20 Questions Tuesday: 210 - Brian Brushwood

I have been getting asked and then eventually asking 20 Questions for a good long time now.  In fact this 20 Questions Tuesday is the 210th that I have done.  So far most of them have been me answering questions rather obtusely with the remaining 33 being 20 Question interviews from people in all walks of life.  I can honestly say, without any pretense, that this 20 Questions is the first one I have done with someone who is pushing the envelope on how we consume entertainment.  Brian Brushwood is an innovator in the Internet cultural landscape. He is the host of 4 popular podcasts. Three for two different podcasting/vidcasting networks (Scam School for Revision 3 and Framerate and NSFW on TWiT) and one that he kind of publishes independently with my previous interviewees, Andrew Mayne and Justin Robert Young called Weird Things.  I rarely get the opportunity to ask questions to someone that is honestly on the cusp of something that feels kind of revolutionary,and I will pride myself on asking this visionary of new media inane random questions.

As I stated, Brian is a podcast host… it seems like he is a bit more than a “podcaster” in my opinion.  He is host/co-host of 4 podcasts and a consistent contributor to a multitude of other podcasts… One would think that would take up all of his time, but one would be an idiotic fool to think that (seriously, One. Don’t bring that weak ass game into my house).  Brian is also an accomplished stage magician and can be found consistently touring the college markets with his trademark golden spikey hair and witty rapport.  So without any further ado…. 20 Questions Tuesday with Brian Brushwood.

I make maps for a living, but I look at maps and geography as a way to tell stories.  I was born at Tinker Air Force Base just outside of Oklahoma City. The fam moved to Maxwell AFB in Montgomery, Alabama when I was 3 (actually ON my third birthday, we celebrated my birthday at a rest area).  Soon after, we moved up to a suburb of Birmingham, Alabama where I lived until I went off to college at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio.  After graduating from KSU, I followed my fiancee down to Ohio State and we have made our lives in Columbus, Ohio ever since…. but enough about me.  Question 1: What is your geographic story?

I was born in Fountain Valley, CA, but moved several times while growing up:  Houston, TX, Denver, CO, and Stavanger, Norway.  I ended up in Austin for college, and I fell in love with the town.  I’ve lived here ever since (though obviously still see a lot of the country on tour).

My family hosted an exchange student from Kongsberg, Norway my senior year in High School.  I lost touch with her when she moved out of my house.  I wish I could get back in touch with her, not being able to is one of the few regrets I have from my life.  

So… Question 2: What was your family doing in Norge?

Dad worked in the Oil business, and Norway does a lot of offshore drilling.  I was 12, and it was easily one of the most important, best experiences of my life.  I was completely uprooted from home, right at the age when American consumerism gets its hooks into you.  Being taken out of the US to a world without TV, shopping malls, or McDonald’s was absolutely extraordinary for me.

So, let’s get into it.  All of my 14 loyal readers want to know… Question 3: Cake or pie? Whichever of these you choose.. what type is your favorite?

CAKE! (unless it’s peanut butter pie.  which is amazing.  Also:  my daughter has peanut allergies, so we make her sunbutter pie, which is made with sunbutter… which is a peanut butter -like substance made form sunflower seeds… yet amazingly better than peanutbutter.  So, I’ll choose “sunbutter pie”…  what was the question again?)

Ooooh we never thought of the sunbutter pie.  That would have been great.  Both my kids had severe food allergies when they were born.  I have actually traded a few tweets with the Invisible Wife about food allergy resources.  Little Man (my almost 9 year old) has grown out of all of his, but he was allergic to dairy, egg, soy, peanuts, tree nuts, and some vegetables.  He held onto the peanut and tree nut allergies until he turned 6-ish.  Q (my 4 year old little girl) was allergic to dairy, egg, soy, and tree nuts, but she has grown out of those yet developed an orange allergy.  Sunbutter is pretty darn tasty, but soy-nut butter sucks ass.  I have tons of recipes for multiple food allergy foods, if you want them.  Sunbutter pie does sound awesome.  Okay, I am on board, how are you going to get that pie to me in C-bus?  Also, I don’t think I have ever had anyone change their mind in mid-stream like this…

You were not always a professional magician, Question 4: Have you always been interested in the magics?

I’ve always been interested in being tricky, and once I got to college I thought that learning some magic would be a good way to spend my free time.  I figured no matter where I ended up in life, it would be good to know a few kickass tricks.  I never thought it would end up being my career, much less a successful one.

I asked you friend and colleague, Andrew Mayne the following question and I am curious as to your response as well….

Question 5:  If you could change the “stage magician” title, which title would you prefer? Magician, Illusionist, Wizard, Charlatan, Sorcerer, Hood-winker, Eldritch Mage, Diabolist, or another of your choice…  Would you choose a different title for other magicians you know? BeeTeeDubs, Andrew Mayne chose “wizard.”  

Definitely Charlatan.  Maybe snake-oil salesman.  Fraud?  Liar?  Those seem appropriate, too…

Charlatan is a completely under-used word.  You should try to add it into your online persona when you talk about the magics.

Question 6: As a magician, excuse me, charlatan, yourself, what type/genre of magic do you enjoy watching most as a spectator? For example, I am completely fascinated by close work.

I’m always interested in performers who use magic to tell a bigger story.  Routines that are about life and death.  About love and loss… something bigger than “where’d that girl vanish to?”

That is interesting because I tend to like the close work because it is typically bite sized without an over-arching theme or story.  There is a local BBQ place,(yes, there is BBQ in Ohio… clearly not as good as what can be found in TX, at this place the pulled pork is good, the brisket is not) that used to hire a magician (Carroll Baker) every Sunday night to entertain the kiddos (whilst the old people eat).  I love watching him work.

Question 7: Let’s get all foodie here… What is the best BBQ in Austin (I have only been to Green Mesquite)?  And what is your particular favorite there? What type of sauce do you like? tell me all things Brian Brushwood and BBQ…  and… go.

I’m gonna piss off the locals here (as my pick originally comes from San Antonio), but I’ll say without reservation that the best BBQ in Austin is at Rudy’s.  The meat itself is great, but it’s their original Sause (spelled that way) that takes their work over the top.  It’s amazing.

I knew I should not have asked this question…. and then I knew I should not have looked at Rudy’s “Country Store” BBQ’s website… I am lucky that in my little burrow of Clintonville has the best BBQ in town in the shape of a food truck, Ray Ray’s Hog Pit.  Yes, I realize that the Columbus food truck scene is severely lacking compared to what y’all have in Austin, but Ray Ray’s Hog Pit is pretty darn awesome.

So, to steer this away from food, of which I need some, let’s talk more about the Internet and the nature of memes, so get your sociologist hat on… With the BBLive show and its current incarnation the NSFW Show, memes and viral videos are a staple of your program. Question 8: Why do you think memes and virals burn so hot and so fast and then are gone? Why don’t they have staying power especially since we, the Internet viewing people find them so enjoyable?

I think just about every facet of real life is mirrored by the internet in some way.  We have analogues for travel, adventure, exploration, workspaces, financial districts…  I think memes are an analog to family jokes or momentary whimsies.  They’re very beloved for the two hours that they’re funny, and then they’re dropped.  But because it happens on the internet, everything takes longer… so it takes 2 weeks to get over it.

Interesting.  What I have found about the memes is that unlike family jokes, most memes you cannot return to.  With family jokes, I have found that I can bring them back up and re-live some of the whimsy… Keyboard Cat is hack now.

So, I subscribe to my Mother-in-Law’s philosophy of “Don’t let the fuckers get you down.”  Question 9: Do you have a saying, adage, credo, motto, etc… that you particularly ascribe?  If so, where did it come from and why does it resonate?

"There’s a million very good reasons why you should wait just a little bit longer before you start your next venture… Ignore all of them.
Don’t wait to get started. Don’t wait to pick up the phone. Don’t wait to start writing new material. Say “Yes” and “Immediately” often.
You’re going to find eight million excuses on why you should wait. Wait for them to call you back. Wait until you buy better props. Wait until you can hire a professional photographer. Wait until your new routine is ready. Wait until know-nothing doofuses who happen to have started their careers before you write you back with sage words of wisdom (that’s me I’m talking about).

Don’t. Wait.

The only thing separating you from having your best show possible is 10,000 hours of live performances. And while that sounds like an unfair, daunting amount of time and effort to put into becoming great, here’s the twist: the time is going to pass anyway. You can either spend it working towards your goal, or waiting.
Whatever’s wrong with your show, it’s nothing that a thousand performances won’t fix. So get out there now and start performing.

I am always impressed by the level of effort and motivation that it takes for people to become independently successful.  That amount of effort seems like levels of self-motivation that I feel like I lack.

So, let’s go a bit deeper for a second on motivational questions.  I used to think that my driving question was “How can I get my professional life more in line with my personal life?”  This does not seem to resonate with me right now.  I think the question I am dealing with right now is “What activity is it that I cannot help but get involved in?”  Kind of a question of what it is that, if it is available, I simply must participate.  I used t think it was fantasy mapping, but I am very disinterested in mapping of all sizes, shapes, and forms right now.  So, Question 10:  What is the question that drives you?  What is the over-arching question you are trying to answer with all of your thoughts, actions, and intentions?

"Where do I belong?"

stated differently:  ”Where do my natural talents make the most sense, give me the most visibility, and allow me to touch the lives of the maximum number of other people?”

THAT is why I do this.  Answers like this are what I live for on this blog.  Digging this answer the most.  I might need to appropriate parts of your question for myself.  It is like you have thought about this before.

So, you are a part of multiple podcasts and you guest on many more.  Question 11:  Do you regularly listen to any specific podcasts (other than your own), and, if so, which ones and why?

Hardcore History, Dan Carlin’s Common Sense, 99% Invisible, Freakonomics Radio, Skeptoid, Smodcast, Stuff to Blow your Mind, Radiolab, Penn’s Sunday School, the PC Gamer podcast, and a few others (more sporadically).

I love Hardcore History, and I have tried out Skeptoid, Freakonomics Radio, and Smodcast before.  I discontinued all of those for various reasons.  

Okay, I know from listening into the Weird Things podcast and the selection of podcasts that you just mentioned that you would classify yourself as a skeptic.  One thing I have noticed about skeptics (enter sweeping generalization here) is that there is a little piece of them that is hopeful that something paranormal out there is, in fact, real.  They are just not swayed by the admittedly flimsy evidence that the unabashed believers tout as truth.  Question 12: supposing that my sweeping generalization is true, what in the whole gamut of the paranormal do you most hope to be true (personally, I am holding out hope for sasquatches)?

