Meme swunked from sporty233

[fpb]

20 years ago, it was 1986. Take this survey, post the results, and see how many things have changed since then.


1) How old were you?
THEN: 23
NOW : 43

2) Where did you go to school?
THEN: ST.John's College, Oxford - I was sent down in September '86.
NOW: University of Life, Brockley, London.

3) Where did you work?
THEN: I did some translation work in Rome during the holidays (and after being sent down).
NOW : At my computer at home.

4) Where did you live?
THEN: Oxford; Rome.
NOW : Brockley, London.

5) How was your hairstyle?
THEN: Ordinary with a part on the left.
NOW : Ordinary with a part on the left and a little bit missing on top.

6) Did you wear braces?
THEN: No
NOW : No

7) Did you wear contacts?
THEN: No.
NOW : No.

8) Did you wear glasses?
THEN: No.
NOW : I am slightly short-sighted, but I rarely wear them.

9) Who was your best friend?
THEN: Franco.
NOW : Franco.

10) Which of your pets were still alive?
THEN: Never had a pet in my life.
NOW : Ditto.

11) Who was your boyfriend/girlfriend?
THEN: I fell hard for another Oriental Studies student called Ruth.
NOW : If I ever had the horrifying experience of coming even close to falling in love again, you would not see me for dust. Of the two, I would rather be slowly tortured to death.

12) Who was your celebrity crush?
THEN: At that precise moment, nobody, but a couple of years earlier it had been Zola Budd.
NOW : I guess JKR and Paula Radcliffe.

13) Who was your regular-person crush?
THEN: Ruth.
NOW : See question eleven.

14) How many piercings did you have?
THEN: none
NOW : none - don't be ridiculous.

15) How many tattoos did you have?
THEN: none.
NOW : none.

16) What was your favorite band/singer?
THEN: Bruce Springsteen.
NOW : Bruce Springsteen.

17) Had you smoked cigarettes?
THEN: No.
NOW : That is one of the few stupid things I have never done and never will.

18) Had you gotten drunk?
THEN: No.
NOW: I got drunk three times in my life, did not enjoy it, and cannot imagine why people think it's fun.

19) Had you DRIVEN?
THEN: No.
NOW : No.

20) If so which car?
THEN: -
NOW : -

21) Looking back, are you where you thought you would be in 2006?
No. I was fairly sure I was going to become a university teacher.

Comments

[cette-vie.livejournal.com]

Oh, man. I love the idea of this meme, but um... I'm not old enough to take it. Not even to shorten it by 10 because then it would be stupid to talk about driving, etc. I guess there are only some which come with experience and time.

[sporty233.livejournal.com]

So you dont even have a drivers license?? :O (I honestly couldnt survive with my car here..)

[fpb.livejournal.com]

It's easy enough in London, especially if you are single. In spite of all the efforts by administrators and politicians, public transport is still efficient and reaches pretty much everywhere; the only thing in which cars are really irreplaceable, in my view, are for large shopping trips and the purchase of big-ticket items - furniture, fridges, washing machines - which I very rarely need to do. When I do, I hire what is called in London a "Man with a van".

[fpb.livejournal.com]

And the thing is that a car is such a commitment and a responsibility, in and of itself, that unless I really needed it I positively would not want it. I've got trouble enough in my life as it is.

[camillofan.livejournal.com]

It appears we have a few things in common besides Guareschi, as you can see here.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Sorry for trotting out the cliche of cliches, but it really is a small world. You are the second person I met who was in Oxford when, or shortly before, I was. And, crikey, Merton! The college that was always contending with St.John's for first place in the Nuffield Table, and that had unarguably the finest food and the loveliest buildings in a sufficiently lovely town! Congratulations - may I say that duffers and dunderheads do not, in my experience, make it into Merton? I am impressed. BTW, what is your subject.

[camillofan.livejournal.com]

Philosophy. And I agree that we had great food-- in fact, when people mock English cuisine, I have to say that my experience doesn't bear them out.

Of course, now I want to ask whether you knew So-and-So and Whosit, friends of mine who were at St. John's when you were, but this being a public forum and all, I won't go down the naming names route.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

I suppose you still read philosophy? (One of the sad things about higher education is the number of people who drop Philosophy, History, Literature, Theology or Classics the moment they graduate, because all they wanted was the degree and now they want a career in what they laughably call the "real world".) And if you do, do you follow a particular school? I am a lover, more than a follower, of Thomas Aquinas and Karl Popper (and I loathe David Hume, whom I regard as a charlatan).

I have a terrible memory for names and people. I remember things we did and discussions we had, but not names. However, I do not think I knew any Philosophy postgraduate students - that is what it would be, I guess? I knew plenty of English, Law, Medicine and Sanskrit (my subject) people, and a few Biology, Theology and Mathematics people - wait a minute, one mathematician I knew did transfer to Philosophy, but she was an undergraduate.

[camillofan.livejournal.com]

I teach philosophy to non-specialist undergraduates at a small American university. My own undergraduate training was at the hands of Kantians (at a Jesuit college), and I've never lost my regard for him (when I can make sense of him, that is). Augustine is another favorite, as is Kierkegaard (again, when I can make sense of him), and 20th-C. analytic philosophy is a special interest.

As for Hume, I think he's the proverbial elephant in the room in every good metaphysics conversation!