20 Questions Tuesday: 344 - Break Downs

Yesterday my car decided to stop itself as I exited the interstate to get to work.  I was driving, heard a ‘clunk’ and then the dashboard lights went crazy and then the car decided to turn itself off as I turned onto the surface street.  I was lucky enough to get to the side of the road and get my hazards on.  20 minutes later and I am getting a lift from the tow-truck to work (I was less than a quarter mile from work when the car died, and I knew that today’s topic needed to be “breakdowns.”

Thanks this week to Ralph, pfmDesigner, Some Other Guy, the Wife, Nadolny, and Lsig. On to the questions.

1. If "break downs" suck, why do "breakups" suck, too? Isn't that moving in the opposite direction?
I think it has to be the fact that something breaks in a break down and a break up. Breakdowns typically involve a degradation of some kind, whereas breakups often become volatile.  

2. How does a breakdown lead to a break up?
Well in a relationship both sides have to be working, when one side breaks down, the other side can only continue on for so long.  Eventually without changes to the broken down side, the non broken down side of the relationship will break up.  

3. What is your favorite example of a character breaking down on a television show?
Hmmm… I would love to see an episode where MacGyver realizes that he has killed all of his friends, but I cannot think of a breakdown of someone on screen at the moment.

4. Have you ever stopped on the road to help a stranger whose car has broken down?
I did once.  The person needed help changing a tire.

5. I've called AAA to change my tire. It's not that I couldn't do it myself, but I've paid for the service so I want to get my money's worth. Would you call AAA to change your tire, or are you saying you're more of a man than I am?
I would not call AAA (American Automotive Association for my non-US-centric friends) to change my tire, not because I am amazingly more manly than you (which I am) but because my time is more scarce than yours.  I would not be willing to wait 20 to 30 minutes for the AAA to show up. I understand wanting to get your money out of it, but my time is worth more than the sunk expense.

6. This year's election issues: break them down for me.
Republicans: trying to force things as far to the right as they can because it has worked for them in congressional races.
Democrats: Bernie is considered a long-term Washington outsider and brings the strengths and weaknesses of an outsider to the table
Hillary is considered a long-term Washington insider and brings the strengths and weaknesses of an insider to the table.
Republican v Democrat: republicans are holding on with a death grip to an out-dated model and the past is really clear. The democrats are having a bit of trouble moving forward because they are looking to change the model and the future is unclear.

7. Back when you were dating, did you ever use the "car broke down" excuse?
Nope, I only dated in high school and college.  I had other excuses that I could use then.

8. Break down the Panthers loss in Superbowl L (I refuse to break with tradition and not use Roman Numerals)?
Well, I did not watch the Superb Owl, but from what I can glean, the Panthers blew out the competition in the previous rounds of the playoffs and the law of averages hit them squarely in the previous over-performing.  That and they got knocked on the heels early by the Denver D which threw off their rhythm. And let’s not be afraid of Arabic numerals and seek comfort in Western Roman numbering systems.  50.  see?  it was easy

9. Break it down for me fellas?
Your best friend Harry had a brother Larry
In five days from now he’s gonna marry

10. So… what happened with the car?
It is an old car that we are going to be replacing soon and a sensor that is on the steering column that does something or other stopped sending data to the car’s computer and the car decided that it should not be moving.  A combination of the sensor overheating and being jostled around caused a catastrophic failure.  Catastrophic I say!

11. So, what’s all this about Matt Leblanc and his nervous breakdown after Friends?
How could he not.  He was the only one who went into a spin-off that he now had to carry instead of being part of an ensemble.  He had been made into sometimes little more than a mouth breathing ape-boy who could seduce any woman on the show and somehow he was somehow supposed to carry a show on THAT character?  I would break down too.  Plus, he was smoking like a chimney at the time.  Nicotine doesn’t help that stuff at all. But supposedly that never happened

12.  Why do they call it a “breakdown” when they go in and analyse something?
Because they are attempting to take something to its most basic parts, by breaking down the fundamental pieces of the thing and looking at how it was constructed. For example, the breakdown for an incomplete pass could be reveal poor footwork by the passer.

13. What is the enzyme that breaks down alcohol?
alcohol dehydrogenase, why do you ask?

14. Shakedown, Breakdown, Takedown, You’re Busted...
      What are you busted on?
I would default to cocaine, white lines, nose candy, blow, nose candy, powder, Charlie Sniff Sniff, the Can-I-talk-to-You-About-My-Screenplay-Drug

15. Why does the breakdown work in hardcore songs?
It changes the pace and gives the vocals a break.  It also is a time to highlight the parts of the song that maintain the tempo, such as drums, bass, and rhythm guitar. It is analogous to the bridge in R&B.

16. Did you see 1997’s Breakdown starring Kurt Russell?
No, which is surprising because at that time I was unencumbered by kids and could have gone to the movies with relative ease.

17. When was the last time you have ever broken down and unreservedly cried?
Hmmm… I think it was a couple of months ago.  The wife was out of town and I did not get a job that would have been absolutely amazing… after 4 interviews and around 6 hours of face to face time. I am tearing up right now just thinking about it (not really).  I had my hopes up and was emotionally counting chickens when all I had was a basket of eggs that had not been incubated.

18. Are you going to have a breakdown if you don’t get 20 questions?
Nope, I just won’t post for the week. simple… there are many weeks I do not post.

19. Where is the worst place to break down (in any sense)?
Hmmm… I am going to go with 7th Grade gym class

20. Will break dancing come back in 2016?
Break dancing never really left.  It evolved and now you will see pieces and parts of it in dubstep, krunk, and even some bone-breaking… why do I know this?

To recap:
It looks like it is time for us to get rid of the Jetta and bring in a mini-van
We both fought hard against it for a long time
We got a small SUV to stave off the minivan needs for a while
And I am surprised at how much I trouble I am having letting go of my 13 year old car
But it must go
And soon
Don’t want to start up a car payment again either
Car payments suck
I need to paint my office a better color
It is dreary in here.
I have a couple more interviews going right now
Let me know if any of you readers want to be interviewed

The wife has a new bidness facing website... you wonder what she does? wonder no more and soak in her awesomeness
That’s all I have today
Have a great week everyone

20 Questions Tuesday: 343 - Jennie Josephson

This week I get the pleasure of showing you 20 Questions with Jennie Josephson.  Jennie is the primary producer for the Daily Tech News Show hosted by Tom Merritt of previous 20 Questions fame.  Jennie often stays behind the scenes and gets DTNS to work in what looks to be an effortless manner, but occasionally she will jump in an offer these amazing nuggets of wisdom that are incredibly incisive and very useful.  Jennie also has a podcast called “Tell it Anyway” where she invites people to tell stories that are a bit uncomfortable for the people telling the stories.  Topics include “bad dates ,” “The Doctor is In,” and etc…

I honestly do not know much about Jennie, but that is what this 20 Questions is intending to change.

Onto the Questions!
I started out my professional career as a cartographer.  I have always enjoyed people’s stories of place.  I like to consider it each other’s geographic stories.  For example, I was born just outside of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.  Whilst I was a little toddler, the family moved to Montgomery, Alabama, and then moved up to the Birmingham, Alabama area (a little town called Center Point) where I spent most of my childhood. I then went off to school at Kent State University where I met my then fiance/now wife.  I followed her down to Columbus Ohio for grad school and marriage, and I have lived in the Columbus, Ohio area since then.

Question 1: What is your geographic story? 

I was born in New York City, and brought home to an apartment on the upper West Side of New York. Back then the building still had an elevator operator, a distinguished man named Junius. When I was 4, I moved to Brooklyn with my mom, went to high school in New Jersey, then college in Washington, D.C. I moved back up to NY for a while, living in Harlem and on the Lower East Side, and then moved out in 2002 to Los Angeles, where I’ve been ever since! (Also, a cartographer? Awesome! I'm obsessed with maps!)

It is always interesting to find people who have lived on both coasts, because they usually have strong opinions about the coasts and their differences, but this blog is not a hack comedy routine from the mid 2000’s and will not stray into Los Angeles be like____ while New York be all like ____.  Who am I kidding? Of course I am that hack.

Question 2: What do you perceive as the biggest difference between LA and New York?

As a 13-year LA resident, I come back to New York and I’m shocked that everyone walks so fast! I remember how intense I used to be as a New Yorker. Everything MATTERED. And some things actually did matter a great deal, especially after September 11. So when I moved to LA in 2002, in my mind I was 3 hours behind the place that mattered most to me. And that allowed me (eventually) to relax just a bit. To walk slower, to try and be kind to people, to notice how the wind felt like velvet on my arm when I drove down Sunset Blvd. And most importantly, I learned how to laugh at the things that pissed me off instead of letting them eat at me. (Credit for that last one goes to my husband Matt.)

I do so love asking these questions to people who have at some point in time written for narrative.  It is the only time I get to see nuggets like “ to notice how the wind felt like velvet on my arm when I drove.”  Just delightful to have those words dance past my eyes and into my brain box.

Question 3:  Cake or pie?  Which specific kind and why? 

Cake AND Pie. This is America! 

Cake: A simple moist vanilla cake with a hint of almond, and usually no icing whatsoever.  

Or, in the totally opposite direction, my mother’s Hungarian rum cake - a multi-layered sponge cake, dyed red & green with apricot filling between one set of layers, and a chocolate mousse between the others. The whole thing is drowned in a sugary rum sauce, and then you use a BRICK to weigh the cake down so the rum sauce is forced through all the layers. It lives in your fridge and you have to feed it more rum sauce every day for a week. Then you slather on hot pink butter icing and pray for forgiveness! 

Pie: One bite of every pie ever. Apple Pie from the Bridge Cafe in Frenchtown, NJ. Earl Grey pie from Pie Hole in downtown, LA.  Any pie featured in the movie Waitress. We ate a lot of Hamburger Pie during the 2008 economic meltdown. 

I ate a bunch of humble pie for the 2008 recession, I was caught in a workforce reduction in early 2009.  It took a year and a half to get back to steady full-time employment.  That job has been a great job to help me find out what what I want to do with my life now, but a terrible job as far as feeling fulfilled and actualized as a human being.

Question 4:  What did you want to be as a kid when you grew up? 

Depending on the day, a lawyer, an astronaut, the president of the United States or a superhero. After I read the book and saw the movie for  “All The President’s Men” I wanted to be a journalist. Always wanted to be, and still want to be a working writer.

From an early age, maybe around 5 or so, I wanted to be a comic book artist.  I really made a pretty concerted effort up until college. I have relatively recently started seriously drawing again and am aware that without taking a significant time off from any vocation, there is no way that I could be a successful comic book artist.  If I spent 40 hrs a week for 6 months I could probably get into fighting shape drawing-wise. I also wanted to play wide receiver for the Minnesota Vikings.  

Question 5: with all the democratization of media going on right now, where are you writing?

I am a huge fan of Medium. ( https://medium.com/@jenniej23 ) Their look is beautiful and it’s really easy to use. My favorite thing I wrote there was an article called “Red Wedding Got You Down?” which actually got featured on the front page of Medium. Now it’s all famous people and actual pro writers so that doesn’t happen as often. My other favorites are “The Unexpected Magic of Casa de Fruta” which is the kind of travel essay I don’t always have the time to write, and a piece called “A Culinary Three-Way” which is not what you think :) There’s also some techie stuff in there from when I go and cover CES.  The rest of my stuff is unpublished, mostly because getting something published is a full-time job, but here’s a poem I wrote once, and now you’ve published my first poem!

Through the glass

Standing in the shower in the grey of April
one of those bugs, the kind I always smash, 
appears on the misted glass.

I reach out to end it but the light is clear
and reveals shimmering wings, a benign stalk,
and a mouth like two petals.
I see this creature will do me no harm.

This new thing, its end stayed, sips mist off the pane;
its kisses leave puckered circles
in orderly lines
that could almost be letters.

And I remember
how this creature and its kin huddle under my lamps at night
when the garden is too cold.
And I how they hover above my bed,
polite, without the buzzing of flies,
or the dangling menace of spiders
whom I know not to kill, thanks to Charlotte.

So many mist-sippers gone
before I took the time to see they were not mosquitos.
Penance is due, for lost moments, in the shower,
in the lamp-light, in bed.

And how many other mist-sippers, in other forms
have I smashed,
without listening to their music. 

Okay, well.  That was a first.  No one has ever shared any poetry on my blog before and I feel less for it. Thank you.  A sincere and heartfelt thank you.  Seriously though… is there something you cannot do? Wait.  That’s not Question 6, don’t answer this.  It sounded very question like, but I intended it to be rhetorical.  Great, now I am flustered.

Medium is a bit of a conundrum to me.  I do not quite understand it.  I will definitely add you into my feed.  I have read some articles on there, but see no way to insert my inanity into its format.  I feel like if I started to write for/on Medium, I would need to come at the platform from a different direction of my other artistic endeavors.  I really have no idea what form that would take.  Maybe something more professionally related.  I don’t know.  Right now I am focusing on NaNoWriMo and a job search (editors note: NaNoWriMo was a success, I finished the story... now I need to edit the heck out of it and hit up some artist friends to help flesh it out). Medium will have to come later.

I know a bit of Tom Merritt’s story and the whole generation of DTNS.  I was lucky enough to be his first post-TWiT interview, but Question 6: How did you get involved with DTNS?

So, how I got involved with DTNS is a funny story about how chance encounters with awesome people can pay off years and years later. In 2010, I was freelancing for my former employer CBS News covering forest fires and mudslides with a producer named Mary. We got along great and she recommended me for a gig working with CBS Interactive down at International Comic-Con. I was supposed to work with a great host name Derrick and I started to talk to him about my love of Battlestar Galactica, and Joss Whedon and all these things I was excited to cover, when from across the room I hear, “HER. THAT’S MY PRODUCER.”  And that was Molly Wood. And we had an absolute blast running around Comic-Con together. Cut to October 2013. Molly reaches out and says "there’s a guy living down in LA now that I think you should meet, his name is Tom.” So Tom and I meet for I guess what you’d call a “general”. Cut to December of 2013 and I get let go from Yahoo, and Tom gets [insert whatever you call it that happened at TWiT] on the SAME DAY. And Molly calls again and says, “You two should REALLY talk.”  And so we did! There wasn’t any money yet for the show, but I thought, this seems interesting, and so I just started working for Tom. Cut to today!  So it just goes to show you that you never know how one random gig covering Comic-Con in 2010 is going to change your life. 

That is awesome. I love that kind of serendipity. The show seems to be running very well.  It is a great show. I do not listen daily, but I do binge the eps and listen to every episode. I love the show and its consistency.  Best tech news show in the podcastosphere.  I always love it when you chime in with information, your voice is always welcome.

Question 7: Is there a topic in the geek/nerd/tech that you can’t help but chime in on? Tom starts talking about X and I know we are about to get some Jennie-Insight.

Usually when it’s a media-centric show, I can’t resist. Having worked at a major network in the exact last moment when the network news was still hosted by  “The Big Three” right before the internet became a viable platform for storytelling, I’m constantly fascinated by the shifts in the media landscape. I also tend to chime in when we have an issue that would specifically benefit from the opinion of a) a woman b) a normal non-techy  or c) a super user of a particular product. But we definitely hold guests on this show to a certain standard of quality of original thought, and before I’m on a main show I always ask myself, can I meet that level on any particular topic? 

Well, I absolutely love when you chip in.  Since you primarily find your livelihood via the Internet...

Question 8: Do you work from home now?

I spent the first 9 months or so of 2014 working from home, sitting at the dining room table.  But that got a little old / uncomfortable, so eventually my friend and I got a great little office together (she’s a video editor). It’s in a great part of LA, and it’s actually turning into a bit of a podcast studio. We record Tell It Anyway here as well as the other podcast I produce called Hooray for Garbagetown, which is about trying to make it in the entertainment industry here in LA.  It’s actually starting to sound pretty great, although I grew up in a home with a public radio studio in the back, so I developed a particular ear for good audio quality, which is a little annoying/frustrating when you’re still learning how to achieve the level of audio that would satisfy that ear.

Because of course, like any rebellious kid, I ran away from radio into the “glamorous” world of television, so when I started to do podcasting, I had to learn a lot of stuff on my own that I could have learned very young. :) My dad, who is a long time public radio host and producer has been great in sending me gear and giving me advice now that I’m back in the audio universe. 

But back to the office. It’s made me feel much more like a professional, which is important for an independent. 

Also, we have a small office trampoline. 

That is awesome. There is a bit of difficulty when your living space becomes your workspace.  There is a nasty danger of the work/life balance becoming crazily out of whack.  That is an issue we are currently having in the house because of the work my wife does. If we were making all the moneys, I am positive that my wife would get an office of some kind.  At the moment it would not be fiscally responsible.  

Question 9: As an independent podcaster and producer, how do you dance the line of the work/life balance?  Do you find yourself bringing too much work home?

I do have a tendency to bring work home for sure. Mostly because the days get so busy with the show, with meetings, with errands etc, that the best time to do intensive “buckle down, don’t get interrupted” work, like research or writing or editing is in the evening. I also sometimes find that the “going” to places takes so much time away from the “doing” of work (especially in LA) that sometimes it’s just easier to roll out of bed get your coffee and start plugging away.  This of course is why some freelancers often go the whole day without getting out of their pajamas. 

Pajamas are comfortable, and business casual (my uniform, so to speak) is comfortable enough, but not as comfortable.

Question 10: Fill in the blanks:  I find that I am mostly ________.  Others find that I am mostly _______. 

 I find that I am mostly happy.  Others find that I am mostly pretty useful in a pinch. 

Mostly happy is great.  I wish more people were able to answer the first part of that pair of statements that way.  That being said…

It is interesting that others answered with a comment about your efficacy in problem solving, while you answered with a comment on your internal state of being, but enough of that.  Let’s move on to another topic…

You are typically very (and this phrasing is a little strong for what my actual intention is) outspoken when you talk about gender equity in movies.  You often have very well formed and well spoken opinions about, for example, the merchandising snubbing that Black Widow gets in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  Question 11: Why do you think the powers that be consistently marginalize female characters when it is clear (at least to my circles) that female characters are becoming more and more integral to the cultural landscape? As the father of a seven year old girl who is stoked that Captain Phasma is a woman, I am really interested in your answer.

Welllll now, that is a good question:  There’s a lot of excellent commentary about this on sites like the mary sue and the elemental but as a quick visual guide here are pictures of the CEOs of Mattel, and Hasbro.

Seriously though, to me the lack of female action figures represents the larger challenge of innovation within large companies and being agile in the face of a changing market. In the toy market, the conventional wisdom has long been that girls want dolls, Barbies, and stuffed animals, and boys want action figures and trucks and blah blah blah. So toy companies, mostly continue to “go with what has always worked”  and market the same type of toys to each gender. Which then means that the sales figures “reflect” the conventional wisdom.

Now thanks to extremely popular and strong characters that came out of the book world (Katniss Everdeen) and of course the long line of awesome Disney heroines (Anna! Elsa!) you do see strong indicators that conventional toy wisdom might be a bit outdated. So you can bet there are a lot of meetings going on behind closed doors at these companies about what to do, but as with any manufacturing company, you’re looking at a lag time between idea and hitting the shelves. (Although if there are not rows and rows of amazing Black Widow action figures by the time Captain America: Civil War comes out I am going to flip the fuck out.)

Believe me, by the time Star Wars: The Force Awakens completes its world domination, there’s going to be a lot more sales data on female action figures. #ReyRules

Now as for badass, fully realized female characters in popular entertainment, I’d say TV is kicking some serious ass in that department right now. And bonus: women are no longer just being represented as the perfectly put together “best at their job” hard ass, hot cop, blah blah, but in all shades of good/bad/crazy, and that’s just on Fargo. 

Anyway,  I could write all day on this topic, but I’ll just say that when I was four years old I got a Princess Leia action figure for Christmas and carried it with me everywhere, man chin and all. 

Addendum: #WheresRey

The tide is definitely turning. My 12 year old son asked why Captain America was on the motorcycle in the Quinjet instead of the Black Widow, and, as I said, my 7 year old daughter is all sorts of ready to see a female baddie kicking some ass in the Star Wars universe.

After getting the amazing Patrick Beja to answer 20 Questions, I stole one of the questions he asked himself.  That question was “Are you happy?”  You kind of answered that one in Q10… so thanks for that. 

Question 12: What is the most interesting aspect of being a producer on a podcast (DTNS)? and what is the most difficult aspect of being “on air” content creator on another (Tell It Anyway)?

I love working on DTNS because working for Tom Merritt is awesome. The only better thing about DTNS is working for our bosses, the people who back our show. Whenever I hear my friends in other media jobs worry about ratings and streams and how much their bosses want them to “generate engagement at scale” etc., I think about the people who fund our show with their hard earned dollars. The best part is how well we know our audience, not because we have sophisticated metrics, but because the people who support us do so in SO MANY WAYS. They write emails, chat with us,  show up at meetups, build things, draw things, and give us amazing suggestions that make it clear just how much they are invested in the show, and you know what? There’s no metric that I know that will ever measure that kind of awesome. It’s such a humbling thing to be a small part of. (Oh, no! I ended a sentence with a preposition! SMACK.)

The most difficult part of being “on air” is having a story to tell every time! Oh, and getting good quality audio from Skype convos. So many great friends in so many different cities and countries, but none of them have podcast microphones! Oh and making the time to edit. I have a way I want these episodes to feel in my head with the way the conversation flows, and the  music and the fine-tuned editing and I reach that goal once every five episodes or so. 

There has to be such a different set of skills for doing these two different tasks. I bet it is fun to exercise those different muscles.

We are now at Question 13: oh, Triskaidekaphobia… do you have any superstitions or rituals?

Nope! 

Interesting. I would have thought you might have some pre-show rituals.  From what I understand, Patrick Beja was born ready.  Good on you for not falling into those traps. 

I have found that I am missing ritual in my life right now.  I left the religion thing a while ago due to the insidious invisible racism I experienced with my home church growing up.  I think I need to figure out some intentionality and ritual to my life to add in time for reflection.  

Question 14: Do you do anything currently to encourage self-reflection and mindfulness?

When I get  caught up in a moment, I try to think about how other people feel in the same situation. What brings those people to their moment of anger and frustration or what their point of view might be on the issue we’re talking about. And then I try to remember that at the end of the day I’m really lucky to be where I am, doing what I’m doing. And that unless someone’s life or immediate welfare is in danger, nothing is worth flipping out over. I will say, that took some time to learn. 

Those lessons are difficult to learn.  I am still in the process of learning many of them.  The one I am working on right now is not thinking that I can do something, feel something, become something as soon as X happens.  I am trying to remove these self-imposed barriers and allow myself to grow and change without arbitrary requirements. I wish I could say it was easy, but it is very easy to focus on a ‘grass is greener” mentality where life will be better after X.

Question 15: Is there a particular mind trap that you find yourself falling into more than others?

Ha ha this feels like the question they ask you on a job interview, like, what is your biggest weakness? 

Maybe frustration? I value fairness and I try to being kind before being a jerk, not the other way around. But that doesn't always happen, and it's not even something that I can achieve 100% of the time (just ask my husband). So nowadays I just try to smile through it and laugh it off later. 

