Survey & More

Friends,

I've had an active phone line in Madison for a little more than 24 hours and today I was called for a survey.

The first question was: "How many hamburgers or cheeseburgers have you eaten over the past 2 months?" And I said none. Then I was off on a wild journey through survey land, giving yes-no answers, more-likely-less-likely answers, strongly-slightly-not-at-all disagree/agree question about everything from the presidential election, to internet security, to how closely I follow the news, to whether or not the female head of household has been diagnosed with a bladder infection.

All told, I was engaged in this survey for 31 minutes. Yes. That's no typo.

What made it even more fun is that the girl giving the survey had a real hard time reading a lot of the questions because of a heavy ethnic accent. I had a hard time pinning it down, but if I were to guess, I'd say she was a young Asian girl, maybe Korean, who came over here when she was young, maybe 10, and never fully assimilated into American culture.

Here's a little something that's a reply to Jessica's blog post from a while back...most people don't know about me...I like talking to these people when I have the time. Phone surveys. Mormons at the door. Those people with the Watchtower magazines. They are just doing their job assigned by God, country or employment agency. I haven't got inclination in me to be a dick to them.

Oh, I got loads of stuff people don't know about me, and wouldn't expect. First kiss? Preschool to a girl who lived down the street from me named Nicki. Oh, and trust me, that kiss counts, my friends. I grew up on HBO, and you'd be amazed what children mimic from television, particularly cable and even more particularly when left to play unsupervised and are smart enough to pull the toy chest in front of the door to make sure no one will interupt. Another one? Growing up, I was painfully shy. Hard to believe that considering the limericks I've said aloud to strangers, the sex scene I read at the thesis show, but it is so, so true. Hell, even now I have bouts of total timidity and shyness. Well, anybody that has been in a class with me may not be surprised about they shyness...I just don't like talking in class...I prefer listening because I always assume that everyone else in the room is smarter than me, until they prove otherwise, and then when they talk, I get to quietly ridicule them in my head.

Okay, I'm rambling, time to wrap it up with the first thing about Madison that I love: Near my apartment, as in under a mile, there is a massive movie theater that has an IMAX screen. And tonight, I will watch The Dark Knight in IMAX (I've seen it regular style already). Also, they have other theaters here with honest to god options. They have a theater that shows classic movies, and another one that shows arty-farty movies. That arty-farty one? It's the first Sundance Theater built in the United States. I'm going there tomorrow to watch that new Hunter S. Thompson documentary. So, right now, the score stands at Madison 1, Mankato 0.

viva el mustache