Installment eight continues this series of posts designed to promote discussion and thought through self-examination. I hope it’ll generate some interesting discussions between you, your friends, and partners. Without interesting people in our lives and a lack of interesting conversations things would become excruciatingly boring.

Also, for those of you who are interested, starting today this blog will no longer be posted daily. I’ve decided to cut back a little to allow for more time for other projects. It’s been more than twelve years of daily postings and I’ll miss that part of my routine. I’m immediately cutting back to three postings a week, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays beginning today. Now let’s get on with Self-Examination #8.

“The unexamined life is not worth living.” Socrates

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• Do you usually make a special effort to thank someone who does you a favor? How do you react when you aren’t thanked for going out of your way for someone?

• Would you like to have your rate of physical aging slowed by a factor of thirty so as to give you a life expectancy of approximately 2000 years?

• You are invited to a party that will be attended by many fascinating people you’ve never met. Would you want to go if you had to go by yourself?

• Since adolescence, in what three-year period do you feel you experienced the most personal growth and change?

• If you were having difficulty on an important test and could safely cheat by looking at someone else’s paper, would you do so?

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• If your parents became infirm and the only alternative to bringing them into your house was to put them in a nursing home, would you do so? What about a sister or brother who suffered a permanently crippling injury and had nowhere to go?

• If you were at a friend’s house for Thanksgiving dinner and you found a dead cockroach in your salad, what would you do?

• If you could take a one-month trip to anywhere in the world and money were not a consideration, where would you go and what would you do?

• Would you be willing to reduce your life expectancy by five years to become extremely attractive?

• Given the ability to project yourself into the past but not return, would you do so? Where would you go and what would you try to accomplish if you knew you might change the course of history?

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• How many different sexual partners have you had in your life? Would you prefer to have had more or fewer?

• Have you ever considered suicide? What is so important to you that without it life would not be worth living?

• If your friends and acquaintances were willing to bluntly and honestly tell you what they really thought of you, would you want them to?

• If this country were to suffer an unprovoked nuclear attack and would be totally obliterated in a matter of minutes, would you favor unleashing the US nuclear arsenal upon the attackers?

• Would you accept $10,000 to shave your head and continue your normal activities without hat or wig without explaining the reason for the new haircut?

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ENJOY YOUR DAY