Excitingly enough: it seems like we’re drawing in ever-closer to real, technological telepathy.  With transcranial electromagnetic stimulation, we can induce emotions strange feelings.  With fMRI’s, we’re getting closer to reading thoughts as they’re formed.  And of course, we’re all hoping for ever-more immersive, realistic simulations… eventually stimulating the brain directly.  THAT’s some exciting fringe science, right there.

It does seem that we are on the cusp of some very interesting technological times.  

I understand that you, most likely, do not have any superstitions, but this is unlucky Question 13: Do you, instead, have any rituals you adhere to do you can get in the correct frame of mind for some activity? For example, when I played soccer in high school, I had a very specific sequence for putting on socks, shin guards, and cleats.  Similarly, when I fenced in college, I had a specific method for attaching wires, putting on equipment, etc… Or do you have any superstitions?

Oh, man— being a skeptic has done nothing to stop my stupid, animal brain from insisting on the strangest rituals.  If I step on a crack, I feel the strangest urge to step on every crack.  I hold my breath for arbitrary lengths of time, vaguely certain it will affect the outcome of random events.  Before every stage show, I mentally recite the set list as if it’s some kind of litany.

I haven’t found an analog to the soccer and fencing prep in my current life. I think that kind of mindfulness and deliberateness is missing in my life right now, and may be one of the issue impeding me from focus.

Question 14: Fill in the blanks.  A: I find that I am mostly __________.  B: Other people feel that I am mostly ____________.  C: Do these answers differ greatly?  If so, why?

A: AN IDIOT
B: OBSESSED WITH REMINDING THEM I’M AN IDIOT
C: Here’s the thing:  the universe is infinitely complex.  Human emotions and thought are infinitely complex.  The best I can hope to do during my entire life is keep learning as much as I can, as fast as I can.  Part of that means bringing as many people up to speed with the crap I’ve learned as fast as I’m able.  And the only way that’s possible, is if you take a student’s mentality to learning.  Spend your whole life thinking of yourself as an empty vessel yearning to be filled.

You are quite the philosophical soul.

Since we started these 20 questions you have had your second digital book published and put on the market.  Question 15: Any surprising lessons learned from your book experiences?

Yes.  When releasing book 2, don’t drop book 1 to 99 cents.  It creates a perverse incentive for people to buy book 1 instead of book 2.

I was curious about that tactic… I imagined that it would either boost combined sales or completely cannibalize your new book sales.

Since you are firmly ensconced in the “new media” model area, and Framerate is a show primarily about the new medias and such, plus you have just published 2 successful interactive e-books… Question 16: How do you see the media market changing in the next 3 years… I ask because we are about to move to a new house and will be cutting the chord when we get into the new digs, and I find this to be a rather interesting topic.

Media will increasingly be judged on its own merit, rather than on the platform it inhabits.

How very egalitarian of you… the cynic in me really wants to giggle at you for your rose colored glasses, but there is a larger part of me that is hopeful as well that the cream will, in fact, rise to the top.

So, Question 17: What song is going through your head right now.  So you don’t feel self conscious about what comes to mind… I am thinking about Divine Hammer by The Breeders…. and go!

I was thinking that it was a bad idea to take an hour long nap this afternoon, because now I’m probably going to be up until 3am.  That’s not bad in and of itself, but it throws me wildly off-schedule from the rest of the family.  At least I don’t need to get up to go to an office.  While it’s terrifying to swing from gig to gig, never knowing how much money I’ll make month to month, it’s comforting to know that I don’t need to show up every single day to a job that eats my soul.  In fact, it was when I realized that I was excited for bathroom breaks that I realized there might be more to life than a job with a steady paycheck.  Man, those were weird days.  Working in a cubicle, dealing with a phone queue…  I remember staying around after work to play Robotron on MAME against my boss.  We used to joke about us hosting the “robotron world championships,” and when he won, I surprised him at the next team meeting by presenting him with an engraved plaque proclaiming him “Robotron World Champion 2000.”  I was really surprised by how excited he was about the award, and that’s when I realized that dollar-for-dollar, you can’t bring more joy to someone than by presenting them with a trophy or award.  I even used it to get to the top of the list for Fear Factor years ago.  Along with my VHS video tape, I sent them a laser-engraved plaque congratulating them on their smart moves and declaring them official “Damn Geniuses” for considering me for the spot.  It didn’t end up getting me on the show, but that same kind of thinking did get me on the tonight show.  Back when nobody knew who I was, I bought 30 tubs of atomic fireballs and put my demo tape in each one.  On the side I wrote “think these are hot?  Try eating FIRE!” and then I sent them to 30 TV shows that I thought might have a place for me.  Those were crazy times.  We had no idea whether I was even making the right move, quitting my day job to do magic.  Hell, it still sounds like a crazy idea to me, and I’m 13 years into this experience.  But it’s crazy, now.  I’ve got kids.  Obligations.  The stakes are higher, but so are the payoffs.  There’s nothing so awesome as getting to survive doing something you love.  I worry about what would happen if I totally fail, but then I just realize “if everything goes to shit, I’ll just make a living doing something else I love.”  And then I don’t feel so bad.

So, you were thinking about the song Mr Roboto by Styx.  That’s easy enough to understand, it is quite a fun song…  So many people get mad at me when I ask if there is a question I should have asked.  I get so many notes about how I am supposed to come up with the questions, and here I am feeling vindicated, because you clearly had a question in mind that I did not ask.

It is time for the tables to be turned… so Question 18: Other than “what do you do?” what question do you have for me?

"No, seriously:  Where are my pants?”

They are in a safe place… You will get to see them again, Mr Brushwood, once we have gotten to Question 20.

Question 19: So, what are you taking away from these 20 questions that you did not bring in with you?

An appreciation for Scott Ryan-Hart’s tenacity.  It’s not easy to get me to focus long-term on anything that doesn’t immediately make me rich. :-)

I will take the kudos on the tenacity… I have not been this tenacious with some other folk, but I was seriously interested in your answers because you seem to be more thoughtful, and I tend to enjoy your “voice,” be it written or spoken.

So, the final sad question that signifies the end of a 20 Questions era, the completion of the Epic Brushwood 20 Questions of 2012.  Now that you will no longer be hounded by me for answers to intrusive questions, Question 20:  What is next for you?  Be as concrete or vague or as philosophical or grounded as you want

I honestly have absolutely no idea.  I know there’s a few things I really love:  performing on stage, working in front of a camera, writing books, interacting with fans…  but I seriously haven’t the slightest idea which one is going to take off.  

And the weirdest part?  What I do next is not really even up to me.  I’m just going to keep doing my goofy dance for the world, chasing rainbows and laughing… and somewhere, someone is going to think that I’m a natural fit for their vision.  Could be a TV show, could be another internet series, could be a new stage show tour…  but whatever it is, I just hope that I’m as passionate as I’ve been about everything else I’ve done up to now.

Knowing you as much as I do, now, (We are BFF’s now BTW)  I don’t see passion as being an issue for you, and I am certain that you will create success for yourself and the people around you.

This has been an absolute pleasure, and I want to thank you for taking the incredible amount of time necessary to complete these here 20 Questions.

Check out Brian’s work with his website, his podcasts (Scam School, NSFW show, Framerate, and Weird Things), follow him on twitter @shwood, and see him live if he comes to town, and buy his books… Scam School and Scam School 2!

To recap:
We are moving out of our beloved home today
We will miss this house terribly
It is a great house and I hope that the new owners enjoy it as much as we did
It was the house that we brought both our babies home to
It was an amazing house
We are now in limbo until the 30th
We do not take possession of the new house until then
But today I am sad at the end of this era of my life
Then again, after packing up all the shit from the house it is time to say goodbye
I think the house is done with us anyway
It needs a young couple who will take care of it like they have free time and no kids
I think they are planning to have some chickens in the backyard though
Suck it crappy ex-neighbors
On another note, the boy turns 9 tomorrow
Leave a happy birthday message here and I will tell him about it
Next week, we will be in the new house
It will be awesome
Have a great week everyone

20 Questions Tuesday: 209 - Cuddlah Army

This is going to be an interesting 20 Questions because it is 20 questions with someone who wants to be relatively anonymous.  This person, in many ways is one of the voices for a throng of people who are fans of the comedy podcast Walking the Room. I had the occasion to interview both Greg and Dave a while ago, but this time I am interviewing someone who is a fan, someone who has joined into a disparate community of people with oddly similar senses of humor.  The sense of humor is truly the only tie that binds this group of people, and yet… in many cases, it is a very tight community.  Walking the Room’s fans have taken to calling themselves Cuddlahs, as a direct joke against the Juggalos who are fans of the insipid lyricists, the Insane Clown Posse (“Fucking Magnets, How do they work?”)... jackasses…. talentless hack jackasses

So, this week we are talking to Cuddlah Army from the Twitters… Cuddlah Army is kind of a marshal for all things Walking the Room.  This person is a critical node in the loose network of Cuddlahs.  So without further ado…. Cuddlah Army

So, if you have read any of my interviews, you know that I typically start out with the geographic story… I was born in Oklahoma City, moved to Montgomery, Alabama, Moved up to Birmingham, Alabama, went to college in Kent, Ohio, did my grad school in Columbus, Ohio and settled down there with my wife.  Question 1: What is your geographic story? Be as vague or as precise as you want…

I mostly grew up in small towns in Oklahoma, though I did live in Anchorage, Alaska for a few years when I was very young.  I went to college in Weatherford, Oklahoma, where I met my husband.  10 years ago we moved to a small town near Charlottesville, Virginia. We love it here and consider the Shenandoah Valley our home.

There is oddly a similarity between Oklahoma and Virginia… and there is always a similarity between small towns and other small towns.

Question 2: What do you think is the biggest difference between small town Oklahoma and small town Virginia?

The obvious difference here is the scenery and the weather.  In Oklahoma, the trees are short and squatty, the wind blows constantly, and there really isn’t much in the way of natural beauty.  They have been in a drought situation for a really long time and they tend to have more fires than they did when I was a kid.  The summers are miseable, with temperatures hanging in the hundreds for weeks on end.  It’s sort of like standing in the barrel of a hair dryer.  In Virginia, we have the mountains, the weather is more temperate, and it rains.  As far as small town politics, those are very similar. Unfortunately, I see more racism here, since Virginia is really considered “The South”. Luckily, we live near a college town, so we know liberals more so than we did in Oklahoma.

The rampant overt racism I found in The South is definitely one of the reasons I do not go back there.  Even though my parents still live in Birmingham.  The place is just not safe for me and my family, and I imagine that has not changed in the past 7 years (the last time I went down there).  So, come on South, get with the times.

