friday 5

Hello, and welcome to this week’s Friday 5! Please copy these questions to your webspace. Answer the questions there; then leave a comment below so we’ll all know where to check out your responses. Please don’t forget to link us from your website!

These questions are inspired by real stuff that happened to me or my friends.

1. You’re at the beginning of an extended vacation in some unfamiliar big city in a faraway country. On the street, you strike up a friendly conversation with someone attractive, around your age, and in line with your sexual preference, someone from this city. There is a brief lull, and they ask you to sing them a song. What do you say and what song do you sing?
2. Someone much younger than you (but not a child) who knows and respects you asks for one piece of advice for the rest of their life. What is your advice to this person?
3. You’re alone at work when a woman bursts in and says urgently, “You have to hide me!” Then a police officer runs in with his weapon drawn. The woman points at you and says, “Thank God, officer! Please get them out of here!” The officer doesn’t know which of you belongs here and which he has been chasing, but his weapon is aimed at you now. What do you say?
4. You get into a taxi in another big city you’re visiting for the first time, a city known for a certain cuisine you love. When you tell the driver the name of the restaurant you want to be driven to, they say, “Listen. Everyone loves this place and it’s okay, but it’s overpriced and overhyped. I know a place run by a small family with the same cuisine, but the food is much better and much more reasonably priced! If you like this cuisine you will love this place! Let me take you there instead!” What do you do?
5. Someone you’ve been verrrrrry attracted to for ten years is suddenly single. As they go through this life transition with all its complications (new living arrangements, legal stuff, therapy, that kind of thing), they ask if you’d like to be in a transitional romantic relationship. It will be short — less than a year — and when they’re ready to get back into dating, you won’t be considered. Do you agree to this arrangement?

Thanks for participating, and have a wonderful weekend!

Hello, and welcome to this week’s Friday 5! Please copy these questions to your webspace. Answer the questions there; then leave a comment below so we’ll all know where to check out your responses. Please don’t forget to link us from your website!

1. What has recently reinforced your belief in the goodness of people?
2. Who has recently made you feel good about who you are and what you’re doing?
3. What’s a good excuse for not doing something you should recently have done?
4. Who inspires you to be the best version of yourself?
5. How will you practice self-care this weekend?

Thanks for participating, and have a you-tastic weekend!

Hello, and welcome to this week’s Friday 5! Please copy these questions to your webspace. Answer the questions there; then leave a comment below so we’ll all know where to check out your responses. Please don’t forget to link us from your website!

1. How was this week extraordinary?
2. When did you last do something extravagant for yourself?
3. What do you think of the film ET: The Extraterrestrial?
4. What might lead someone to believe you’re an extravert?
5. What would you like to extract from your body or mind?

Thanks for participating, and may your weekend last an extra-extra-extra long time!

Hello, and welcome to this week’s Friday 5! Please copy these questions to your webspace. Answer the questions there; then leave a comment below so we’ll all know where to check out your responses. Please don’t forget to link us from your website!

1. What makes you self-conscious?
2. What have you learned about self-defense?
3. When did you recently exercise self-discipline?
4. What do you do to maintain a positive self-image?
5. What are you self-taught in?

Thanks for participating, and have a self-explanatory, self-aware, self-esteem-boosting weekend!

Hello, and welcome to this week’s Friday 5! Please copy these questions to your webspace. Answer the questions there; then leave a comment below so we’ll all know where to check out your responses. Please don’t forget to link us from your website!

I almost titled this I’ve got a bad feeling about this, but I caught myself in time, remembering I already used it for a 5 unrelated to this one.

1. How closely do you pay attention to weather forecasts, and how important are they to you?
2. When did you memorably have a feeling something bad was going to happen and nothing bad happened?
3. How are you tempting fate* today?
4. How do you avoid (or when have you recently avoided) jinxing yourself, whether you believe in jinxes or not?
5. When did you memorably have a feeling something bad was going to happen and something bad did happen?

