Well, this is a sad topic.

The short answer is, I have no idea. I don't feel that I really know my parents' personalities. All I have from my parents is past vague childhood memories and more recently, judgement and ignorance.

Looking back, my mother never seemed to be interested in really bonding with my brother and I. She was more about establishing her dominance in our lives. I recall there never being any sort of compromise in her policies, punishments, and conditions. There was always punishment, even for things that I did not understand.

My father was more of the friend to us, I suppose. I remember a much more easy-going dynamic... when he wasn't yelling about something. I recall overreaction to situations. I do remember feeling more connected to my father than my mother.

I don't even recall the person I was when I lived under their roof. I'm not even sure you have a real personality as a teenager that isn't completely self-involved. I don't think I'm like either of my parents today, and for that I am thankful. I could have very easily gone down their path of intolerance and extreme religious zeal.

I sometimes wonder what my personality would be today, had I married my parental-approved religious boyfriend. I imagine that I would have been pressured into having children, whom I would come to resent, even though I wouldn't know why. Today I know that it's because I do not want children.

I would probably be a stay-at-home mother, lonely, bitter and fat. I would not have sought professional treatment for my depression - the family would have "prayed it away," which obviously would not have worked. I would not have become the person I am today. I might not even be alive today - I may have succumbed to depression. All thanks to religion.

Sometimes I see photos of myself, or I catch my reflection, and I see my mother. Because my thoughts & impressions of my mother are so negative, I cringe. I don't want to be that woman. I can't imagine going through life harboring that much hate.

I'm grateful to my parents for giving me life, but at this point, that's all I can positively say about them. My relationship with my parents has firmly cemented the idea that family is based on far more than DNA.

I'd go with 50s pinup style, because I fucking own it. I wish I wasn't so lazy in the mornings, though. Otherwise I'd wear it right much more often.

iPod touch jailbreak 1.1.3

I want an ipod Touch. They just seem so fun! I need a new mp3 player, and this one's gotten the best reviews on cnet.com and Amazon. I've never owned any Apple products, or used an iPod. I think I should probably visit an Apple store and play with this first before I commit to telling Luke this is what he should get me for my birthday. I'm thinking 16GB, because my music collection is growing everyday. I'm not too sure about the mandatory iTunes8, though. I am an iTunes virgin, and I haven't read pleasant things about iTunes8.

This is officially the most boring Plinky answer ever.

My first job came at age sixteen, when I began working at the local grocery store. It was convenient because the school bus would drop me off there after school, and when my shift was done, one of my parents would pick me up. Our house was barely a mile away, but it was a dangerous highway so I couldn't walk home.

I began working as a cashier, and had a few days of training before I was unleashed to the masses. My training was immediately before I had my wisdom teeth extracted, and this being my first job, I was terrified that I would get fired before I even started if I asked for a few recovery days. So I began work, puffy-cheeked, shy, and unfortunately not high because I never got any pain meds. Bastards.

I started off at $5.15/hour, which was the minimum wage ten years ago. I worked there for a little over a year, if I recall correctly. During that time I was promoted to the customer service desk, which was much more exciting because there you had POWER. You ran the lottery machine, and handled giant gobs of money, and voided things for the cashiers. I think by the time I quit, I was making $5.40/hour.

After I quit, I had many dreams that I begged to get my job back, and they wouldn't have me. It was strange, because I was glad to quit. I met many friends there, developed a crush on several, and met my second serious boyfriend there. I have some fond memories of the place and the people, but I am very glad that era of my life is in the past.

My vice is probably watching television - more specifically, DVDs. When I moved into my first apartment, I decided not to get cable, because it was expensive. I could just watch movies, and catch the local news with my rabbit-ear antenna. Now, though, I own several complete television series on DVD. No matter how many times I've watched, I still can't seem to get other things done when there's a DVD in the player. It's an escape thing, I'm sure - I don't have to think about my life, I just envy the life of whomever I'm watching.

I think the only way I could quit would be if my collection suddenly vanished, or if my DVD player exploded.