So, quick question about the Twitter identity…. Question 3: Why Cuddlaharmy?  You, personally, are an individual, why not CuddlahGeneral or GeneralCuddlah?

It was never meant to be about me personally.  I see the Cuddlah Army as a collective… Anyone could run it, and maybe someone else will some day.  It all started because Sean Maclean (AKA Space Ghost) and I had an idea to do a Twitter bomb to celebrate Greg Behrendt’s birthday.  We had a huge response (for it being organized at 2 a.m. the day of the event), that we tried it again for Dave Anthony’s birthday and had so much participation that we registered on TrendsMap.  The whole thing sort of overwhelmed my personal Twitter account, so I created the Cuddlah Army Account.  I’ve been supported by other Cuddlahs along the way, including Mark Klein, who does most of the art, Ronnie Schiller Johnson who helps me think of hashtags, Sean who helps with strategy, and William Bowen, who made the watercolor skull with the clown nose.

It really is amazing how this particular community arose.  So, on a personal side, Question 4: What is it about Walking the Room and specifically Greg and Dave that has hooked you into this community?

I was looking for a podcast that would sort of distract me from my work, which bores me to tears.  I heard about the podcast through Patton Oswalt on Twitter, and decided to give it a listen.  I felt like I was at home from the very first episode.  I grew up with a bunch of brothers and male cousins, and they carry on in much the same way as Greg and Dave.  It gave me a way to hang out with my family once a week without having to deal with family politics.  I think the community has a shared sense of humor that sort of makes it easier for us to deal with one another.  Once you understand a person’s vibe, you can get to know them easier.  I have been able to make friends all across the US, and in Canada, Australia, England, and even Switzerland through this podcast community.  It sort of blows my mind.  Now that I’ve been able to attend a Starfish Circus, I have been fortunate enough to meet Greg and Dave.  They’re just the nicest guys.  I’m eternally grateful to them for putting this group of broken geniuses together. They were brilliant in that they created an identity for their fans, then gave them an outlet for their creativity and sadness.

I guess it is time for me to share my story of Walking the Room.  Greg Behrendt has always been a comedic idol of mine.  Well, not technically always, but after I saw him for the first time on the TVs, I was hooked into his particular brand of humor.  His bit about the abstract art and how it infuriated him until he realized it was about the frame so he punched someone (I could write the bit out from memory, but that would take too much time) is a bit that resides in my head all. the. time.  It is a bit of humor that gets me through the day.  Greg was on Never Not Funny and mentioned he was starting a podcast of his own and I was there.  Dave… I did not really know much about Dave, but I swear we could be close to the same person, if I were just a tad bit more bitter (okay, waaaaaay more bitter).  Like you said, Walking the Room was like “coming home” to a place I hadn’t lived before.

So I digitize and inventory holes in the ground for the transportation system in Ohio… Question 5: What is your dull, tear inducing vocation?

I audit physician coding, billing and documentation.  That’s a fancy way of saying I read medical records all day long and figure out what the physician should have billed, and how he/she could improve his/her notes.

Wow… Question 6: So what other podcasts do you listen to so that you can attempt to retain your sanity?

That list is ever-growing, mostly because I try to listen to podcasts by Cuddlahs whenever I can.  On the more well-known side, I listen to WTF, Superego, The Mental Illness Happy Hour, The Tobolowsky Files, The Moth, Science Friday, and This American Life.  Independent Cuddlah podcasts include Tales From the Attic (I was recently a guest), Toggle the Switch (I will be a guest in the coming weeks), and Going Postal.  I’m planning to listen to The Rigid Fist and The Midseason Replacements soon. [editor’s note:  Google these your damn selves]

I haven’t really jumped on any independent ones… Here is my list… TOFOP, Walking the Room, Never Not Funny, Nerdist, The Moth, Mental Illness Happy Hour, Sklarbro Country, The Dork Forest, You Made it Weird, The Pod F Thompkast, Big Pop Fun, Comedy Film Nerds, Smartest Man in the Universe, Doug Loves Movies, Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History,  NSFW Show, Tech News Today, Fourcast, Framerate,  Talkin Toons, The Shot, Kevin Pollak’s Chat Show, Weird Things, and Mysterious Universe.  I think that’s about it.  You know, not too many.  Listening to Kevin Pollak Chat show right now, and waiting for the mapping program to refresh. [editor’s note:  Google these your damn selves]

Curious minds want to know though…. Question 7: Cake or Pie? Which specific kind and why?

I generally don’t discriminate when it comes to dessert.  I like anything as long as it doesn’t have walnuts.  My favorite in the pie category would have to be something like a blueberry buckle or an apple crisp.  As for cakes, as long as it doesn’t taste factory-made I’m good.  I hate that frosting that comes in a plastic container in the store.  I’ll make my own buttercream, thank you very much.

Store bought frosting is an abomination… It should be dragged outside and beaten with a tire iron.

Question 8: So, other than podcasts, what do you do to pass your “free” time?  What does a CuddlahArmy do in an army downtime?

I have a husband and a seven year-old son who keep me pretty busy.  I love to cook, feed my friends, and walk my dog.  I’m the vice-president of my son’s school’s PTO, so right now I’m fundraising for next year.  I watch a fair amount of TV.

It is always a bit surprising when I find out that someone else who listens to Walking the Room has a family. It is surprising and somewhat uplifting.  It is nice to hear of someone who wallows in a broken sense of humor that also keeps up a “regular” lifestyle.

Question 9: So, Oklahoma and Alaska are not really known as a hotbed of comedy, where and how did you latch onto comedy?

I’ve always found that the best way to get through the trials of life is to laugh my way through it.  I once knew a wise elderly woman who said, “Laugh and the world laughs with you, cry and you cry alone.”  I remember loving Bill Cosby as a kid, then later finding Saturday Night Live (Eddie Murphy, Billy Crystal, Phil Hartman, Dana Carvey, Mike Myers, etc.)  The first R-rated movie I ever went to was “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles”.  One of my brothers took me to see Eddie Murphy in “Raw”.  I think that’s what hooked me.

It is amazing how laughing will sometimes hold off weeping.  Simply amazing.  

So, I tend to cook more around the household because of how much I enjoy watching my kids eat something I prepared (seriously is there much better in parenting than knowing that you are sustaining your kids on a primary level?)  and I tend to rely heavily recipe books from books done by “The Editors of Cooks Illustrated.”  Question 10: For your cooking, do you rely on recipes, if so, do you use family recipes or do you rely on books/the internet and such… or do you just wing it and throw some stuff together?

I don’t usually use recipes, and when I do I tend to combine two or three recipes together.  I do follow the Cooks Illustrated stuff to the T however, at least the first time.  I’m not very creative outside of the kitchen, so food tends to be my canvas, so to speak.

Food is a wonderful milieu within which to work, and if one is truly gifted in that space, one’s family is super happy about that.

Question 11: Can you bake?  Baking and cooking are significantly different skills.
Unfortunately, I am not a baker.  I hope to rectify that one day.

I cannot bake to save my life.  I have trouble even with the just add eggs and oil baking.

Luckily though, where food is concerned: where I am weak, my wife is strong…

This next question is not judgmental, or at least it is not intended to be judgemental, because in many ways the questions is very much one I ask myself everyday when I am getting ready to go to my unfulfilling work… Question 12: It sounds to me like the medical records billing auditing job you do is not necessarily what you would love to be doing.  What do you want to be doing?

That’s a great question.  I have no idea.  I’ve found that I’m good at organizing people, changing processes, and doing big picture type things.  I also hate politics and prefer to be the one in charge.  I do this now because I can do it from home and it gives me more time to be home with my son and available to help out at school, etc.  Someday I’ll need to figure out what I want to be when I grow up.  I have this fantasy that one day I’ll win the lottery and open a cooking school for kids.  Stay tuned.

It really is tough trying to determine what an appropriate career can be.  When you throw in the demands of a family on top of wanting your vocation to be fulfilling the difficulty of finding a worthwhile pursuit becomes even that much greater.

Ah, but is unlucky Question 13: Do you ascribe to any particular superstitions or have any specific rituals?

Not really.  I’m a lot more scientific than that.  I once took the Meyers-Briggs test and I was so far over on the “thinking” side of things my employees called me “Spock”.  I am a big believer in karma, however.

I don’t have many rituals anymore.  Basically I have a couple of mental calming rituals, but that is about all that is left of my superstitions and rituals.

I have been interested in this question for you in particular because in many ways you are more of a personality that is unassociated with a person and not recognized exactly as a person. Question 14: Fill in the blanks: “I find that I am mostly _________.”  ”Other people find that I am __________.”

Okay, I asked a dear friend of mine who has known be since 1986.  Here was her answer, and I agree completely:

Some people think I’m a control freak/ I think I’m conscientious.
Some people think I’m self-sufficient/ I think I’m self-sufficient because I surround myself with the right people.

Brilliant answers… I like the similarity of the answers which creates a sense of consistency and the discrepancy that indicates your individuality.  Digging it.  Digging it something fierce.

So I have adopted my Mother-in-law’s age-old adage of “Don’t let the fuckers get you down.”  Question 15: Do you have any family sayings, mottos, credos?  If so, where did it originate?

My husband’s grandmother always said, “Laugh and the world laughs with you, cry and you cry alone.”  We spend a lot of time laughing whenever life gets hard to make it more tolerable.

Well I hope you are capable of laughing when things are good too.  It would be sad if you could only laugh when times were hard… and you laugh all the time.

Here we are at Sweet 16.  Question 16: As an avid consumer of online entertainment, how do you see the online content changing the overall landscape of the comedy “scene?”

Hmmm… well, I’m no expert, but I think we’ve all noticed some changes.  Comedians are developing a fan base through podcasts and social networking.  This is great because they can find people who truly “get” them, much like Greg Behrendt and Dave Anthony are doing.  I think the approach Louis C.K. is taking is exciting.  I’m not sure if that model would work for just anyone, but he has definitely hit upon something.  I think we as fans are getting a lot of “free” content in the form of podcasts and tweets.  It will be interesting to see if they can make a living with live performances.  They have to find their fan base and then we as fans have to support them like crazy to make it work.

If anyone can find 2000 supporters willing to pay $40/year for their entertainment… one can make a pretty nice living (as long as you have NO overhead expenses).  I wish I could find 100 people willing to pay $20 a year for this crap I put out just so I can help out with the mortgage more (Donate at the bottom left!).  I know that if they could make it happen, I would be more than willing to make a micro-payment for ever episode of WTR, and then buy merch on top of that.  It will really be interesting to see how a Bo Burnham or some other rising comedic star makes this new landscape work.

Since I try to veer away from typical interview questions, there are often some “elephant in the living room” types of things out there or simply questions people wish I had asked, but did not know I should.  Therefore many people I ask questions hate this question, but here it goes… Question 17: Is there anything that you can think of that I should have asked you?

