Christina's Five Questions, October 2025
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Christina's much beloved "Five Questions"[1] have been back for a
little while now, and I've been genuinely meaning to get on the
bandwagon for most of that time. Looks like I'm finally making it
happen!
1. What's your favourite item to cook?
I don't really enjoy cooking, I have to admit. I do more of it
these days than I ever used to, and I think more about recipes as
well, out of both health and environmental concerns, but actual
honest-to-God enjoyment seems slow to arrive. I guess I've been
cooking Muaddara somewhat recently for a while now, and I don't
hate it. It's not super quick, but it's not super fiddly, either,
and uses mostly staple ingredients. I use this[2] recipe:
2. What films have you watched over and over again?
I used to rewatch Fight Club a lot back when I had in on tape
a long time ago, but haven't seen it in, let's say, 20 years.
I probably should rewatch it again some time. Blade Runner is
more of a perennial answer to this question, and at this point
probably my most watch film? But the most topical answer I could
give (and, honeslty, probably the last one), is Sneakers, starring
the recently deceased Robert Redford (along with surprisingly many
other big names, given how relatively obscure a film it seems to
have remained). Everyone knows Hackers, of course, and if you ask
for an older film about computer hacking you'll probably get WarGames
recommended to you, but Sneakers (released between these two) beats
'em both, IMHO.
3. What film did you most enjoy watching this year?
Probably "The Ballad of Wallis Island". I watch maybe 1.5 newly
released films per year on average, I'd guess, and I think this
was the only one this year. It was both funny and sweet, without
being overly sappy.
4. How comfortable are you with uncertainty?
Pretty comfortable, I think, although it feels like a very blanket
statement to make with much confidence. There's not really all
that much uncertainty in my day to day immediate life, I suppose.
On the other hand I've never been less certain in my life about
what the world might look like, say 10 or 20 years from now, but
I guess I'm handling that pretty well?
5. What's one of your hobbies?
I guess most of my hobbies have been mentioned multiple times
over the years in my phlog/gemlog. I do have rather too many and
it takes active effort to avoid picking up new ones. I tried to
take up linocut print making maybe five years ago but didn't have
much success getting good, clean ink transfer, so I gave it up.
Some months back someone near me was selling a bunch of rubber print
making supplies cheaply, and I decided to try it again. I don't
like the switch to synthetic and non-biodegradable materials, but
my early results have been astonishingly more successful and I'm
looking forward to trying some two colour prints some time.
[1]
gopher://zaibatsu.circumlunar.space:70/0/~christina/2025-10-5Q.txt
[2]
https://www.sbs.com.au/food/the-cook-up-with-adam-liaw/recipe/mujaddarat-riz/32kikv595
