanation: Murphy’s Law is an adage or epigram that is typically stated as: “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong”. First, there are about thirteen (13) "Murphy’s Laws," all of which can be seen here. There are also some specific laws, such as "Murphy’s Law for Copiers" ("The legibility of a copy is inversely proportional to its importance") and "Murphy’s Constant" ("Matter will be damaged in direct proportion to its value"). I personally like O’Toole’s Commentary on Murphy’s Law: Murphy was an optimist. You can’t work with computers as long as I did and not believe in Murphy’s laws.

Does evil come from within? If so, why? I think you’d have to say that it comes from within. People tend to have their own ideas about what’s good and evil. Say there was a tornado somewhere that was followed by massive looting. Most people will say "that’s terrible," but one or two will say "hey! that sounds like fun!"

Are intelligent people more or less happy than others? Intelligent people are no more and no less happy than others. Happiness and intelligence are independent variables. What defines intelligence? The ability to say "I don’t know" when you don’t know. Like now.

Please feel free to share a quote, photo or thought about gratitude. How about a song? Sam & Dave, "I Thank You."

See you in the funny papers!

Ya’ll are going to get tired of hearing from me today…

Share Your World is brought to you each week by Melanie B. Cee and this station. Follow the link to learn the rules and to see the questions for this week.

What was the single best thing that happened in your life this past year? The most challenging? The best thing that happened for me this year was that I made it from one end of the year to the other relatively unscathed. No major illnesses, no disastrous happenings. I suppose I could go back through my blog posts and find some proof that says otherwise, but I wrote around 700 posts this year and I don’t feel like it. The most challenging would have to be the death of my cat Cece. We have one cat left out of all the cats we’ve owned over the years; once she goes, that’s it, at least for a good long while. Mary and I have agreed not even to discuss whether to adopt another cat until at least a year after Molly goes.

One thing you learned in 2019? That, since there’s going to be a quiz at the end of the year, I should really start writing down what goes on every day. That would actually be good for my own benefit, because I’m starting to lose track of what happens every day. Nothing serious: I show no signs of dementia or memory loss. I’ve always been a little absentminded, and being a good blogging citizen means coming up with ideas and writing them down and reading other blogs and commenting, so sometimes reality escapes, if only briefly.

Given all your experiences, insights, and lessons learned in 2019, what’s the best advice you could give yourself for 2020? Be sure and write things I want to remember down, and take some time every day to leave the cyber world behind (i.e. no computer/smartphone) and enjoy life among the living.

What’s the best meal/food you ate in 2019? A new barbecue joint has opened even closer than O’Charley’s, and we’ve eaten there a bunch of times already. The two best things from there are the brisket sandwich on Texas toast and the cheeseburger.

What are three activities you plan to use in the coming year to relieve stress? I’m lucky in that very little gives me stress anymore, so I’m not quite sure what I’d answer here. We live under a virtual news blackout here (i.e. we don’t watch the news or read the paper), which is especially useful during election years…

What brought you the most joy and are you going to do more of that? Blogging gives me the most joy of anything, and I’ll probably do a lot of that. I’m already up to a minimum of two posts a day, and that will probably increase as the year progresses. The regular features here (Monday’s Music Moves Me, Share Your World, Two for Tuesday, Mama Kat’s Pretty Much World-Famous Writer’s Workshop etc.) will continue, and I may start doing more non-scheduled posts and get out of my comfort zone a little more.

Lastly – Any resolutions you’d care to share? I’ve always been fond of 1920 x 1080.

It’s that time again, boys and girls! Melanie has a bunch of questions for us, I guess as sort of a Christmas present! Ho ho ho! So, here we go!

Do dogs ‘talk’ (communicate) with their own species? I’m a cat person, so I don’t know about dogs, but cats certainly do. Speaking of which, as of this afternoon we’re down to one cat: Cece, who never quite warmed up to me in the 17 years she lived here, passed away this afternoon. Molly is our last, for a while, anyway.

Have you ever had to work on Christmas Day? If you include serving at Mass as work, then yes. Yes, I was an altar boy.

If someone gifts you something that you immediately loathe, do you pretend to really like it anyway or are you brutally honest about your opinion? I pretend, because I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings.

Which popular drink, found during the Christmas season most often, is called “milk punch?" You must be talking about egg nog, which when spelled backwards is "gon gge." (That was my Dad’s joke.) I think it’s gross, myself, but Mary likes it.

How many ghosts show up during “A Christmas Carol?” I saw another person’s answer that said four, because you have to include Marley. Good answer! Thanks to whoever pointed that out.

Are you all about the holly and jolly or more about remembering the alleged ‘true’ meaning of Christmas? Yes, and I don’t think there’s anything "alleged" about it. We Catholics celebrate the Feast of the Nativity of Our Lord on December 25. It’s commonly called Christmas, which is the holly and jolly part. And speaking of which, here’s Burl Ives with "Holly Jolly Christmas."

Yes, I have my own lyrics for it that are a little less pleasant…

Please share a memory or thought about the holiday season if you’d like, whatever kind of celebration you may observe. I do a lot of reminiscing here, and have a bunch of Christmas stories. Take this one. Or this one, if you’re into bummer stories. Or maybe this one. I know y’all will like this one, which fits into the "tumbling tannenbaum" category. And, of course, there’s this one, about my favorite gift. Or this, where I play the songs I’ve been playing for Song of the Day this week. Have fun!

Merry Christmas, and I’ll see you in the funny papers!

Time once again for Melanie’s Share Your World! Follow the link to see the rules and the questions. Here we go…

Do you enjoy receiving Christmas cards through snail mail? I don’t mind it; we don’t send cards out ourselves, though.

Do you like the taste and/or smell of peppermint? Yes. Quite a bit, in fact.

What is your least favorite holiday side dish? Green bean casserole. Not that we ever would have occasion to have it.

What is the coolest (best) gift you ever gave someone? You know, I really couldn’t say.

What is a Christmas song that makes you cringe? I have three: "Wonderful Christmastime" by Paul McCartney, "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" by John Lennon, and "Do They Know It’s Christmas" by a bunch of musicians calling themselves Band Aid.

As for Christmas music I like, here are a few off the top of my head…

• Johnny Mathis, "Walkin’ In A Winter Wonderland"
• Pentatonix, "Mary Did You Know"
• The Barking Dogs, "Jingle Bells"
• The Royal Guardsmen, "Snoopy’s Christmas"
• Burl Ives, "Holly Jolly Christmas"

See you in the funny papers!