The Answers

Occasionally I'll get a quiz mailed to me. I'm supposed to fill it out and mail it to someone else, kind of like a chain letter. Well, actually, it is a chain letter. So, I delete it. Anyone who knows me knows how I feel about chain email, and anyone who doesn't know how I feel about chain email doesn't know me.

Usually, that means if you don't know me, you'll get a return note telling you exactly what I think. Happily, most of you survive the experience, and many exhibit "learning behavior" and stop sending me chain mail.

My preference is for things like this do be done on the World Wide Web, if at all. In that vein, I'll start collecting the questions asked of me here, and whenever you have the urge to Know All About Me (hah!) it'll all be here.

This will necessarily have no particular order. I don't choose the questions, I just answer them. Maybe...

2002 July 23:

LIVING ARRANGEMENT?

A 3-Bedroom house with small yard in South Seattle, a couple of blocks away from a historic area

WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW?

Just finished "Ella Minnow Pea" by Mark Dunn. A silly fable but one of the most excellent manipulations of the English language I've read yet.

WHAT'S ON YOUR MOUSE PAD?

Hmm. Using the bare desk right now, not really enough room for a mouse pad. I don't mouse that much anyway. The last mouse pad I had was from Amazon.com and quoted Groucho Marx: "Outside of a dog, a book is Man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read."

FAVORITE BOARD GAME?

Scrabble is about the only thing I regularly play. Trivial Pursuit is too ... uh ... concrete, i guess, for my tastes. Scrabble is timeless.

FAVORITE MAGAZINE?

Scientific American. When I remember to renew my subscription...

FAVORITE SMELLS?

Sage, juniper, bread.

FAVORITE SOUND?

White noise :-). I like the noise you hear between AM stations, and the noise the cat makes jumping.

WORST FEELING IN THE WORLD?

You ever find yourself reliving some incredible mistake you made years ago? I hate that.

WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU THINK OF WHEN YOU WAKEUP IN THE MORNING?

How many times do I have left to hit the snooze bar? (I limit myself to three.)

FAVORITE COLOR?

Dark blues and greens.

HOW MANY RINGS BEFORE YOU ANSWER THE PHONE?

At least two. If you don't wait for the second ring, the caller ID box won't register the call :)

NAME OF FUTURE CHILDREN?

uh heh. yeah. right.

MOST IMPORTANT THING IN LIFE?

Do the best you can.

FAVORITE FOODS?

Hamburgers, fish-n-chips, omelettes, pasta.

CHOCOLATE OR VANILLA?

Chocolate, but not that crap they make easter bunnies out of.

DO YOU DRIVE TOO FAST?

Sometimes. It's hard to do that in an electric bus, though. The fastest I've ever driven one is 38 mph. It was a 30 mph zone, though....

DO YOU SLEEP WITH A STUFFED ANIMAL?

No, I sleep with my cat Rashid. And my wife Sara. Does she count as an animal? Stuffed? What if we go to bed right after dinner?

STORMS-COOL OR SCARY?

Very cool. We get so few real storms in Seattle, though.

WHAT TYPE WAS YOUR FIRST CAR?

It was a 1969 Volkswagen Fastback, dark green. Swell car.

ULTIMATE CAR?

An ambulance.

IF YOU COULD MEET ONE PERSON DEAD OR ALIVE WHO WOULD IT BE?

James Monroe. Just to ask him what on earth he was thinking when he created the Monroe Doctrine, the descendants of which have gotten us into more trouble than any other policy.

FAVORITE ALCOHOLIC DRINK?

Beer. Porters, Red Ales and the occasional Stout

WHAT IS YOUR ZODIAC SIGN?

Aquarius, the guy who dumps water on your head, but cries when he gets wet himself. (Aquarius is an Air sign!)

DO YOU EAT THE STEMS OF BROCCOLI?

Yup. Or I trade them to Sara for the flowers.

IF YOU COULD HAVE ANY JOB YOU WANTED WHAT WOULD IT BE?

A job where I could tell people how do to stuff, but only those people who understand what I'm talking about, because I don't wanna have to tell you twice!

IS THE GLASS HALF EMPTY OR HALF FULL?

It's empty. Sara came through and drank it while I wasn't looking.

FAVORITE MOVIE?

Trouble in Mind, Alan Rudolph, dir. Filmed in Seattle. Set in a place called Rain City which was under some weird military dictatorship or something. You never figure that out. Action centers around a breakfast place called "Wanda's". At the end, Wanda says "You wanna know why I opened a early morning place? That's the best time to see the sun rise."

DO YOU TYPE WITH YOUR FINGERS ON THE RIGHT KEYS?

Only when I'm not paying attention. Actually, i Hunt-n-peck at about 60 wpm.

WHAT IS UNDER YOUR BED?

Dust bunnies the size of Godzilla.

FAVORITE NUMBER?

28. QZX = 28 = 2 + 3 + 23. Think about it.

FAVORITE SPORT TO WATCH?

Baseball. But the other day we saw this competition where sporting dogs were run through a course like an equestrian course. There was an obstacle that started out as a round tube, but the tube collapsed into a cloth sleeve. The dog had to run through that at high speed. Hilarious!

FAVORITE SAYING?

De gustibus non disputandem est.

EVER BEEN IN LOVE?

Yup. Nuff said. :-)

FAVORITE HOBBIES?

Reading, playing with my radios, walking, wondering.

IF YOU COULD GO ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD, WHERE WOULD YOU GO?

The coffee shop, while I'm working.

FAVORITE PLACE TO GO TO JUST RELAX?

The back room of my house where the computers and radios are.

IF YOU COULD CHANGE ONE THING ABOUT YOURSELF, WHAT WOULD IT BE?

I should be in better shape. I don't want to be like the people who have to pull themselves onto the bus with both arms, huffing and puffing...

FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF?

I notice things, I'm aware, I can tell the difference in thickness between two hairs. Sometimes I wish I wasn't that sensitive, but usually it works out.

HAPPY TIME IN YOUR LIFE?

Now. Getting married. College. Working as a junior counselor at a science camp. School. All the times I made my parents wonder what they created.

WORST FEAR?

Being lonely. I'm a loner, and sometimes my frineds forget I'm there. That hurts.

BIGGEST PET PEEVE?

Stupid people. I can tell the difference between someone who is mentally handicapped and doing their best and someone who has great mental gifts and is being stupid. Don't be stupid and get on my bus.

NAME A PERSON YOU SENT THIS TO WHO IS MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND?

Hard to tell. I'm not going to remail this, I won't do chain email for any reason. That's what the web is for and that's where this is going.

PERSON YOU SENT THIS TO WHO IS LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND?

You. :-)