insurance Friday Five

1. Do you have insurance?
I have auto insurance… (It’s required in California.)

2. What do you think of public option for health care?
Ideally, I support it. But I do see the other side of it: where would the money come from? As it is we overspend in the government without it!

3. Should health insurance be mandatory? If so, should it be subsidized for the poor?
I guess I agree with the first question, even though it means I have to spend my money. As for the second question, I really do believe that. Although I fall back on my answer to the previous question.

4. Do you think the health care industry and pharma make too much money or not enough?
I definitely think they make too much money. Mostly the companies who make medicine, less so for doctors and nurses and hospitals.

5. Would you leave the country if it meant that you would have no job but was assured health care?
No, because I love America and the First Amendment, and I don’t really feel the need to have health care for myself, because I don’t care to spend thousands of dollars to save my health or my life. If something serious (and seriously expensive) came up, I would just die. (Of course, I say that now…)

questions from Friday Five

Beverages Friday Five

Okay I admit it, I don’t have many ideas about (or give much thought to) writing in my blog, so I’m falling back on answering memes. >_> Luckily I think they’re interesting or I can write a bit on them, and they’re not stupid.

1. What is your favorite drink of all time? Does it hold a special memory to you or is it just because it tastes good?
I don’t think I could pick a favorite of all time, because my favorite changes from time to time. I remember when it was lemonade, cranberry juice, root beer (specifically A&W or Mug, not any other), sarsaparilla (omigosh love ya, Virgina City, and Knott’s!)… But ocha (aka green tea) is a good failsafe, I’ve been drinking that for years.

2. Tea or coffee or hot cocoa?
I guess I already answered this in the previous question, but I can stand to write more. *grin* I’m not a big fan of coffee. I don’t like the bitterness, but my mom has had me taste some really good coffee (yes, I do refer to McDonald’s here, points to McD’s!) and if I really need a caffeine boost I’m willing to drink it. With creams and sugars, of course.

Hot cocoa, I’ve mostly had the Nestle instant variety. Lately I don’t like how sweet it is, and I keep mixing in Ghiradelli’s cocoa powder or Hershey’s cocoa powder. But in general if I’m out somewhere and need a hot drink this is my first option. (Unless this place offers green tea, then of course I choose that.)

As for tea… I’ve tried peach-flavored black tea (my first non-green tea) and really didn’t like it; orange tea, thought it was a bit too sweet but it was drinkable; and black tea, not as bad as the peach-flavored tea would have me think, it was much more like green tea than I expected. I’ve never had sweet tea, but as a kid I drank Lipton’s instant iced tea.

My mom served us kids the iced tea for our ochazuke (or chachagohan, for a more cutesy, kiddy term ^_^), but eventually we asked her for the “hot tea” that we thought tasted better: genmaicha. She told us if we liked it better then she would make it for us, even if it did take longer to make than the “instant tea.”

Thus, the tea of my childhood became genmai cha. This is considered a poor variety of green tea, though. Right now I like bancha, a better variety, but still not the best. I’ve had matcha and sencha, but they’re more expensive than bancha.

3. Best summer time drink?
Cold ocha, or for a special treat, Ito En’s Oi Ocha! ^_^-b

4. Worst soda brand ever?
:o I don’t know that I can come up with an answer for that. I definitely won’t drink Mountain Dew though. And I prefer Coke to Pepsi, although that is not saying that I like Coke. My favorite soda is Dr. Pepper, or Dr. Pepper Cherry.

5. Water: flavored, bottled, carbonated, or regular old tap?
None of the above? I think that’s just semantics though. I don’t like to drink water that comes in those little bottles at the grocery market, since it’s so bad for the environment, but I’m okay with Sparklett’s. (Arrowhead has a weird taste…) I don’t like the taste of tap water, because I’m a spoiled urbanized child, used to filtered water. And that is what my choice is.

questions from Friday Five

Friday Five—dreams

1. What did you dream about last night?
Usually I post it in my dreamlog.

2. Do you record your dreams in your blog or a journal?
Already answered. :3 Yes, I’ve been writing down dreams since the mid 90s; I thought I had a few really interesting dreams and considered turning them into stories. That never happened though. Mid to late 90s I physically wrote them down in a notebook, then I transferred over to an online log in 2002 or so.

