1. Anonymous asked: You should read "The Midnight Court" by Ciaran Carson.

    Seems like I should.

  2. Anonymous asked: .... or apathy. -SA

    Can one be passionate about something (even women!) without being interested in sex?

  3. Anonymous asked: CONGRATS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! -SA

    Thank you. You’re very kind.

  4. Anonymous asked: Congrats, you put into words my opinions on abortion. -SA

    I’ve been trying to get my head around the whole reconciling my moral issues with my belief in social realism.

  5. Anonymous asked: Awww I made the list! Unexpected, but flattered. -SA

    Again, I’m really, really stretching. I really wanted to get to my toes, at least, but I had to stop because the next person I was going to list was the xkcd-lover anon.

    EDIT: Also, I hope you went to sleep.

  6. Anonymous asked: I totally agree with the whole "leave a positive influence" thing. I asked because I was in church and the liturgy said: "the greatest thing one can do is lay down his life for his brother". And before you sound off on how you don't believe in religion or whatever- don't. I'm tired of being told just how provincial my beliefs are, especially by people who have never cracked open a theology book. -SA

    Religions teach some fantastic messages.

    I just don’t think there are many instances where one can lay down his life for his brother. That’s why I prefer mine. Usually having a positive influence involves “laying down” your interests for the betterment of others. Maybe that’s the greatest thing a man can do. I don’t know.

  7. Anonymous asked: What is the greatest thing a person can do? -SA

    Oh! I didn’t actually expect anything to come from that.

    Uh, the greatest thing a person can do is leave positive, personal and direct impacts on others. It’s always easy to remember the people who affected your life in some way. I remember my third grade teacher much more vividly than my fifth grade teacher, because he helped me discover a love of learning.

    Of course, that’s true of all impacts, positive and negative. I vividly remember a lot of bad people in my life, too. And a lot of people I spent a lot of time with. …So maybe it’s just a crapshoot.

    Maybe a better way to say it is that the best thing a person can do is leave a legacy. I don’t know. Life is a crapshoot. Much like The Game of Life. There are some pseudo-important choices in the game, but there’s so much randomness, and eventually you’re gonna retire in Countryside Acres or Millionaire Estates, and even then they’re basically the same thing.

  8. Anonymous asked: Dear Nick, tonight I'm asking the guy I've liked since the beginning of the year to dinner. Is he going to turn me down? Probably. Will I probably be the laughingstock of 1B? Most likely. But I'm going to do it, because I really have nothing to lose. So ball up and go talk to that girl. Sincerely, your favorite superhero

    As I said, love is a fool’s game.

    Good luck, though.

  9. Anonymous asked: Your obituary is a bit lacking in human interest. No torrid love affairs? Grand intercontinental adventures? Fabulous wealth? -SA

    Obituaries probably aren’t the best place to discuss all the people I ever slept with. It’s something that’s gotta go into a newspaper (or whatever the 2060 equivalent of a newspaper is).

    As for the latter two, I’m a realist. I love the idea of travelling the world, but to be honest, for someone who was an IR major for a year, the idea of constantly travelling the world and not having a place to call home scared me. I may take a trip to Europe someday, but then again I might not.

    And as for money? Please. I’m not nearly ambitious enough to be making enough money to be retiring in East Hampton. Not even Eastchester. Maybe East Harlem… As long as it’s not East Hartford, I’ll be okay.

  10. Anonymous asked: Super Anon here. I would love to post the results of your question list, but tumblr has this annoying little thing called a character limit in its anonymous-asking-boxes. Tricky.

    Luckily Twitter has this useful little thing where you can directly message someone, and give private information like your e-mail address, which I have just done.