No… I mean, we made it clear that I’m female, right?  A lot of Cuddlahs assume I’m a guy for some reason.

The only clearer we could have made it would have been with pictures, but I ain’t running that kind of blog.

It is time to turn the tables a little bit, Question 18: Any questions you want to ask me?

How did you fare in the power outages?

We actually fared pretty well on the whole.  We lost power at about 5:30 pm on Friday the 29th and then our power was restored on Tuesday evening around 7 pm.  Luckily we got to miss the most vicious of the hot temperatures.  The issue was that for whatever reason our wireless router of 6 years went ka-put-ski. Most likely from age and nearly constant use, so we were unable to be a fully operational house until Thursday evening at about 9 pm.  Since then it has been blisteringly hot and our poor air conditioner has been getting a work out, but as of Saturday night when I am writing this answer, there are still a few people I know who are still without power.  It was really a nasty nasty wind storm.

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

Ummm… that you are an incredibly patient man. [editor’s note: these 20 questions were answered over the course of 12 1/2 weeks]

You are very nice.  It is kind of like herding cats getting these things done.  Since they are email conversations, they can easily get dropped by the people I am questioning.  The people I ask questions have jobs, I have a job.  It is easy for these to be put on the back burner.  No worries.  When I start these I expect them to take a long time.

Question 20: So what is next for you? Be as clear or vague as you want and be as philosophical or concrete as you want.

What’s next… let’s see, I’m baking a chicken later today.  I don’t really have a lot of plans.  Cuddlah Army does what ever is needed, so that role will continue to evolve or devolve.  For me personally, I’m just really into watching my kid grow and change and become his own person. I want to be around him as much as possible so I can continue to enjoy that. As far as my career goes, I’m hoping someday I’ll have the guts to make a change, but that isn’t happening any time soon.  My family is my #1 priority. 

If we were Juggalos we would be chanting Fam-Muh-Lee right now, but we ain’t Juggalos.  We are Cuddlahs, and we are Army.

This was fun.  I am glad to have gotten a peek behind the curtain.

Please follow CuddlahArmy on the twitters.  and take a listen to her as a guest on the podcasts Tales from the Attic and Toggle the Switch.  Of course to get much more humor by listening to 2 guys expound upon why they aren’t popular, listen to Walking the Room.  It is one of the best podcasts out there because it just is.


To recap:
We are merely borrowing the house we are in right now
The buyers purchased it on Friday
We get kicked out on the 24th
We close on our new house this friday
We are not taking possession of that property until the afternoon of the 30th
We have a gap
And we will be uncomfortable during that gap
And probably stinky
I have a conference call this morning that is supposed to last for 2.5 hours
I will fight the urge to shoot myself and others
It will be a tough battle
But I will perservere
First thing Q said to her teacher upon entering her preschool today
“Crystal, Crystal, I went to Tucson and saw a Gila Monster”
Have a great weekend

20 Question Tuesday: 208 - Tom Merritt

This week I get the extreme honor of asking 20 Questions to the delightful Tom Merritt. Tom is one of the main personalities on the TWiT network.  He is the host of Tech News Today (TNT) and he is the cohost of the FSL Tonight podcast.  I watch him with Brian Brushwood on the show Framerate.  Due to TNT I now know waaaay more about Android Ice Cream Sandwich OS, the tech patent and Intellectual Property cold war, and the earnings reports for Research in Motion (Alas poor RIM we knew you well).  He is a voice of tech reason in a sea of tech crazy. I have been aware of the wonderful Mr Merritt since way back in the days of Tech TV.  The channel that I slavishly watched to the detriment of my wife’s TV viewing pleasure.  Put it this way, I watched Tech TV enough that my non-tech wife started enjoying The Screen Savers.  I still miss Tech TV, but not as much due to the tech podcasting juggernaut, TWiT. Until recently he was the co-host of Fourcast.  I listened to his dulcet voice when he was on the Frogpants show Current Geek and the TWiT show Current Geek Weekly (RIP)… wait… it seems that I know Tom  mainly from things that no longer exist.  He is also associated with a few more podcasts that I have not watched.  Anyway… on to the questions

So, I have to know. Question 1: Why are you associated with so much of my entertainment that no longer exists (Tech TV, Fourcast, Current Geek, Current Geek Weekly)?  Will you also take Tech News Today away from me? Oh God!  Don’t take TNT away from me….

A: I have no desire, plans, or inclination to stop doing Tech News Today. Sit … no.. really… please.. OK. That’s good. You forgot to mention Tom’s Top 5, The Real Deal, and Road Warrior.  I think when you have tried as many shows as I do, you’re obviously going to have some that reach the end of their life or just don’t end up doing well. That’s how we find the things that do work, by trying lots of things.

I know that is the case.  Fourcast had clearly run its course (which was a pretty long course) and Current Geek had been on for a good long time prior to the Morning Stream becoming a long form version of that show.  All of the podcasts’ deaths make sense in the long run.  Now onto the regularly scheduled programming.

I have my MA in geography specializing in cartography, so place and space are super interesting for me.  I was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, moved to Montgomery, Alabama when I was 3, moved up to just Northeast of Birmingham, Alabama where I stayed until I went to college.  Went to school in Kent, Ohio and then moved down to Columbus, Ohio for my master’s program.  I have been living in Columbus ever since. Question 2:  What is your geographic story?

A: I was born in Greenville, IL, went to college in Urbana-Champaign, IL, had an internship in Washington DC and lived in Arlington, Virginia, moved back to Urbana for a summer, then went to grad school in Austin, Texas, stayed there for 6 years. I moved to San Francisco to take a job in 1999, moved across the bay to Oakland in 2006, then up to the north bay to San Rafael in 2010.

Question 3:  Of all those places which one is truly “home” in your heart?  For instance, I grew up in Center Point, Alabama and my parents still live there, but since my married life and kids are associated with Columbus, Ohio, this is where I consider “home.”

A: It depends on what you mean.  When I say I’m “going home” I mean my house in San Rafael with my wife and dogs.  When I say “I’m from” I mean Greenville. I spent the first 18 years of my life in Greenville, so it’s always going to be my hometown. But home is where the heart is, and that’s wherever I have my family and my desktop computer.

I will go with the wife, dogs, and desktop.  That is a perfect answer.

So I am now going to ask the question that everyone is waiting for with, quite possibly, bated breath… Question 4:  Cake or pie?  Which specific kind and why?

A: PIE OMG PIE. Specifically fruit pies, and more specifically cherry or secondarily some kind of berry. I also have soft spots in my heart for grape and rhubarb pie, which my Grandma always made. Apple pie is fine, but the most boring of all pies, in my opinion. Cake seems like eating bread to me.  I love fruit and pie just seems to have so much more flavour and less filler.

I have found that most people who answer with cake truly love frosting more than the spongy foam that is a frosting vehicle.  Here and now I suggest to them to frost a pie and tell me it is not made by celestial beings.  My mother used to decorate cakes as a side business.  I have had frosting on nearly every kind of confection.  Pie included. There is a place not far from here called “Just Pies” and well, they are known for their seasonal cherry pies.  I will check their baking schedule and see when you should visit Columbus.  I do not know if they ship….

Question 5: Umm… “flavour?” I seem to remember you waxing eloquent about your love of hockey, and now the “Queen’s ‘u.’”  Are you secretly Canadian?

A: Chocolate pie is kind of like frost pie I think. I am not secretly Canadian, I just grew up reading a lot of British literature and when I was younger and more pretentious figured that grey spelled with an ‘e’ and colour with a ‘u’ was arbitrary and I could do it however I wanted and since someday I would buy a time machine and live in 1920s London for a while I’d better start training for it. I love Ireland, Wales, New Zealand and large swaths of England and Scotland, especially the parts with pubs and whiskey distilleries.

For the record it would be fine if you were secretly Canadian.  I love the word “whilst,” and I try to pepper that into daily speech as much as possible.  “Whilst” and “Yard Gnome…” My two white whales of conversational vocabulary.

Question 6:  You host many a podcast, but which podcasts do you consume?  I listen to about 30 to 40 hours of podcasts a week. I clearly have a terribly exciting job that requires my constant attention.

A: Yeah, one thing about my job, I can’t really listen to podcasts while I do it. I subscribe to about 30 but there are three that I always listen to no matter what.  The Economist, This Week at NASA, and The Instance.

If you were listening to podcasts whilst podcasting, I imagine there would be some lovely gaffs. (notice the use of “whilst.”  Now to figure out an organic way of inserting “yard gnome.”)  I listened to 4 podcasts just today driving around the state getting GPS points for our most recent boring locations (actual location where we bore holes into the ground… which are boring as well) I listened to last night’s Tech News Today and the most recent Framerate.  I also listened to Aisha Tyler’s Girl on Guy and Pete Holmes’ You Made it Weird, but you have nothing to do with either of those, therefore they are immaterial. Disregard them.

Question 7: Considering your interviews with sci-fi/fantasy authors on your Sword and Laser podcast as well as the new Geek and Sundry YouTube channel show, have you been surprised by any responses from the big name authors with which you have chatted?

A: Whilst I haven’t had any shocking revelations about relations with yard gnomes, I have been surprised by the number of authors who used role-playing game experiences to develop their worlds.  I mean, I think EVERY author we talked to has used RPGs as some influence on their work. It’s kind of crazy.  I’m looking forward to having the founder of Rhaposy on the show, who has a scifi book out, but I think may not have played RPGs to develop his world. Watch me be wrong.

A good RPG system can really create a nice believable set of rules for a fantastical realm. I feel lucky to have been associated with a local RPG as one of their “resident artists.”  It is built off of D&D 3.5 and set in an alternate 1904-1915 where limited magic exists.  Now we just need to find someone willing to take authorship of the idea and make a best-selling book, then be interviewed by you and Veronica Belmont.  Simple plan, really.

So, by my inaccurate count, you have about 5 active podcasts that you work on (TNT, Framerate, Sword & Laser, Autopilot, FSL Tonight,) a few less active ones (Triangulation, East Meets West), and I am sure there are other ones I have missed (not counting your guest appearances on other podcasts).  Question 8: Ummm… do you have any “down time?” and if so, how do you enjoy spending it?

A: I actually just re-focused what I work on so I can spend more time making the things I do better. I was definitely spreading too thin. Hence the sad goodbye to FourCast and my leaving co-hosting duties on Triangulation. East meets West has always been a fun “when we can” thing with me and Roger so that’s actually part of the downtime, to be honest.

