What's your favorite color?

[This is me bypassing the fact of my recent blog abandonment. Abandonment cancelled.]

It is a personal goal of mine to prioritize a list of important questions to ask and consequent facts and opinions to gather within the first 48 hours of meeting any given person with whom I may have a potential extended relationship.

It is a more realistic goal of mine to deliver the following series of questions and analysis within the first 48 hours of meeting any given person etc... SPOILER ALERT: If you are not familiar with the color/animal game, then before you read further, jot down you answers to the following questions on a piece of paper or a mental note.

Question Series 1:

• What is your favorite color?
  E.g., My favorite color is purple.
• What are three adjectives you would use to describe what you like about the color you chose?
  E.g., royal, sassy, cool

Question Series 2:

• What is your favorite animal?
  E.g., My favorite animal is a shark.
• What are three adjectives you would use to describe what you like about the animal you chose?
  E.g., aggressive, resilient, sleek

NOTE: Some individuals find it difficult to identify adjectives that describe their fondness for the given color or animal. An adjective is a word that modifies (or describes) a noun or noun phrase. If you or the person you have interrogated has failed to identify adjectives, politely ask him or her to rephrase his or her response using the requested part of speech.

(purple shark)

And now for the analysis:

(Caveat: The more serious you take this Get-To-Know-You game SLASH interrogation, the less fun it becomes.)

Question Series 1 ANALYSIS: The color chosen does not matter. The adjectives describe qualities that the person being asked sees in him or herself.

Question Series 2 ANALYSIS: The animal chosen does not matter. The adjectives describe qualities that the person being asked looks for in a significant other.

I was up late one night with a bunch of friends including but not limited to my friend Stephanie, a psychology major, and she threw the above-mentioned round of questions at us. It was then a very lighthearted expose of the group, but I have now recently recovered the experience and frequently integrate it into otherwise-on-the-brink-of-being-dull small talk. Off the top of my head, I would say that the whole thing has about a 90% chance of being at least somewhat accurate, and a 100% rate of amusement.

I highly recommend this in a large group of people, however, be ready for the one person who staunchly opposes his or her results (also, know that his or her results could possibly be the most accurate, to his or her chagrin). The reassuring thing about adjectives is that, taken out of context, they can mean all kinds of things. For example, the examples provided in the original questions were my own results. When I described a shark as "resilient," what I meant was, "It's cool that their teeth grow back if they fall out." I can either unreasonably apply that to my own life and be unsatisfied with my current boyfriend's teeth -- that is, if he were to be punched in the mouth, he may forever have spaces where his teeth once were and where new teeth will never occupy those vacancies -- or I can vow never to punch him in the face, and instead appreciate his adaptive personality and above-average initiative. "Resilience," if you will.