Four, four, four for my headaches

[venta]

I just started writing up my answers to the four-things meme, then stopped when I realised it was crashingly dull. This is not intended to be a comment on other peoples' answers; just that mine in particular were dull.

Four jobs ? Unless I count two roles at the last one separately, I've only had three[*]. Places I've lived ? Two, unless you let me count different roads in Oxford. Four TV programs ? I think I might have watched four this year - that is, four episodes of QI and bugger-all else. I don't watch films over and over, in fact I don't really watch films.

The biggest problems I have, though, in answering questions like those is, firstly, to think of four places I'd rather be "right now". As it is, I'm sitting on the sofa, I'm quite comfy and I'm quite happy. OK, so it's not the most exciting venue in the world, but if I were right now ski-ing down a glacier in New Zealand I'd have terrible trouble getting back for work in the morning. Also, I can't ski. I appreciate that this isn't really the point of the question, but it's the way my mind works. Even in my flights of fancy I demand a certain element of realism, and being somewhere significantly else this evening just isn't going to happen. I am practical to the point of mundanity.

Secondly, I don't have favourites. I never really have. So, four favourite foods ? I can tell you four things I like, but as I rule I couldn't rank them or claim to be consistent two days running. I couldn't tell you my favourite book, or favourite song, or favourite place, though in each case I could give you a selection of examples that I thought were pretty good.

At a confirmation class when I was about 14 we were instructed to bring the following week our favourite possession. I forget what the point of the exercise was, but I simply wasn't able to come up with a sensible answer. Various people tried asking questions like "what would you grab if you had to run from a burning house?" but really, I still didn't know. Nowadays I suppose it would be my wallet and phone for convenience; a pet if I had one. There are many possessions I'd be sad to lose, but nothing that really stands out.

Does every else have clearly delimited favourites ? Books, films, foods ? If so, is that a long-standing list or does it change regularly ? Do you have something you'd refer to as a favourite possession ?

[*] The possible only piece of interest in my entire meme-answer was that the other two were agricultural labourer and ballet-school pianist.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Family faioing. Saves getting het up about things.

[(Anonymous)]

And so are typos!

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

a pet if I had one

Although even then possibly for other reasons than it being your "favourite thing".

Does every else have clearly delimited favourites ?

I do, but mostly because the "favourite X" concept is so much a part of the culture I've lived in all my life that I've learned to preselect favourite things. Bea takes a different approach and gives a different answer every time. In fact she actually told me off the other day for always giving the same answer to her "what's your favourite X" questions!

[phlebas.livejournal.com]

I have a favourite film and album, probably. Most other categories would need to be posed a lot more specifically to get a sensible answer. And the burning house question would elicit those things least replaceable rather than most loved.

[marjory.livejournal.com]

I have problems with favourites too. I remember being frustrated as a kid asking what ppls' fave colours were and the adults havng no idea how to answer, because as a child I had definite and delineated tastes. I have no idea what my favourite possession might be. I'm a worldly creature and there are an awful lot of items which I would be pissed off to lose, but my favourite? Usually whatever fell into my sticky little paws last.

I think with the four things meme, I'd have been horribly tempted to try to sound impressive to A. N. Other.

God, I'm commenting a lot today...

[secondhand-rick.livejournal.com]

Other than favourite whisky (which I think is a matter of record) there's not many things I could state as favourites with any assurance that they would not become invalid in an arbitrary period of time (such as the next five minutes).

So, I suppose I can also name my favourite favourite, being whisky, since it's reliable.

Secondly, I don't have favourites.

[ewx.livejournal.com]

Glad it's not just me.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

I suppose I tend to think of the purpose of these things as being entertainment rather than revelation. So I would answer with whatever was bubbling around the top of my mind at that time, in the hope that people would find it interesting, rather than worrying that it wasn't a true representation of my inner psyche.

I would probably also invent spurious jobs etc to make up the numbers, and invite people to guess which ones weren't true.

But on the deeper point, I think that the ability to have a favourite anything must be genetically / memetically determined, in that people seem to divide so clearly into those who do and those who don't¹.

---

1 That's my favourite psychosocial theory. Or... is it?²
2 No.³
3 (Because I am of the latter type.)

[addedentry.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I find it hard to generate favourites because my memory's so appalling that I can barely remember the last four Xs I've experienced; nonetheless, the idea of whittling down iTunes to my 10 favouritest songs appeals strongly.