When I’m not working on shows, I watch TV, mostly SciFi. I play a few video games. Right now I’ve been playing Diablo III. I also dip in and out of World of Warcraft. I’m a big RTS fan, so I love Civilization and SimCity. I go running with my dog 3 or 4 times a week. Not a euphemisim. I literally go outside with one of my dogs and we go jogging. Well for him it;s, what the hell are we running without stopping for, and for me it’s jogging. And I write. I like making up stories. They’re not all that good necessarily but they entertain me. Basically I’ve cheated the world into letting me do what I love as my job, so it’s all sort of hobby work in the end.

We are in the process of moving to a bigger and better house, so I have to let my monthly subscription games go to the wayside.  No more SWTOR for me, but I am playing D 3… I have a young Barbarian named Dave and a Monk named BrotherBob… that is a delightful game.  I envy your finding an occupation that you love.  One day my occupation of choice will come…

Question 10:  How many NaNoWriMo’s have you done now? and how can people consume your writings?

A: I have at least attempted to participate in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) each year since 2003. I’ve reached the 50,000 word goal three times.  Two of those are sitting on my hard drive waiting for me to edit them. Another one, UNited Moon Colonies is out there in the universe at http://unitedmooncolonies.squarespace.org/ and a book I wrote in the 1990s called “Boiling Point” has a little mini-site of its own at http://www.subbrilliant.com/boilingpoint .

I think I need to wait for the kids to get a bit older before I attempt NaNoWriMo again.  the one time that I got a full week into the writing process and was actually ahead word-count-wise, the oldest got sick and derailed my novel ambitions.  I will get my novel about the c/d-rate superhero done… oh yes I will.

Now we are onto the downward slope of the 20 Questions, and a slippery slope it is indeed.

As many of my readers know, I have completely and wholeheartedly adopted my Mother-in-Law’s saying of “Don’t let the fuckers get you down.”  Question 11: Do you have any particularly meaningful sayings, adages, mottos, credos that you adhere to? If so, where did it/they come from?

A: Fear is the Mind Killer
Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration
I will face my fear
I will permit it pass over me and through me
And when it has gone I will turn the inner eye to see its path
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing
Only I will remain
- Litany Against Fear of the Bene Gesserit - “Dune”

“I’m a coffee achiever!”
- Kurt Vonnegut

You are the first person to ever quote Frank Herbert on the blog.  There should be some kind of prize for that… or maybe some spice….  I have always enjoyed the sentiment behind the “Fear is a Mind Killer” mantra, however I am a rather fear based person (thanks parents!). I come from a long line of fear based people… it is quite crippling really, and it is the main reason I keep myself from doing something for a living that I might actually enjoy.  There are many mantras about overcoming fears and facing them, etc… that are extremely difficult for me.  WTH, Merritt?  How did you get me to open up like that with some Dune-age?

Let’s bring it back to the lighter side before I go depressing it up more!

Question 12:  Think of a song… any song.  What is it? and be honest?  To help you with not being embarrassed by whatever song you are thinking of, my song that popped into my head is “Can You Picture That” by Dr Teeth and the Electric Mayhem.

A: The Red Flag by Billy Bragg is actually the very first thing that popped into my head.  I think I’m so busy right now that my brain wants to sing battle songs. And you were trying so hard to lighten it up.  I know.

It is like you are fighting me at every turn.  I kid.  I kid.  I was actually surprised when “Can You Picture That” popped into my head… I haven’t heard that song in at least a year.  Moving right along…

Ah… we are now to our unlucky 13.  So… Question 13: Do you have any superstitions to which you ascribe? or any rituals? an example of a personal ritual: Sitting in the lotus position and internally repeating the mantra “Fear is the mindkiller” prior to any and all knife fights.  It just gets you in the right frame of mind.

A: One ritual I subscribe to is avoiding knife fights. Or at least bring guns to them. I’m not very superstitious actually. I do ‘knock wood’ a lot, but I just sort of like the phrase. It makes me feel closer to the elves of the woodland realm or something. The thing is, I never do it when I’m alone, so it’s not a very strong ritual. Other than purely entertaining things like that I just try to imagine how I want things to go, and do as many things as fit into that way of the things happening. And adapt as I go, since nothing ever happens the way you expect. It’s sort of like looking at a block of wood and making a sculpture of a turtle by cutting away all the things that don’t look like a turtle. But then I’m always prepared for the sculpture to end up being a rabbit, and that’s fine too.

That is truth right there, “nothing ever happens the way you expect.”  Even if you do use positive visualization and try to imagine how you want things to go.  If positive visualization worked, I would be fabulously wealthy and own a vastly successful DRM-free publishing conglomerate. Instead I am cataloging holes in the ground for the state DOT.

Fill in the blanks Question 14: A: I find that I am mostly _________.  B: Others find that I am mostly _________. (feel free to ask others or use your own conjecture)

A: Blank1 - Anxious. Blank 2 - Not shutting up when I need to.

Question 15: Do you think that A leads to be in this case?  Does your anxiety lead to overtalking?

A: Quite the opposite. I’m carefully quiet when I’m angry or anxious or unsure in any way.  It’s only around people I’m comfortable with that I blabber on. Unless I’m drunk. My wife says the only thing that bothers her about when I come home drunk, is that I won’t shut up and she’s trying to finish that episode of Gray’s Anatomy.

Interesting.. That being said… (Backstory alert) I do not have much of an accent.  I spent a solid 15 years in ‘bama, but kept a Southern accent away… So when I get drunk I talk about theoretical set theory mathematics with a Southern drawl. I do tend to be a quiet angry as well… so if we were in the same room and were quiet… shit is about to get real, yo!

So, when you are broadcasting Question 16: what are your personal foibles that you have to keep in check that would be bad for the netcast/podcast/vidcast? (I curse like a drunken sailor with terrets and am constantly modifying my language to keep from constantly carpet bombing with f-bombs.)

A: I try not to curse as well. I don’t have a problem with cursing, but some people do and cursing is not essential to most of my shows. I’ve become better at not interrupting people. I get so excited about some topics and worry I’ll forget my point that I used to just blurt stuff out which can be darned rude. (see darned not…)

All people who do voice work have crutch words that they say too often and I try to stomp those out.  But as soon as you cure yourself of saying “basically” suddenly you find you’re saying “allll righht” all the time. It’s a constant battle.

Video brings its own set of issues, like when to address the camera vs. the co-hosts, not looking like you’re picking your nose. All that stuff. My hair haircuts have become infinitely better since I started doing video.

The constant camera exposure really makes one notice all the little barely visible imperfections… a mirror takes care of the gross imperfections that everyone else can see.

One thing I have always enjoyed in your tech reporting is that you tend to bring a bit of silliness and whimsy to the plate, whether it is from your sarcastic asides or from your droll use of puns.  We all know that hyperbole is the funniest form of humor ever, but Question 17: What is your favorite way of injecting humor into your reporting/podcasting?  Is there a way you wish you could add in the humors but just have not found the correct vehicle/moment to do so?

A: I sometimes think that my humor is a bad idea and I ought to stop, but I’m glad some, like you appreciate it.  At the same time maybe you shouldn’t encourage me on the puns. Frankly, it’s just me being me. One thing I try to do in all my ventures is be genuine. I think it’s one of the best things about the Internet. You don’t have to impress some mid-level management type to find an audience.  So I can be silly and punny, and if it doesn’t bother people, it works. I do hope it doesn’t get in the way of good info. In fact I hope it makes good info more enjoyable.

Oh, it’s that time in the 20 Questions again.  The time where the circle comes round and the tables are turned.  Question 18:  Is there any question you want to ask me?

A:…I mean… Q: Of the hundreds of millions of blogs, podcasts, twitter feeds, YouTube shows, etc., what’s the one nobody’s doing that you wish someone would? Also, the turtle is on its back in the desert, why aren’t you helping?!

Interesting question because I think there are podcasts and twitter feeds and YouTube shows for everything imaginable under the sun.  I know that if I were to do a search (editor’s note: I will not do the search, this is a hypothetical search parameter) on underwater basket weaving there is at least one podcast, one twitter feed, and at least 10 YouTube vids on underwater basket weaving.  The problem with the existence of these online “resources” is that most of these items are utter and complete shite.  The existence of the topic is not in question, the quality is.  That being said, and I know I will catch hell for this, but I have not found a comic book podcast that trips my trigger just yet.  The sound quality or the poor host talent tend to push me away.  Readers, if you know of a GOOD comic book podcast, leave its name in the comments… I have already tried about 7.  Can you make a comic book podcast, Tom?  you and Scott Johnson and Justin Robert Young?  You have 1 listener awaiting.

I am not in the desert, and therefore question the validity of the statement.  I do not believe there is a turtle on its back.  I cannot help that which I do not believe exists.

Ah, the penultimate question, these 20 question pass so quickly…. Question 19: What are you taking from this 20 questions that you did not bring in with you?

A: They’re just questions, Leon. Designed to provoke an emotional response.

One thing I’ve found is that I tend to respond to a series of questions with Bladerunner references.

I also have found I like your questioning style, which is cool. And I learned that I get really philosophical about stuff if I don’t watch it.

I also found out you’re an android. SPOILER!

Isn’t the spoiler alert supposed to come prior to the spoiler.  Has Framerate taught you nothing?  So, you have seen through my Turing test conversation. I was almost a sentient robot, but you have seen through me, and now my sentience is in question… as it has been since 1974… and I am running iOS.

Question 20: So, what is new and next for you? Be as concrete or philosophical, be as precise or vague as you want.

A: I am trying to focus down on what projects I should be working on.  For a few years after leaving CNET I’ve been trying all kinds of things, and I don’t regret one of them.  But now I’m narrowing down.  Tech News Today and Sword and Laser are my main efforts. I want to concentrate on making those shows the best they can be.

Frame Rate with Brian Brushwood is a project I love and will keep doing.  We talk about tech and programming for cord cutters. I think it’s too early for this show to really take off but we’re perfecting it in advance of what I think will be a huge future audience.

And then there are fun projects like FSL Tonight, a podcast about fantasy and scifi characters playing in an imaginary and undefinied sports league.  Autopilot is a seasonal look at TV pilots. And I’m hoping to self-publish another novel or two, and maybe a book about tech history.

So yeah.  Really cutting down. Ha!

At least I’m doing stuff I love and having fun. Thanks for a really enjoyable conversation here man.  It’s been fun!

This was a blast.  Now that I have power again from the derecho of June 29… I have 42 podcasts to catch up on.  2 FSL’s, 6 Tech News Today’s, and 1 Framerate…. hours of Tom Merritty goodness.  

