Love Is Better Than A Warm Trombone
Apr. 2nd, 2005 11:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alfvaenAn interview sheep, from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
katzztak and raptortheangel:
1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I will respond by asking you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your LJ with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.
Interesting format...instead of asking for questions, as I've seen elsewhere, you're asking other people to ask you to ask them questions. So if you want someone to interview you, you have to convince them to interview you first...
I asked for, and got, questions from both of the above...
raptortheangel asked:
1) If you could pick a single song, book, or whatever that has had a significant impact on your life, what would it be and why?
Boy, this is a tough one. I listen to so many songs, and read so many books, that it's hard to think of one that has actually had a great impact on my life. I guess I could say the book which probably did the most to convince me that I should be a computer programmer, instead of a scientist: Eric S. Raymond's The New Hacker's Dictionary. I ran across it when I was working at a research job at the University of Alberta(after my B.Sc. in Physics, but not part of a graduate program or anything), doing a lot of programming-type work. After I was laid off from that, I decided to go back to University and study Computing Science.
2) What was your favourite childhood toy?
I was very fond of the Micronauts as a child. I constructed elaborate stories involving them and various other toys of the same size...but I didn't really have a great amount of toys. Especially not compared to my own children. But I'd have to say that my favourite childhood toy was probably the Apple ][ computer, even though I didn't get my own until I was at least thirteen. I was fairly free to use them at school, though, and I did.
3) If you could be any one place right now, anywhere at all, where would you be?
The thing is, I don't really like going out all that much. And if I specified anywhere really too far away, then how would I get back when the question expired? On the other hand, the house is real mess right now, and it's not going to get better anytime soon, because we're not very motivated on the cleaning front. So I'd have to say that I'd like to be in front of my computer...but I'd be willing for that computer to be in a nicer house. I'm an N-type personality, not an S-type, so I'm more interested in mental activity than sensory experience.
If I were to view the question in more touristy terms, then there's a few other answers I could think of. I've always wanted to go to Australia, for instance. And I'd love to spend some quality time at a good observatory.
4) What would be your dream job?
My dream job is really to be unemployed but financially independent, with the ability to spend my day working on whatever projects I wanted. While I don't deny I'd spend a lot of time playing computer games and watching TV/movies, I could also work on my book concordance projects, or my name collection projects, or the like. Who would pay me for that?
More realistically, I could be a writer, but writing is hard work, and I'm really bad at putting in the necessary effort. I could go to graduate school in computing science, perhaps, but I suspect that writing a thesis and the like would be even harder work. And it wouldn't pay that well, either. (Not that writing would, necessarily, either.) Acting and music are probably similar to writing, except that I'm not that good at either of them. Playtesting? Writing computer games?
Maybe there's a job I would be ideally suited for, but I don't know what it is. And there's probably only about ten of them in the whole world.
5) What's one thing most people don't know about you that isn't really a big secret?
"Most people" don't know anything about me. Most of the people I've met don't know much about me. I'm pretty reserved that way. But what's the kind of thing I'd be unlikely to let slip? Hmmm. The fact that I don't like chocolate, coffee, or beer? That I think I have a pretty good singing voice, and would rule at karaoke? That I'm slightly ambidextrous? Take your pick.
katzztak, on the other hand, asked me:
1) What is the greatest theatrical experience (film or stage) that you have had?
Doing "Noises Off" in Grande Prairie was a great time. But what was better than that was getting a call from one of the people I'd worked with to be in a play they were directing. This was, unfortunately, just after I'd gotten a job in Edmonton and knew I was moving, so I didn't get to take advantage of it, but it's nice to know that someone else had a good opinion of my acting ability.
2) When did you know who you wanted to be?
See the answer to Question 1 in the last interview. Though I'm not sure if writing computer programs is what I want to do for the rest of my life, I'm not sorry I chose to do it. On the other hand, if you want to know when I learned that unemployment was my ideal life, then I could point to the period before I went back to school, when I was unemployed for several months, or after the job I moved back to Edmonton fell through. I don't like the financial uncertainty of unemployment, but that's about its only drawback, as far as I'm concerned.
3) If condemned to live on a jungle island, with patrol boats preventing you from escaping and anyone from rescuing you, what three items would you bring with you?
Grumble. I'm sure I'd be miserable living on a deserted island without regular access to new books, music, movies, TV, etc. I'd really want a computer, but I don't know if I could power it or maintain it with only two other items. I guess I'd want a telescope, writing supplies, and...well, one book, I guess. If I had to pick just one, I'd probably go for the old faithful, Watership Down.
4) What keeps you going every day?
The knowledge that I will, at some point during the day, be left alone to myself. On work days, the drive to and from work, and a fair chunk of the workday itself, is made bearable by the tape deck and the many tapes of my favourite songs that I can sing along with. But mostly, it's the introvert's need for solitude.
5) Who put the bop in the bop-sh-bop-du-wop?
