Hello, world. I’m MacDara Conroy, and this is my blog.


Friday Five #45

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1. What is your most prized material possession?

This is a tough one. It might be better to think in terms of, say, if there was a fire in my house and I was given a short window of time to save my most prized material possessions from the blaze, in which case I would go for my CD collection, my computer, and as many books as I could carry.

2. What item, that you currently own, have you had the longest?

I think that would be my VCR, I’ve had that for more than a few years now. I tend to use home electronics until I wear them out so that, even if the initial outlay was substantial, they last for much longer than most other people hang onto them for. My last television set, for example, I had for about eight years, and only got rid of it when the on-screen display had burned digits onto the screen.

3. Are you a pack rat?

Most definitely, although I am trying to break the habit (see below).

4. Do you prefer a spic-and-span clean house? Or is some clutter necessary to avoid the appearance of a museum?

I don’t feel comfortable in homes that are so clean you’re afraid to touch anything (even the sofa, which is probably covered in clear plastic anyway), but on the other hand I do prefer an organised space, where everything is used but used with care and kept in its rightful place. In my own experience, being a pack rat I tend to accumulate a lot of stuff, assuming that I might have some use for it down the line, but I don’t like the clutter that results, as things tend to get lost that way. Minimalism, or at least the appearance of it, would be my tendency, but not in conjunction with an open-plan space; I find such environments cold, clinical, and lacking in character.

5. Do the rooms in your house have a theme? Or is it a mixture of knick-knacks here and there?

My house is a real home in the sentimental sense of the word, yet there’s no blatant overriding theme. It is really just a mixture of knick-knacks here and there, but it’s more than the sum of its parts.