Everyone, if you don’t follow Tom on Twitter you should.  He is acedtect on the twitters and add him to your circles in Google+ at http://gplus.to/acedtect.  All of his stuff can be found though at his website tommerritt.com

To recap:
We have power
The wife and kids are in Tucson, AZ for the week
They left Monday morning
I miss them already
I am packing up the house this week
Cause we are getting kicked out on July 24th
I did have pizza for dinner Monday night
Grabbing dinner with a friend Tuesday night
Seriously, Tom was a delight
Everyone should have the pleasure of trading emails with him
I got 99 problems but empty boxes ain’t one
I need to go running cause I ain’t got no parenting duties this week
Look out world, heavy dude walk/running
We went through a ton of candles and dealt with the insane heat
Have a great weekend everyone… Yard Gnome

Edit!… wow We completely skipped Question 9… so without further ado

Question 9: Umm… how did I miss Question 9?

A: Seriously!  How did we both go through this and not realise you
went straight from 8 to 10.  Is it a conspiracy? A blind spot? A
symptom of heat stroke? The world may never know. I have decided to blame Google.

Google it is Tom!  Thanks for doing this to the nines!

20 Question Tuesday: 207 - Jason Masters

On the eve of the celebration of the US’s Independence Day, I am publishing something that has nothing to do with America, fuck yeah!

I have had the honor of dealing with people from many many continents in the shit-ton of 20 Questions Tuesday’s that I have been doing over the years.  Mainly I have gotten questions from the US and Canada, but I also have gotten some from people in Europe, Asia, other parts of North America, South America, and I even got a question years ago from someone in OZ (Australia for you non-slang peeps).  There are two continents that are conspicuously absent.  Antarctica and Africa…  This week, I get to remedy part of that… I have to opportunity to ask 20 Questions to Jason Masters, a comic book artist, graphic designer, illustrator extraordinaire from South Africa… Coordinating this email conversation will be interesting since our schedules are so wildly off.

Jason is another artist associated with Ten Ton Studios(…. what can I say, I find all of the people there interesting if not wonderful).  He is currently slated to do DC Digital… and his work is crazy clean with strong uses of spots.  The work he does is very precise and always on model.  Seriously, his work is sick and it makes me a little bit jealous.  I am very excited to see him doing work for DC Digital and cannot wait to see where that goes.  So without further ado…

I was born in Oklahoma City, moved to Montgomery, Alabama, then to Birmingham, Alabama.  I went to college in Kent, Ohio and then settled down in Columbus, Ohio. Question 1:  What is your geographic story?

Wow your preamble makes me sound awesome and professional, more of the same please. Geographically I’m pretty boring, I moved house a lot as a kid but generally stayed within the same basic area. I was born in Discovery, Roodepoort in what was then known as the Transvaal. I believe we lived in Benoni for a little while, while I was an infant, then back to the Roodepoort area for most of my childhood, a brief stint in Randfontein, then back to Roodepoort. I now live in the Randburg area of Gauteng(which used to be Transvaal). One of the first major changes after our first democratic election in 1994 was a re-division of the country. We went from 4 provinces to 8. Transvaal was divided up into Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Northwest Province, and Limpopo Province. I didn’t so much move as the country changed around me.

Okay, Google maps don’t fail me now… So, pretty much you have been circling Jo’burg.  I have very little knowledge of things African.  So, just for my own cultural edification…  Question 2: What do you think I need to know from you about South Africa that may not be in Wikipedia or some other public site?

I contemplated going into a bit more detail about my geographic evolution but any reference I’d make would just make it more confusing if you’re not from here, but basically yes, circling Jo’burg my whole life. As for question 2, only 3 out of 10 zebras has poisonous spines, and yes they do poop diamonds.

so you have a 30% chance of being poisoned by Zebra spines… Gotcha, but they poop diamonds… it makes me wonder if it is a deadly poison or just a make you sick poison…. the poop diamonds might be worth it if it is only “make you sick” poison.

Question 3: Do you get the opportunity to travel much, if so, what is the furthest you have traveled?  In case you are curious (and I am sure you are)… Hamburg, Germany is the furthest I have gone.

No, unfortunately, I’ve travelled a bit, but not as much as I’d like. I’ve travelled to London, Mauritias, Greece, Dubai (only a day though), New York but the furthest, I think, from Johannesburg is Chicago. Great trip, I met some of the Ten Ton fellas, went to Wizard world Chicago and did a road trip around lake Michigan with a buddy of mine. One of the most fun travel experiences I ever had.

Also I’m what you’d call a zebra expert, so just trust me when I say the excruciating pain,  carbuncles and hair loss you get as a result of those poisonous barbs isn’t worth the risk.

I had no idea the zebra was such a dangerous foe… I know that the Hippo is an asshole, but I was unaware of the dangers of the striped equine… I don’t even want to know what threats a greater kudu poses…. because, you know, they are greater and all that…

There are literally 15 people out there who really want to know this… and honestly, of those 15, 5 really don’t care.  Question 4: Cake or pie?  Which genre and is there a particular kind that really trips your trigger?

I must answer your question with another question. Sweet or savory pie?

Hmmm… So the answer seems to be pie… so if the answer is pie, I am more than happy to learn about your favorite sweet pie as well as your favorite savory pie (or the purposes of this exercise, we will exclude pizza from the pie category).  However, if you answer is to be cake, why are you asking me this question?

‘cause it’s late and I’m tired? The answer is cake, savory pie is gross and while lemon meringue pie/rhubarb pie are both delicious nothing beats homemade chocolate cake.

Question 5: So, this chocolate cake, vanilla frosting, butter cream frosting, chocolate frosting, or some kind of crappy coconut thing that makes people hate and murder and kill and hate some more?  Gimme some details about this cake. People want to know!

Ha ha chocolate buttercream frosting I think. I need to ask my Mom, it’s a family recipe.

I have heard of this chocolate buttercream… super rich, but smooth and creamy. The richness of the buttercream is offset by the sharper flavor of dark chocolate. Milk chocolate would be too weak to pair with buttercream.  I know waaay too much about frosting.

Bullseye throwing a Semi Tractor Trailer at Matt Murdock (Daredevil)

So Question 6: When did you know that you could draw (and by that I mean when did you know that you were really good at it and found enjoyment in doing it)?

Sounds like you’ve already sampled my mother’s baking… Dad?

I remember deciding I wanted to be able to draw in Nursery school (preschool) and then just drawing I must have been 4 or 5. I think It was motivated by the teacher going on about someone else’s abilities and me thinking ‘I’ll show you, dammit!”

Sadly, I am not your father.  I just know a shit ton (shite-tonne?) about frosting… I love frosting in an unnatural way.  Don’t judge me.

So, you started drawing because someone else was told that they could draw?  I can think of many activities other kids could potentially do well that you should be very happy did not get praised by authority figures.  Here is the scenario, little Timmy from your preschool gets praised heaped upon him for his dancing ability, therefore the modern day Jason Master’s dances professionally for Ke$ha.  Another scenario, little Timmy is a complete ass and ends up getting praised ironically by the preschool teachers for getting tranq-ed out with some Benadryl to shut his assholish self up.  Little Jason Master’s sees this and realizes that praise comes from drugging yourself to unconsciousness…  I think you can see where this goes. Wow, those preschool teachers were horrible.  Why would they tranq a kid for being an ass?  Horrible people.

Question 7: Were you always soooo contrary and oppositionally defiant?

Ha ha all those scenarios could easily have happened and completely change they way my life turned out. In some cases maybe for the better.

My wife would say yes but I don’t think so. I like doing things sometimes because they’re difficult or because someone says I can’t. I like testing myself to see if I can do something. I do have to want to do it though. I’ve done a few white collar boxing fights recently purely to see if I could and because the idea of fighting in front of people terrified me. Every fibre of my being said no, so I had to do it.

I am confident that the reason my best friend who is dyslexic with authority figure issues became a JAG Lawyer for the Army is because of tons of people saying he couldn’t.  Hey, Maj McArmypants, I bet there is no way on earth you could possibly buy me a car for free.  Let’s see where that goes…

Question 8: Do you find yourself having an issue with comfort?  It seems like you have a need to constantly challenge yourself, is there something out there that you are trying to find though all these challenges and activities?

Good luck with the car sir, I’m sure that plan is bullet proof!

Oh no issues with comfort, I LOVE comfort! I’m just stubborn I think. It’s about finding my place in the world. How do I know where I belong unless I know what I can do?

So, the oppositionally defiant piece is completely about discovering your limits. Interesting.

Question 9: Have you found anything within you that is surprisingly unlimited or surprisingly limited?  For example, I have found that the range of motion on my right ankle is extremely limited.

That and keeping myself from getting bored. I’m certainly not a thrill seeker or adventurer, just bored easily.

Unfortunately not, physically I’m pretty average. I can touch my toes that’s about it. Limited, I broke my index finger on my right hand when I was in high school punching a friend of mine (joking around though, not a fight). As a result my I make a pretty awkward fist with that hand.

My brother was playing soccer in high school and a cleat broke the periosteum (the membrane covering the bone) on his left pinky finger, but it did not break the bone.  He started developing a pretty weird calcification on his finger, so he can never make a “true” fist with his left hand. And he always looks so proper when sipping now.

Question 10: Does the healed broken index finger cause any difficulty for your drawing… or is it the reason you draw so well?

Ha ha, that’s a pretty bizarre injury. The human body is an odd thing.
I wish it was that easy, I’d break all my fingers if it’d help my drawing! No it doesn’t hamper me in any way, I don’t even notice it unless I’m making a fist. I still maintain that if there was drawing steroids I’d take them in a heartbeat. Take steroids to get big muscles? Never! But to draw better? Heck yeah!

Speaking of drawing, and reigning in these questions to comics for a second. Captain America has always been my guy and then I drifted towards the X-men’s Cyclops.  Those were my guys as a kid.  Question 11: Who were your guys growing up? and who are your dreams to draw professionally today?

I’m afraid I’m pretty typical here. I loved Spider-man first then Batman and then G.I. Joe. Those are my top 3. I just recently completed a Batman one shot for DC Digital which should come out in a few months! I’m still amazed I got to do that. More than any character I’ve wanted to draw him. Now I want to draw him again and do it better. I have a long list of characters I still want to draw though. Spider-man, G.I. Joe, The Flash… oh jeez just name it I want to draw it

Really, GI Joe?  I would not have called that since it seems amazingly US-Centric in its existence.  Question 12: How was GI Joe packaged in South Africa… some of the main characters in the cartoon and the comic books were Roadblock, Stalker, Doc etc…?  How did integrated elite forces play out in 1980’s when Apartheid was still in effect?

