Your daily question

After more than four years of posting a new question every day, your Ten Thousand Questions bloggers are pausing for a few months.

During this time, if you want a new question every day, we invite you to look up the same date's posts in a previous year: 2009, 2010, 2011, or 2012.  To find old posts, look in blog archive in the blog's side panel.

Childhood (5)

In what ways did your childhood environment help shape who you are today?

Childhood (4)

While you were growing up, did you have your own bedroom, or did you share a room with others? Did you have a choice about how to arrange and decorate your room?

Childhood (3)

In your childhood, were there any people your parents specifically told you to stay away from?

Childhood (2)

What kinds of sounds did you hear around your childhood home? Were there loud sounds from far away that reached you, such as church bells, fire sirens, trains, or industrial activity?

Childhood (1)

Think about the place or places where you grew up.  Were your home and your neighborhood safe and comfortable places for you?

Tell us a story: marathon

Have you ever run a marathon? If not, what else have you done that required an extended period of continuous effort? 

Sorry about that

Of all the people you know, who probably most deserves an apology from you?

Learning (5)

What are you learning now — this month, this week, or today?

Learning (4)

What hard-won knowledge do you wish you could have learned more easily? 

Learning (3)

What was one thing that you were taught incorrectly at first and had to relearn later? 

Learning (2)

Are you a teacher?  What is one area of knowledge you've mastered well enough that you could teach it to other people?

Learning (1)

What is one lesson or skill that you learned at a younger age than most people?

Tell us a story: broken

What went to pieces through your actions or fell apart while you were responsible for it? 

When we all get together

Is food at the center of most of your social activities?

Extremes (5)

What was the largest event you ever attended, or the biggest crowd that you were a part of?

Extremes (4)

What was the biggest food item that you ever helped cook and/or eat?

Extremes (3)

What was your longest period of time traveling away from home?

Extremes (2)

What is something you do where success is measured by tiny details or depends on very delicate, small movements?

Extremes (1)

What's one of the riskiest or most reckless things you have done?

Tell us a story: lucky break

What is one miraculous or extremely lucky thing that happened to you recently? 

Blurring the dreamlines

What was a recent waking-life experience that seemed very dreamlike?  And what recent dream seemed all too realistic?

Stress (5)

Which do you worry about most: money issues, relationship conflicts, or potentially embarrassing social situations?

Stress (4)

Working with numbers and calculations is stressful for some people, while others can do it all day without breaking a sweat.  What is one thing that you often enjoy, even though some other people might find the same thing stressful?

Stress (3)

What is one change you made in your life because you thought it would help manage, minimize, or avoid stress?

Stress (2)

Where does stress emerge in your life? What person, place, responsibility, or activity is tied to your biggest area of stress?

Stress (1)

When you feel under pressure, what parts of your body are the first to be affected? What physical symptoms help you notice that you are under too much stress?

Tell us a story: superhero caregiver

What is something out of the ordinary that you had to do to take care of a family member, friend, pet, or some other being that needed help?

I got the music in me

We hear a lot of music incidentally — on the radio, in an office or store, in a friend's car — but what's the last music you deliberately chose and listened to?

Your deepest secrets (5)

Are you the person that everyone tells their secrets to, or are you always the last to find out?

Your deepest secrets (4)

What big, guilty secret did your family share when you were growing up? Do you still carry shame associated with your family's secrets?

Your deepest secrets (3)

Do you worry about people thinking less of you if they found out your secrets? Are you concerned that some of your secrets could impact your job or your relationships?

Your deepest secrets (2)

Do you keep more secrets now, or did you keep more secrets when you were much younger? What's changed over time in your situation, or in your attitude about keeping things secret?

Your deepest secrets (1)

What are a few of your biggest secrets? Are they things that nobody knows, or things that everybody knows but no one talks about?

Tell us a story: dinner for two

What was one exotic or elaborate meal that you cooked for just two people — yourself and one other person? 

Paint barely dry

What is the most recently built building that you visit or use regularly? 

Things you create (5)

If you measure your results by their impact on the world, then you can't ignore your secondary results — the doors that you open, the opportunities that you create for other people. What are some of the ways that you directly or indirectly help other people succeed in their creative efforts?

Things you create (4)

Think about the people around you and how you affect them.  Who might think of you mainly as someone who creates problems and difficulties for them?

Things you create (3)

What do you help create in the social world?  What events do you help plan and stage?  What clubs, organizations, and social activities are richer because of your imagination and your active support?

Things you create (2)

What are your dormant creative skills? Do you have musical, theatrical, or culinary skills, or skills in any other creative area, that rarely get put to use? What are some of the things that you could help create, if a situation came up that demanded it?

Things you create (1)

What are your creative outlets? Think not only of the things that are traditionally considered creative, but also all of the other areas of your daily life. Where do you get the chance to create something, decide on the style and form of it, and make sure that the results come out to your satisfaction? 

Tell us a story: headline news

What was one news story that had a lasting impact on you or prompted you to change something in your life?