Smiling through and laughing it off later can be a great methodology.  I try to do that as much as I can… It works well some days, and on others… Not so much. C’est la vie.  

Question 16: Do you think that Internet culture has caused a bit more of the reacting virulently before pausing to think? Or has this reactionary outrage always been there, but the instant connection of the Internet has made it more noticeable?

A little bit of both, but I think another aspect of internet culture--the ability to use a username that isn’t directly connected to a person’s legal name---has also had a huge impact on the online experience.  Anonymous (ish) usernames allow a greater degree of expression, both negative and positive. On the positive side, sometimes a username can come to feel more like a person’s true self than their legal name, especially if they’ve had tough experiences in the real world. I don’t need to tell anyone the downside, it’s all out there for anyone to see. 

As always, I think the answer lies in ground up community decision-making in concert with the platforms on which those communities thrive. We have to figure out how to live in the digital world the same way we’re constantly figuring out how to live in real life, and that takes time, effort and most importantly, empathy. 

Personally, I think this tendency has always been within the human condition, but the potential for someone to generate outrage was limited to a smaller population of people who were more or less the same.  By the time news of something that might cause outrage typically reached people, the issue was already resolved.  I think the amount if connection coupled with the speed of interaction has allowed this outrage reflex to come to the forefront, but this isn’t about me, it’s about you.

Question 17: Is there a question I have not asked you that you feel I should have asked?

I like my eggs scrambled (soft) with a little bit of cheese melted throughout layered on top of sliced ripe avocado on sourdough toast. Lots of butter throughout the whole process. 

Butter is always required. I like eggs over medium with thick bacon and sourdough toast.  We could get along well, I think.

Now it is time for me to turn the tables for a second.  Question 18: Do you have any questions for me?

What have you learned asking all these questions of various people on the internet? 

That is an interesting question, and a logical question to ask.  I have learned that asking people relatively sensitive questions requires sharing from me.  Often, for these 20 Questions, I feel like I am exposing parts of me a bit more than I expose of the people I am asking my questions.  I have also found that there needs to be an ebb and flow to the depth of the questions lest the 20 Questions become less readable.  I have had some really compelling conversations within these 20 Questions that were absolutely terrible to read and needed levity.  I hope that I have hit that balance more often than not.

Question 19:  What are you taking from these 20 Questions that you did not bring with you?

That I’m genuinely fond of eggs. And questions. 

Eggs and questions are worthy of fondness.

Here we are at the end of the 20.  I have really enjoyed doing this 20 Questions with you. I feel honored that you shared your poem with me, and am happy that we chatted about misogyny in toy sales.  I hope you have enjoyed this as much as I did.

Question 20: What's next? Be as vague or concrete, as close term or long-term, as philosophical or grounded as you want.

I had so much fun doing this! I will recommend it to others. As for me, 

Some things may change, or not. Others will remain the same, or not. I will still love empanadas, bbq pork bao, kolaches and all other meat wrapped in bread.  Jennie out! 

This was an absolute blast. Please any and all of you listen to, watch, and support Jennie with the podcasts that she involved with, Daily Tech News Show (as the producer) and Tell it Anyway (as the host).  If you like those podcasts, please go their respective patreons and donate to make them better, (DTNS and Tell it Anyway).  Follow Jennie on Medium and Twitter.  She is awesome and should be a part of your daily social media consumption.  Do it people.

To recap:
2 interviews in 2 weeks?
Yeah, you read that right
I am on the fires
So, Iowa happened
That means the political race in Ohio is warming up
Ugh…
Election year in a swing state is a terrible thing
It is a good thing that the fam has cut the cord
Netflix and Amazon Prime do not have commericals
I have upgraded to YouTube Red and am contemplating upping to the non-commercials version of Hulu
No more ads
That would be glorious
I really need to change this job sitch
Have a great week everyone!

20 Questions Tuesday: 342 - Bill Doran

This week I get to ask the delightful Bill Doran 20 Questions.  "Who is Bill Doran?" you ask.  Well, dear reader, stop interrupting my blog with your questions. If you would have been patient, you would have been found the answer to your question. I ask the questions around here.  This is my house, my rules.  Anyway, before you rudely interrupted me, Bill Doran is a guy who creates amazing cosplay armor and weapons, and creates props for some movie makers (For example Bill created the ankle bracelets in the short "Proximity" for the movie maker I interviewed in 20 Questions Tuesday: 285 - Ryan Connolly) He is the owner/operator of his company Punished Props and has created costume pieces, replica props, and original props for multiple genres. Seriously, Bill's work is incredible.  He has a YouTube channel where he goes over tips and tricks for creating your own props and has published some books on the subject as well. He really is a badass, and I feel very lucky that he is taking time to answer my questions. Before we go any further, I apologize for not getting this posted yesterday.  The wife is out of town and I had an IXDA event to go to last night that kept me from formatting and posting this.  One day late is not too bad.  20 Questions Tuesday… on a Wednesday.

Onto the Questions:

So, I have a background in cartography, the idea of people and place feels like an interesting story to me.  One of the most interesting stories to me, is an individual's geographic story.  For example, I was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.  My family then moved to Montgomery, Alabama for a short jaunt.  Then on my third birthday, the family moved to my childhood home just to the northeast of Birmingham, Al in a little place called Center Point.  I went off to college in Kent, Ohio where I met my wife and settled down with her in Columbus, Ohio.  We are still in the Columbus, Ohio area in the edge city Worthington, Ohio. Question 1: What is your geographic story?

Hello there Scott! I was born in central New York state in a wee little town called Oswego on the banks of Lake Ontario. I was there until my college days where I went to both Alfred and Oneonta, both in New York State. Then a couple of years after college, my friends and I caught a bit of wanderlust and moved all the way across this great country of ours to Seattle, Washington. We've lived here in the Pacific Northwest for the past decade or so and we couldn't be happier!

A cross country move on a whim? Awesome.  I dig it.  Question 2: what would you say the biggest difference between Upstate New York and Washington State?

There is a really large gap in the attitudes of each coast. One isn't necessarily better than the other, but they're different. NY is more fast paced, "get with the program or get out of the way" where the west coast tends to be more mellow and passive aggressive. Also snow. Central NY gets WAY more snow!

That is the consensus I have been hearing... At least with the pacing, not necessarily the snow thing.

Question 3: Cake or pie? Which specific kind and why?

Pumpkin pie. Unless it's a pumpkin cheesecake. Then I'll have that. Mostly anything pumpkin.

Then you are in your happy season, as everything pumpkin's up for the holidays (Editor’s note: this interview started in the Holiday Season of 2015). Since I have had to go on a gluten free diet, pies seem to work better for me.  They are better because pie crust does not have to be spongy and light and fluffy.  Pie crusts can be flaky and it seems that GF stuff can handle flakey.

So, you love you some pumpkin... Question 4: What is a food that you feel you need to avoid at all costs?

Believe it or not, I really do not enjoy salmon. Everyone else I know seems to think it's the bee's knees, but I just can't do it.

I can definitely believe that.  I am not a lover of all things salmon.  I have eaten some really good salmon, but in general I tend to stay away from salmon.  Shrimp and crab can get in my belly though.

You are clearly very talented at making props and replica props for all sorts of purposes.  Question 5: Was there a specific "ah-ha" moment where you learned that not only was this a past time that you enjoyed, but it was something that you were really good at?

A few years ago I was commissioned to make Mehrunes' Razor, a dagger from Skyrim. When I posted the final photos to my Facebook page, the internet exploded with joy and my email inbox flooded with requests from Elder Scrolls fans who wanted their own legendary dagger. After that I started thinking "I might actually be pretty good at this!"

It is interesting that with creative fields, there is usually an instance, a specific time or event, that a person can think back to and know THAT was the moment. I promise to not make this all about prop building, because I am sure you get build questions all the time, but I feel that one or two more are warranted.

Question 6: Do you enjoy building props for any particular genres more than any other and why?

I really enjoy the challenge of making props and weapons from video games. They don't tend to be designed from "found objects" the way movie props are and I prefer to scratch build my projects. As far as the genres are concerned, I tend to bounce between sci fi and fantasy.

I would also imagine that video game elements might be more difficult to find clean imagery or schematics to base your builds off of. Which leads me to Question 7: What is the most limiting factor to you creating your props? For example, the pre-production research work hampers you from creating a realistic prop because there just is not enough reference to create a quality prop, or the technical detail work of the build is beyond your capability just because of how intricate the work needs to be?

The factor that hampers my output the most is time. There just never seems to be enough of it! Every project I work on eventually just needs to get done, so I end up making compromises. That's not necessarily a bad thing though. If I didn't have deadlines I'm sure I wouldn't finish anything because they're never "good enough". All I can do is continue to put out good work and improve my skill and speed.

Oh, the problem with artists.  There is always an edit that can be made and sometimes deadlines are the only thing that can allow an artist to walk away from a piece.

Question 8: Is there any particular piece of yours that you are especially proud of?  A piece that you find yourself looking at occasionally or thinking of fondly?  

Most of the pieces I finish are sent out the door with great pleasure and I try not to look back on them. In fact, I don't even have a copy of many of the props I've finished, even though I have molds to make more copies. However, the District 9 rifle is a particularly fond piece for me. I am super proud with how it turned out and I'm slowly, but surely, finishing my own copy to proudly display in my home.

I really enjoyed the video highlighting the build of the District 9 gun.  That turned out great.  I watched the video a few times with my kid, he was impressed as well.  You are impressive to a jaded YouTube junky, so you at least have that going for you.

Question 9: Do you go from singular project to singular project or do you have multiple projects going an that you work on in stages? How many builds do you tend to have going on simultaneously?

I usually have a handful of projects going on at the same time. I like to have several burners going so that when I need to wait on one part, like drying paint, I can stay productive on another project. For example: I'm currently finishing a space gun kit for a client, writing a new book, constantly filming new content for my YouTube channel, and designing two other client commissions. Never a dull moment!

After watching most of your edited videos, I figured that was the case. There just seems like there is too much waiting to cure/dry/print/etc... time in a single build to not have multiple projects going at the same time.

Question 10: Fill in the blanks:  I find that I am mostly ______.  Others feel that I am mostly ______. 

Blank 1: Optimistic
Blank 2: Idealistic

=)

Those are closely related but not identical.

Question 11: How would you define the difference between "optimistic" and "idealistic?"

I consider myself a "rational optimist", based on a book I read of the same name. Being truly idealistic tends to be less rational. It's all a delicate balancing act. Nowadays my motto is "Hope for the best, but plan for the worst."

That is a delicate balancing act. That is really a good motto to live by.

Question 12: Are there any other personal mottoes, credos, or mantras that you reference in your life regularly?

"Every pizza is a personal pizza if you try hard and believe in yourself."

I might need to adopt that one.  That is great.  The one I have incorporated is from my Mother-in-Law.  It is "Don't let the fuckers get you down." Words to live by.

So we are now at the triskaidekaphobics nightmare.  Question 13: do you have any superstitions or rituals? For example, when I was a kid and played soccer I had a very specific sequence of steps to get dressed and ready to play in a soccer game.  At the time it was superstition because I thought that if I deviated my luck would run out.  Turns out it was really a ritual to help me get into the correct frame of mind... Less superstition and more ritualistic. You?

Gonna let you down here and admit that I don't follow any sort of superstitions or rituals. Although in the past week I've cut my knuckles on the build plate of my 3D printer every single time I've tried to pry a printed piece off the surface. Does that count?

You have not let me down in the least.  I would say cutting your knuckles every day on the build plate could be considered a ritual if there is some other underlying purpose of the knuckle cutting... if the knuckle cutting somehow got you in the correct head-space for accomplishing your task at hand... I will allow it.

This is the question that I stole from Patrick Beja.  I love the depth and profundity of ot while it is so simple.  Question 14: Are you happy?

Absolutely. =)

This is a delightfully succinct answer.  Honestly, it shows in your videos.  You seem genuinely happy in your video posts, and that is one of the reasons I love watching your vids.

I do not make props or do any cosplay, but I watch every one of your edited vids. I watch them because I enjoy watching process and seeing people who are really good at what they do, do their thing.  I find that watching process is oddly calming for me.  On YouTube, I will watch potters throw pots, glass blowers create their pieces, speed paintings, etc...  on Question 15: So, is there any non-entertainment specific content out there that you enjoy consuming, but do not participate in?

I'm pretty laser focused on two things right now: Making things and building a better business in Punished Props. Just about everything I consume these days is either how-to content designed to increase my technical knowledge or books on business. And Star Wars. =)

There is always time to focus on Star Wars. Question 16: How many projects are you working on right now that are primarily for you vs the number of projects that you are working on that are commissions? and do people usually just ask you for a particular piece, or do they want you to create an entire ensemble for a complete costume set? 

We're actually shifting away from doing commissions for other people. It used to be that I would only ever do work for my clients, with little time for my own endeavors, but that's changing. We only have a couple of client pieces on the docket for 2016. Back when we did take more commissions the focus was primarily on single prop pieces like weapons. I tried doing full costumes for a while, but the complications with sizing and design over the internet was so much of a hassle, I didn't want to do it anymore.

Interesting.  I would have thought, through my own naivete, that the bulk of your Punished Props income would be for doing the hard to create pieces for cosplayers. 

Question 17: Is there a question you were expecting me to ask that I didn't?

HA! I don't think so. You've been exceptionally thorough. Maybe my favorite color? It's blue.

Okay, it's the time of the 20 Questions where I turn the tables... I am always nervous about this.  Question 18: do you have any questions for me? 

What was the last thing you built with your hands?

ooh, that is a great question.  I helped my kids (especially my daughter) build some of their Lego sets at Christmastime, but I am not sure if constructables are what you are talking about.  I would have to go to a "racer" that I built for a birthday party my oldest was going to. The party was to have the kids race found object "race cars" down a hill.  It was a pretty awesome party. Anyway, for this party, I used a base from an old shelf, added a kick-board steering axle, a rear axle, bolted down an old kid's booster seat to the shelf, and screwed in four lawn mower wheels (I had to buy the wheels).  It was a fun little build. Other than that I assembled my grill.

That was an awesome question.

Question 19:  What are you taking from these 20 Questions that you did not bring in with you?

I think this is a very interesting way to run an interview. I will sometimes do my own interviews with other professionals in my field and I've definitely gleaned some interesting questions from your batch.

Well, I have enjoyed the heck out of this.  You are an absolute delight and I am very happy to have gotten to know you better.

Question 20: What's next? Be as vague or concrete, as close term or long-term, as philosophical or grounded as you want.

Next is a whole lot of internet video. We're working on getting more, better prop & costume making tutorial content out on the internet. Things have been ramping up and I'm really excited to share all of the really rad projects we have in store for 2016!

Thanks so much, Bill.  This was great.  Everyone should follow Bill on the Twitters, check out his website at Punished Props, and make sure you give a look to his YouTube channel.  His tutorials are amazing and whether you like to build things or not they are enjoyable to watch.  It is always good to watch someone do something that they are good at.  Process is enjoyable to watch when the person is invested in their craft.  Watch and learn folks, watch and learn.

If you are at all interested, you should jump on his Patreon, or buy his books on foamsmithing.

To recap:
I am a day late and a dollar short
That’s the best I can do
Deal with it, peeps
I am on the SnapChat like the kids today
Check me out at mmmmmpig
I’m snappy
Today I said something about my pants... you know, like all the kids are doing these days
Shnazzy
The wife is in Minnesota today but will be back tomorrow night
Tonight I made the kiddos their favorite meal
A meal that both my wife and I cannot tolerate anymore
But the kiddos love it
This is, of course, the incomparable Orange Rice (they ate it all)
I had some frozen pizza
I baked it, but it started out frozen
Bill Doran is a gem of a man
I do not mean that he is truly outrageous though
Have a great week everyone 

20 Questions Tuesday: 341 - Paranormal

Next week I should have another Interview 20 Questions ready for publishing. That will be nice.  This week’s topic is ‘The Paranormal.”  I have always loved the paranormal subjects, and one of the first books I ever read was all about paranormal synopses or the big paranormal things like ufo’s, bigfeets, lake monsters, etc… so here it goes.

Thanks this week go to my wife and some other guy. On to the questions

1. What is your favorite genre of paranormal stuff? 
Cryptids… I love me some mythological and paranormal beasties

2. Is there a favorite crazy-ass conspiracy theory that you love hearing about?
I love all the Lizard Men, one government conspiracy shit.  That stuff is just too good

3. Do you believe in ghosts? why or why not? (I’m onto you, no just answering “yes’ or “no.”)
Kind of… I do not believe in supernatural undead entities that have some level of autonomous agency, I do however think there may be the possibility of some lingering psychic energy that is deposited by people in extreme emotional states that can be experienced at a later time by some people.  More of an impressionist painting of a ghost than the existence of ghosts per se.

4. Bigfoot or Yeti? Who wins?
No one wins, we all lose.  each and every one of us. losers.  Bigfoot and Yeti should not fight

5. Do you believe there are aliens?
In the entirety of the universe?  Yes, bothering humans whilst we are stuck on Earth?  Nope.

6. What is the most bizarre paranormal concept that you are willing to entertain with the rational part of your brain?
Djinn and/or Shadow People

7. Sometimes skeptics bend over backwards to make arguments against paranormal explanations.  Are those skeptics just being irrational or more rational than the “true believers?”
They sometimes are a bit irrational in their denials… the overzealous skeptics seem to be incapable of saying “I don’t know how X works.” Occam's Razor, people, Occam's Razor

8. The X-Files and Project Blue Book were tv shows that focused on aliens a whole bunch.  Do you think aliens have visited the planet?
If aliens have ever visited this planet it was long long ago.  Otherwise refer to answer 5.

9. An octopus is an alien, right? I mean really?
That could very well be the case.  Octopus DNA is significantly different from the norm… posssibly alienistic.

10. So, now that David Bowie is gone, is it more likely that he was actually the Goblin King or a space alien?
He is most definitely the Goblin King.

11. So, how much is complete crap on those “ghost hunters’ shows?
99% is complete crap… the 1% that isn’t is the credits at the end.  Those people really did work on the show.

12. Trump is a troll, right?  He has to be a magical troll that used to live under a bridge, right?  That is the only thing that can explain it.
In the 1400’s Trump would have lived under a bridge and made goats pay him tribute.

13. So, the phrase “X is a goddamn unicorn” means that something is so amazing and rare to the point of uniqueness.  Name one thing you personally think is a goddamn unicorn.
Carrie Fisher

14. El chupacabra is the goat-sucker of Latin/South America… What’s it look like?
It is a little nosferatu-lookin beastie… which makes sense since it is a goat sucker. 

15. What paranormal podcasts do you listen to and why?
I listen to 2 of them.  The one I have been listening to the longest is Mysterious Universe… this show is hosted by 3 Australians and talks about the supernatural/paranormal stories of the day. The hosts believe in many of the topics they speak about, but do not blindly believe in all the stories they cover.
The second one is the podcast Lore.  This podcast is purely amazing storytelling.  It is the only about a year old and the bi-weekly eps are less than 30 minutes… I suggest everyone binge the heck out of it. Aaron Manke is an amazing storyteller.

16. The Yeti used to interact with the blog years ago, why do you think the Yeti has not interacted with you lately?
The yeti is no good at this web 2.0 environment.  Once the Internet went social, the Yeti disappeared… makes me wonder if he was ever real anyway...

17.What are all the names for the large apelike bipedal creature of the forests of the world that you can think up without googling?
Okay, here we go… sasquatch, bigfoot, yeti, amok, orang pendak, skunk ape, wild man, abominable snowman, yowie, gigantopithecus (oh, I went there), 

18. Did you ever watch the movie, Paranormal Activity?
Nope, not big on the horror movie scene.

19. Are mental powers like telepathy, telekinesis, clairvoyance, etc… real things? I really want to be an X-Man
I think some level of mental abilities exist, not to the X-Man levels you want them to be, but they can be there.

20. Your daughter keep asking to watch Paranorman, but you keep saying “no.” Do you hate Tim Burton, Anna Ferris? Tempest Bledsoe?
I think Paranorman would scare the absolute begeesus out of her.  She is on the edge of really liking scary content and not have it bother her, but I think glowing ghost claymation characters might be a bit of an ask for her currently.  I like Burton, Ferris, and Bledsoe.  

To recap:
Next week? Most likely another interview
At least I can hope that is the case
Either of a podcast producer or of a guy who makes props
Both are awesome
The producer is on Question 15
The props guy is on Question 18
Pretty sure one of the 2 will be done by Tuesday of next week
Rey toys are supposedly going to hit the market soon
The daughter AND the son will be getting some of those
Little Man was in on the Plants Vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 open beta this weekend
I found out waaaay more about Colonel Cob than I ever wanted to
I am mmmmmpig on the snapchat
I have no idea how to use snapchat, but I feel I need to figure that out
Anyone want to get a slack group together for 20 Questions Tuesday?
I have been getting on the treadmill lately… I hate it, and vicariously through it, I hate all of you
Have a great week everyone

20 Questions Tuesday: 340 - Breki Tomasson

This week, I get the pleasure of asking Breki Tomasson 20 Questions.  Breki is a podcasting force based in Sweden. He has a podcasting network, CSICON. where his podcast, Geekdays, resides. That podcast focuses on geeky things in a not necessarily North American context.  He is also a frequent contributor to many of the podcasts that I listen to such as DTNS and Current Geek, and recently was a focus on Patrick Beja's podcast the Phileas Club where Patrick grilled him about life in Sweden.  He has a different perspective concerning tech and all things geeky than I do because, well, (aside from the fact that he is informed while I am uninformed rabble) I live in the US and he lives in Sweden. I do not know terribly much about Mr Tomasson, but this 20 Questions aims to change that fact.

I started out my professional life as a cartographer.  I love stories that involve place and space, specifically, I enjoy people's personal geographic stories.  For example, I was born just outside of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, moved to Montgomery, Alabama early in my life, and relatively quickly the family moved a hike north to just outside of Birmingham, Alabama.  I went off to school 12 hours drive away from the parents to Kent State University in the northeast of Ohio in Kent.  There I met my fiance (now wife).  We moved to Columbus, Ohio in the center of the state for marriage and grad school and have been in that area for the last 18 years or so.

Question 1:  What is your geographic story?

I was born in Reykjavík, the capital of Iceland, back in 1980. My father was an economist and my mother was a former flight attendant who now worked as a teacher. I don't remember living in Iceland, as shortly after my fourth birthday, the entire family moved to Stockholm, Sweden. My father had gotten a job there with the Nordic Council, a form of inter-parliamentary forum for cooperation between the Nordic countries; Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden.

Since we didn't speak any Swedish when we moved - Icelandic and Swedish are significantly different so as to not be understandable in more than just the broad strokes - my six year older sister was put in an International School. She already had some basic understanding of English, so my parents figured this would be an easier way for her to hit the ground running. I was still a year or two away from school, so when I started it was in a Swedish-speaking school.