Media didn’t get repackaged just because it featured African’s or African Americans. Television here wasn’t very white centric. We got cartoons and show’s as they were featured stateside, unless we got the same media from the U.K. The U.K. turned G.I. Joe into Action Force to make it more European I guess and turned Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles into the Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles. I think they believed the word ‘Ninja’ would cause violence amongst the youth there. For a while we got the same show’s repackaged from the U.K. as well as the regular unedited shows. It was pretty stupid.

Back to 1980’s apartheid, it never affected television here. We all grew up on a steady diet of most of the shows you watched. Everything from The Cosby show, Sanford and son to Good Times. So from a pop culture background we’re pretty similar except we also had a big influx of English shows.

Well, isn’t that an interesting conundrum.  I would have thought the state would have created an environment where no black personas were lifted up on equal footing with a white persona, otherwise it would be incredibly difficult to maintain the inferiority based rules system, but seriously, that is just my bias having grown up in the US Deep South.  The idea of racism started to erode more in the South when modern positive black role models gained entertainment footholds within that society.  The positive black role models did sway some of the people who were only “culturally racist,” and not necessarily holding racial hate within their heart. Interesting interesting interesting.  I have to say I am absolutely loving this 20 Questions so far.

Question 13: Do you hold on to any specific superstitions or is there a ritual aspect to your life?  For example, when I played soccer in high school I had a very specific lucky sequence of getting ready for a game that I felt “would help me play better”, and I know other players on the team did as well. In truth these sequences were a nice ritual to center my thoughts and create focus.  Got anything like that? or even anything like “I turn around three times in a doorway to scare away the ghosties?”

Our old apartheid government kept their hate local. International black people were perfectly fine. At least that’s what it felt like. For a lot of the older people here racism almost felt like a family tradition as opposed to a set of actual beliefs. We could go deep here but for the sake of keeping it light maybe we shouldn’t.

I wish I had a ritual, maybe it’d help me focus better than my two cups of coffee before working. Having said that there’s something comforting and ritualistic about actually putting on a uniform for sport. Beyond that, no. I feel like less of a man now.

pfft, you are no less of a man than you were prior to this conversation. (take that as you will).

Question 14: Fill in the blanks: “I find that I am mostly ______________.” “Others find that I am mostly _________________.”

"I find that I am mostly tired." "Others find that I am mostly stubborn."

How’s that?

Kids will do that to you.  I was starting to not be tired when my oldest turned 4… and then the we had the youngest… I am so so tired.  Just so tired.  Why can’t I sleep more?  The stubborn thing might be due to your oppositionally defiant nature. You are just so contrary… so amazingly contrary.

So 2/3rds if the way through this…. Question 15: Is there anything out there that I have not asked that you feel I should have?

'Amazingly contrary' is now on my business card.
Other ways to answer that question could be
I find that I am mostly sitting. Others find that I am mostly damp.
I find that I am mostly joking. Others find that I am mostly a douche.
I find that I am mostly ambitious. Others find that I am mostly a unrealistic.

I could go on forever!

Hey now buddy my job is to answer the questions not make them up, you getting tired?

Let me ask you, have you got any special skills? Something you feel makes you better than the average person?

Usually I don’t turn the tables until Question 18, but I will allow it. I am nothing if not magnanimous.  But before I get to my answer, I want to address your continued answering of Question 14.  Yes, you could go on forever, but are the answers true?  Do people really find you mostly damp?… sure they could probably find you moistly damp, but mostly damp?  I think not.  Anyway, that is neither here nor there.

To answer your question posed to me…
I am a really good cartographer.  I can create some really kickass maps. Cartography is where I am an em-effin viking.  That being said, I seem to be losing my drive to do the mapping.  I am not quite sure where the drifting interest is going, but I just seem to feel uninspired by making maps these days.  Doesn’t matter if it is for the stodgy data driven maps I have to do for work or the artsy fantasy/sci-fi maps I attempt to do from home.  I just am uninspired and disinterested at the moment.  What did the Vikings do when raping and pillaging just didn’t do it for them anymore?  I seem to be getting more internal fulfillment from drawing right now.  Go figure.

Back to the matter at hand…  Question 15 was a catch all that I sometimes include to address the elephant in the living room.  I try to stay away from the typical questions that people usually get asked for whatever profession they have, but some people secretly want to answer that question that they constantly get asked.  15 would have allowed for that to happen.

Question 16:  How do you foresee where the Internet and its mere existence changing how media is distributed, comic books, music, news, tv, comedy etc…?  I ask since you are doing digital comics for DC (notice how I got the plug in there? {it’s like I am a goddamn Viking at this as well})

Damp and evasive, ok maybe one friend found me damp but it might have something to do with drying my hands on him every time I was done in the bathroom. Yup still a friend.

I sometimes forget there are people out there with cool real jobs like cartography! You’re like an old school explorer guiding people to new lands, or maybe drawing those little maps in the beginning of fantasy books.

I understand being disinterested though. I’ve had to revive my love for drawing as well. Everything is a job but that doesn’t mean it can’t be amazing.

Question 16
Yup a raping, pillaging, mapping viking!

With people’s reluctance to pay for things there seems to be few financial models that truly work. The most successful strategies seem to be employed by a few web-comic creators. They give their content away for free, create brand loyalty and earn through the sale of eventual book collections and ancillary products. Of course this only seems to work if your product is amazing. That’s the real game changer for me that the internet has unleashed. With anything literally at your fingertips why would you waste your time watching/reading or listening to something that is brilliant? This is forcing the quality of all things to go up and that’s a great thing.

Thanks for the plug sir! Yeah I drew a Batman story for DC Digital, It’s written by Joe Harris who wrote into one script all the things I’ve ever wanted to draw. It’s a really great little short story that’s part of the Legends of the Dark Knight banner. Ben Abernathy, editor supreme, has put together an amazing collection artists and writers on this series and I’m really lucky to be part of it. Our story doesn’t come out for a while still but the first few parts are available here for only $0.99. Who doesn’t want to read Batman stories by Damon Lindelof, Jeff Lemire, J.G. Jones, B. Clat Moore, Ben Templesmith and more? No nobody paid me to say that, I’ve been buying them myself and they’ve been brilliant.

I find that the predominance of the digital revenue models I have seen either require millions of individual hits to create significant ad revenue, or like you said giving the cow away for free and hoping someone will purchase cow related merch and products. Both of these models require fairly large audiences.  It will be interesting to see when someone figures out a model that works for smaller audience.

So, as many people know, I have adopted my Mother-in-Law’s age old saying of , “Don’t let the fuckers get you down.”  Question 17: do you or does your family have any sayings, mottos, adages, credos that you adhere to religiously?  If so, where did they originate?

Your Mother-in-law sounds feisty, I like that.

I think the closest thing we have to saying ‘if you don’t work, you don’t eat’. It has it’s origins in the Bible I believe. Now my Mom never used that as a threat, say ‘clean your room or no food’. It’s more of a statement about not expecting anything unless you’re willing to work for it.

That is an awesome philosophy with which to live.  Yes the M-I-L is quite a feisty one, but that is one the main reasons I like her so much.  And we are nearing the end here…

Question 18:  Your choice: You can ask me another question or answer this one… What happened this weekend that made you smile?

I choose both. First the question for you.

Hypothetical situation. You’re in a room with a stranger on one side and a million dollars in a duffel bag on the other. You can only leave the room with one item. Either the stranger or the money, but whatever is left in the room is incinerated. Do you save the life or take the money, and why?

I finally got over my cold this weekend and was able to get some exercise, the endorphins made me smile.

Well, in this hypothetical situation the stranger is actually a wookie and I choose him because of the whole “life-debt” thing.  Seriously, I would select the stranger anyway… unless he was a dick.  Life is more important than the concept of money…. $10 mil? $100 mil?  different answer… unless of course it is a wookie, and then I pick wookie every time.  I did it for the wookie.

Endorphins are great things.

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

Ok then i throw this to you, how many lives do you think you could save with a million dollars? I’m betting quite a few and I think you’d be forced to by the guilt of killing someone. Wookie or not.

I’m taking away a lot of guilt for taking so long to get back to you there for a while. Beyond that the conversation, I’ve found it interesting meeting you in this. I just have to admit I don’t hate people and like meeting new ones. It’d also always fun crystallizing an idea that’s been rumbling around in your head by writing it down.

Oh, that is an apples and oranges argument.  I am a relatively good person, but I am not a saint.  If I came into contact with a cool mil, I would not spend every dime helping folks.  There is a good chance that I would not spend anything helping anybody.  That money would be mine.  Now, I would not push someone into a fire for it.  I am sure that a million dollars could save a good many people, but that wouldn’t be how I would spend the money.

As far as the guilt?  Let that shit go.  It is not worth any of your mental energy. Unlike you, I do hate people and I do not like meeting new ones.  You are one of the exceptions that proves the rule.

Question 20: So, what’s next?  Be as vague or as specific as you want.  Be as philosophical or concrete as you wish.

Try not to fuck shit up too much.

Unless it is sparring, in which you want to fuck that shit up old skool.

This has been an absolute blast and I have to put it in one of my top 20 Questions ever, but in truth I say that with nearly every 20 Questions interview that I do. Feel special, but not too special there.

Seriously people, follow Jason on Twitter, look at his website (that will be fully functional soon), and join in the fun at Ten Ton Studios where I “met” him.

To recap:
The power went out June 29th
It is still not on
It is projected to come on by Sunday the 8th
I was driving in the nastiness on Friday
It was a bit scary to say the least
On Monday the 9th the wife and kids will be traveling to Arizona for a mini-vacation
The wife has to do 3 hours of work a day and both kids will be in camp in the Tuscon area
I will stay home packing
BECAUSE WE GOT THAT HOUSE!
It is awesome and amazing and is quite a stretch for us
A stretch that is worth it
Happy belated Canada to my Canadian friends
Happy early July 4th to my US friends
If there are other national holidays that I need to address, please leave them in the comments and I will address them in future posts

20 Questions Tuesday: 206 - House

This week I have a few interviews almost done.  I am sure you will see on next week.  It will be awesome, but today the topic is “House” because we are in the middle of a bid for a house that would be perfect for our family…. so my mind is not really that focused on anything else.  Deal with it peeps.

Thanks this week go to Lord Pithy, Steev, Chris Ring, and Lsig.  Onto the questions!

1.  Knowing what you now know about homeownership, if you could send a message back in time, what advice would you send yourself?
Work with a stager and maximize the space in the house.  Let specialists do their specials.