3. Do you think dreams are messages our bodies are trying to tell us? If so, are you real big on trying to interpret all the details?
I believe some dreams can be messages, but I don’t interpret every single dream I have, much less every little thing that happens in a dream. I don’t think dreams are literal, or strictly symbolic. Mostly I pay attention to the feelings in dreams, and any patterns that come up over time.

4. Do you remember your first nightmare?
The earliest nightmare I can remember having is recorded in my dreamlog, but I don’t know if that was my first nightmare.

5. Have you ever had a recurring dream? If you did, what was it and what do you think it meant?
I don’t think I have recurring dreams in that the same exact thing happens. I’ll have dreams where I think, ‘This happened before’ or ‘I saw this before,’ but when I wake up I can’t remember the dream (or real life experience) that made me think that. I know I dream about malls a lot (hee), and airplanes crashing, but I’ve never dreamed the same exact dream.

Friday Five (LJ) December 25 version

I was never good at doing Friday Fives on Friday, but here’s the latest one (from Livejournal).

1. What one food most reminds you of your childood?
Is Japanese food an acceptable answer? If not, then probably udon. Or maybe homemade chow mein with scrambled egg strips in it, that was how Bachan made it. :3

2. How old were you when you learned how to ride a bicycle?
I was nine years old (or maybe ten, it was during the summer anyway) and I taught myself! Without a scratch. I even remember my bike, it had a teal paint scheme and pink handlebars and seat and white wheels.

3. How old were you when you stopped believing in Santa Claus?
Eight years old, third grade, I remember some classmate was talking to other kids at his table saying he saw his mom doing Santa one night. Er I mean doing Santa’s job.

4. What was your favorite television show/cartoon when you were little?
First answer that comes to mind is Ren & Stimpy. :P I could also say Rugrats or The Simpsons (that one has lasting power, wow), but R&S was the first I thought of. That might have been the first show my brothers and I would watch regularly on TV in its scheduled slot (Snick!), rather than whatever we had on VHS.

5. What is the youngest age you remember being and do you have a specific memory of when you were that age?
Preschool age, three or four, and a memory from preschool: the teacher and his aide had just put us down on the carpet for our nap and drawn the curtains so the room was dark. The aide asked the teacher if he’d like a Coke, she was going to grab a Coke. I thought, ‘Lucky, they get to have soda whenever they want.’ :P I’m an adult now too but I can’t have soda whenever I want! I have to remember all the sugar and carbonation and, depending on the soda, the caffeine that’s in those things. Ugh.

ideal religion again

Normally I don’t post quiz results on my blog, but since I have past results recorded here (first quiz results, second quiz results, third quiz results), I’ve gotta keep up the continuity.

  1. Reform Judaism (100%)
  2. Liberal Quakers (97%)
  3. Unitarian Universalism (96%)
  4. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (87%)
  5. Neo-Pagan (87%)
  6. Sikhism (86%)
  7. New Age (84%)
  8. Mahayana Buddhism (82%)
  9. Jainism (78%)
  10. New Thought (77%)
  11. Bahá’í­ Faith (72%)
  12. Theravada Buddhism (69%)
  13. Hinduism (66%)
  14. Scientology (62%)
  15. Orthodox Judaism (60%)
  16. Taoism (58%)
  17. Secular Humanism (53%)
  18. Islam (51%)
  19. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (47%)
  20. Orthodox Quaker (41%)
  21. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (35%)
  22. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (33%)
  23. Nontheist (27%)
  24. Jehovah’s Witness (24%)
  25. Eastern Orthodox (22%)
  26. Roman Catholic (22%)
  27. Seventh Day Adventist (19%)

Grain of salt: I didn’t do the “priority” part of the quiz, and not all aspects of my beliefs were covered, or worded in a way that I completely agree with, so the percentages can be off (compared to previous results).