By the time I started fourth grade, it was time for me to move to the school my sister had gone to. My Swedish was fluent, and I'd picked up enough English to manage. Having gone to an all-Swedish school to now going to the International School of Stockholm was a big change; my best friends over the next few years would turn out to be American, Dutch, Greek, Turkish, Indian, and British. It gave me a very solid understanding of the different cultures out there and how we're all, when it comes down to brass tacks, mostly the same.

When I started working, right after high school, I ended up working for Ericsson. About a year into my career, I was traveling abroad to perform installations, and moved on to perform technical training as well. Over the course of three years, I visited twenty-something countries throughout the Middle East and Africa, countries that I would never have seen had it not been for this kind of job. I was nearly jailed in Cameroon for not paying a bribe they expected. I saw a man washing himself in a puddle outside of my hotel in Guinea-Bissau. I went to a very strange Soviet history museum in Uzbekistan. I relied on my high school French to explain directions to a cab driver in Morocco. I fell asleep on a deck chair next to a swimming pool in Kuwait. I got lost taking a long afternoon walk through Tehran, Iran.

My traveling days are behind me now, as my responsibilities and duties keep me fairly bound to Stockholm at the moment. Still, I've been to more countries than most people could name, and I've had far more interesting adventures than I would have expected twenty years ago. I don't know if I'll stay in Stockholm, Sweden, all my life. I still have some ambitions that might lead me elsewhere, but for now I'm very happy where I am.

I love asking most the Europeans that I have asked 20 Questions this question because I am always surprised by their journeys.

You have traveled all over the world, Question 2: Where in the world do you think is the best place for you to vacation?

The best place for a person to vacation is a tricky question, as it depends so much on what kinds of things a person enjoys out of their vacations. Personally, I'm the kind of guy who fills up my days with so many activities that a vacation, for me, is the ability to relax and just put things aside. The ability to sleep, relax, read, and not worry about e-mail, my phone, my dog or anything like that. The ideal, in that case, is to bring my Kindle, loaded up with books, and lie down on a warm, sunny, beautiful, beach where I'm being served drinks and food. I'm fairly flexible about the place, as long as those basic amenities are being met. I'm a big fan of Rethymnon in Crete.

I have heard good things about Crete.  Who doesn't love the Minoans? So, you are a beach guy.  Good to know.

Now onto my typical Question 3:  Cake or Pie?  Which specific kind and why?

Oh, wow. Cake or pie? I'm probably going to have to go with cake on this one; although I do make a kick-ass pineapple pie that everybody who's tried it absolutely loves. But as for what my favorite cake is? That's easy. Carrot cake. It's close enough to food so as to not give you a guilty conscience, and it tastes good as well!

Going with carrot cake is a fine choice, especially with cream cheese frosting.  mmmm, cream cheese frosting.  

You are the driving force behind Geekdays, a podcast that focuses on all things geeky and pop-culture.

Question 4: What subject in pop/geek culture that you cannot help but consume like there is no tomorrow?

Geekdays is a bit of a passion project of mine; I've always wanted to do a great geek news show, but the format, focus and perspective has never quite been clear to me. Geekdays is the fourth iteration of this kind of show, and it finally feels like I've gotten the format down pat. I've got some great writers helping me pick stories and write the content. All I really need to do nowadays is just show up and read the script, really.

As for geek culture, I love television series. I'm not exaggerating when I say that I follow around 30 - or more - series on a regular basis right now. I'm following every single superhero-themed TV series out there, almost all of the science fiction-themed series, and a whole lot more on the side. I can't even stop watching NCIS or Bones, for some reason. When I'm at home, I'm usually watching a TV series while doing other things, whether that be working, eating or playing video games.

That is a large amount of TV shows.  Wow.  I have 6-ish shows that I consume.  I am thinking about 7, but not sure.  

Question 5:  What is the best TV show on the TV/Streaming services at the moment in your opinion?

That's a good question, as it so often depends on my mood. There hasn't been a truly great TV series since Lost went off the air, even though Fringe did scratch my itch for a few seasons and Happy Town was extremely promising. I'm a big fan of the superhero genre, and both Marvel's Daredevil and Jessica Jones have been among the best things I've seen on TV in a long time. I've got high hopes for Marvel's Luke Cage as well.

Apart from those, I think my biggest positive surprise this season has been the launch of the Limitless TV series. They seem to be going in a very interesting direction with that one, and it's a welcome change over the generally poor performance of other series that launched this fall.

For my money, Daredevil is the best show I have seen on the TV.  Jessica Jones did carry the torch, but DD really was the best one.  I am watching the WB superhero stuff, and those are fun.  I wish they would cool it on the secrecy for secrecy sake plot lines.  The amount of angst that could be taken care of with some simple conversations is alarming.  The angst is unnecessary, they are superheroes fighting super villains... there is enough conflict without the silly stuff... but I digress.  

Lost was hit or miss with people.  It hit more than missed, but the finale seems to have bifurcated its fans.  I have not seem Limitless, so I cannot make comment on it.

Question 6: What property do you think is set-up perfectly for being a TV series, but has not been made as of yet?

Absolutely, Daredevil was the better of the two - not by far, but by a significant enough margin. As for Lost; yeah, the final season absolutely split the fanbase in half, but the end of the plot was never what drove me to love the show. It was talking to other fans online, following the character arcs and the interactions. Whether a specific fan theory is true or not was less important to me. A show is either character driven or plot driven, and people's disappointment in Lost, I think, seems to come from people expecting it to be a plot-driven show when it was written as a character-driven show.

There are a lot of great properties out there that are begging for a good cinematic or television treatment, but I think my favorite would have to be the Wheel of Time book series. It'd be an extremely ambitious project, on a scale about five to ten times the complexity of Game of Thrones, but if it were done well, it could be one of the greatest things on television. Barring that, a ten to twelve episode Marvel series about Hawkeye, starring Jeremy Renner, following the mood and theme more recent comic book run.

Bro, a Matt Fraction Based Hawkguy show would be great, bro.  I would pay really good money for that.  That needs to be pitched to Renner, like yesterday.

The Wheel of Time is huge.  It would be a compelling series if done well, but the initial investment would be titanic. The series would have to be done absolutely perfectly to separate itself from Game of Thrones since GoT is done so seriously and well.  Otherwise it will be considered a GoT knock-off regardless of when Jordan started the series.  I think the next genre defining series needs to swing back to Sci-Fi, but I am unsure as to the property that would be good.  

On to a different tack of questioning, just because I do not know that much about Sweden. Question 7: What would you say is your favorite aspect of Swedish culture?

Bro, I know, bro! That'd be the best broing show around! And I see your point, absolutely. I was thinking a proper Dune reimagining, but they've tried that before. (Tried and failed? Tried and died.)

That's a good question! Some of the things I like most about Sweden are also some of the things I like least. Swedes are generally a very reserved lot; more prone to leave you to yourself if you're not disturbing them. We appreciate our privacy here, and are pretty much free to live our lives as we want without other people trying to impose their own morals, ethics and principles on you. Groups like the Westboro Baptist Church would just be laughed out of here, and anybody who is trying to explain why their lifestyle is right would just be shrugged at.

While this is often a good thing, it also means that it's very hard to get any real sense of unity here. There's no real Swedish identity, and nothing that unifies us as a people. While Americans might be able to talk about something being "Un-American", a Swede talking about something being "Un-Swedish" sounds downright silly. We can talk about people who love French culture as being francophiles, but there's no such thing as a swedophile.

That is a very interesting and nuanced answer, which is exactly the kind of answer I would expect from someone who is both interesting and nuanced.  People in the US have a preconceived notion of what Swedes look like (I know it is most likely incorrect), but have no real idea as to what we think it is to be "Swedish."  If pressed, I could probably come up with something, but I would rather not.

I know that you regularly collaborate with a people from North America and presumably other places. Question 8: Other than the time difference and scheduling mess, what is the most difficult aspect of working with an international collaborative group?

I think the most difficult aspect, barring the obvious one with time zones, is the availability of various forms of media. We have different release schedules for movies and television, and services like Netflix offer very different content depending on where in the world you are. Talking about a new television series can be very difficult as the European release dates tend to be a couple of days behind, so you're essentially forced to either rely on piracy or accept the fact that things will be a bit later than you'd want them to be. Similarly, we get movies on a different schedule in Europe. We get lots of Disney-properties a day or two early; so most Marvel movies and the upcoming Star Wars movie will hit theaters in Europe a day or two early, which means I have to hold my thoughts in until my North American counterparts have seen it as well and do a show about it.

The release schedule thing and the licensing from territory to territory is an aspect of long distance work relationships that I have not thought about.  My wife works with people from all over the globe, and for her, since she is not dealing with content that needs to be released, the scheduling across time zones is the most difficult.  Release schedules... who knew?

Question 9: What content from 2016 are you most looking forward to?

Wow, that's a tricky one. At the moment, it's a tossup between three things all competing for the biggest and most significant release of next year.

Firstly, it'll have to be Deadpool. He's such an interesting comic book character, and I'm both worried and excited to see how he translates to film. We've seen precious little in terma of clips from the movie, but the PR campaign has been amazing.

Secondly, I'm going to have to say the obvious one, Captain America: Civil War. The Marvel franchise is my favorite ongoing franchise and it doesn't seem they can do anything wrong. The trailers for this make it seem amazing.

Third, on a very personal note, we're launching a brand new design of the CSICON podcasting network on January first. I've put hundreds of coding hours into this thing and am really curious to hear how people like it.

I am super excited for Captain America: Civil War.  I am trepidatious about Deadpool.  That one will either be absolutely amazing or terrible, with very little middle ground.  I have my fingers crossed for amazing, just because of Ryan Reynolds' love of the character.  I will definitely check on the CSICON design as well.  I love me some UXD.  One of these days I will have a jobby job doing something in the UXD space.  

Question 10:  Fill in the blanks: I find that I am mostly ______. Others find that I am mostly ______.

Yeah, UXD is a lot of fun. I've put so much time into getting the design just right, but I'm guessing 75% of my work has been the codebase. The current average load time on CSICON is 2.5 seconds, but with the new design I've been able to pull that down to 0.5 seconds just through optimizing code, combining scripts, moving things to where they need to be and so on. Very impressed with my work if I may say so myself.

That's a good question! I've got two candidates that both fit.

I find that I am mostly drawn from passion to passion, others find that I am mostly busy.

or:

I find that I am mostly lost, confused and trying to make ends meet, others find that I am mostly in control of my own destiny.

Good IA and back end code leads to good UXD.  Very rarely do people/companies/organizations strip down to their base code and do that level of optimization.  Good on you for doing it and dropping from a 2.5 second load time to a .5 second load time is mightily impressive. Well done to you.

Your responses to Q10 are pretty interesting.  The first set lines up pretty well from your personal projection to others' projections.  Going from passion to passion often leads to one being busy.  However, your second set of answers are almost diametrically opposed. Question 11:  What leads others to think you are mostly "in control of my own destiny" when you mostly feel "lost, confused, and trying to make ends meet?" Why do you think that disparity exists, or is this particular disparity just you having Impostor's Syndrome?

Most of the load time in the current design was hogged by shoddy JavaScript that I've replaced with well formatted PHP on the backend instead. I've also removed some functionality that was bloated and pointless. As for the answer to the question ..

I think most people would say I'm the kind of guy in control of my own destiny since I've got a very well paid job, a lovely apartment in the dead center of the city, a successful podcast network, a healthy love- and sex-life, and so on. I'm fairly intelligent and never really seem to struggle with things, and generally have a very easy time accomplishing whatever it is I want to accomplish.

My own perception, however, differs. It's absolutely to a large extent Impostor's Syndrome; I know that there are people who do what I do so much better than I do them, and they're just waiting to realize that I'm just pretending to be as clever as they think I am. Bigger than that, though, is the feeling that even though things are good and everything is going my way, it takes a lot of focus, attention, care and hard work to keep it that way. I can't take a vacation from most of my work, passion or activities for a single day without them collapsing like a house of cards. It's at the point where I sleep far less than everybody I know and don't really have any time for leisure activities. I used to play video games and be able to veg out in front of the TV, but that just doesn't happen any more. I've already had stress-related issues twice in my life, and I'm taking steps to try to figure out how to fix it.

Imposter's Syndrome is a nasty beast.  It is said that people of above average intelligence tend to get caught up in instances of Imposter's Syndrome, but people who are dumb as bricks a amazingly confident in the skills that they do not have.  Ignorance is definitely bliss.Blissful blissful ignorance.  

Question 12: Do you ever find yourself jealous of the blissfully ignorant?

Yes, imposter's syndrome is a nasty beast at all.

To answer your question: No, I don't think I've ever been jealous of the blissfully ignorant. Every day of my life I try to better myself, improve and expand my knowledge of things and become better at what I do. Curiosity is such a natural part of who I am, that I can't help myself. I think blissful and ignorant is a contradiction in terms, even though more knowledge and more understanding often makes life more complicated.

Here we are at unlucky 13.  So... Question 13:  do you have any superstitions or rituals?

That's a good question! It's not the kind of thing I ever think about - superstitions - but I'm sure we've all got something like that going for ourselves, especially when it comes to rituals. We all prefer doing things in ways we're accustomed to and tend to be creatures of habit. I could go for simple and say things like how I always put my left leg into a pair of pants first, how I put my left shoe on before my right, but that's just habit - I don't think something special will happen if I break my habit and put my right shoe on first. I pat my back right pocket, my front right pocket and my left inner jacket pocket before I leave home, but that's just to check if I've got my wallet, keys and phone.

I tend to see rituals as something tied to superstition and religion. I'm not a religious kind of guy, but I do consider myself to be what I call a secular Buddhist. I follow the Eight-Fold Path, and so there are some habits - possibly rituals - that follow along with it. I meditate, I try to practice right thinking, right speech and so on - but it's still a far step away from being a ritual, it's more of a lifestyle.

So no; I don't think I have any superstitions or rituals in that kind of way.

I have personally lumped in any specific methodology to get myself in a particular frame of mind into the category of ritual. Therefore I would consider mediation to be ritualistic... If that meditation is achieved by following a set of prescribed steps. That is a ritual I need to get on top of this year. My brain box needs some help.

Question 14:  is there anything that you are looking to add into your life this year? Less a New Year's resolution and more a goal?

I suppose there are two things that I'd like to see as goals during 2016, and they relate to two very different parts of my life.

The first is the perennial favorite; getting back into the habit of going to the gym. I had a really good thing going back in the days, but just over a year ago I broke two ribs and had to stop working out. Once the worst bit of healing was over, I got into the habit of running instead, and ran a 10k (about 6.2 miles) in 55 minutes, which I thought was pretty good, all things considered. Then, with all the stress of my mother's illness and death, my move, and everything else that conspired against me, I never really got back to the gym. I've started going again now in the past two weeks, and want to make it a habit to go two or three times a week, four if time permits.

The second is more business-oriented. My podcasting network, CSICON, has grown by leaps and bounds over the past five years that we've been running it, but it's never quite managed to break through that invisible ceiling that allows me to cut back on my hours at work or even replace it entirely. I don't expect 2016 to offer me any major change in fortune when it comes to podcast earnings, but Iwould like to see 2016 be the year when the trend shifts. Somehow, our Patreon campaign has been dropping while our listener numbers have been increasing, which is very counter-intuitive. If 2016 can see that trend shift and move us more towards a place where we can start bringing more shows on board and paying for interesting opportunities, that would be absolutely wonderful.

The habit of going to the gym is one of the easiest habits to break.  I remember one time I had been going to the gym regularly for 9 months straight.  Lifting and cardio every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for 9 months straight.  I would be at the gym by 5:30 those mornings.  I felt great and was seeing results.  I forgot my gym bag one Wednesday and did not go back to a gym for 3 years. I completely understand the desire to exercise more.  Good energy to you on that.

I really dig the Geek Days podcast, but I haven't really delved any further into your other suite of podcasts on CSICON.  I need to see what other content you have.

I am stealing this Question from the esteemed Patrick Beja, Question 15: Are you happy?

Yeah, the gym is tricky. One of my philosophies there is that it's better to go there and do a little rather than aiming for an amazing workout every single time. As long as you just keep the habit going, you're better off than doing nothing at all. It's the old "it's better to succeed at something mediocre than fail at something spectacular" mentality.

Oh, and it's Geekdays. One word. Like Weekdays, but with a geek. ;)

As for the question? Yes; I'm absolutely happy. I'm healthy. I'm loved by my friends, my sister and my nephews. I've got a partner and multiple other girls who want to see me. I've got enough money to get around and put some aside. I've got an apartment in the heart of downtown Stockholm. I look good. I've been to 35-ish countries all around the world. I'm able to be creative on a daily basis and put my creations out to tens of thousands of people every month. I know it's easy to be blind to what you have in your constant quest for more, but stopping and thinking of your blessings every now and again really does a person good.

(Sorry about the "Geekdays" slip.  I could blame it on autocorrect, but I am sending this from a PC)

I love when people are happy.  I always enjoy asking this question because the answer has been typically positive.  Often, I have noticed, that before I ask the question I may be in a pensive or unhappy mood, but merely asking the question tends to make me take true stock and and realize how happy my life is overall.  I feel like I could kick that up a notch or two by getting a more fulfilling job.

Question 16: Is there a question that you were expecting me to ask that I haven't?

I think the way the question is framed kind of primes you to stop and consider how you're feeling and what you have to be happy about. If you never stop to consider if you're happy or not, I think it's easy to think you're not. You just get caught up in the moment.

I'm not sure what kinds of questions I was expecting, to be honest. You haven't asked why I got into podcasting or what my overall ambitions with it are, which I probably expected earlier on, but I'm generally very happy with the questions. You ask short and concise questions that still leave lots of room for me to talk and speculate around, leaving yourself out of the loop. That's a sign of a very good interviewer, a skill that I've still got lots to learn about. It wouldn't surprise me if you've left some of the harder or heavier questions for the end, and I'm very curious to see what comes next!

Thank you very much for the kind words.  It has taken a boatload of interviews to get where I am today, and some were rather bad by my standards today.  Honing in on a handful of questions has helped.  I have a prescribed 6 or 7 questions I always tend to ask.  IT gets tricky when I get to ask someone a second set of 20 Questions, but that happens rarely.  I am still kind of waiting for a "home and away" set where I ask someone 20 Questions and then there is a follow-up where they ask me 20, but the time commitment on that would be very high.

Question 17: do you have an ultimate goal for CSICON? What do you think of when you picture your optimum version of your network?

It's not a bad idea, being counter-interviewed, but I understand there's definitely a time issue. And a second set of questions would be an interesting thing to do, but you'd probably have to do question themes in a way. First 20 questions about work, then 20 questions about their private life, etc.

Answer 17: The ultimate goal is basically just continual growth - more listeners, more new podcasts, more hosts, and so on. I don't really have an exit strategy or anything like that, other than slowly getting other people on the network to do more and more of the jobs that I do on a daily basis - so I can focus on other projects as well. I see myself doing fewer podcasts over time, most probably, so that I can focus on the administrative aspect and the business of it all instead. The recent move to CSICON.fm is part of a bigger future strategy, as the dream is to launch a CSICON.tv for video podcasts at some date in the future. But first I want to make sure that CSICON.fm is in a good place so that I can put my energy on other projects; I've found that any new project that I undertake takes too much of my time and attention away from the podcasts, which is not a good thing.

That's a great goaless goal for CSICON.  There are a few of your podcasts that I feel I should give a try. You have quite the stable of podcasts.

Now it is time for me to turn the tables.  Question 18: Do you have any questions for me?

That's a good one! I think my question to you would have to be what your biggest lesson learned has been asking other people questions? Was there ever any one answer that struck you as unusually insightful or applicable to your own life?

Hmmm... Lessons learned... this method of asking questions is a very different kind of interview, because it does change over time.  Sometimes the person who started the interview is not the person who ended the interview because it does take a pretty substantial chunk of time to complete, even if it is going relatively fast. For example, one of my interviewees found out he was going to be a dad while doing the interview, and that colored his responses to the later questions.  One of my interviewees had to take a couple week break from the interview to deal with some family issues across the globe.  When he got back, he was clearly in a different space than when he started. I have learned that letting this format is best when it breathes a little.  The answer that has stuck with me the most is when I asked one particular person if they were happy, and they really answered the question in a very philosophical manner that caused me to re-evaluate how I looked at my answer to that question.

Oh, the penultimate question... Question 19:  What are you taking from these 20 Questions that you did not bring in with you?

That's another great question! I think one of the main things that I'll be taking with me from these questions will be something I thought about a few questions back. You asked me if I was happy, and the question caught me a little by surprise, mainly because it wasn't something that I took enough time to stop and consider. Maybe I should do that more often, just make a space in my life to count my blessings and appreciate what it is that I have to be happy about.

That question is deceptively profound.  It is such a simple question.  Three words and it causes many to re-evaluate their conditions. I love it.  I will forever be in Patrick Beja's debt for that question.

The final question is upon us.  I cannot express how much I have enjoyed getting to know you and read all of your answers.  Thanks so much for committing to the surprising time requirements to answer 20 Questions.

Question 20: What's next?  Be as literal or figurative, as short or long term, as concrete or vague as you want to be.

You're so welcome, I've really enjoyed these questions and would love a round two or a followup at some point in the future. Hell, I'd love chatting with you even if it's not for an interview like this. :)

What's next? That's the eternal question, isn't it? We're never quite happy with where we are, there's always a next. A next episode of every one of the TV series I follow. A next episode of Geekdays to record. A next visit to the gym. A next podcast to launch or convince to join the CSICON network. A next skill to improve or acquire. A next movie to look forward to at the cinema.

I think, ultimately, what's next for me right now, is to continue my work on CSICON. We've come a long way in the five years since we launched, but the network is still too dependent on me being there. I want to make myself more or less redundant, so I'm building tools for people to use to upload their shows, setting up routines for people that will make my being there less important. CSICON is my pride and joy, and I want to have the time to develop it more, rather than being caught up in the nitty gritty daily operations of the site.

Thank you so much for the questions! They've been extremely interesting, and I love the way you've been able to jump from surface to depth while maintaining a consistent leitmotif throughout. Thank you so much for this!

I find it very exciting that you are so consistently focused on the CSICON network.  With your level of attention, I am sure it will continue to expand to meet your expectations. The CSICON network has some really interesting content and I wish you continued success. 

This has been an absolute joy.  I am very happy that Tom Gehrke suggested you as a 20 Questioneer.  Thanks, Breki.

So, everyone check out all of Breki’s work.  It can mainly be found at http://csicon.fm/author/Breki

So go get it and eat some of that tasty tasty content up.

To recap:
So, the David Bowie thing is a bit sad
I did not know how much music he made that I never realized was him
Re-invented himself every time he came out of the gate
Well done
The Mother-in-Law broke her foot Sunday night tripping over her money in the dark
Not many people can say that
I have been sleeping terribly lately
I tried out melatonin, but it made me feel all drugged up the following day
We tried to put one of our ratties in a sweaterbecause she had some stitches that we did not want her removing

She did not like the sweater
And she chewed out the stitches
Snitches get stitches, ya’ll
But she didn’t snitch
All stitches are not the result of snitching
It doesn’t work that way
Have a great week everyone

20 Questions Tuesday: 339 - 2016

This week, I am going to get a little into a bit of extended family story prior to answering 20 questions about 2016. I feel like I need to get something off my chest that has been bugging me for a few days now.