Some nameless doo-wop singer in the 1950's, I imagine. For more information, click here.
katzztak and raptortheangel:1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I will respond by asking you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your LJ with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.
Interesting format...instead of asking for questions, as I've seen elsewhere, you're asking other people to ask you to ask them questions. So if you want someone to interview you, you have to convince them to interview you first...
I asked for, and got, questions from both of the above...
raptortheangel asked:1) If you could pick a single song, book, or whatever that has had a significant impact on your life, what would it be and why?
Boy, this is a tough one. I listen to so many songs, and read so many books, that it's hard to think of one that has actually had a great impact on my life. I guess I could say the book which probably did the most to convince me that I should be a computer programmer, instead of a scientist: Eric S. Raymond's The New Hacker's Dictionary. I ran across it when I was working at a research job at the University of Alberta(after my B.Sc. in Physics, but not part of a graduate program or anything), doing a lot of programming-type work. After I was laid off from that, I decided to go back to University and study Computing Science.
2) What was your favourite childhood toy?
I was very fond of the Micronauts as a child. I constructed elaborate stories involving them and various other toys of the same size...but I didn't really have a great amount of toys. Especially not compared to my own children. But I'd have to say that my favourite childhood toy was probably the Apple ][ computer, even though I didn't get my own until I was at least thirteen. I was fairly free to use them at school, though, and I did.
3) If you could be any one place right now, anywhere at all, where would you be?
The thing is, I don't really like going out all that much. And if I specified anywhere really too far away, then how would I get back when the question expired? On the other hand, the house is real mess right now, and it's not going to get better anytime soon, because we're not very motivated on the cleaning front. So I'd have to say that I'd like to be in front of my computer...but I'd be willing for that computer to be in a nicer house. I'm an N-type personality, not an S-type, so I'm more interested in mental activity than sensory experience.
If I were to view the question in more touristy terms, then there's a few other answers I could think of. I've always wanted to go to Australia, for instance. And I'd love to spend some quality time at a good observatory.
4) What would be your dream job?
My dream job is really to be unemployed but financially independent, with the ability to spend my day working on whatever projects I wanted. While I don't deny I'd spend a lot of time playing computer games and watching TV/movies, I could also work on my book concordance projects, or my name collection projects, or the like. Who would pay me for that?
More realistically, I could be a writer, but writing is hard work, and I'm really bad at putting in the necessary effort. I could go to graduate school in computing science, perhaps, but I suspect that writing a thesis and the like would be even harder work. And it wouldn't pay that well, either. (Not that writing would, necessarily, either.) Acting and music are probably similar to writing, except that I'm not that good at either of them. Playtesting? Writing computer games?
Maybe there's a job I would be ideally suited for, but I don't know what it is. And there's probably only about ten of them in the whole world.
5) What's one thing most people don't know about you that isn't really a big secret?
"Most people" don't know anything about me. Most of the people I've met don't know much about me. I'm pretty reserved that way. But what's the kind of thing I'd be unlikely to let slip? Hmmm. The fact that I don't like chocolate, coffee, or beer? That I think I have a pretty good singing voice, and would rule at karaoke? That I'm slightly ambidextrous? Take your pick.
katzztak, on the other hand, asked me:1) What is the greatest theatrical experience (film or stage) that you have had?
Doing "Noises Off" in Grande Prairie was a great time. But what was better than that was getting a call from one of the people I'd worked with to be in a play they were directing. This was, unfortunately, just after I'd gotten a job in Edmonton and knew I was moving, so I didn't get to take advantage of it, but it's nice to know that someone else had a good opinion of my acting ability.
2) When did you know who you wanted to be?
See the answer to Question 1 in the last interview. Though I'm not sure if writing computer programs is what I want to do for the rest of my life, I'm not sorry I chose to do it. On the other hand, if you want to know when I learned that unemployment was my ideal life, then I could point to the period before I went back to school, when I was unemployed for several months, or after the job I moved back to Edmonton fell through. I don't like the financial uncertainty of unemployment, but that's about its only drawback, as far as I'm concerned.
3) If condemned to live on a jungle island, with patrol boats preventing you from escaping and anyone from rescuing you, what three items would you bring with you?
Grumble. I'm sure I'd be miserable living on a deserted island without regular access to new books, music, movies, TV, etc. I'd really want a computer, but I don't know if I could power it or maintain it with only two other items. I guess I'd want a telescope, writing supplies, and...well, one book, I guess. If I had to pick just one, I'd probably go for the old faithful, Watership Down.
4) What keeps you going every day?
The knowledge that I will, at some point during the day, be left alone to myself. On work days, the drive to and from work, and a fair chunk of the workday itself, is made bearable by the tape deck and the many tapes of my favourite songs that I can sing along with. But mostly, it's the introvert's need for solitude.
5) Who put the bop in the bop-sh-bop-du-wop?
Some nameless doo-wop singer in the 1950's, I imagine. For more information, click here.