Thanks for participating, and have a good-mojo kind of weekend!

* Yeah, yeah. I know this is not how fate works, but you know what I mean.

Hello, and welcome to this week’s Friday 5! Please copy these questions to your webspace. Answer the questions there; then leave a comment below so we’ll all know where to check out your responses. Please don’t forget to link us from your website!

Don’t ask me where I got these translations. You probably don’t want to know.

Gezellig is the ultimate Dutch concept—it’s less of a word and more of a whole mood! While there isn’t a single English word that captures it, its closest translation is cozy, but with a massive social upgrade.

It goes way beyond physical warmth. A soft blanket by yourself is cozy, but a room filled with close friends, warm lighting, shared laughter, and good food is gezellig.

It describes a feeling of togetherness, comfort, and belonging. You can have a gezellig conversation, a gezellig night out, or even visit a gezellig little coffee shop.

If an atmosphere feels cold, unwelcoming, or full of awkward tension, the Dutch immediately label it the opposite: ongezellig.

1. When did you last have a gezellig conversation or night out?
2. What is usually your contribution to (ie: what do you add to the feeling in) a gezellig gathering?
3. What are some ongezellig spaces you’ve known?
4. What do you know about the Netherlands?
5. Another Dutch word, uitwaaien, means literally “to blow out.” It’s heading out into the wind—usually walking along a beach, a dike, or through a park—specifically to clear your head, refresh your spirit, and let the breeze blow away your stress. When did you recently feel the need to uitwaaien, and where did you go?

Thanks for participating, and have a lekker weekend!

Hello, and welcome to this week’s Friday 5! Please copy these question to your webspace. Answer the questions there; then leave a comment below so we’ll all know where to check out your responses. Please don’t forget to link us from your website!

I was in a large work-related meeting Thursday morning, and our CEO talked about how another presenter said the usual job interview questions and resume review don’t usually give good insight on candidates. This presenter said companies get better results with the first two questions I’m asking this week. Our CEO offered the third. I like how they get to core values and emotional energy outside the usual rehearsed responses. Along these lines, I came up with the last two questions. What do you think of them? 🙂

I think we’ve asked forms of these questions, usually in narrower contexts, but I’m intrigued by the broader asks in these cases. Feel free to respond as you would in a job interview or just as you, today.

1. What do you brag about?
2. What do you complain about?
3. What makes you laugh?
4. What have you recently changed your mind about?
5. What non-work-related subject do you geek-out over?

Thanks for participating, and have a what-are-your-strengths-and-challenges weekend!

Hello, and welcome to this week’s Friday 5! Please copy these questions to your webspace. Answer the questions there; then leave a comment below so we’ll all know where to check out your responses. Please don’t forget to link us from your website!

1. What’s the longest book you’ve read?
2. What’s the funniest book you’ve read?
3. What’s the saddest book you’ve read?
4. What’s the most useful book you’ve read?
5. What are you reading now or next?

Thanks for participating, and have a page-turner of a weekend!

Hello, and welcome to this week’s Friday 5! Please copy these questions to your webspace. Answer the questions there; then leave a comment below so we’ll all know where to check out your responses. Please don’t forget to link us from your website!

1. What takes a licking but keeps on ticking?
2. What are two great tastes that taste great together?
3. When have you recently reached out and touched someone?
4. Besides your keys, wallet, and phone, what do you never leave home without?
5. What might you do this weekend to double your pleasure and double your fun?

Thanks for participating, and have a spicy meatball of a weekend!

Hello, and welcome to this week’s Friday 5! Please copy these questions to your webspace. Answer the questions there; then leave a comment below so we’ll all know where to check out your responses. Please don’t forget to link us from your website!

1. Which movie theater were you (or are you) especially fond of?
2. What memories do you have of going to the video store?
3. What memories do you have of going to the movies with friends?
4. What memories do you have of going to the movies with family?
5. What are the most unusual places where you’ve attended a movie?

Thanks for participating, and have a cinematic weekend!