Over the Christmas holiday times, my cousin, Brian passed away in his sleep.  He was only 40 and had a lot of health issues, but it was surprising to most of the family.  I didn’t have any idea about any of these health issues.

We were not close.  We had never been close, and my opinion of Brian was not that high.  My opinion of him was largely colored by the opinion my family had of his family, and that was not high.  I went into the viewing and service cynical and arrogant.

There clearly was a side of Brian that I was unaware of.  It may be that he was being remembered with rose-colored glasses, everyone forgetting his faults when eulogizing him, but it may also be that he was actually a nice person and not the boorish dick that I always pegged him as. All indications pointed to him actually being a nice person who was loyal and loving to his friends, and not the obnoxious oaf I seemed to think he was.

I left that service questioning my opinion of him because my opinion was based on little to no facts or interactions with him since we both had matured into adults.  Basically it all boils down to the fact that were are products of the environments that we grew up in, and it is incumbent upon us to move beyond the biases we hold as truths. We must seek our own facts and truths instead of relying on the tired old songs that have been sung to us.

That being said, he did have “Hooligan” tattooed across his fingers, so maybe he was a little of Column A and a little of Column B.

Also, when you go to a funeral cynical and arrogant, you are not the hero of that story.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

This is the first week of 2016, and I figured it would be a good one to introduce the topic of “2016.” Let’s ring the new year in correctly with some bad predictions.  Thanks this week go to pfmdesigner (who really needs to do one of the 20 Questions interviews), Chris Ring (20 Questions alum), Lsig (OG 20 Q’s Alum), my Wife (you can see her 20 Questions here), some other guy, and Chris Corrigan (another 20 Questions Alum). Onto the Questions:

1. Will Caitlyn Jenner adopt a child this year?
Nope, I try not to be sexist, or cis-centric, but I am fine being agist in this instance.  She’s too old.

2. What will be the nature of the controversy surrounding the Duggars this year?
Tax evasion or a suicide.  only time will tell.

3. What do hope will be the next innovation in personal electronics to come out in 2016?
Actual personal digital assistants.

4. What are the chances a loved celebrity will not be revealed to have a sordid past sexual scandal?
100%  at least one of our loved celebrities will not be revealed to have a sordid past sexual scandal. This begs the question though, did you think Jared was a loved celebrity?

5. What day do you predict Christmas will fall on this year?
Not looking at the calendar, going to say Thursday since it walks back a day every year… Darn!  Wednesday.  forgot it was a leap year. (editor's note: I am an idiot.  It's on a Sunday, everyone get ready for Christ's Mass this year)

6. Who wins the Super Bowl?
To add insult to Peyton Manning injury… the Broncos.

7. Who wins the GOP Primary?
I hate to type this out but Rubio… 

8. Who wins the Dem. Primary?
Well, this is a tougher one.  I think in a backroom deal, Hillary wins and nods to Sanders as VP to try and unify the Democratic base.

9. Who wins the election?
Hillary

10. Whose child is Rey?
(Star Wars: The Force Awakens SPOILERS! Skip to 11 if you do not want to see)  I hope no one of import, but they seem to be pointing towards Luke.  That being said, it seemed like there was almost immediate recognition from Kylo Ren when the deck officer mentioned the droid was “with a girl.” So there is some connection.

11. What movies are you looking forward to in 2016?
Captain America: Civil War, Ghostbusters, Star Wars: Rogue One, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Warcraft, Deadpool, and Doctor Strange

12. What vacations do you have planned for this year, if any?
We are going to North Carolina twice this year.  One time to the Outer Banks because we have been going there for a few years now, one time for the mountains to celebrate my parents’ 50th anniversary… we want to get another in there, but it depends on my vacation abilities.

13. How horrible will the election cycle get? What outcome do you predict?
It will be absolutely horrible.  Living in Ohio during an election cycle is a nightmare… an absolute nightmare. I outlined my results above.

14. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice… good or bad?
So bad… it tries very hard to do fan service, but in doing that the movie is not grounded in any particular tone.  It will wildly vacillate between grounded and “real gritty” and “silly camp.”  In doing so, it makes it a terrible movie.

15. Any resolutions for 2016?
Drink more water, floss more, and occasionally re-evaluate things I consider to be truths.

16. Will 2016 be better than 2015?
At least it is larger numerically by 1.  That’s gotta mean something, right? I think 2016 will be better than 2015.

17. Any new guests coming to your house in 2016?
There are some plans.. currently our garage is being demolished so we can make a M-I-L suite that is not completely attached to the house.  There is some other stuff in the works, but I am not willing to confirm it until it is really happening

18. This is the Chinese year of the Monkey, last year was the year of the Sheep… discuss?
I don’t understand the Chinese Zodiac at all.  Last year was super wooley and this year we will fling poo…  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

19. "We made it?"  Is this where we were going?  Huh.
I don’t know if this is what we were aiming for, but this is where we are.

20. What will be your biggest unexpected event?
If I tell you that it will ruin the surprise.

To recap:
Happy New Year, everyone
Godspeed Sav.
I have to give credit where credit is do
The “you are not the hero of this story” is derived from the incomparable Jackie Kashian
If you can see her live, do it
One of the funniest people I have ever met
She’s got funny in her bones
I need to be drawing more
And get a new job
I did not get that degree for nothing
Hey, potential employers, give me a looksee
I need to finish the last fight scene in my NaNoWriMo book and then start the editing process
That might take a bit
But it needs to be done
Then I need to commission some friends to do some pinups for it
I brought back Mag-Lite, Princess Fannish, Lightning Rod, The Impenetrable Shroud of Infallible Darkness, The Home Despot, Aye Chihuahua, and a host of other characters
Any of my drawerly friends out there want to take a crack at any of these characters?
I will send you descriptions, or my sketches, if they exist
Have a great week everyone

20 Questions Tuesday: 338 - 2015

This year is coming to an end.  Overall it was a good year, and we will get into the nitty gritty about that in the questions in just a second.  Since this is the last Tuesday of the year, the topic is clearly “2015.”

Thanks this week go to pfmDesigner (who should do a 20 Questions Tuesday himself), Lsig (who should do a 20 Questions Tuesday in the modern era), Chris Ring (who did a 20 Questions Tuesday a while ago), Chris Corrigan (who also did a 20 Questions Tuesday), and DrJHP (who should do a 20 Questions Tuesday as well).  Of you three, who is game at being email buddies for a bit?  Anyway, on to the questions…

1. Who, in your opinion, is the most surprising presidential candidate announced in 2015?
Ben Carson

2. Tech-wise, what has been the greatest consumer product released in 2015?
Amazon Echo

3. Has there been a must-have toy in the last year that as an adult you are unable to see the appeal of?
Does Minecraft count? even though it is from way earlier than 2015?  Okay… Actually, most the toys I know of from this year make sense.  They are all mainly product tie ins.

4. Where has the Yeti been in 2015? Do the Yeti and the Pine Marten ever get together?
The Yeti of old has not been on contact with me… I imagine the pine marten is tormenting the Yeti.

5. What was the best book you read in 2015? 
The Martian

6. What will you be glad to leave behind when the new year starts?
2015 was a pretty good year, all in all.  I cannot think of anything that needs to be left behind, that can be left behind.

7. What was the high point of this blog in the past year? 
I think it was the interviews this year. All four were really great for different reasons.

8. Which of your college friends who currently live in Virginia did you pine for most in 2015?
Pine for? Definitely Lisa Sigler… not that bumbling oaf Keith Sigler

9. Best Movie of 2015? Worst Movie of 2015?
Going to go with movies I actually watched, not of all possible movies of the year. Best movie experience I had was Star Wars: The Force Awakens… it was a fine story, but the experience was the best because of watching the kiddos enjoy the movie.  Worst? hmmm… Minions… there was an excuse of a story.  It was purely a marketing money grab.

10. Best Comic you read in 2015?
Deadpool & Cable: Split Second

11. Best memory from 2015?
Going on the best damn vacation ever… best vacation even though I broke my arm with days to go.

12. In 2015 I didn't  . . . . . . . ? I'm going to fix that in 2016. 
Get a new career in a new field… I will get employed in 2016

13. What five things from 2015 do you never want repeated?
Trump being popular, he is a misogynist jerk
#BlackLivesMatter having to exist
Trump being popular, he is a racist ass
Breaking my arm
Trump being popular, he is an ableist, classist narcissist 

14. Funniest thing each of your kids did.
Little Man: discovered sarcasm, real sarcasm
Q: so many things.  She is seriously a funny chick

15. What was the biggest surprise of 2015?
Really seeing how racist my country is… I am appalled by what is issuing forth from the frothing mouth breathers

16. 2015 should be remembered as the year of the _______
American “Post-Racial” awakening.

17. Any defining moments for you in 2015?
Getting my MS in User Experience Design… now I need to find a potential employer willing to take a risk on me switching careers

18. What will you miss about 2015?
I cannot think of anything specific.

19. When you were a kid did you even think 2015 was possible? I thought 2001 was it!
Every year the number referencing that year gets more ludicrous. 

20. On that thought, if you could take one thing from 2015 back to you, in say 1985, what would it be?
My confidence in myself, although that would have made me quite the more annoying 11 year old though.

To recap:
I am getting ready for 2016 to be here
2015 was not bad though
I am still writing a blog in the age of podcasts
Should I try and step it up to some kind of podcastable thing?
Asking for a friend
Not sure I want to take on a podcast, but it might be fun
Going to one of Little Man’s friend’s house for the New Year’s Eve festivities
I have started the exercising again
We will see how the body responds
So far? Ouchy
I need to eat healthier as well
These are NOT resolutions
These are factual statements
Not sure if anything will be done about these statements
Our Internet connection is crappy right now
It is eating into the girl’s YouTube time and the boy’s Star Wars Battlefront time
There has been much clothes rending and gnashing of teeth
We have switched out all of our Internet equipment
Cable modem, wifi router, coaxial cable, network cable, etc…
Still having issues with it
Very frustrating
Might need to switch providers, but going to try 2 more things first

Have a great week everyone

20 Questions Tuesday: 337 - Mexico

This week, the lovely wife is doing some work in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico… while I am, up here… in Ohio… gray gray Ohio.  Anyway, with how messed up the weather is at the moment, her first day there was colder than it was here.  Take that Mexico.  This trip south of the border got me wondering about our neighbor to the south (and if you don’t think I will be asking all my Canadian friends for Q’s about Canada you are crazily wrong... I'm looking at you, Mike, Chris, and Tim).  Why don’t I ask my intrepid questioneers to hit me up with questions about Mexicio… so here we go.

Thanks this week go to Dr B-Dawg, Bruce, Linda, Matt, and some other guy.  Let’s answer some question… (Royal We there, peeps.  You aren’t answering anything.)

1. Is there anything better than churros?
Churros did not really hit the midwest super-hard until after I had to cut out the glutens.  They were a wonder food that my Twitter feed from the LA area waxed eloquent about.  I have not consumed nary a churro.  Weep for me.

2. What is your favorite taco?
I had a handful of tacos on Sunday that were soft corn tortilla, tomatillo marinated carnitas, corn salsa, cilantro and a touch of sour cream.  De.Light.Ful

3. Should Mexico charge Texas with war crimes for what it has done to the perception of their national cuisine and for the years taken from people's lives with its ridiculous amount of oil, cheese, and removal of all vegetables?
Yes, but Texas is probably on the hook for other, more pressing, war crimes

4. Favorite ancient Mexican god?
Mixcoatl… sadly I did not have to wiki this up… Had a book idea way back in the 90’s that involved a manifestation of the hunting god, Mixcoatl

5. Art challenge - What would your wrestling mask look like? 
Forest green flames from the eyes and mouth over a royal blue field

6. Favorite tequila?
I have never had tequila… I do not feel this is a loss.

7. Aztec or Olmec?
Olmec… Yucatan cultures represent

8. Favorite Mexican food? {actual Mexican, not Americanized-Mexican}
I am not sure I have ever had any Mexican food that has not been incredibly Texas-ized.  Maybe carne asada?

9. Been there? - Where?
Nope, nowhere

10. Where would you like to visit?
I would love to see Mayan, Toltec, and Olmec ruins.  Absolutely love that.

11. Exchange rate US$ to Mexican peso?
As of right now $1 = 17.12 Peso

12.  What's the difference between Hispanic and Mexican?
I think it has to do with primary ancestry being from Spain vs from Mexico, but do not quote me on that

13. Do you speak Spanish?
Nein

14. Have you ever played Mexican train Dominos?
Nope

15. How do you feel about menudo and Menudo, the soup and the singing group?
No comments on the soup, and I did not understand why the group invaded my Saturday morning cartoons… Gerardo and Ricky Martin are Menudo alum, so they have that going for them.

16. Do you enjoy tripe, or any other internal organs? 
Nope.  I am not an organ meat guy regardless of how delectible people say it is…. 

17. Can I get a Crunch Wrap Supreme in Mexico, or is it just an American thing? 
That is just an American thing.  

18. If a genuine Mexican is seen at a Taco Bell, is that automatic grounds for deportation or do his friends just laugh at him?
Friends just laugh at him.  That being said, one of the software developers I work with right now in my job/career thing lives in China and he absolutely loves going to Panda Inn when he comes to the states.

19. Rico?
Suave… this question is for the 40 to 50 year olds, clearly... Kids, ask your parents

20. How much of US Territory used to be within borders claimed by Mexico?
I’m going to take this all the way back to lands claimed by Spain as well as lands that at one time were within Mexican borders.  I would say a good fourth of the US if you include the Treaty of Hidalgo, the Gadsden Purchase, Texas, and Florida

To recap
Hola! Mi Amigos
It is still Tuesday somewhere
This is for all my West Coasties out there, holla holla
Sorry for the late post, but Papa Bear has shit to do, son
Tomorrow I have to take the kids to school
I will do my best to make sure they are dressed for the weather
Tomorrow I also need to take my daughter for a Dr appointment
Looks like it will be Five Guys for lunch
I am also trying out a slow cooker lasagna for dinner tomorrow
The kids most likely will not like it
I figure if I continue feeding them things they don’t like, they will eventually start cooking for their damn selves
That’s it from here
Anyone know a good way to radically switch careers?
I am in need of a better strategy
Have a great week everyone

20 Questions Tuesday: 336 - Holiday Movies

Tis the season to be jolly… and see all the Holiday Movies I can find.  There only seems to be Christmas movies… no one has ever seen an Arbor Day movie or Flag Day.  Anyway, since there is a glut of holiday movies during the Christmastide season… today’s topic is “Holiday Movies.”

Thanks this week go to Chris Ring, St Pierre, Chris Corrigan, and Aunt Linda, Grapes, Lsig, Matt, and the Wife.  It is late, so no hyper linking tonight.  Do your own google searches, freeloaders! Onto the questions.

1. Holiday Movies - To the Theater? or on the couch with an old favorite?
Well.. when they are available in the theatre and I want to see that particular film, nothing beats the theater, but otherwise on the couch is the best.

2. Did you get your Star Wars tickets yet?
Yep.  Me and the boy on December 18th

3. Can I just request that we stop using Dickens "A Christmas Carol" as a plot device EVER again.
Unless it is specifically set in Dickensian London, then it is okay.

4. Holiday Favorite?
I just said no “Christmas Carol knockoffs” however, "Scrooged"

5. Holiday "Please NO"?
There are just some terrible Hallmark Entertainment Christmas Movies that are just painful.  So amazingly painful.

6. I’ve had a major crush on the young red headed Mrs. Clause from Santa Clause is Coming to Town since I was a kid. So much so I was moved to write a song about it. And then in Tim Allen’s Santa Clause 2 the blonde woman from Lost, I never crushed on her during the Series but she becomes Mrs. Clause and suddenly I’m attracted to her. What do you make of that?
That is interesting… Have you told your wife to dress up like Mrs Claus for you?  Play this one out.  Your house is a safe space, right?

7. I say the original Die Hard is a holiday movie, my wife disagrees. Your thoughts?
Die Hard is most definitely a Christmas Movie.  It was the first, I believe of a string of action movies set during the Holiday season.  The first and the best.

8. Screw that topic. Just how wide is the pitch a Mapfre Stadium and are the touch lines an accurate representation of its width?
I will entertain these questions, but under duress.  75 yard wide field.

9. Scale of 1-10, 10 being OBVIOUSLY!! and 1 being YER OUTTA YER MIND!!:  Did MLS actively contrive that result?
The only way that the match was contrived was if someone paid Clark to make the mistake at the beginning.  It is not completely out of the realm of possibility, but I think it was just championship nerves on Clark’s part for that major gaff.  It was not rigged.  The Crew got in a nasty hole and could not climb out of it.  It is easy to blame a sideline’s judge, but everyone is taught from the start of playing a game that you play to the whistle.  No whistle, ball is not out…  That being said, the ball was so amazingly out of bounds I have no idea what the judge was looking at.

10. When do the “Accuracy in beer cup throwing” lessons begin in the Nordecke this off season? Because seriously, with the supporters that close to Valeri and Wallace’s celebration, there’s no excuse for a Portland Timber not losing an eye.
The weight of the plastic Budweiser bottles is weird.  Unless you have the opportunity to throw a large number of bottles, it is hard to dial in that kind of trajectory.

11. Kei Kamara: what emotion do you think he’s feeling given that every team he’s played for that won the Cup, won it the year he left and the one chance he’s had to play in a final, he didn’t win it?  What is that Christmassy feeling he’s got?
The Christmassy Feeling he has is one of getting coal in his stocking.

12. And just to put it back on topic: what holiday movie is MORE insufferable than these Timbers hipsters are going to be for the next year?  Cascadia just became hell, and I’d like to peer at something worse, just to remember that it’s not so bad.
Insufferable holiday movie?  Hmmm…. Going to have to go back to Prancer… that thing blew.

13. Did you do a Holiday Movie Binge Watch?
Nope, I cannot think of enough holiday movies that I would watch to encapsulate a binge watching scenario

14. What holidays do you feel are underserved by the motion picture industry? If you care to limit it to American holidays, that is good with me.
I think that Mother’s day and Father’s day could each handle a well-made movie.  

15. What makes for a perfect holiday movie?
I think a balance of holiday story and non-holiday stuff taking place.  It cannot be just focused wholly on the Holiday, there needs to be some plot outside of the Holiday to focus on as well.

16. Have you seen the Star Wars Christmas Special?
I have seen bits and painful parts of it, but never the whole thing in one sitting…. oh that would be horrible.

17.  Home Alone... a cute holiday movie or an example of bad parenting? 
Home Alone has always been an amazing example of poor parenting. Impressively negligent parenting for a set of parents that seem to think they are good parents.

18. Jimmy Stewart's over-acting in It's a Wonderful Life makes me cringe. Was Shatner not available?
It’s a Wonderful Life was released in 1946 and William Shatner was born in 1931… I cannot see a 15 Year old Shatner playing that part. 

19. Will I be able to watch "Love Actually" in Mexico?
No Idea.  There is Netflix Mexico, but I am unsure if that is available south of the border... or in English.

20. How did they make a 30 minute CBS special out of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” and then how did they make it into a feature length movie?
Well… to the first, they added a song, and a bunch of repetition, for the second, they threw a bunch of money at the wall.

To recap:
They Crew had a great season
A better season than most people would have predicted
Or did predict
I would be one of those people
It is unfortunate that they did not win the cup
Christmas is a round the corner
Seriously, it is right around the freaking corner
How the heck did it get this late in the year already
Someone answer me, dammit!
The ratties like playing with a feather
They also like chewing through power cords
Not Power Chords though… that would be awesome
The wife is heading out of country next week
Pretty much for the whole week
The kids are going to be so done with me by the time she gets back
So done with me
Have a great week everyone

20 Questions Tuesday: 335 - Medicines, Vitamins, and Placebos (oh my)

Little Man is a little under the weather today.  Nothing significant, but he has some coughing going on and tons of congestion.  It is lovely to be around.  So much sniffling and snorting and coughing...ugh.  The good thing is that he has taken to staying in the sound dampened basement shangri-la.  He hates taking medicines, mainly because of the tastes associated with them.  It was delightful when he became old enough and capable enough to swallow non-flavored pills.  Anyway… this leads to this week’s topic, Medication, Vitamins, and Placebos.

This week, Dr B Dawg, pfmDesigner, Steev, Arp, some other guy, and the Wife  have sent in questions to answer.  Onto the questions:

1. Do you take vitamins?
I have, but I never really saw much difference in quality of life.  I am not against it.  Maybe I should add them in again.

2. Rank the Flinstones in order of tastiness and funniest
They all tastse like slightly sour chalk, so that is really not a differentiator, so from least funniest to funniest.
Bamm-Bamm
Pebbles
Betty
Wilma
Fred
Barney
Dino
The Great Gazoo

3. Should drug companies really be allowed to advertise prescriptions?
It does not make sense, does it? As the uninformed populace I should not be recommending medication to my doctor to recommend to me.

4. How pissed is the placebo group in drug trials?
They do not find out until much later.  Usually after they are dead… because they were in the control group and did not receive any actual treatment.

5. Jagged little pill - overrated, underrated or just right
As an album, it is fine.  Of the time, I think it was rated about just right. I don’t think it would have survived the musical landscape today though with the fragmentation of the music industry and not having a gigantic marketing push behind it.

6. Does wifey hide your pill in a piece of cheese, or just clamp your mouth shut and rub your throat?
I hate cheese and she has to catch me first.

7. What is the largest animal you’ve ever had to give medicine?
St Bernard on Rabies watch… it was awesome… frighteningly awesome.

8. Favorite form of medicine: pill, liquid or poultice?
Pill.

9. Bring back the medical tapeworm! Your thoughts?
I need to lose some lbs.

10. Did Huey Lewis ever find his new drug?
Not that I know of.  The only one he really found made him feel thick thick thick.

11. In the multitude of common side effects you are always hearing about, which one scares you the most?
Well… not so much for me, but on commercials when I hear the rapid speech say “may cause suicidal tendencies in teens” is alarming with a boy who is turning 13 next year.

12. The opposite of a placebo is a nocebo. That is when a person believes that an inert substance or procedure actually harms them or makes them sick. This is the basis for the phenomenon known as voodoo death, where death is brought on by a strong emotional shock such as fear. Franklin Roosevelt once said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself” but really it is caused by any number of perceived threats which lead to the “fight or flight” response. Some fears can be traced back to survival behavior but others may be irrational in nature. An example of the latter would be the fear of clowns or coulrophobia. A song called “Pierrot the Clown” was released in 2006 by the band Placebo. Have you ever heard their song “Meds”?
Nope.  Never heard it. hang on…. Yep.  I have heard the song and now watched the video.  Meh.

13. Pharmaceuticals, homeopathics, or home remedies (vitamin C & sleep)
Yes, please.  All of these things have a place in health program.  

14. Worst reaction to a med?
Red rash on chest

15. How much pain before your take something for it (vs. using ice/heat and stretching etc.)?
I take meds like candy if I am sore.

16. Kids' vitamins - good idea or make sure they get it in their food?
Good idea because the kids do not eat a balanced meal.

