And how 'bout an old Monday Mission?

1. How old will you be on your next birthday?

31...Shut up.

2. One of the presents I was given for my birthday was a "George Foreman Grill." I've always joked about them, so it was kind of a joke gift. But it turns out, it is a really neat little grill. Then it hit me, this is a gadget, except it is for the kitchen. Then I thought about it and realized that "gadgets" aren't just techno-toys, gadgets are everywhere. What is your favorite gadget?

MP3 Player... and my DVD player.

3. Tell me about someone that you reconnected with after several years ago. What caused the separation? Has enough time passed? Do you still get along?

Actually I lose contact with people all the time. People are always ebbing and flowing into my life. Usually it's just time and distance that causes it. Can't think of anyone I lost contact with because of a fight. What's very cool is when people you thought you'd never hear from again pop back into your life and they're even cooler than you remembered (and you remembered them being pretty cool). I've reconnected with a few "old' friends in the past year or so. With any luck, they think half as much of me as I think of them.

4. I've not met many online friends in real-life (I.R.L.), but I've always assumed we'd get along great if we met. But then again, if we would since my online personality (brash, outgoing) seems so different from how I see my RL offline version (introverted). Is there a difference between your online personality and your real-life version? Or are you pretty much the same person either way?

I think I'm pretty much the same as my on-line counterpart... though he's probably a little more eloquent, 'cause with posting I have time to think up witty responses and edit them just right.

5. Being the quiet type, I have often felt like the online world has given me a greater chance to meet people I'd never meet IRL. In fact, I would bet that I would have never met any of you IRL if we had been in the same bookstore or coffee shop. Is this true for you?

I guess, but look at the people who do speak to strangers: insane people on buses wearing tinfoil headgear and plastic bags on their feet... If that's what's out there, no thank you. In truth, I'm an intensely shy person who rarely "makes the first step' at talking to people. Even people I know. Seriously I have a group of "friends" who out and out ignore at times - really, I can be standing beside them and they not say a word; or I can be sitting by myself and they sit somewhere else. Sometimes I think most people aren't even worth the effort.... but some are.

6. There are times when I just want to tell someone off. I don't usually, since I have to work with them. Sometimes it is a family member and that would be even worse on down the road if I cut loose. If you could just verbally let loose on someone and be able to say anything you want, without repercussions, who would you say it to and what would you say?
I'm just gonna refuse to answer this one... not like they’d have seen it coming anyway

BONUS: Are we alive or just a dying planet?
Dying... who wants to know?