I have literally never done one of these chain Q&A things before. These questions are from pk00101. Sorry, having limited time, I'm going to only answer a couple in full length for now...

1. As a virtual God, which aspect of being a deity is the most rewarding to you?

Tough one. There's so much that is rewarding in being an omniscient, omnipotent virtual deity, from world-creation to setting major events in motion and watching them play out. What I typically enjoy the most are the brief, spontaneous interactions when I'm playing an anonymous "ghost in the machine" and bringing the virtual world to life around the "mortals" in a way that builds upon and responds to their actions, mythopoetically.

For one small example, the players in my virtual world once held a funeral for an important character who had died, a very sad affair. Unbeknownst to them, I was watching invisibly, and at the close of the ceremony I spontaneously caused vines to erupt from the ground and twine around the tombstone, then flower, and a rain of petals to fall down around them. Little touches like this... the kind of thing that would never happen in real life, but is more real than real, more true than true: the logic of dreams.

2. If you were asked to gather a general consensus for the state of the "human spirit", how would you go about it? Could you do it in real time?

I'm not sure how a general consensus would be possible. I may return to this later. :)

3. What aspects of a relationship help it remain long term? Thinking of other relationships you may have been in, and seen others in, what similarities have you witnessed?

Apathy, cowardice, and deception can help a relationship remain long term, heh. But I'm guessing what you're asking is what aspects of a relationship help it remain healthy and fulfilling in the long term? :)

What has helped that in my present relationship is the striving to share ourselves completely with each other - without pretenses, sugarcoating, white lies, sweeping things under the rug - regardless what fears, hurts, insecurities, or defenses we may have or may result - no matter how uncomfortable or how painful or how difficult, how minor or how major. We may not (and do not) always succeed at first, but we strive on... and we do often succeed.

Sharing of course is only the beginning... one must also consider and work on how to present and how to respond to what is being shared. It doesn't help if you are sharing what you think, but you are doing so in an angry, accusatory fashion, or with contempt, or sharing only in order to provoke a reaction, for example. Or if you respond with anger, or defensiveness, or hurt, or just to prove your rightness on something.

But I'm not talking about blind acceptance... not some mindstate of "everything you think or feel is perfect"... you have to critically think about and question what you think and feel, but together, not as warring parties. Then it becomes not only about sharing what is already known but a joint exploration of the less-than-conscious frontiers of mind and emotion, uncovering not only ourselves to each other, but ourselves to ourselves.

Nor am I saying it's wrong to ever be angry, or feel hurt, or defensive... shit happens... you just can't cling to it, or respond only from that. Excuse me while I sound like a total hippie, but it seems to me that such communion can only come from a state of love; the ego needs to be discarded. And I'm afraid I'm not great at this, but I keep learning, and I feel that this is the most important lesson I've learned or could learn from and with another person.

I've reached minor levels of this in other relationships, but the level of intimacy where we are is entirely new ground to me, and we continuously seem to uncover more layers. I'm not sure I understood the meaning of honesty before. I don't know about relationships I've seen others in, because I don't know the extent of what goes on in others' private relationships.

4. Think of a different time and place in time, if given the option, you would go live in. If you could choose to be male, would it change the answer? Why?

The future, and no. I may return to this later. :)

5. When you hitchhiked around, did your independence highlight any aspect of your relationships with the people of your life?

I don't know if I'd call hitchhiking independence, since you are traveling at the mercy of strangers. I suppose it is an independence from structure, since you wake up every day not knowing where you are going, how you are getting there, and who you're going to meet. I don't feel that's changed in more than pace though... I still wake up every day feeling as if I don't know where I'm going, how I am getting there, and who I'm going to meet. Though life moves at a slower pace now than then, and I'm content with that. I may return to this later.

To continue the meme, you can ask me 5 questions or ask me to ask you 5 questions. If the latter, you can answer here or copy and paste the questions into your own journal to answer. Patience though... it may take me a while to get back to you.