17. Grandma's home remedies: does a shot of bourbon/whiskey work?
Whiskey can help most kids’ ailments.

18. Spoonfull of sugar  and all that mary poppins stuff - truth / fairy tail?
Complete fairy tale.  A spoonfull of sugar just makes things sweet.

19. Has anyone ever looked into the medicinal properties of sugar pills? What if there is no such thing as a placebo effect and instead it is the fact that sugar is a un-investigated miracle medicine?
Mind= Blown.

20. What was your favorite vitamin as a kid? For example, my favorite was the pink Flintstone’s vitamins.
I loved and still love Vitamin C when it has a hint of a chemically orange flavor, or vitamin D... gimme the sun, baby!

To Recap:
Little Man is probably going to be fine by lunch time tomorrow
I am still looking for a job
Anyone need a UXD-er out there?
I like ZiCam to head off the effects of a cold
I think it may be completely a placebo effect
I am 400 words behind on NaNoWriMo
Hopefully tonight I will only be down by 100
That means I need to write 1867 words
Ugh
Last night the good guys had to battle a Salsa Golem
It is going to be a terrible book
Terrible
Tonight is “Chapter 10: The Falcon’s Lair”
Have a great week everyone

20 Questions Tuesday: 334 - Books

I am still in the thick of NaNoWriMo so I have books on the brain.  So this week I am answering questions about “Books.”  Let’s get to it!

Thanks this week go to LSig (Happy Birthday, Ladycakes), Chris Ring, Julie S, the Wife, and some other guy.

Onto the Questions:
1. Physical books or eBooks? 
They both have their places.  Nothing really takes the place of a physical book in your hands for enjoyment, but for industry texts and instructional books with a search function, ebooks win hands down.

2. If you were stranded on an island for a year, which books would you want to take with you? 
A book on primitive ship building, one on ancient navigation techniques, and the “Idiot’s Guide to Island Survival.” 

3. Which childhood favorite do you still enjoy? Which have you revisited and discovered did not hold up? 
I still enjoy “Lord of the Flies” and the finished works of Tolkien (The unfinished stuff his kid put out are crap).  I tried to re-read a few books by David Eddings and Raymond Feist recently, and those books are meant for 15 year olds, not 40 year olds.

4. Have  you read War and Peace? (I'm mostly asking this question to brag about having read War and Peace this summer.)
I have never read “War and Peace.” It holds no interest to me whatsoever.

5. Do you have a favorite book? A favorite author? 
Right now it is “The Name of the Wind” by Patrick Rothfuss.  His language work is just amazing.

6. Favorite place to Read?
In bed. It’s like this question is a goddamn fortune cookie

7. Do you have a library card?
Yep, although I do not like using it that much.  I cannot stand the sound that the clear cellophane dust jackets make.  It makes my skin crawl. 

8. Best book adaptation to film?
Hmmm… That is a very interesting question.  I Think I will go with “Jurassic Park”

9. Worst book adaptation to film?
I am sure it is a movie I have not seen of a book I have not read

10. What's you favorite book from a non-white author?
Hmmm… this is an interesting question because I know I have read some non-white authors, but none are coming to mind right now.  I'm not racist.  One of my best friends is a book written by a non-white author.

11.  What's your favorite book from a female author?
Ummm… Another interesting question.  Most of the female authors I have read recently were for book concerning elements of user experience design.  As far as a book by a female author that I have enjoyed in a fiction genre? I read this great female authored book that lives in Canada.  You don't know her.

12. What's your favorite book from a non-white female author?
Now you are just trolling me.

13. What is the worst book your kids make you read?
Tootle the annoying fucking train 

14. When does something written become a book? How many pages feels booklike to you?
Things start being booklike around 150 pages or so.  That's kind of a “The Great Gatsby” length, and most people consider that a novel.

15. What is the last book you read?
For edumacational purposes, “How to Make Sense of Any Mess” by Abby Covert and for funsies, “The Name if the Devil” by Andrew Mayne.

16.  What form factor did that book take?  Was it paper or ebook?
Both were ebooks

17.  Are you reading any books right now?
Yep.  “Star Wars Aftermath” by Chuck Wendig… It is a hardback booky book

18. What’s the worst literature book you had to read for school?
It is a close tie between “Ethan Frome” and “Wuthering Heights.” Those two books blow.

19. Who is the most avid reader in your family?
My amazing wife. She always has multiple books to read.

20. Do your kids like to read?
They are pretty interested in it.  They aren't crazy into reading, but they do enjoy it.

To recap:
Still on target with my NaNoWriMo this year…
10 days in and will be at 16667 words by the end of the night
Starting to find an appropriate voice and style
This has been a great exercise
I am looking forward to tightening it up and making something good from it
Unexpectedly the Columbus Crew is still in the playoffs for the MLS
Let’s go Crew
Little Man is really starting to enjoy his swimming
We want him to enjoy that

The great switch school experiment for Our Girl Q seems to be doing better
I finally have some interviews going again
Have a great week everyone

20 Questions Tuesday: 333 - NaNoWriMo

Halfway to the beast, Baby!

So, it is November and I am trying to take part in this year’s NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month, so to chjange some shit up.  Today’s questions are all about me and NaNoWriMo.

Onto the Questions:
1.  Do you think you will actually be able to get to 50,000 words by the end of the month?
I might be able to.  So far I feel pretty good about my chances, but I am only two days in. It is relatively easy to spit out 3200 words in 2 days… I think as I get into it, the difficulty of pushing words out will hit me.

2.  Why are you doing it this year?
I am revisiting a concept that I put together a number of years ago.  I got about a week in and Little Man had a nasty bout with asthma that had him hospitalized for a few days.  So I gave up on the process that year.  Then parenting and other responsibilities seemed to come into play and affect my availability to focus on doing a NaNoWriMo

3.  What’s the book going to be about?
I am revisiting the same concept that I had those years ago except that 9 years has passed.  I am following the struggles of a group of d-list heroes as they try to make a difference in society.  

4. Is there a main antagonist?
Yes, his name is MagLite and he fights crime with MagLites.  He is hoping to eventually get a sponsorship by the flashlight manufacturer, but they don’t want the liability.  

5.  So who are the cast of characters?
I am not sure about the bad guy just yet.  I am hovering around MagLite having to deal with his nemesis, the Home Despot, but that doesn’t feel right. As far as the main characters they will be MagLite, Princess Fannish, Lightning Rod, Captain Amazing, and the Dark Shroud of Infallible Darkness.  All D-list heroes.  My biggest worry about these characters is that I will fall into some tropes with the Fannish character.  Hopefully, being aware that those exist will be enough to keep me from falling into the trap. Some of these characters owe their existence to others who will be credited for their contributions, because their character concepts are really cool.

6. Are you going to illustrate it?
I have thought that the interludes may be set for some illustrations, but as a whole, no. I might get some of my artist friends to do some splash page illo’s though.  That might be fun.

7.  What will be the main character’s story arc?
I think it will be one of always looking forward to starting to live in the present.

8.  Why this story and why this character?
I have seen that content creation has democratized in the recent years with the Internet, so what would happen in a super-hero world populated by demigods and legends like a Batman/Superman/Wonder Woman triumvirate was all of the sudden infused with middle class heroes. MagLite feel like he fits this bill very well. Unfortunately the MCU is exploring this more effectively with DareDevil and AKA Jessica Jones… this is the less gritty reboot.

9. Why 50,000 words?
That is set forth by NaNoWriMo.  They say it equates to about a 200 page book, like a “The Great Gatsby” size novel. I think limiting the daily word count to just over 1600 a day makes it bitesize and doable.  That is an amount I can comfortably get done after the kiddos go to sleep.  I might be able to push some more on the weekends.  At least I hope to.

10. Will the book be good?
Heck no.  I might not even let my wife read it before I try and edit the hell out of it.  Last night I re-read the few pages that I have pushed through in the past 2 days and I am not sure if I want to read this.  Ugh….

11. Are you connected to the greater NaNoWriMo community?
Nope, this is pretty much a solo show.  I am letting people know here and on the twitters that I am doing it, but that is to keep me honest and make sure I stay on task a bit more.

12. Why did NaNoWriMo get started?
I honestly do not know, or, really, care.  It seems like a fun kind of task to give myself.  Maybe it will be a nice kickstart to get me to write something better in the future.

13. So, will you completely re-write the book and edit it?
Possibly.  If, when I am done, it has some bones to it that are salvageable, I will edit it.  Most likely it will be a steaming pile of poo

14. Where can someone read an excerpt?
At the moment, no where.  I might grab a piece of it and make it public later, but I do not have anything consumable at the moment.

15.  Time to be specific, your hero characters have some silly names.  MagLite, Princess Fannish, and Captain Amazing are all horrible comic book character names.  Why are you sticking with those names instead of creating better ones?
Well, Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman are all terrible names as well.  They only work because they have been in the cultural lexicon for so long.  

16. Still, the names seem silly, will the book be humorous?
I am going to try to infuse some humor into it, but that might happen more in the edits after I have the 50,000 words done.

17.  What is the hardest aspect of this process?
1600 words ends up being only about 2 typical pages or so.  That is a bit light for a chapter, but the way I am able to sit down and write wants me to make each evening’s efforts into bite size nuggets.  It will be difficult to try and string together the storytelling from night to night in a chapter that will span for multiple nights. 

18. What is your writing set up?
I write in my office at my computer using a Google doc.  Super simple and super easy.

19. Seriously, do you think you can do this?
I feel good about it on day 2.  I know I can crank out another 1600 tonight, so I will be on target for 3 days.  One day at a time seems to move me towards being able to do this.  Ask me again November 27th.

20. Do you think you will do this again?
I haven’t done it once yet.  Let me do that first.

To recap:
3,379 words before writing stuff for today
Follow my progress here
It is slow progress, but so far (2 days, I am waaaay overconfident for 2 days of participation) I am above the bar
A more regular 20 Questions upcoming next week
Strange things are afoot at the Circle K
I need to be exercising more
And drinking more water
And sleeping more
Many of those things go hand in hand
I guess, I am saying that I need to be more healthy
Stupid health, getting in the way of me sitting around drinking Mt Dew
Maybe one day the NaNoWriMo novel will be a consumable piece of content
At the moment it is merely some digital nonsense of 1’s and 0’s
Have a great week everyone

20 Questions Tuesday: 332 - Matt LaRock Asks a Bunch of Questions

This will be a quick post.  Rapid-fire style.  All 20 questions this week come from Matt LaRock… he is a curious fellow... ergo all the questions.  Thanks, Matt!

Onto the questions:
1. Do you have a favorite sandwich? 
The French Dip...mmmmm au jus

2. Boxers or briefs? 
Boxer-Briefs… I deny your bivariate world!

3. Are you a dog or a cat person? 
Cat

4. How's the weather? 
It is actually pretty gorgeous right now.  Chilly in the morning, brisk at noon and comfy in the afternoon.

5. What does the 'M' stand for? 
Backstory:  I am labeled as “M. Scott Ryan-Hart” on the Facingbooks.  I go by my middle name, Scott.  My first name is Michael, but you can all call me Ms Jackson, and I think you know why.

6. Favorite comic book character? 
Hmmm….  I am a sucker for Capt Britain. I think I like him mostly because of Kirby's whackadoodle character design in the 70's.  

• Overall Red costume? Check

• Union jack elements on the mask and gauntlets? Check

• Gold Lion Rampant? Check

• Medallion? Check

• Weird blue stripes along the shoulders? Check

• Scepter? Check

• Shiny red briefs? Check

• Immaculately coiffed blonde hair? check 

Gorgeous!

7. If you could give anyone a super power, who and what would it be? 
I would give my wife super speed so she could get her shit done, yo 

8. Are you religious? 
I was… that has changed over time

9. Do you believe in ghosts? 
As in the spooky ooky semi-sentient presence with unfinished business? Nope

10. UFOs? 
Yep… the technical definition is “Unidentified Flying Objects,” and there are objects in the sky that are unidentified.  Do I think there are aliens flying spaceships?  Sure… do I think they have made it to our backwater planet?  Nope.

11. Will Trump be the next president? 
Nope

12. What did you think of the new Star Wars trailer? 
I liked how it gave very interesting visuals but it did not really give away the plot.  I am excited.

13. Do you watch football? 
I am a European football guy.  I like the soccers.  NFL or college stuff?  nope

14. I'm thinking of a number between one and ten, what is it? 
π, if it was not before, it is now.

15. Do you have anything in your sock drawer besides socks? 
It is a combination sock, underwear, sleeping shorts drawer.

16. Do you prefer formal or casual wear? 
Casual.  Comfort is king.

17. Do you like where you live? 
I really do.  It is pretty awesome in this town and I dig my house.

18. Can I come stay with you there?
Sure, give me fair warning though... I will need to hide the valuables and get the wife and kids to safety.

19. Are all these questions annoying, or what? 
Or what… that is a bit vague

20. At the theater, popcorn or candy?
Popcorn with lots of butter

To recap:
I will try to be more on top of this next week
I need to get some interviews going
Hey everyone, support my questioneer, Matt LaRock's  Kickstarter
Independent comic books often eschew the mainstream conventions
I am fairly certain this is the case for this book
Matt has a very strong visual style that will be super interesting to see sequential art
I am doing NaNoWriMo this year
And all of you will hold me accountable
Right?
Have a great week everyone

20 Questions Tuesday: 331 - Bryan Brush

This week I get the pleasure of asking one of the hosts of the "All of the Above" podcast, 20 Questions. All of the above is a podcast I have guested on where I waxed eloquent about Siri. The main page for the podcast can be found here  and, more importantly, the episode featuring me (yes, featuring) can be found here.  Other than getting to know Bryan from the podcast and my limited interaction with him via the twitters and email, I do not really know what makes Mr Brush tic.  So without further ado... let's get to some questions.
/EDITOR’S NOTE: hey, it’s me, here.  This 20 Questions took a long time to complete because things were crazy for both of us for a bit.  You can read about those changes whilst reading the 20 Questions/

My first go round in higher education ended up getting me a degree in Geographic Information Systems.  I landed on this degree in geography because I realized I really enjoy stories told through place.  So, for example, I was born in Oklahoma City, moved to Montgomery, Alabama when I was a toddler, moved into my childhood home on the outskirts of Birmingham, Alabama when I was a young boy, went off to college in Kent, Ohio at 18, moved to Columbus, Ohio upon graduation from college, and been in the Columbus, Ohio area ever since.  That is my geographic story.  Question 1:  What is your geographic story? 

Geographic stories are an amazing concept. Mine is relatively simple and begins in Kettering, Ohio where I only spent a couple years of my childhood before my family moved to the small town of Germantown, Ohio. Germantown and it’s neighboring village of Farmersville, which collectively have about 7,000 people, is where I grew up until I graduated high school. From there I moved to Columbus, Ohio for college. That was a culture shock for me as just the student population of Ohio State University is 12 times the size of my hometown. I have been living in Columbus or one of its suburbs ever since. Outside of all of that I spend as much time traveling wherever I can. On those trips I am quite often joined by Sam Bantner, one of my cohosts on All of the Above.

Wow, that is an extremely Ohio-Centric geographic story... It is rare that I chat with someone who has only lived in one state.  So... Question 2: Is there a dream place that you would enjoy living that does not happen to be in Ohio?

My dream place to live always seems to be changing. I sometimes think I would prefer a life of perpetual travel instead of just being anchored down into one specific location. That said, Seattle and the Netherlands have always called out to me. Both have cultures that, while quite different, still seem to match my personality quite well.

That is funny, Seattle and the Netherlands do seem oddly similar while being vastly different.

I admit I have stolen this question from the immeasurable Paul F Tompkins, and it is my "goto" number 3.  Question 3:  Cake or pie?  Which specific kind and why?

Oh, man. This seemingly innocuous question has the potential to turn friends against one another. I never realized how passionate people were about their desserts until I first saw this question proposed to a group. I choose Cake. Pretty much anything that ends in cake is awesome. Cupcakes, cheesecake, carrot cake, yellow cake, etc. I’m fond of just a simple white cake with buttercream icing.

My mom, before becoming a nurse, spent time making cakes professionally. Baking was always one of her favorite ways to relieve stress and as a result I grew up making a lot of cakes with her. Although pie is delicious it doesn’t carry that feeling of nostalgia that I get when eating or baking a cake.

My mom was also a semi-pro cake baker.  I often helped her out There was always homemade frosting in the fridge at home and that has saddled me with a horribly active sweet tooth. I have always had a love for cake, but I think my love is actually for frosting.... mmm frosting.  Buttercream is delightful.... but my favorite is cream cheese frosting.... so good.

I have often said in these 20 Questions that people who like pie would love a slice of pie, but they rarely, if ever, are they willing to kick a kitten for some pie. People who choose cake, very often will push over toddlers to consume as much cake as possible.  Question 4: Why do you think most cake people are overzealous in their love and desire of consuming cake?

Frosting is definitely the best part of a cake. Although my brother strongly disagrees and removes the frosting. I used to sneak spoonfuls of left-over frosting out of the fridge as a kid. That was until my mom caught on and switched the frosting with cold mashed potatoes. My taste buds have never recovered from the shock.

I’m not sure why cake people are so fanatical about their cake. Maybe it’s because pie suggests a more wholesome experience. It’s almost as if it’s the Andy Griffith. Cake on the other hand seems to remind me of the happiness and joy of childhood, which leads to a passionate and nostalgic zeal.

I will buy that.  Pies are quite wholesome.

All of the Above is a podcast where you, and 2 of your friends talk about different subjects by looking at the subject through different lenses.  It is a delightful podcast that I have had the pleasure of guesting on. Question 5: What made you decide to do this podcast?

Thank you for the kind words on the show. We loved getting to record an episode with you and hope to do it again sometime. 

The idea for the show in some ways started for slightly selfish reasons. From time to time I would find myself having amazing discussions with friends like Sean and Sam about design and technology. I loved every second of those discussions and wanted to have them on a more regular basis. in order to satisfy that hankering I pitched the idea of doing a podcast. Sean came up with the idea for the format and here we are.

As a fun bit of All of the Above trivia we were going to have another good friend, Connor, on the show. Unfortunately his schedule was just too hectic, but he did join us as a guest on episode 8.

Let's be clear here, you were a floundering podcast until episode 12.  The guest on episode 12 really turned it around for you and you clearly owe all of your success to that glorious guest appearance. Since that guest righted the ship, that podcast has been just cruising.  In all seriousness it is a very interesting concept to look at multiple aspects of a topic from 3 significantly different, but oddly inter-related viewpoints.

You are a consumer of content, Question 6: So  what podcasts do you listen to?

I’m not going to make any argument against the idea that episode 12 was a major turning point for the show. I mean, it even led to the creation of the first pieces of fan art for the show.

Answering what podcasts I listen to is always a tough question for me. I just took a look at the list of shows in my Overcast feed there are over 90 shows that I have listened to in some fashion. Some of those are now defunct, while others I only listened to select episodes from. Many of them are technology and Apple focused. As for shows I would say of all of those I actively listen to around 50. Instead of listing all of those off I’ll give you some of my favorite active podcasts:

Theory of Everything
Analog(u)e
Strangers
Song Exploder
StartUp

I have 45 podcasts that I actively listen to, and probably another 45 that I have listened to for multiple episodes at some point in time.  I might take a look at the 5 you mentioned.  Color me intrigued.

So, podcasting seems to be the democratization of audio content creation.  Question 6: What do you think is the appeal of podcasting from a content creator standpoint and then as a content consumer standpoint?

It always gives me a sense of relief when I find another person who engages on some level with as many shows as I do. 

This is a particularly tough question. Podcasting, like most forms of media, brings about its own world of personal preferences. So I may not be able to come at this from a universal perspective as to the appeal of podcasting. Instead I can let focus in on some of the reasons that appear evident to me personally and those that I have spoke with. And, fair warning, this answer may get long-winded.

Podcasting is in many ways a very intimate form of media. While I am not necessarily a fan of Andy Warhol, there is an idea presented in The Philosophy of Andy Warhol that I find interesting. Throughout the book there is this idea that telephones may be the most intimate form of communication. There is no opportunity to judge someone by their looks, clothing, posture, location, etc. With the telephone you are only judging one another by their voice and the thoughts that they are communicating to you. Podcasts interestingly take this to another level as the listener cannot interject their voice but can only listen. Sitting and listening to someone else’s thoughts or conversations, without the ability to interrupt, is rather intimate and powerful. It forces you in some ways to consider another person’s perspective and hear the full extent of their argument. This can aid you in not only learning about and considering another person’s perspective, but it can also help you become more aware of how you feel about a topic. Listening to that podcaster speak are you upset and wishing you could debate with them or are you nodding your head enthusiastically in agreement? Recognizing those moments and identifying your personal opinion on a subject you may not have considered before can also be very rewarding. That is one of the major reasons I have become such a fan of podcasts.

Of course there are also utilitarian reasons that make me find podcasts to be appealing. I have a special type of hunger for education and learning. This is probably a side effect of being a millennial and living in the information age. Podcasts allow me to learn a great deal of information even when accomplishing other tasks. And on top of that I can accelerate the speed at which that information is piped directly into my ears. Music is, for the most part, restricted by time. Altering the speed of a song, while sometimes beautiful, is not typically how you are supposed to listen to music. With podcasts on the other hand you can increase the speed of playback and thus get through them at a speed you feel is appropriate. And that is part of why, in spite of my incredible love for music, I often listen to podcasts while working.

Thus far I’ve only answered one half of your question, which is the potential appeal to consumers. Those that are producing podcasts could have a myriad of reasons for doing so. Sometimes these are ideological reasons, sometimes they are entertainment reasons, and sometimes they are a combination of both. Let’s consider the amazing podcast Rocket on the Relay.FM network. It is hosted by three incredibly intelligent women who are all in some way concerned with how women’s voices are often unheard in technology. They are able to simultaneously spread their voice and thoughts on technology and culture while simultaneously having a great time and enjoying conversation with one another. 

Then some other podcasters treat their shows as a way to help assemble their thoughts and arguments. John Gruber has often mentioned that his podcast, The Talk Show, has been a powerful platform to throw out ideas and see where they go before writing about them on his website Daring Fireball.  And finally, you have some podcasters who are happy to produce their shows because they are powerful learning moments for themselves. I know each week I find myself learning something when I am preparing for an episode of All of the Above and/or when we are actually recording. So perhaps the appeal of creating podcasts is simply the diverse number of ways in which it can affect us and our listeners.

I hope that long, rambling, thought didn’t just bore all of your readers to sleep.

If my readers have not been run off by my prattling on about nonsense, I am positive that your cogent argument about the merits of creating and consuming podcasts will feed their intellectual pursuits in ways that, frankly, I cannot hope to scratch.  I think we are seeing podcasts as a new democratization of content creation.  Blogs were the first step.  Good blogs garnered a good readership... so to with podcasts.  Even though there are thousands upon thousands of podcasts out there waiting to be consumed, the good ones will accrete an audience and become desired content.

So, with so many podcasts that you actively listen to, your podcast listing has to be rather eclectic.  I can only imagine the scope of interests that you have within the hours of content you regularly consume.  Question 7: Is there a topic of interest to you that does not have a podcast associated with it? If not, what podcast caters to your most esoteric of your interests that you actually listen to?