Color schemes

Think of the room you use most at home. What are the one or two colors that are most prominent in defining the space? Now think of your workplace. What colors are most prominent there?

Do the colors in each place feel right, or would you pick different colors given the chance?

First time (5)

Think of the times when someone else made plans for you, set goals for you, picked out clothes for you to wear, or decided what you should say. What is the earliest time you remember saying no and insisting on doing things your own way?

First time (4)

Think of the times when fundamental changes disrupted your life. What was the earliest time that you fully understood what was happening and realized that things would never be the same as before?

First time (3)

What was the first music recording or concert ticket that you bought with your own money?

First time (2)

What is the earliest time you can remember traveling away from home on your own?

First time (1)

When did you break new ground for your family, doing something that no family member had ever done before?  What specifically did you do?

Tell us a story: not giving up

What was one situation that required you to muster more patience and persistence than usual?

Winter

What is unique about the winter season for you? What are some things that you do only in winter, and rarely or never during other seasons?

Head to toes (5)

What is one thing you made a point of doing today for your health?

Head to toes (4)

Are you satisfied with your general level of health?  What is one health issue that you know you should be paying more attention to? 

Head to toes (3)

Which of your senses – for example, sight, hearing, or smell – has gained extra abilities of discernment as a result of training or experiences you've had?

Head to toes (2)

What is one physical problem or shortcoming that you unfortunately share with one of your parents or someone else in your family?

Head to toes (1)

What part of your body do you have to be careful with, because it tends to get hurt easily?

Tell us a story: feeding the snakes

What was one job or responsibility that you reluctantly accepted, but only because there was no one else around to do it?  How did it turn out?

Working with numbers

How comfortable are you at handling numbers and calculations?  Is it something you enjoy, or something you avoid?

Time (5)

Clocks, watches, church bells, calendars, sundials, hourglasses, stopwatches, and metronomes all help us keep track of time. What is one interesting or unusual timekeeping device that you use or that you happen to see during your regular routine?

Time (4)

For a runner or a swimmer, the crucial difference between winning a race and claiming second place might be only a tenth of a second. What is one thing you do where acting quickly is essential?

Time (3)

How often do you find yourself rushing through tasks because you just don't have enough time to do a careful and thorough job?

Time (2)

How much of your daily life is controlled by time slots, periods of time, such as a work shift or a movie outing, when you've already decided what you are going to do? 

Time (1)

How many times a day do you check what time it is?

Tell us a story: flight 001

What was the first plane flight you ever took?  Where did you fly, and what was the reason for the trip?  What specifics of the experience stand out in your memory? 

Flash in the pan

Thinking back over the past few months, what was one exciting new thing that quickly lost its charm?

Long-term memory (5)

Think of all of the different places you've lived. Which of the following types of information has stuck in your memory?

• The names of next-door neighbors
• The phone numbers that you used in the past
• The colors and patterns of your bedroom walls

Long-term memory (4)

Who is someone you still remember from early childhood, even though you haven't seen that person since then? 

Long-term memory (3)

What is the earliest time you can remember when a whole room full of people were paying attention to you?

Long-term memory (2)

What's one thing you still feel wary about or avoid altogether, because of a single memorable bad experience many years ago?

Long-term memory (1)

What is one interesting skill — something not everyone can do — that you mastered at a fairly young age and have done basically the same way ever since?

Tell us a story: no charge

What was something that you expected to pay for, but ended up getting for free? What was the situation or chain of events that led to your surprise freebie?

Opening a window

What is one thing that you're now able to see in a new way? 

Your favorite things (5)

What is one "hidden treasure" that you are publicly enthusiastic about — for example, a favorite restaurant or novelist that most people haven't heard about? 

Your favorite things (4)

What is one of your favorites that you're slightly embarrassed by — something you still love even if it might be unpopular or out of fashion? 

Your favorite things (3)

What is your favorite fun thing to do when going out by yourself?  And what's your favorite way to have fun with a group of friends? 

Your favorite things (2)

What is one favorite thing that you learned about only by accident?  Do you tend to cherish things more if they're not well known, like a secret that you happened to get in on?

Your favorite things (1)

What is your favorite time of day?  What's special about that particular time of day?
What is your least favorite time of day?  What is it about that time of day that puts it at the bottom of your list?

Tell us a story: singing

Thinking back to early childhood, what is the first song that you remember someone teaching you to sing? 

Staying up late

What, more than anything else, keeps you awake later than your ideal bedtime?

Year ending, year beginning (5)

What is something you put off in 2012 that you plan to do in 2013?

Year ending, year beginning (4)

Taking an inventory of what happened to you last year, what is a good trend, condition, or practice you would like to contine in 2013? And what is one trend, condition, or practice you'd prefer to leave behind in 2012?

Year ending, year beginning (3)

What is your prediction for the coming year?  Looking ahead to 2013, what is your hunch about changes that are coming this year?

Year ending, year beginning (2)

What is your biggest reason to look forward hopefully to 2013 — if you have to leave out anything that would have been on your list a year ago when you were looking forward to 2012?