If it's not an American flag, it's probably a bomb.

Poll #1182972 Consumer electronics
Open to: All, results viewable to: None

What do you own in terms of home/personal electronics?

As far as electronics go, do you feel like you own:

Answers are hidden so you can be honest about how little self restraint you have on amazon.com.

Disclaimer: Despite what you may believe, I do NOT own all these devices. In fact, I own fewer than half.

Comment below if there's some electronic device I neglected to list and you either own or would *really* like to have.

Tomorrow's poll: Right vs. left hand (no it's not dirty).

Poll #1180624 Mess
Open to: All, results viewable to: None

How messy is your living space over last few weeks?

Answers are hidden from everyone except me, and I ain't tellin.

Comment below only if you are messier than me ("Annoyingly messy"), and want to complain or brag about it.

Also welcome are any stories about the OCD roommate/partner I described in the last answer.

If you're not on twitter, you should be. Follow me at http://twitter.com/vees

Mercury bricked during a routine kernel patch.

Unfortunately vees.net and epistolary.org are out of service until further notice.

Everything is back to normal.

You Are Not Scary

Everyone loves you. Isn't that sweet?

Lies.

Poll #1176354 Am I scary?
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

Do I scare you?

Comment below why I am scary, or not.

Enjoy my latest obsession (home version):

http://ustream.tv/channel/vees

Enjoy my latest obsession:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/rob-at-work

Poll #1173278 Teleoptimism
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

Your home telephone rings at noon on a weekday. It's a number you don't recognize. You weren't expecting a call. Before you pick up the phone, your first thought is that this will almost certainly be:

You are all very cynical people.

Comment below with your the story of your favorite good news phone call.

Poll #1172624 Newspaper puzzles
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

Preferred newspaper puzzle game?

Pen or pencil?

This is my first attempt at a multi-question poll. I'm certain it will go poorly.

Comment below if you feel this is my worst poll ever (I agree).

Poll #1172201 Simple I/E Personality
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

At the end of an intense party or social gathering, I feel:

Poll #1171328 Book fame
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

Is it reasonable to want to write a book so you can have your own page on Wikipedia that doesn't get deleted?

On a table in front of you there are two suitcases full of money.

One contains a total of $10,000,000, and one contains $200,000. If you pick the $10,000,000, you must distribute the entire amount to humanitarian charities and programs of your choice. In return, you will receive $5,000 for your effort.

If you choose the $200,000, you can walk out with every dollar, and the other suitcase will be incinerated.

No one will ever know which suitcase you selected, or who made the donations.

Poll #1169273 Morality checks
Open to: All, results viewable to: None

Which do you choose?

Answers are hidden, so you can be honest.

If you like, you can comment below on what you would do with the money (either suitcase).

1. My username is _____ because ______.

vees because that's what everybody knows me as. The story behind the fact that everybody knows me as that is that back in 1992 or 1993 I needed to pick a "handle" for Internet Relay Chat so that as a returning member and channel operator in channels like EFNet #philosophy, people would recognize me. I went through the dictionary trying to find a word that fit me. I found a dozen or so in the "V" tab and couldn't select a favorite, so "vees" was born. When I first met everyone from Playa del Fuego and we all converged on an IRC channel on Dale's server, people in real life started to know me as vees as well. In January of 2000 I bought the domain vees.net to compliment epistolary.org, and around 2001 started using rob@vees.net as my primary e-mail address. After that, everybody knew me as vees. In 2002 I signed up for my first LJ account and the name was fait accompli.

2. My name is _____ because ______.

Robert, because I wasn't born a girl and named Michelle. My mother had both ready. My sister would have been Roger.

Rob, because in 1994 I started signing all my school papers and Prodigy e-mails as Rob, without mentioning it to my parents. Eventually all my friends, teachers, and grandparents (who I e-mailed fairly regularly) started calling me that, and my parents caught on without me ever having to declare in a fit of teenage angst that "I will now be called Rob."

3. My journal is titled ____ because ____.

If its not an American flag, it's probably a bomb, because on 1/13/07 the city of Boston locked itself down in a bomb-scare frenzy because a couple of underemployed artists put up magnetic LED lights on large metal structures to advertise a show on Cartoon Network. Millions of dollars in response and police overtime was spent. So some guy took a picture of the LED character they were putting up and wrote in an inspirational poster format the phrase above and 1-13-07 NEVER FORGET

4. My friends page is called ____ because ____.

I had to look this up. It's not titled, so it's called "Friends" or the same title as my main journal, because I am lazy.

5. My default userpic is ____ because ____.

A knob from a Kenwood TS-530S radio that says "DRIVE" and is turned almost all the way up, because I like dials and a dial labeled DRIVE (I also have one labelled LOAD) is pretty cool. They are radio circuit terms, if you were curious.

6. My LJ subtitle is _____ because _____.

But don't worry about that, just enjoy the pretty pictures, because for a while I was posting only pictures and memes. Now I post polls and memes, so I should probably change it to some pun about polls.

Poll #1168852 FIOS
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

Should I get 15Mb/2Mb fiber optic Internet access directly to my house?

Poll #1168159 Tiny portables
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

What is the most awesome portable of the three pictured above, using your own personal definition of awesome.

Can't say "I told you so."

via whiskey_poptart.

Poll #1165793 Airline food
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

Food and drink aren't allowed through airport security checkpoints as per TSA regulations. How do you feel about this?

Poll #1164595 Adding machine
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

Say you had to enter in a series of numbers into a spreadsheet on your computer, which keys are you more likely to use?

A boring, but interesting poll of a classic ethics question. Answers are hidden.

Poll #1164094 Ethical question #1
Open to: All, results viewable to: None

A runaway trolley car is hurtling down a track. In its path are five people who will definitely be killed unless you, a bystander, flip a switch which will divert it on to another track, where it will kill one person. Should you flip the switch?

Poll #1163253 Hugh cares?
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

In the picture above, Hugh Laurie is playing a police captain in the movie "Street Kings."

For purposes of this poll, ignore that the stench of Keanu Reeves is all over this movie. Just pretend it's House with a badge. Mmmm.