The more I review the list of shows I am regularly engaged with the more I feel the audiences they appeal to are rather large. None of them seem to specialized outside of the show Philosophize This! That podcast does a wonderful job at looking at the history and evolution of philosophy. But most of them, even ones which claim to have a specific focus, often branch out. 

What I would love to see are some shows devoted to World Literatures and Translation Studies. Nothing I have seen out there seems to hit those subjects very well, if at all. Of course, with there being hundreds of thousands of podcasts, I sometimes wonder if there are shows that discuss these ideas and I just cannot find them. Additionally, my field of instructional design is barely discussed, and the shows on it are not of the greatest caliber. That’s part of why I’m so happy when we do solo episodes on All of the Above and I can get more specific with it. I would still love for there to be some high caliber shows devoted to instructional design, educational technologies, and learning theories though. 

Well, it looks like you know what the next bit of content you are going to create will be.  You just need to find another voice to bounce ideas off of.  I'll listen... I find instructional design very fascinating.

You are crazy thoughtful and very deep, even your cake v pie answer was introspective.  Let's lighten this up a bit. Question 8: Is there a part of pop culture that you cannot help but consume?

Growing up I was always a fan of my superhero stories from comics to cartoons to movies. That's remained with me to this day. I'm also a fan of Game of Thrones. At least up until the end of this last season. I'm running out of characters to care about. And lastly I will admit my undying love for Anna Kendrick and Pitch Perfect as well as my fondness for Taylor Swift's record 1989.

I read the first 200 pages of A Game of Thrones... and I put the book down because none of the characters were likable.  Every single character was terrible, and I just did not care what happened to any of them.  That is actually an issue for me at the moment.  I actually had a discussion about this with on another 20 Questions I am doing right now. (/EDITOR'S NOTE:  See 20 Questions Tuesday: 326 - Cobra Commander/) Most of the really well-made TV right now are incredibly complex stories with very flawed characters who are questionably likable. There are enough unlikable people in the real world, my fantasy worlds need to be populated with at least 1 or 2 characters that are likable and I can root for. I have not listened to 1989 yet, but I hear good things... I am tempted to download it and give it a go.  

So, I have interviewed some hosts from some massively popular niche podcasts. These people either have large-broad based or smaller extremely involved audiences. One of the questions I have enjoyed asking those people has been about the disparity between the amount of intimacy between themselves and their audiences.  The audiences know significantly more about the podcasters than the podcasters could possibly know about them.  Since you are the host of a relatively young podcast that has not yet hit that type of notoriety...  Question 9: When "All of the Above" and your forthcoming "instructional design" podcast (which I have named "Can I See Your ID Please" in my head) hit it big, how do you think you will deal with the disparity of those levels of intimacy?  Basically, what do you think about the disparity between how much audience members know about podcasters and how audiences often think of the podcasters as "friends" even though they have never had an interpersonal dialog with those hosts?  Did that make any sense?

This is a question that they actually try and tackle at a few points on the aforementioned Analog(u)e. Podcasts are interesting in that fans of a podcast are often much more passionate than fans of most other mediums. Certainly you have your devoted fans in all means of communication, but podcasts seem to draw a unique form of ardor. This is probably due in part to the fact that on a podcast our personalities and opinions are presented in all their glory. And if you’re willing to hear my thoughts piped directly into your ears each week than that’s a huge honor and privilege for me. However, as you have pointed out it is quite one-sided in that I don’t get to hear the audiences response unless they reach out. If the show grows to a size where we get an endless supply of responses than we may not be able to keep up.

I’m not entirely sure if there is a best strategy for how to handle that. I adore the fact that we have as many listeners as we do and am humbled that they believe the thoughts we present on the show are worth showing up for each week. If that many people showed up in person each week just to hear me talk I would be completely overwhelmed. So as our show continues to grow I only hope that Sean, Sam and I will show that same level of respect back to our audience. We may never get to know them as intimately as they know us due to the nature of the medium. In spite of that we will still respect and appreciate that they take the time to listen. Most importantly we will keep looking for ways to get to know our audience. That could be through discussions by email, twitter, or any other method of communication. Sean is always testing new platforms to see how they work and if they could be beneficial. 

We also take feedback very seriously. At the end of each episode we direct people to get in touch by going to www.alloftheabove.audio/contact and that is not just for kicks and giggles. When I talk with the guys about the show we frequently question if there is something we could be doing better. Even the very format of the show gets questioned regularly. We consider any feedback we have received in those discussions. I think listening to and honestly considering feedback is one of the best ways to show respect. Maintaining that perspective on feedback is something I feel will be critical as the show grows. We may not get to know the audience in the way they know us, but we will listen to their feedback in the same way we would if they were our friends.

After having written all of that I’m still not sure I’m even close to fully displaying my thoughts on that disparity. The TL;DR is that I find it incredibly humbling, but I also feel it is important to find ways to close the gap. A gap may always exist, but I respect the audience too much to not try and make it a little bit smaller.

I think it is valuable to take into account constructive criticism, it s too bad most internet comments devolve into non-constructive epithets.

Question 10: Fill in the blanks:  I find that I am mostly _____. Others find that I am mostly ______.

This took me a bit of time but I got a few responses. So I find that I am mostly calm. Others find that I am mostly chill and articulate.

If I were asked the second portion about you, I would add "insightful." It is very telling that your answer of "calm" matches very well with others's answers of "chill."

So, in a 20 Questions I did with the French podcaster, Patrick Beja, we stumbled upon this profound and simple question that I try to shoe-horn into every 20 Questions now. Question 11: Are you happy?

I come with a family history of mental illness and many of my own personal challenges with mental health, so this remains one of the most difficult questions to answer. Am I happy? At the moment I would be more inclined to say yes. But this question always sends me through a series of mental tangents in which I question what exactly we mean by happiness. Kierkegaard is oft quoted as saying, “Happiness is the greatest hiding place for despair” (I cannot recall if or where this was written, but it is most likely in The Sickness Unto Death). That is an incredibly painful perspective to take on happiness, but one I have been able to relate to at times.

Another perspective is that happiness is simply a state of satisfaction or contentedness. When defined that way happiness seems like a much easier thing to obtain than the artists and poets of the world would suggest.

But, I will avoid writing a treatise on happiness as that is best left to philosophers, psychologists, and poets. To answer your question, I think I am happy. And I’m okay with not knowing for sure. Although, since we started this series of questions, we have decided to take a hiatus on All of the Above. So that’s got me a bit bummed out.

Happiness is sometimes a fleeting gossamer fog that is just outside of our grasp, but others can be seen obscured by the fog... The interesting thing about fog though is that it always seems like the fog is out of reach, but, in truth, it is completely enveloping you.  I think happiness is like that... it is always around you, but you have to change your perspective to recognize it. 

I am a bit bummed that "All of the Above" has called it a day, but it is understandable. The interesting thing about this interview format is that many parts of life can happen between Question 20 and Question 1.  I have had someone find out they were going to have a baby, I have had someone get a new job, I have had someone have to deal with a family crisis on a separate continent.  

Question 12: What is one change in your current existence that you would like to see in place by the time we get to Question 20?

Assuming we will get around to question 20 by the end of the year, I am hoping to have found a more healthy schedule for my life. Over the past two years I have been working on my Master’s degree, working full time, and tackling a variety of projects. This has left me with a sometimes chaotic and exhausting schedule. In turn I’ve not been able to do quite as much of other activities that I love or get the exercise that I need. I’d like to change that so I am more regularly exercising and getting back to doing some of the things that fill my soul with joy.

We will get around to 20.  I always do.  

So, here we are at Question 13.  Only 7 left after this one.  That's manageable, right?

Question 13:  Do you have any superstitions or rituals that get you through the day, week, month, or year?

I’ve been trying to think about what I would call a superstition or a ritual rather than just a habit. I have some compulsive tendencies such as the fact that I will almost never step on a metal object on the ground. I wouldn’t necessarily call that a superstition or a ritual, though. It is more of a psychological peculiarity. I do try to spend some time in silence everyday as a form of prayer and reflection. This mostly stems from the fact that I identify with the quaker faith, and am rather fond of the idea of unprogrammed worship. See here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quakers#Unprogrammed_worship. That time of silence can be incredibly balancing and can keep me going through some of the toughest times.

I think silence as a form of prayer and reflection would fall under the category of ritual.  I do not have any ritualistic things in my life right now, and I feel that I am the worse for it.  When I turned away from religious things (for various reasons of which I will not go into today) there definitely was a void in my activities that has not quite been filled since that time. I think meditation is in my future, I just need to figure out how I am willing to do it.

So, since we started this process your All of the Above podcast has come to a resting place.  It has gone kaput.  Question 14: Do you see yourself jumping into a different podcast that did not involve the coordination of 3 busy schedules?

I definitely see myself jumping into an other podcast, but it may wait until I am wrapped up with my Master’s program (and possibly that PhD I may pursue). Some ideas I have may have me running solo, or if I work with a cohost it might be more of a fortnightly event. I have a pretty big love for podcasting so there will always be an itch to put something together.

I think you are definitely cut out to be doing podcasts.  You can allow space within a podcast that allow ideas to breath, but you also are not afraid to fill the space if you need to. Those are good qualities to have for a podcaster.  

Also, "fortnightly" is an awesome word, and deserves comment.  Well done, good sir. There are a myriad of delightful words out there that are not in daily use anymore.  Question 15: What is another word that you think needs to be reinvigorated in daily vernacular?

I view your comments on my ability to keep a show moving as a big compliment. Thank you. Hopefully I can continue to improve those with another show in the future. 

Fortnightly is definitely a word that needs more attention. I used to keep a journal that I just filled with words that I was fond of, which is something I need to get back to doing. Some of my favorites are not even english, such as saudade, cafuné, wabi-sabi, and the untranslatable Russian word, Тоска. As for an English word that I would like to see jolted with some new energy, I’d have to say "defenestration." Table flipping has taken over as a way to communicate frustration, thanks to emoji like this one: (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻. But the idea of throwing something out of a window in frustration is begging for a revival.

I imagine that there is not much call for the use of "defenestration" now that we have indoor plumbing.  I think that one might be more difficult to reintroduce to the everyday vernacular.  The word "whilst" is the one I want to see used more often.

Question 16: Was there a question you were expecting from me that I have not asked?  If so, what is it?

I’m wondering if we have different definitions of defenestration. I am referring to the act of throwing something or someone out of the window. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defenestration

I’m not sure there are any questions I expected that you have not asked. I have also recently started trying to approach life in a manner that could be called "Ex Tempore."

This is pure speculation from my noggin.  I think the word "defenestration," being as highly specific as it is, has to date back to a very specific usage of the word.  The only timeframe that I can think of where there was a preponderance of things being thrown out of windows on the regular would be the middle ages when people basically threw their waste out of their window.  Most often this was the pitching of refuse into the streets.  I would imagine that the "Defenestration of Prague" happened as a play on the term defenestration that was commonly associated with the liberation of refuse out of the window thus calling the seven city officials the equivalent of human refuse sent out of the window.  Again, this is purely my supposition. 

Being present is always a laudable goal. I would say through this conversation that I would definitely consider this to be a very present conversation. Even though this has taken some time to happen, I think it has been very present and enjoyable.

I know this is a bizarre question, but Question 17: when you close your eyes, what image pops in your head?

This is an interesting suggestion on the etymology of defenestration. We should contact the Allusionist Podcast to see if we can get a good history of the word. 

At the moment I am, to the surprise of no one, currently listening to a podcast. And I happen to have a bit of synesthesia that brings about visual flickers of color when I hear spoken words. Thus when I close my eyes it is just a flurry of colors since I am listening to a show at 2X speed. But before I closed my eyes the first image that popped into my head upon reading that question was of Chicago’s skyline.

I am currently binge listening to "The British History Podcast" so my initial imagery that comes to mind is all about Celts with wild hair covered in Woad hurling curses at the Roman 7th.  I lead an exciting life.

It is time time to turn the tables... Question 18: Do you have any questions for me?

That is quite the scene to imagine. I will have to get around to listening to that show.

What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?

The best advice I have ever been given is from my Mother-in-Law: "Don't let the fuckers get you down." It is most definitely words to live by.  Fuckers want to bring you down, but we should not let them.

Question 19:  What are you taking from these 20 Questions that you did not bring with you?

Solid advice.

A better understanding of myself out of this. The choice of questions somebody picks can tell you a lot about them (so I’ve also developed a better understanding of you), and trying to answer those questions can, of course, tell you a lot about yourself. As Heraclitus pointed out, the world, including ourselves, are in a constant state of flux. Answering questions, even ones you have answered before, can help you understand just who you are today and where you’ve been.

Anytime I can help with overall understanding of oneself, I consider it a win.

Question 20:  What's next?  Be as concrete or as vague as you would like.  Be as short-term or as long-term as you would like. Be as philosophical or grounded as you would like.

My very short answer to the final question is below:

Another breath. 

Bryan is such a great guy.  These 20 Questions are quite possibly one of my favorite due to the high level of introspection he brings to the table.  His answers made me think about myself in ways I have not introspected since I was in therapy on the regular.  

Everyone should give Bryan a follow on the twitters and check out his website, bryanmbrush.com.

To recap:

Fall season premires are starting up again
So all is well in the TV landscape
I need to draw more
I now have an About.me page
Also an online UXD Portfolio
UXD jobs here I come
The wife is going to be doing some webinars on how to make meetings effective
She is the awesomest... awesomiest... most awesome
My arm finally is not bothering me when I sleep
and I actually rode my bike for a bit this weekend
I have also been running on th treadmill
Running on the treadmill and watching bad action movies
The Dwayne Johnson Hercules movie wasn't half bad
Wasn't half good
I would say a 1/4, 1/3 good and 5/12 meh
That adds up to one right?
Heuristically that measures "meh"
Have a great week everyone

20 Questions Tuesday: 330 - Random Q's

This week I just asked people to send me any questions that they could come up with.  These q’s are random and I love it.  Thanks this week to PFMDesigner, Lsig, StPierre, and Nadolny for the questions.  Without further ado… 20 Questions.

1. Your talent as an artist is established. After super heroes, what is your favorite subject?
Fantasy subjects like sword and sorcery stuff.

2.  Smurfs or Snorks?
Smurfs… Snorks are cheap underwater knock-offs.

3.  You’re at a slumber party and the other boys break out “Dream Date.” What are the odds you’re going to get the dud?
Oh, about 83%... more likely the guy I get will 100% get the dud.

4.  Did you ever attend a slumber party?
When I was a kid, sure.

5.  Would you ever consider selling an organ on Craig’s List or eBay?
Not after going to a slumber party.

6. Are 20 Questions Tuesday’s still fun for you? 
Somewhat.  Chasing down people who are willing to do 20 Q’s is difficult and getting people to submit questions is a bit of a chore as well.  If that process were more streamlined and did not require as much chasing by me, I think I would enjoy it more.

7. What are your offspring planning to be for Halloween? 
Q is going to be Captain Phasma and Little Man wants to be a First Order Flame Trooper.

8. Did you watch/enjoy the Emmys? 
Did not watch, could not enjoy.

9. Any upcoming vacations or other fun events?
Hmmm… depends on your definition of “upcoming.”  Nothing is the immediate future… 

10. Football season has descended upon us once again. What's the worst part? 
Listening to people talk about their fantasy teams and Buckeye Fever.

11. At one point in my adult life might I start to feel less like a bumblefuck?
Nope… thanks “imposter syndrome!”  you're the best and I'm a fraud!

12. Which definition of obtuse do you prefer? The geometric one or the use of it as an adjective to describe character or a remark?
I like the character or remark definition for obtuse, but let’s be clear there is enough room for both definitions.

13. Which RPGs do you enjoy?
I have stopped enjoying pen and paper RPG’s as much because I do not have the time or energy to understand the rule systems and the nuances necessary to really enjoy the games.  I have looked at more story-telling game systems lately, but it is nigh impossible to find a gaming group without actually making a concerted effort to do so.

14. Light or dark beer? Sweet or bitter?
I liked darker and more full-bodied beers back when I was a beer guy.  This gluten thing really has limited my beer consumption.  That being said, I have found some ciders that are tasty.

15. Favorite place to have a beer in Worthington?
Old Bag of Nails is good, and I like Pies & Pints since they have a GF Beer there.

16. Favorite Worthington restaurant?  And is there a different favorite for the family?
Rivage is the wife, Q, and my favorite restaurant in Worthington.  Little Man does not like seafood so that doesn’t work for him.  His favorite in Worthington is probably Pies & Pints.

17. If you were an SNL cast member, which presidential candidate would be making you do flips for joy?
All. Of. Them.  They are all terrible or quirky, and some are terrible and quirky.

18. Do you think Trump is actually in it to the end, or is this all a gimmick?
I think Trump is using this run as a way to make himself the king-maker.  He has no shot at actually getting the nomination, mainly because he is an unelectable and completely unqualified misogynist racist.  On top of that he does not want to run all the way as a presidential candidate because that costs money. He will stay in the race until it starts really costing him big money. At that point he will swing his votes to whichever republican candidate pays him the most for his endorsement. The candidate he swings his support to will most likely get the nomination.

19. How many refugees should the US accept from the middle east?
As many as want to come to the US… I think we would be surprised at how many may not want to come here.

20. If you could have a Star Wars toy on your desk, which would it be and in what pose would you leave it?
This Captain Phasma in a kickass shooty shooty killy pose.

To recap:
I need to not let disappointment immobilize me
Fear either
Stupid disappointing fear
The lovely wife gets home tonight
This is day 7 that she has been on assignment
I just decided to call her work travel “on assignment”
That makes me laugh
I have been culling the podcast subscription lists lately
I am tired of a few of the podcasts that I have listened to for years
I need to freshen my subscriptions up a bit
Any suggestions
I have gotten on the treadmill a couple of times recently
I dislike the treadmill
I also ran outside last week
It was tiring and made me grumpy
Well, grumpier
I have an Interview 20 Questions to post next week!
Have a great week everyone!

20 Questions Tuesday: 329 - Hobbies

This week the topic is “Hobbies.”  My main hobby is drawing. Drawing is a cathartic activity for me and I have not been able to do it as much as of late.  It has been frustrating.  Creatively frustrating. Anyway, hobbies are activities that people do sheerly for the pleasure of doing it.  Everyone needs hobbies to stay sane, because they give a distraction of all the things we must do in our lives.  Hobbies are not jobs, hobbies are not must do’s, they are what people enjoy doing when they have enough free time to do it.  I only have a few hobbies, but when push comes to shove, drawing takes the cake for me.

Thanks this week go to Lsig, Chris Ring, Arp, and Some Other Guy.  Onto the questions…

1. Does "Candy Crush" count as a hobby?
Officially the litigious company has named it Candy Crush Saga, and it is a blight upon the land more than it is a hobby.  That being said, I do think that handheld casual games may fit the criteria of “hobby.”

2. How about TV? Does TV watching count as a hobby?
I think the intentionality of the TV watching matters as to whether it is considered a hobby.  If the tv viewing occurs because you just need something on in the background or if you are only giving it half you attention while you surf Facebook and Twitter or play some mobile game, it is not a hobby.  If it is an event that you specifically look forward to and make time in your schedule to do, then yes, it is a hobby.

3. Your state that "everyone needs hobbies to stay sane" and yet I don't think I actually have any. So...? (I'm not sure I'm digging the implication there, buddy).
You are more observant than I had hoped.

4. I had a coin collection when I was a kid. Do people still do that?
I assume that it is still a thing, but I am not sure it is a thing that happens with as many kids these days mainly because actually interacting with coins is happening so much less..

5. What about stamps? Is that still a thing? 
I am not sure if my kids know what a stamp is.

6. Holly Hobby, what was that all about?
I have no idea… especially the reboot.  Yikes.

7. Hobby Horse, hours of fun or a ride to nowhere?
For me, a ride to nowhere, but the kids got some hobby horses a few years ago, and they seemed to enjoy them.

8.Your most expensive hobby?
Drawing… the markers I like are a bit on the ‘spensive side… Today I bought 3 markers, 4 refill inks, and about 4 pens… $63.87 with a $20 savings because of the sale.

9.Your least expensive hobby?
Napping… I do not get to do it as much as possible. I also play sudoku on my phone.  After the initial cost of the phone, that game is super cheap.

10.Your hobby that no one knows about?
Rat herding.  I am the goddamned Pied Piper... Maybe crossword puzzles.

11. What hobbies dropped off your list with the arrival of wee beasties
Overzealous movie going.  I used to go to almost any movie that came out.  That is not the case now.  Did not see Fury Road this year, but I did see Minions.  That is my life at the moment. I also used to watch soccer games pretty religiously… that has fallen by the wayside as well, but I have seen all of season 3 of the Wild Kratts… ugh... they did an episode on the mosquito.

12. Which of those do you hope to get back to when the beasties fly the nest
Well, I would love both, but realistically, the movie thing would be the most possible. A good possibility would be my collecting comic books again.  I did not stop because of the kids as much as I stopped because the industry sucked in the late 90’s.

13. What hobbies did the wife introduce you to and vice versa - which do you enjoy, which do you do because the other enjoys them
I have introduced hiking, and science fiction/fantasy books to the lovely wife, and she has introduced me to being more active and making myself a better human being.  I think I won on that front. She reads about swords clanging and I realized that I have these things called feelings.

14. What hobbies did the wee beasties introduce you to?
Whatever their hobby is for the moment… at the moment it is Lego collecting and insessantly droning on about Plants Vs Zombies.

15. Which hobbies will your 40 year old self never return to (says the almost 50 year old friend on the west coast)?
This is an interesting question… none of my hobbies have been too detrimental to my existence., so I cannot imagine purposefully avoiding any of them.

16. What did you collect as a kid?
Comic books… started out with Captain America, then went to Star Wars, GI Joe, Transformers, X-Men, X-Factor, New Mutants, X-Force, Daredevil, Batman, JLA… etc… I stopped in the mid-90’s when the books relied on you reading multiple titles to understand what was going on.

17. Is there a hobby you would like to do?  
I am old now, maybe collecting spoons?... computer gaming with some friends would be fun.

18. Did your parents have any hobbies while you were a kid?
I do not remember any. I guess word search puzzles would be one of them.

19. Hobby Lobby…. I get that it rhymes, but so does Contraception Shmontraception. Why don’t they believe in contraception?
Good point. Well, I think it goes back to the public shaming of women.  When you take communicable diseases out of the equation (and let’s be clear when people are talking about why contraception is used it is never to prevent STD/I’s), it is all about shaming women who have sex. It is about making women wholly responsible for for the consequences of consensual and nonconsensual sex.  When their prescription drugs coverage includes Viagra and Cialis, not having contraception is pure woman hating and shaming. Period. End of sentence.

20. What hobby out there is the most effective use of time?
Wood working.

To recap:
ummm… I’ve been married 18 years as of Sunday the 6th
My marriage could vote now
I am officially old
This weekend is CincyComiCon
Come to table A-12 in Artist’s Alley and I will gladly sell you a sketch
$5 for a completed sketch card, $10 for a commissioned card
I am good like that
It has been a few weeks since the last post
Get off my back
I’m doing the best I can here
This medium is old
I don’t think a podcast or a vlog would work though
I cannot believe that vlog is now an acceptable word
Maybe this medium is just mature
Yes, blogging is now mature
I now have an about.me page
Check it out
I need to get to bed now
Have a great week everyone

20 Questions Tuesday: 328 - First Day of School

THe kids’ first day of school for the 2015-2016 school year is tomorrow, which seems incredibly early to me, but I am old and crotchety and remember when I had to walk to school uphill in the 100 degree weather with no shade, blah blah blah.  Anyway… it seems like the first day of school is getting earlier and earlier.  The kids were doing their homework packets that were sent with them at the end of last year.  They started them this evening like all right thinking people would. Our youngest tuckered out before she got finished with her stuff, but she gave it the good college try.  I am a bit worried that she did not retain any of the information from one page to the next. She is like that though… and by that I mean 7.

Thanks this week go to pfmdesigner, lsig, the lovely wife, and some other guy. onto the questions:

1. By reducing the speed limit within a "school zone" to 25 mph, aren't we just nudging evolution toward slower, less-agile people?
Nope, fast food is doing that.  the 25 mph limit is a symptom, not the problem

2. How cool would it be if adults got to take two months off every summer, and then start the new work year with a promotion?
I. Would. Love. That.

3. Crayola 64 box, or 48 box?
Gallon bag of broken crayons… I don’t live by your bivariate world.  My logic is fuzzy goddamnit!

4. For you, which was more traumatic, your first day of elementary school or first day of high school?
First day of middle school.  I switched from one school system to another between 6th and 7th grade.  I went from knowing everyone to knowing about 10 people, and 7th graders are not known to be very easy going and forgiving of differences.  Again, I reject your bivariate question because my world is muti-variate...

5. What would be the cruelest joke to play on your own kid on his/her first day of school?
Lots and lots of hugs and kisses.  Little Man is now firmly 12 and does not like the affection from parents.

6. Do you remember your first day of school?
Nope

7. Are the kids looking forward to school, dreading it, or some combination thereof?
I think the kids are looking forward to about 3 weeks of school, and then going back to their summer schedules.  They miss their friends and want to see them, but I think the daily rigor of school will wear on them.

8. Best part of the first day of school for kids? For parents?
Kids: seeing their friends and jibber-jabbing about what they did over the summer
Parents: getting the kids out of the house so they can start up the heroine habit again

9. Are your kids already planning first-day wardrobe or do they care?
Their mother and I have gotten them to care about their wardrobe.

10. School lunches or pack?
My kids?  Pack.  Every. Day. ugh….
Me: School lunch until high school when I stopped eating lunch at all.

11. Are the kids happy about their class assignments?
Little Man is unhappy about his class because he is not in class with most of his friends.  This may be a good thing because he might find some other people to become friends with.
Q is neither happy or unhappy about her class.

12. What is your favorite school supply?
I always loved the plastic rulers and protractors that we used.  I always like to have a straight edge around.

13. Were you a walker, a bus-rider, or single commuter to school?
Yes… I walked to elementary, I rode the bus to middle school and jr. high, and I rode with my friend Dr B-Dawg in high school.

14.  Did you have any good mascots in your schooling?
hmmm… Cougars, Indians, Huskies, and Golden Flashes… noper

15. When did you start changing classes in school where your classes were intermixed with others?
I think it was in fifth grade.  We had two levels of math and I think science that we separated into.  Further separation and intermingling continued from that point.

16. So first days are interesting.  Are first days of work different than first days of work?
Yep.  School there is a bit of an expectation, but workplaces can vary so greatly.  Some first days are celebrations, and some are more forgettable, and then there are some you WANT to forget.

17.  What does it feel like to be the only black child on the first day of school… 12 years in a row…. Oh, wait.  You don’t know what that feels like, Whitey McWhiterson.
Ummm… uh… NEXT!

18. First day of school?
Yep, tomorrow. Is that really a question?

19. Where was your first day of school ever? Where was your last day of school?
First: Chalkville Elementary School for my kindergarten
Last: My home office for the online courses at Kent State… I am done with school

20. Compare and contrast school vs training.
School is learning basic information that will lead you to a well rounded knowledge base that will help you to be a productive member of society.  Training is a set of curricula for a specific task or function.

To recap:
The arm is a broke ass arm
The Ortho said that it was a “micro-hairline fracture”
The “best kind of bone break you can have”
Uh… Thanks?
The M-i-L is now home from the hospital
So, she is at least doing that much better
I think the wife and I are more nervous for the kiddos than the kiddos are

Here is my sketch of Cobra PR from the Cobra Commander interview
It is late and I need to get to sleep
Goodnight all
Have a great week 

20 Questions Tuesday: 327 - Injury

The arm injury I collected whilst on the vacation 2 weeks ago is still giving me fits.  It seems to be backsliding somewhat.  My remarkable recovery seems to be becoming a slow and inevitable decline into limb removal.  My wrist really aches and my elbow still cannot completely straighten out.  I am definitely not where I want to be injury-wise.  That being said, I am significantly better off than my Mother-in-Law who, after her second knee replacement got a staph infection in the knee she had replaced last year.  I know that last sentence didn’t make too much sense, but that is what happened.  Don’t like it?  Take it up with the M-i-L’s crappy replaced knee from last year.  Now the antibiotics she was on are messing with her kidneys.  Can’t get out of the hospital until her kidneys kick back on, so send nephronic good thoughts her way.  PLease and thank you.

While I have been languishing around with my gimpy arm and useless wrist, I thought that Injury might be a good topic for my intrepid questioneers.  So today I will answer 20 Questions about the topic “Injury.”  Thanks this week go to Ring, Lsig, pfmDesigner, Chris Corrigan, and some other guy.  Now, onto the questions…

1.  Can I add insult to injury? Like, nice job Lance Armstrong - CRASHSTRONG ;)
Well played, but I have 2 testes… they are disconnected, but there are two of them.  So suck it Lance

2. Is there a silver lining to being injured?
Not when your partner’s mom is in the hospital with life threatening sepsis and kidney failure.  “OOOH, is your poor widdle arm hurty-wurty?  Suck it up… my mom is hovering on the brink, you melodramatic j-hole.”

3. Did you get pampered from the family or did they say "suck it up crybaby"?
Please refer to answer 2.

4. Is there a scar? cuz' chicks dig scars.
Nope, no scar… and very little remaining swelling and bruising, all in all, it just looks like I am walking around like Captain Kirk in the original Star Trek series. Left elbow tight to my side, the forearm parallel to the ground and the hand just a little floppy while I swagger.  Those of you who know, know what I mean. You are the right ones, the ones I can trust.

5. Are you going to sue the bike company? Because it's obviously their fault.
Nope, complete user error.

6. What's the worst physical injury you've had?
Hmmm…. this one is bad, but I think hyper-extending my right knee or when I strained my left medial collateral.  One of those 2.

7. Better way to deal with injury: "Walk it off" or "Rub some dirt on it"? 
Of those choices?  “Walk it off.”

8. Do you have any scars of which you are secretly (or not so secretly) proud?
There is one on my right shin from an axe that, while impressive in my youth, only exists because I was not paying enough attention.

9. If you were to fall into a coma, and were otherwise completely healthy and safe, how long would you like to remain in the coma?
A solid 10 hours would be nice, only if it were restful, though.

10. Have you ever hit someone in the face with your fist? Does it hurt as much as I suspect?
I do not believe I have ever punched anyone in the face, to my recollection.  I can only imagine that it would hurt as much as you expect.

11. Have you ever been punched in the face? Does it hurt as much as I suspect?
I have never been punched in the face, to my recollection. I can only imagine that it would hurt as much as you would expect.

12. Not all scars are on the outside. What's your favorite remedy to speed healing of emotional wounds?
Ice Cream

13. If they took the same time to heal, would you rather have a broken heart or a broken skull?
Broken skull.  I feel the physical would have less lasting effects.

14. What is worse: recovering from an injury or recovering from the guilt that you did something to injure yourself?
The guilt… the good thing is that I do not feel guilty about this particular injury.

15. Head or gut?
Gut, because it will make me fart, and trust me, tough guy, you don’t want that.

16. When did they start calling it “Stoppage Time” and stop calling it “Injury Time?”
About the same time that the 4th official started saying how many minutes it was going to last.

17. Personal injury lawyers’ commercials are terrible.  Do people really fall for that ambulance chasing crap?
If it did not work, they would not do it.

18. What is the difference between getting hurt and being injured?
Hmmm… In many ways it is like porn (but what isn’t? AmIRight? Up top fellas!) you know the difference when you see it.  If I were pressed for an answer I would say, “I’m not your porn monkey! Stranger Danger! Stranger Danger!”

19. Is injurious as fun a word to type as it is to say?
I don’t think so.

20. Can a smell injure co-workers… um…. asking for a friend?
Well, some chemicals can cause damage, but I think the smell you are talking about can be impressively unpleasant, but not necessarily injurious. As far as Question 19 is concerned, I was wrong.

To recap:
I see the doc tomorrow
Here is the Cobra Commander pic I did for the Commander’s interview

He is looking fit and trim
I still need to do Cobra PR
Her’s is about 28% done
The Mother-in-Law is doing better
Again, send amazing nephron thoughts to her
We have these crappy little moths everywhere
Everytime we open the pantry
That are so tiring
We have cleaned out the pantry a few times already this summer
Die! Moths! Die!
That would be what I called my punk band in the mid 80’s 
There would be an umlaut on the “o”
Have a great weekend folks!

20 Questions Tuesday: 326 - Cobra Commander

I had no idea that I would ever be able to actually ask a head of state 20 Questions for this rinky-dink blog, but this 20 Questions is not only with the head of state of a recognized island nation, but also a ruthless dictator megalomaniac of a United Nations recognized terrorist organization. 

1. Not a dictator, never have been, don’t plan on becoming one.  I’m an elected official.
2. You say megalomaniac like it’s a bad thing.
3. Our terrorist label has been revoked by the UN, though I believe we’re still listed as such in the US.  

Honestly, I feel like I am putting my own safety on the line to ask these questions, but I've been doing these 20 Questions for almost 10 years and, well... it's been a good run.  So without further ado... 20 Questions with Cobra Commander.

I would say your safety and wellbeing are entirely in your hands, that should give you some comfort -- and hey!  10 years!  That’s impressive.  

I have a background in geography, specifically in cartography, and I have always been interested in people's personal geographic story.  For example, I was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, moved to Montgomery, Alabama, and then grew up in Birmingham, Alabama.  I went off to college in Kent, Ohio and then moved to Columbus, Ohio where I have been for 18 or so years.  I know you are enigmatic, and I will most likely not get a full answer for this question, but... Question 1:  What is your geographic story? At least the portion you are willing to share....

Ah, an excellent question!  See, we’re starting off well and fine, there’s little need to worry about your future.  I mean, there’s always reason to worry about something as vague and encompassing as one’s own future, but perhaps your immediate future, and your possible immediate murder, isn’t one of those things you need to worry about.  

Firstly, I am enigmatic because I have been made out to be that way.  When Cobra was picking up steam the government seized all records of my existence and identity.  I believe they had many reasons for this, but chiefly among them was an attempt to dehumanize me.  An enemy with a mysterious background (or no background at all) is much easier to cast as a villain.  Going against this established narrative, I will answer your questions as honestly as I can. 

Secondly, I too believe in the importance of a “geographic story” as you put it.  Sometimes we never realize a place’s impact on us until we leave it, in its absence we see how much it and you are intertwined, even if it was not your intention, the transformative powers of a time and place are undeniable.  Home is where the heart is, after all.  

I was born and raised in a little town called Springfield, USA. Hasbro fans will surely recognize the name, though they made my hometown out to be a secret and sinister base of Cobra operations.  This was unfortunately never true, in fact I left Springfield in quite a hurry to not yet return.

There are forty-one towns/cities/townships called Springfield in America, so you can pick your best guess as to which is my Springfield on your own time.  I’ll give you a hint though, it’s definitely one of the boring middle states.   Very small town, the kind of place where kids on bikes ruled the streets, and everyone knew your name, or at least knew you as “so-and-so’s kid,” or “so-and-so’s brother.”  I didn’t know it at the time, but that small town upbringing instilled in me a strong sense of community, love thy neighbor, be your brother’s keeper, and all that jazz.   Through the years nostalgia has only sweetened those sentiments, and I have strived all my life to replicate the good nature and hospitality I experienced in my hometown (re: Cobra Island).  

It was in Springfield that Cobra was founded, more as a political club compromised mostly of my brother’s Veteran friends.  It was in Springfield I suffered a terrible accident that gave me the lovely voice you’ve all come to know and fear/enjoy/parody.  It was in Springfield I recovered and trained and dreamed of something more and something better than the life I had been given and expected to be satisfied with. 

I probably would still be in Springfield, or at least have some roots there, if I had not been forced out by the presence of enclosing authorities.  This was all in the late 70’s and by then Cobra had been labeled a dangerous and potentially violent organization by the US government.  For Cobra to survive it was vital that I avoided arrest, and so I went on the lam, happily surprised by my own enjoyment of traveling around the country.  I met many people, recruiting wherever I went, and let me tell you, I went all over.  

Anyone who feels empty or bored with their lives, be you a twenty-something millennial, or an aging baby boomer, I urge you to go out and see your country.  From the big attractions, to the natural beauties, to the little forgotten diners, it’s all spectacular. 

Eventually, I moved on to Europe, in search of a man named Destro, who I was told could supply my followers with weapons, thus giving our bark a little more bite (this was actually my first trip outside the US).  My closest comrades and myself were smuggled out of the country via a sympathetic pilot; the closest to Scotland we could get was Italy.  I took the name Baron Ironblood (which was more or less a jet-lag inspired joke name), and we proceeded to backpack through Europe, from Italy, to Switzerland, to (the terrible country of) France, Germany, Belgium, and finally Scotland.  Noble Destro proved difficult to get an audience with (what with us being unwashed common criminals from America), and his castle was literally a castle, made impenetrable back when the crusades were still a thing.  Once more we wandered Europe looking for someone who could act as our emissary.  That ended up being the Baroness who we met in the dark mountain forests of Romania. 

As if traveling the US wasn’t enough, my European vacation further expanded my understanding of the world as a whole.  I was still a young man back then, with a limited worldview.  Those few years of nonstop travel had given me a unique perspective on not only America but America’s place in the global community.

From there it was the 80’s and we were all in full swing, both Cobra and G.I. Joe at the height of their active years.  I went around the world at a break-neck speed, evading capture, getting captured, escaping said capture, recruiting, organizing armies, building fortresses, gathering intel, putting together scientists, rubbing shoulders with presidents and prime ministers and dictators and kings and queens, etc, etc…

And then half way through the 80’s Cobra Island happened, appearing in the Gulf of Mexico, just north of Cuba, and I have lived comfortably there ever since. 

Wow, I had forgotten how much you like to see your own words.  I cannot imagine how long you would have gone if this interview was in person and you were allowed to hear your own voice while I would be forcibly required to make active listening noises like “um,” “a-ha,” “I see,” “go on,” and “fascinating.” …Now that I think of it, there is a better than average chance that you are dictating to your unfortunate PR Officer, and you are, in fact, listening to your own voice.  Regardless, this is a really comprehensive geographic story, and yet incredibly vague.

So you don’t want me to be honest and comprehensive with these answers?  Is that what you’re trying to tell me?  Hm.  All right.  It’s your blog thing.

I’m not unfortunate.  I’m really the opposite of unfortunate.

PR, are you typing what you’re saying now?

Well, I just want to be clear here, I am not unfortunate.  I want that to be documented, in my own words, from me.

Silence, I can handle this.  You are the opposite of unfortunate.

That’s what I said.

Cobra PR is part of the first generation of children who have grown up on Cobra Island.  They get all the benefits of living in our prosperous nation.

And I have the honor of serving you so directly.

Gross, PR.

What?  I didn’t mean that in any lewd way, I work directly under -- 

I said GROSS.  Why are you typing that part?  

So… since you have lived in many places and traveled all over the world, sometimes looking for components to various doomsday devices, sometimes because you are on the lam from anti-terrorist outfits such as GI Joe or the Oktober Guard… Question 2: Where do you like to go just to get away from it all? Are you a beach comber? A mountaineer? Do you like the nightlife of a bustling city?  Or simply retire to your study to coil up with a good book? Where does the Cobra Commander go to relax?

The Commander doesn’t know how to relax.

Wow, rude.  Hang on, firstly, I want to say:  I wouldn’t really qualify a teleporter or a weather-controlling tool as “doomsday devices.”  That’s the American propaganda machine speaking through you.  The MASS Device allows for instantaneous transport of our trade goods, the Weather Dominator ensures constant perfect and safe weather for Cobra Island.  No hurricanes for us.  

But to get to your actual question, I am one of those people who must work to feel comfortable.  I relax by keeping busy.  I always have.  If I’m not properly preoccupied I’m prone to sullen moods.  I’m a very frenetic individual, and have, over the years and with practice, learned to take all that energy and be productive with it.  I multi-task, I like doing five or ten things at once.  It’s how I think, and there’s some satisfaction projecting the way you think into the way you interact with the world.  

I’ve also taken to island life very well.  I went to Cuba on a diplomatic mission right before the creation of Cobra Island.  I fell in with that nightlife and that island culture.  Cobra Island’s really coming into its own in terms of bars and restaurants. There’s a Tiki bar on the top of Cobra Island’s volcano, The Summit, and I’m a regular.  The drinks are top notch and the desserts include roasting marshmallows with the volcanic heat.  Who wouldn’t love that?

I have had roasted marshmallows before, because I am human, but I have never had the pleasure of roasting them over an open volcanic vent.

I know this seems like an odd topic jump, but my Question 3 for everyone is always the same in these interviews. Question 3: Cake or Pie?  Which kind specifically and why?

I’ve been leaning towards pie lately.  I mean, I am as American as apple pie.  

Good call.  You can always go with a classic. 

Interesting thing that I have found by asking this question.  People who choose pie really like pie and would love a slice of pie, whereas people who choose cake would kick a kitten in the rain to get to a piece of cake.  They have an irrational love and desire for cake.  They NEED cake and will stop at nothing (aside from learning to bake) to get cake. Question 4:  Who in your organization would you think is that kind of cake-eater? 

Kick a kitten?  Definitely Serpentor.  

A bit of your personal grudge coming out there?  I had money on you saying Dr. Mindbender. That guy is unhinged, and you cannot deny that.  He is certifiable… a mad genius, yet mad is definitely an equal descriptor in this sentence. 

It’s usually a coin toss between Serpentor and Mindbender on who will I mock now, and today Serpentor won out.  

Question 5: Are you still Hell bent on world domination, or has running your own island nation kind of mollified the “conquer the world” thing with the day-to-day running of a nation state?

I was never hell bent on world domination, that’s another misconception from my failed PR efforts early on in Cobra’s history.  But let’s take a second and seriously consider this, who would actually want to rule the world?  Have you watched Game of Thrones or even the news?  The world’s sort of a mess right now.  Yes, in a historical sense, there is less war and disease than there’s ever been, but it’s still sort of a mess.  No individual can fix it.  It’s too big of a problem.  

Now originally, well, you have to remember, Cobra started out as a political-oriented club with just me and my friends, our goals were about the betterment of our town.  Things began to escalate of course, and it went from our community, to our state, to the rest of the country.   This was late 70’s, and the 70’s were a really chaotic, and I’d say destructive, time in politics.  Not just with Vietnam and Watergate, but we were all learning about these nefarious covert operations of the CIA, and how the FBI had open files on more than one million citizens.  We watched Ford take over the presidency without a single vote cast for him.  Modern “investigative journalism” was being perfected on our televisions so we could keep up with all the sensationalized scandals.   Everything was a mess, everyone was a crook, and there was nothing you could do about it.  

With that surrounding you, it was easy for someone like me to imagine that they could do better.  I think a lot of people must have thought that, I was just one of the few who actually did something about it.  It’s just in my attempts I was labeled the leader of a terrorist organization.  

Now I’m a President officially elected on Cobra Island.  Being a national leader is a lot easier I think than what we were dealing with before, at least for me.  It’s like playing whack-a-mole on a national level, constantly solving this problem then that problem, and so forth.  Much easier than being a wanted terrorist.  

I actually have never watched “Game of Thrones.”  I know it seems like I would be the most perfect audience to watch a sword and sorcery show with gratuitous boobies, but none of the characters are redeemable (I read the first 120 pages of the first book in the series.  Did. Not. Like. Well-written, but just lacking fun.).  Every character in the show is a jackass.  I have enough exposures to jackasses in my own life, I don’t need to see fake jackasses on my television.  Tyrion, Daenerys, Arya, Sansa, the Hound, Jon Snow, Stannis, Joffrey etc… they are all either evil, distasteful, or disturbingly flawed.  I don’t care about any single one of those j-holes.  This seems to be a terrible trend for the past seven or so years that not one damn character on any damn show is a good person that I will remotely care for.  Question 6:  What the hell is up with that?!?  

Geeze, I should’ve made a House of Cards reference.  Touchy, touchy, aren’t we?  

Same deal!  Claire and Francis are both sociopaths.  Doug Stamper is a remorseful tool that just wants to be loved, and can only show that love by doing whatever dirty work Francis feels needs to be done.  Remy is a mercenary whose loyalty is only to whomever can pay him the most.  I could go on, but I won’t.  Suffice it to say that there is not a sympathetic character on that casting sheet.  It is a problem with current TV.  “Breaking Bad?”  Same deal.  Who is the sympathetic character?  There isn’t one.  Sometimes I feel like we should just… just introduce cascading root viruses into the computer systems of the increasingly sovereign multi-platform entertainment complexes.  The virus would lock down all capabilities to use the digital assets that the entertainment industry currently has and prevent the generation of any new content.  Then set off mass EMP devices for all the cloud storage facilities in the Black Hills of North Dakota, the Research Triangle in the Carolinas, Siberian Novosibirsk, Hangzhou in the Shenzhen Province in China, Manaus in the wilds of the Amazon Rain Forest, and other mass storage data facilities.  The Mass EMP’s will delete all back-ups of “the industry’s” content, erasing their stockpiles of critically lauded irredeemable character arcs bringing the entertainment industry to its knees!  Umm… ah, you know, or I could change the channel or stream something else.  Whatevs. The important piece to note is that you did not answer Question 5… sidestepper.  Let's just skip 6 then...

Question 7: What’s your favorite color?

Oh, I’m sorry.  Was there a question in all that ranting against the second renaissance of American Television?

It’s called catharsis buddy, fictional characters sometimes tend towards cruelty so that you may live out your cruel fantasies vicariously without actually ever committing cruel acts.  Your inability to process this basic human experience is probably where all this aggression is coming from.  Lighten up, they’re just TV shows.

This color:   

Hmmm… where have I seen that color before?  I cannot quite place it.  I bet it works well with white and chrome though.

Prior to going off on my tangent concerning bringing the entertainment industry to its knees, I mentioned how Remy is mercenary as Hell in “House of Cards.” You have been known to have independent contractor mercenaries in your employ.  Some of these mercs are odd ducks and, honestly, would make me uncomfortable being in the same room. Question 8: Who is creepier to work with Zartan and his Dreadnoks, Tomax and Xamot (Basque names?), or some other merc you worked with?

Not Zartan, definitely not Zartan, we get along just fine.  His family not so much, but Zartan and I always understood each other.  He was one of the first mercenaries I ever met, and you know Zartan, he’s an actor assassin, he enjoys the acting of a part just as much as assassinating the target.  I quoted some Richard III at him when we met and we’ve been good ever since.  Zartan’s the poet philosopher of his, I’ll call them crew, his crew, and everyone knows it.  Buzzer, Ripper, and Torch get it.  Buzzer 2 and Ripper 2 get it (Monkeywrench and Thrasher), Buzzer 3 and Ripper 3 get it (the rest).

Serpentor’s an easy pick what with him being a scientific abomination with no soul, but that’d be rather selfish to mention him twice…

Croc Master’s actually a nice guy and super into environmentalism.  Crystal Ball is like every chill yoga master ever but is into hypnotism rather than yoga.  

Oh, Firefly! Firefly’s another easy pick, Firefly’s just as weird as you’d expect a ninja-master-saboteur-explosives-expert would be.  Not to say he’s not good company, he’s a riot at parties, but underneath all that craziness you can tell there’s an actual craziness.

Tomax and Xamot are freaky, twins are just freaky in general, twins with almost the same name, even freakier, but on top of all that I’ve got this fan theory, PR what’s that called? 

Head Canon.

Yes, I’ve got a head canon they were conjoined twins that were separated like not when they were infants, but as children.  How else do you explain this weird phantom limb pain they got going on for each other?  

But you know, I know the answer to this, but I’ll note here, these mercenaries have become pertinent to Cobra’s survival.  I don’t know where we’d be without the Baroness, or Storm Shadow, or even the Drednoks.  Mercenaries get a bad reputation, but I’m supposedly a terrorist, so I figured when meeting these people there were perhaps two sides to their stories, and that was mostly true.  I never recruited someone I didn’t believe in, and who didn’t believe in, if not me, Cobra.

One of the few exceptions to this was Dr. Venom, who I’m ninety percent sure was an actual psychopath.  Like, not the cool kind you see on TV, but an actual living, breathing psychopath with the inability to understand other human beings’ pain.   He had a way of looking at you, where he was sort of looking at you like a piece of meat, like a thing and not a person.  It’s disturbing, recognizing someone else’s total indifference to you.

Of course, we didn’t know this at the start, he did a very good not-psychopath impression, very personable upon first meetings, he said all the right things, told us how much he believed in Cobra, gave us his sob story about the US government taking away his funding, commandeering his research.  It’s only when we started to come down on him concerning his more nefarious use of our time and money that he started to slip and his true nature slithered out.  He’s dead now.  He’s been dead for a long time.

So, you have mentioned most of your compatriots as being mercenaries.  Now mercenaries are paid to work for you.  They are your paid employees.  So, Question 9: Do you have any friends? Honest to goodness non sycophantic friends? 

They’re mercenaries, but again, I wouldn’t have recruited them if I thought they were in it just for the money.  The money helped, money always does, but we didn’t even pay that well back then, we couldn’t afford it.  Our mercenaries offered their expertise not just for the cash, but they believed in Cobra, and if they didn’t, I needed to convince them.   That was half of my job in the 80’s, but lucky for me, I am a natural born salesman.  

The Baroness is actually one of my closer friends.  I know that makes no sense to followers of the cartoon and comics, but she was our ticket to meeting Destro, we met her, myself and my friends and followers, when we were just some lost Americans in Europe on the run from the authorities with no other alternatives.  It was winter, and months had gone by with little progress towards Destro.  We were desperate.  She knew it too, we tried to hide it, but she knew, she’s a super-spy-assassin from a family of super-spy-assassins, she knows everything.  

She was amused by us at first, but after my sales pitch my sincerity came through, and my naiveté.  She was the first one to ever say Cobra was a revolution, and I was a revolutionary.  She took me under her wing, she taught me proper etiquette befitting of a leader trying to get an audience with someone like Destro, remember, I was just some kid from the middle of America.  I didn’t know how to properly address “royalty” of any sort.  Even more useful, she trained my men in guerrilla war tactics she learned in South American jungles and African coasts, fighting wars we had never even heard of.  She was our von Steuben for sure, taking us to the next step in our evolution towards a militarized force to be reckoned with.  

For that I will always be indebted to her.

Destro is another good friend, my bro through and through.  Our relationship was never as rocky as you’d expect, he only tried to overthrow me twice…maybe thrice, but we’ve patched things up and recent years have only been good.  Old age and a successful island nation suit Destro, he’s finally calmed down after all these years and has become a pretty fun guy.  

But besides Cobra High Command, do I have friends?  That’s really the heart of your question isn’t it?  Of course I do, I’m Cobra Commander, I know each of my citizens by name.   Antonio, my personal chef, I love that guy.   Sunny, the founder and bartender of The Summit (the Tiki bar at the top of our volcano).  Jackson, my main Televiper.  So on and so forth.  

And even more personal than that, even deeper into the heart of your question, there are the people who have been with me since the beginning.  My friends from Springfield, who I grew up with, who inspired Cobra, who were there for me when I had nothing, and who made me the person I am today.  They followed me on the run across the country, to Europe and back, through the 80’s to here to Cobra Island.  Not all have them have made it.  Some left and some are dead, but they are all like my family.  

Interesting, You have your Crimson Guard from hometown Springfield, and your inner circle, but most of the people in those circles have either tried to overthrow you are beholden to you for your existence.  Heavy is the head that wears the crown.  No matter how you shake it, you are an island unto yourself on an island. To save space, I will eschew Question 9.

So…  Question 10: Fill in the blanks:  I find that I am mostly __________________.  Others find that I am mostly _____________________.  

I find that I am confident/cocky/charismatic/crazy fine with who I am and what I have done.  I have no interest in what other people think of me.  

PR’s snickering, what are you snickering over?

I think it’s funny you put down “cocky” before “charismatic.”  

So, like any typical democratically elected official, you are terribly worried about how others perceive you… guh... deflate the ego a bit, Commander.  Heck, you want people to refer to you as Commander.  Don’t you have a real name?  Dave?  Steve? Mike? Alfonso? Joseph? Gordon? Levitt? Question 11: When was the last time someone called you by your given name? Ted?

Joseph Gordon Levitt!  Why?  What was that?  What was any of that?  I’m the Baroness’ brother?  Do you know how awkward it was watching that?  I was sitting right next to her in the theater!  It was TERRIBLE!   Hollywood drivel, not even trying to offend me, not even trying to be American propaganda, glorifying the armed forces, just cashing in on 80’s nostalgia, and they couldn’t even do that right!  It was just noise, noise and nonsense!  

Now, why wouldn’t I want people to refer to me as ‘Commander?’ You make it sound like an ego thing, but I am the commander in chief, it is the proper way to address me.  Don’t go blaming me for my actual name being stricken from the public record.  That was the American Government’s doing, not mine.  How would it look on them that the most prominent enemy of the States, the number one “terrorist” in the world, was one of their own, an American citizen?  And not some radical, not some cult member, but a homegrown kid from some small town people only drive through. They couldn’t allow that detail to be part of their narrative, and with my allegiances to mostly international members it was easy to assume I was some foreign force.  They confiscated my identity, buried down my existence so deep that not even the Joes knew who they were dealing with.

During my time at Blackwater Prison, after the incident with the MASS Device, I was under Joe supervision twenty-four-seven awaiting trial.  A few weeks into this we finally determined that they had, this entire time, and we’re talking about a year from first engaging with Cobra, mistaken me for my brother.  I laughed, of course.  I laughed and laughed and laughed.  It made sense.  By then the government was hiding my existence, the Joes had on their own determined my family, and they saw my brother’s paperwork with all his on record military training, and a death that could have easily been faked.  It made sense, but it was still wrong.

I never stopped using my identity and my name.  The government could keep me hidden to the public but they couldn’t stop me.  My friends know it and my friends use it, and I have been known to introduce myself with it.  The last time someone used it was last night. 

To be clear, no one liked that movie.  It was terrible… absolutely awful.  It was worse than the weird ass animated movie, and that was bizarre indeed.  It would have been so easy to make a movie for GI Joe. Power suits?  Really?  What the hell?  And Ripcord in a power suit?  Ripcord is a HALO Jumper, his specialization should have been all about doing HALO jumps. The power suit should have been given to a Joe who was trained in power suits.  I don’t know, maybe he would be given the callsign Gundam or Manzinger or something like that.  But seriously, how difficult would it have been to make a compelling GI Joe movie?  I hate Hollywood… Hollywood makes me so angry.  I believe I mentioned something about that previously…. 

It’s a tragedy when you make enemies of those in control of IP’s you love.  

Question 12: So, are you planning on any succession planning?  Are you grooming the next Cobra Commander?

I like to think that all the citizens of Cobra Island are being educated and trained to their fullest potential, free to pursue whatever they want in life, including the presidency of our nation.  

Our government is set up with five-year terms without any limitations on how many terms an individual may serve, hence my long-standing presidency.  There have been a few people to run against me over the years, but I suspect it will take my retirement to usher in fresh blood.  No, there is no plan of succession; there is no individual who has my favor.  I have no doubt that whoever ends up taking over will be completely capable and as competent and compassionate as a national leader should be.  

I am going to change topics a bit because of where we are in the 20 Questions.  When I was a kid, I played soccer.  I really enjoyed it, and for a time I was pretty good.  I used to have a ritual, a lucky sequence of preparation that I did to help the team towards victory.  The ritual, generated over time by positive results seemed at the time, something that had to be done in a very specific sequence to enact that luck.  It was simple superstition at the time, bit looking back at it, that ritual actually did a different thing for me.  Instead of enacting some abstract concept of “luck” it was a ritual to help me into the correct headspace prior to being in a game.  It was a way of closing out the parts of my life not associated with the game and magnifying the parts that were.  It became a ritual that was akin to a type of meditation.  Question 13:  Do you have any superstitions or rituals in your life?

No.  

Innnnteresting… Good to know. Surprising, but good to know.  I would have thought you would have had a lucky hood, or a special way to polish your visor, or some kind of weird mindfulness.

I am in control of my life, not luck.  

Question 14: How do you celebrate your successes?

An Old Fashioned and a cigar…or a mandatory Island-wide party.  Have you ever crowd surfed across an entire nation?  Yeah, we don’t mess around on Cobra Island.  I think the longest party we had was just over ten days.   It’s a real morale booster for everyone.  

An “Old Fashioned and a cigar?” What are you? 90? That is how my dad’s dad would celebrate.  

Your dad knew how to celebrate then.  Perhaps I should be talking to him.

This question came up in one of my other 20 Questions interviews.  It is a simple question whose answer is often quite profound. Question 15: Are you happy?

I’m Cobra Commander.  

…and that is not an answer.  Maybe if you were some iconic image synonymous with happy that would be an appropriate response, but you are Cobra Commander.  That title is not synonymous with happy.  In fact I think that title seems almost opposite of happy.  Are you saying that Cobra Commander = happy? 

No, my name is synonymous with a hissing voice and yelling and throwing chairs isn’t it?  Well, I am happy.  Why wouldn’t I be?  Now, that doesn’t mean I’m content, or satisfied, there’s still more work to be done, there always is.  Always one more battle to win.  But when I’m busy is when I’m happy.  Because happiness is itself work, it is itself something to be won and earned.  

That’s an interesting take on happy. I do like the philosophy that “happiness is itself work.” That is an interesting sentiment.  Happiness does not just happen.  Happiness is something you have to work for and on.

And often protect.  

It is pretty obvious that I am very interested in your personal life because that is not information that is very widely disseminated.  I am clearly trying to get an understanding about the man behind the chrome.  I have to say (as we are rounding the corner on these 20 Questions) that you are a more personable and, dare I say, relatable person than I would have imagined.   One thing that I have been trying to tease out from these questions is what your personal life must be like as the “democratically elected leader of Cobra Island.” I would imagine that much like an insanely wealthy and popular rap mogul or Hollywood superstar, it must be difficult to discern the true friends from the hangers-on.  You mentioned beforehand that your friends are mostly in your employment.  I know that the power differential is most likely palpable regardless of your intentions, and in the quiet times when you are by yourself, you may have questions as to the loyalty of your inner circle...  especially the ones who were not there from the beginning. So…

Question 16: Is there a significant other in the life of Cobra Commander?  Do you have a romantic partner that you share your personal life with? Is there someone who rises above the yes-men and people in your employ? A person whom you treat as your equal and with whom you share your personal life? 

Are you flirting with me?  I know it’s hard not to, it’s the uniform, ain’t it?  

We’ve been talking for some time now and I believe there are some misconceptions that are continuing to prevail in your view of me.  I am not surrounded by yes-men or people who I think are beneath me and not deserving of my respect.  I don’t have time for people like that.   Time is a very precious commodity, you only get so much of it, and it’s a waste to spend it with boring, useless people.  I guarantee you no one in my country is boring or useless.  We are Cobra, the Great Snake Lives Forever, and I have spent nearly my entire life believing in us.  I love Cobra, and it has, with great effort, culminated into its current form as a society, and a culture, a people.  

I digress though.  You’re looking for an individual I can point to, a name I can give you, someone who can fit into a cartoon version of my life, but such a thing doesn’t exist.  Not for me, not for anyone.  It’s all very complicated, and messy, and full of intense conflicting emotions, and ultimately for myself, I feel that I feel too much for too many things to allow for what you’re talking about.

But have some gotten close?  Sure.  Some even closer than others. 

There clearly is a misconception on my part, because in most popular cultural representations of you, you are portrayed as a solitary island within an island.  You are represented as the aloof ruler consistently dealing with the Machiavellian machinations of your power-hungry subordinates all the while vacillating between being a jack-booted, fear-inducing, unhinged paranoid dictator and a mewly-mouthed coward sending your underlings to do tasks that you are incapable and unwilling to do yourself.

Yes, and as you know most pop culture regarding me is fueled by the American propaganda machine.  Let’s be smart and not insult me by believing in any of that.  

Clearly that is not the case.  Regardless of our interaction, or any efforts you have made to disavow those portrayals, a long-standing leader of any organization cannot survive as leader with those traits. My questions merely have been to more fully flesh out the real Cobra Commander as a person with friends, family, loved ones, wants, needs and dreams, and to do that I guess I had to wade through my own misconceptions.  I thank you for your patience.

I had dreams once, a long time ago.  They were about this interview being over.  Now nothing remains…but memories.   

Question 17:  Is there a question that I haven’t asked you that you were expecting me to ask?

Usually people ask me more about the Joes and stuff from the cartoon.  Is Serpentor seriously a clone?  Yes.  Did Destro ever wield Excaliber?  No.  Am I a snake man from a secret society of snake men?  No.  What’s your favorite toy?  The Terrordrome set.  Did Scarlet and I ever have a thing?  Yes.  

Wait, what?  

I thought you might ask me about my ex-wife or my brother.  

It was wise to not mention my son.  

I have some level of couth… maybe not much, but there is at least a little.  Well, I am nervous to do this, but it is time to turn the tables… Question 18: Do you have any questions for me? 

No not really.  

Why did you seek out an interview with the Commander?

Hey!

Well, I was wondering!  

Who would not want to ask THE Cobra Commander 20 Questions?  I grew up with the 3.75” GI Joe toys.  When I was really into it I would get every action figure I could get my grubby little hands on. In the beginning, all that was available was the Cobra Soldier and the Cobra Officer as a foil to my initial team of GI Joe heroes. I sent in my Flag Points along with my $0.50 check to get my Cobra Commander mail-in offer… I think I got about 5 of them in total. It was glorious. Cobra Commander is a character that is near and dear to my heart, so interviewing the actual Commander was to be a bit of a dream come true...They say, never meet your heroes, I guess this applies for your villains as well.  Ah, well.  You win some, you lose some.

The penultimate question… Question 19: What are you taking from these 20 Questions that you did not bring in with you?

That the book I’ve been meaning to write might not be a terrible idea.  

If I have even been of a minor service, my job is done here.

Question 20:  What’s next?  Be as vague or as concrete, as short-term or long-term, or as literal or figurative as you would like.

Oh, are we done?  Oh my Lord, is it true?  Can it be?  The legends were true!  Twenty Questions finally came to an end at the twentieth question!   And look, neither of us died!  I didn’t kill you a blind rage because I don’t actually do that, and you ended up being a legitimate fan and not some secret wannabe assassin trying to get close to me.  It’s a good day, eh?

Next up?  I think I’ll have another coffee.

That just happened folks.  Everyone should give the Commander a like on Facebook and thank him for doing this interview... quite possibly the most in depth Cobra Commander interview by someone outside of the Cobra Island media outlets.  I want to thank Cobra PR for setting up and facilitating this process.

To recap:
We went on Vacation last week
Things have been hectic
ergo no posts for a few weeks
We did the California: Redwoods Empire Multisport Tour
We went through Backroads
They were amazing
Simply amazing
I highly recommend their vacations
Both kids have said it was their favorite vacation ever
I tend to agree
Even though I sprained my elbow on day 3
A week later and I am doing much better
I would say that my arm is at 85%
Here is a pic of the kids under a redwood

Those trees are huge
On a totally unrelated note, Mae is awesome
She knows who she is and why
Nothing creepy
Still looking for the UXD job
Take a look at 9thPointStudio.com if you want to see my bonifides
The Mom-in-Law got the sepsis and is recovering in the hospital
The wife leaves for Tampa tomorrow
It is hectic this week as well 
Have a great week eveyone

#YoJoe #Cobraaaaaa

20 Questions Tuesday... On a Wednesday: 325 - Rain

So… a day late and a dollar short. I got home from work last night and just crashed.  I got my degree in the mail Monday afternoon and I think 3 years of pent up stress and anxiety came crashing through me.  I was a spacey mess yesterday.  I had trouble focusing and was just incredibly tired.  So, even though I had questions to answer, I had no energy to answer them.

It has been crazy rainy around here as of late.  So, it only makes sense that today’s topic is “Rain.”  Thanks this week go to Lsig, Chris Ring, LaRock, Steev, some other guy, and the Wife.  Onto the questions:

1. Is the rain currently falling on your head more like a tragedy or a new emotion?
More like a new emotion.

2. If you had to choose a rain of cats, dogs, or both, which would you choose and why?
This is hard because I like cats I would say cats, but if it is raining cats, those cats will be falling incredible distances, and those cats will plummet to their death… Same with dogs.  When it rains cats and dogs, those animals will die.  I cannot in good conscience select either, just know that I like cats more than I like dogs. 

3. If it were literally raining men, do you think "hallelujah" would be the thing people would shout? (I am skeptical).
More likely “ahhhhhhhhhhh” from the men falling to their deaths and “LOOK OUT!” or “OH MY GOD, WHY ARE THERE MEN FALLING!”  your ceiling cannot shield you from them… There really is no shelter available.

4. Which summer industry is most screwed by all this rain?
The sunbrella and retractable sun shade industry.

5. What would 40 days and 40 nights of this kind of rainfall look like? (Do math for me, baby.)
Yesterday we got .96 inches in 1 hour, .96 x 24 x 40 = 921.6 inches or 76.8 feet of water. Considering how fast the water exchange is for the ground and water table, let’s say that on average 10 inches of water a day can be exchanged per day, that leaves 521.6 inches or 43.4667 ft of water. That is an amazing amount of water.  Basically we would all die.

6. Kelly Jones' or Peter Gabriel's "Red Rain" which did you enjoy more?
Peter Gabriel

7. Do Rainy days and Mondays always get you down?
Mondays most definitely

8. Best Rainy day activity?
Drawing

9. Did you ever have  curbside "boat" races in the street with popsicle sticks during a summer downpour?
Jesus, Grandpa. Did you also like running down the street with your stick and hoop?

10. Best "Rain scene" from a movie?
I know it is not a movie, but the fight scene in Ep 1 of Daredevil Matt and the hired killer fall outside.  That is the one that keeps coming back to me.

11. Where does rain come from?
God is crying… because of something YOU did.  God has been crying a lot.  What DID you do!?!

12. What is acid rain?
Acid rain is rain in which the water evaporated with some amount of sulfides.  The sulfides accumulate in the clouds and then have a chemical reaction with the water to create some mild sulfuric acid.  The water and sulfuric acid then falls as rain and over time the acid rain eats through things.

13. Is rainwater better for you than ground water?
Depends on what you want to do with it.  As far as purity of being solely H20… I would have to guess rainwater.  Ground water has too much potential to have picked up weird minerals on the way.

14. What's the deal with virga? 
Virga, for those of you who do not know is the meteorological event where rain is visible in the air. but sublimates (vanishes) prior to hitting the ground.  The atmosphere is weird, and virga is just part of that weirdness. Most rain starts out as ice and snow and just melts on its way down.

15. Fact or fiction, have other things like blood and frogs rained down from the sky?
If one defines rain as water that has evaporated from the surface, collected into clouds, and then condensed into rain… then no.

16. "The Rain in Spain" is a song from the musical My Fair Lady. Spanish rain does not actually stay mainly in the plain. It falls mainly in the northern mountains. The Pyrenees are Spanish mountains in the autonomous community of Aragon in northeastern Spain. Aragon, a medieval country should not be confused with the fantasy novel “Eragon” or the fictional character, Aragorn.  Aragorn was not only a king but a ranger too. There was a ranger on The Red Green Show. He lived alone in a fire lookout tower somewhere in Canada. Do you think it rains more in the mountains of Canada or Spain?
Canada.

17. Favorite word for rain?
Drizzle

18. What does it mean when they say a tornado is rain-wrapped?
Tornados are a tightly packed anti-cyclone that has enormous energy in an updraft.  This updraft often sucks and potential rain up and away from the tornado giving it a relatively rainfree area of effect.  This often makes the tornado very visible because there is no rain obscuring visual detection.  A rain-wrapped tornado is one where there is a rain shield around it obscuring it from visual detection.  Rain-wrapped tornadoes are very scary.

19. So, is it going to rain tomorrow?
Somewhere? Yes.  Everywhere? No.

20. Cold-front or warm-front, which is your fav?
I tend to like cold fronts better.

and one more because it is Wednesday and I owe you one.

21. “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain” is a Willie Nelson song… Name three others
Oh… shit.  Umm… “On the Road Again,” “To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before,”  and …. and …. um… “Poncho and Lefty.”  You will not believe the mnemonic device I had to remember for that last one.

To recap:
Sorry this is a day late
Not super sorry
Only kind of sorry
Here are the drawings that Jimmy Pardo is getting for doing my 20 Questions

Batman 1966

Cajun Jimmy

Anyone want to do a 20 Questions now?
Anyone want to ask me 20 Questions?
Interview will be coming up next week
We are on Question 18
Pretty sure we will hit 20 by Friday
You will not believe who this interview is
I could not believe it myself
I have things that need to be done before going to bed tonight
So, I will end this here
Have a great week everyone