2.  In a money’s-no-object world, what is your favorite roofing material?
Slate.  It is durable and looks awesome.

3.  Which is better, large front yard or large back yard?
Large back yard

4.  Best lawn ornamentation for pissing off the neighbors?
The little racist lawn jockey.

5.  Best lawn ornamentation for warning off the neighbors?
A baby’s leg

6. I really hate the TV show “House” because it is repetitive medical nonsense. Could you post a picture of Hugh Laurie in a dress for me? (That’s a house related question.)
I was not able to get to Photoshop last night, so this will have to do…

7.  I really loved the movie “House”. Where was the actual house used in the movie located?
Monrovia, CA, the house is called “Mills View”… it’s historic.  I loved House as a kid… Damn! Come back from the grave and ran out of ammunition.

8.  The actress who played Mary on Little House On The Prairie was one of my grade school crushes. Was she ever in anything else? (see how I worked “house” in there?)
Melissa Gilbert?  Yeah, she has done some stuff, but never as much as popular as Little House…Fun fact, she married Tron.

9.  The song says that there is a house in New Orleans called “the rising sun” and that it has ruined many a poor boy. How?
Well, it was either a house of ill-repute where boys went to partake in sexual commerce, or it was a gambling house where boys went to lose their money, or it was a drug house where boys went to get a fix and ended up dead or something like that.

10. They say people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. Is there a better alternative?
Either throw sponges in the glass house or make the house out of more typical materials… or were you talking about the adage?  If so, I would say this one. “Overweight sleep doctors shouldn’t tell me to lose weight.”

11. Home is where _____________???
My family resides.

12. Best song with House/Home in the title?
I just looked through my iPhone to see what “Home/House” songs I have, and the only one that came up was “Home” by the Foo Fighters.  So I guess that will have to do… I am listening to it right now, and it could work for this purpose.  I am sure there are others, but I figured I should put my money where my mouth was and pick a song I have with me.

13. What if all the pigs built their house out of bricks?
It would have been a much shorter story with no moral to learn from.

14. Does “Wait ‘til your father gets home” instill joy … or terror?
Neither… can something instill annoyance?

15. Your home away from home is?
I think a local metro-park called Highbanks

16. What makes the house you are looking into so great?
What is the realty axiom?  Location! Location! Location!  4 bedrooms, 2 offices and a play-room for the kids.  The kids will be able to have most of their stuff out and I will be able to have an actual studio that is accessible all the time.

17. Which tv house is the best? I’m partial to the Silver Spoons place, but Webster had a dumbwaiter to ride…
The silver spoons place is pretty boss.  I toy train running through the living room? Thank you kindly.  I have to go with the Brady Bunch abode because the sets clearly could not fit in the facade shown in the opening shot.  That family room was gigantic… that house was a tesseract.  It was bigger on the inside than it was on the outside.

18. “There’s no place like home.” True or False?
True

19. Is Alabama in fact a sweet home?
It is a sweet home for someone, just not me anymore.  That place can go sit on a tack for me.

20. HOMES- greatest geography mnemonic ever?
It does have some issues because it does not put the lakes in any specific order. It would be better if either SMHEO or OEHMS were words. For those of you who don’t know HOMES is Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior… the Great Lakes. 

To recap:
The seller should be getting back to us by 3 this afternoon…
Everyone cross your fingers
We really want that house
I want a studio
Badly
The wife needs an office with a door
No one wants to watch her work
It is like making sausage
Just be happy with the results
Don’t watch the work
Close the door, Honey!  No one wants to see you working
There will be a Yea! or Nay! by next week
Send positive house thoughts this way
We could use it.
Have a great weekend everyone

20 Questions Tuesday: 205 - Birthdays

This week is the week when I turn 38 years old, or is it 38 years young?  It is on Thursday the 21st, and I will gladly accept PayPal donations as a gift.  Anyhoo… what I have found is that on birthday week’s thoughts inevitably go to, well, birthday.  I am not sure how I will celebrate the day.  I might just decide on taking the day off from work.  That and a specialty pizza from a take and bake place down the street.

Anyway… Thanks this week go to Chris Ring, themikestand, Lsig, Lord Pithy, Ballpoint, Chris Corrigan, Allrileyedup, Ralph Harbison, and Dr B-Dawg.  Onto the questions!

1.  A: At what age do birthdays cause depression rather than celebration? B: Are birthdays even worth celebrating past 21?
A: Age 2
B: Most definitely.  They are a great time to tell others, “Suck it, bitches!  I made it another year!”

2.  Best Birthday gift? (don’t say your children, that’s too easy)
My children are not gifts… my children are little bundles of work wrapped in grubby hands and whining.  Best gift?  hmmm… Being in Scotland on my 18th birthday.

3.  A: Any “Birthday Suit” moments you care to share with the rest of the class? B: Why is it unacceptable to wear your birthday suit to your birthday party? C: What suit do you prefer to wear on your birthday?
A: None that I can remember…I might have blocked them out.
B: It is perfectly acceptable, but you do need an overcoat.
C: It is more of a costume than a suit.

4.  Do you share a birthday with anyone famous/infamous?
Prince William Arthur Philip Louis, Duke of Cambridge, Michael Gross AND Meredith Baxter (both Keaton parents, “What would we do baby, Without Us?”), and Jean-Paul Sarte.

5.  Thirty eight? You’re a spry young thing, aren’t ya?
Spry is not a descriptor I would use.

6.  Does your family have any birthday traditions?
Not especially.  I think we might need to start some up.

7.  What will you wish for when blowing out your candles this year?
A direction

8. What would have been the best birthday party entertainment for the 4-year-old you; and what would be the best birthday party entertainment for the 38-year-old you?
At 4? A bouncy place with a trampoline and slides would have been teh awesomest.  At 38? I would love to have a nice dinner and then go to a professional soccer game to be followed up with some kind of donut-like confection.

9. There was a show on TV this weekend about a family spending $10,000 for a birthday party for their 4-year-old. What kind of party would you throw for yourself with that budget?
For 10K?  I would have an out of debt birthday party!

10. What was the most baffling birthday present you ever received (just so we have a goal to shoot for)?
I dusty rose pink cassette case given to me by my grandma who wanted a grand-daughter instead of me.

11.  Any resolutions for age 38?
I would like to become more active.  With the feet getting better and seeing my dad dealing with crappy knees due to disuse… I need to get moving.

12.  A: Birthday cake or pie? B:Does the “cake or pie” thing go out the window on birthdays? C: Favorite kind of birthday cake? D: What is your cake/ice cream combo choice? E: Birthday cake or birthday pie?
A: For a birthday? Cake
B: Yes, only cake
C: Yellow cake with with white frosting
D: Yellow cake with no ice cream near the cake to make the cake soggy… only uneducated boobs will put ice cream near a cake.  Ice cream should be served in a bowl with some kind of warm gooey topping.
E: Cake… see A & B.

13.  I had my 44th birthday last week. Fill in the blank: Why do Geminis ____?
Bifurcate…. Because they are gotta get their dual nature on.  I am a cusper though.  A little bit Gemini and a little bit Cancer… a dual natured hermit.

14.  It is good form to congratulate the mother on the birthday of one of her children because it was more memorable for her? Discuss.
It depends on if the kid has turned out well.  

15.  What do you think of the revamped astrology dates?
I don’t understand the necessity of it, especially since Astrologers (I read this somewheres on the Internets, so it must be true) seem to be saying that it is not a retroactive.  So the same astrological forces are supposedly influencing my life as the ones with me when I was born, but someone born today has different celestial influence?  That makes no sense.

16.  Are there any takes on the birthday song that you actually enjoy (eg “you look like a monkey and you smell like one too” “and many mooooore”)
Are you saying that I look like a monkey and I smell like one too… and that I am getting oooooooold?

17.  Any memorable birth stories reported to you by your parents?
Nope, not many of my parent’s stories are all that memorable... dull dull people

18.  Is your birthday your favorite birthday, or do you get more excited for someone else’s birthday?
I enjoy others’ birthdays more than my own, due to a birthday occurrence and the ambivalence associated with that event.

19.  If it’s your party, can you really cry if you want to?
Listen, don’t bottle that shit up.  You can cry anytime you feel like you need to.  Let it out.  I mean, you will be considered a freak if you do it on your birthday, but that is your deal, not mine.

20.  Why don’t we get an automatic day off from work on our birthday?
I have no idea.  Sounds like a banner idea though.

and one to grow on….
21.  Do you prefer to cover yourself in a blanket and rebirth through the birth canal in the morning or in the evening?
I am not a morning person.

To recap:
Birthday in 2 days
I expect cards, notes, gifts, phone calls, donations, people lining up to do 20 Questions with me
Come on Internets, let’s get this going
Things are afoot with houseness
Hopefully details will exist next week
A good friend of mine was diagnosed with thyroid cancer
He wasn’t using his thyroid much anyway, so it all works out
He is planning on taking a ferret in with him to the radioactive stuff
Hoping to get the powers of a ferret
That being said, most likely the ferret will gain his powers
So there will be one goddamn sarcastic ferret who can school people in BW3 trivia in about 2 months
Look for it
Sarcastic trivia laden ferret
I am Adrift
Like an untethered boat on the sea
Seriously, I will take donations via PayPal for the birthday
I even have a handy dandy donate button waaaaaaaaaay down at the bottom left of the page
It’s my birthday… come on, gimme gimme gimme
Maj McArmypants, sending positive vibes your way
For a couple of reasons
38 years old or 19 and 19 years old
Have a great weekend everyone

20 Questions Tuesday: 204 - Sally Kuzemchak

It is a rare time indeed when I get to ask someone local that I actually know (other than my wife) 20 Questions.  So this is a super fun event for me.  This week I get to ask Sally Kuzemchak 20 Questions.  A little background… Sally is Little Man’s best friend’s mom… she also happens to be a relatively successful nutritional blogger over at her blog, Real Mom Nutrition.  Honestly, her status as a nutritionist has cause mild angst and anxiety when her little boy is over for a play date…. What snack do you get for a nutritionist’s kid? Is pizza OK? Is this juice good enough…. or just water.

I say all this in jest, while it does cause some less than mild anxiety, we have never been worried and watching her boy is an absolute delight.  All the conversations I have had with her have been great, and I look forward to any of the interactions with she or her spouse.  Wonderful people, just plain wonderful.  Sally has been worried that her 20 Questions will not be interesting, but let’s be clear, I interviewed these losers: Steve, Dave, and Chris, so anything she says will be miles more interesting then them.  Without further ado, 20 Questions with Sally Kuzemchak, Real Mom Nutritionist.

Since you have read my posts here, I am sure you know what is coming.  I was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.  Moved to Montgomery, Alabama when I was three.  When I was 4 or 4.5 we moved about 2 hours north to just north of Birmingham, Alabama (A little town called Center Point).  I went of to Kent State University in Kent, Ohio for my undergrad degree and then followed my fiancee down to Ohio State University (oops, THE Ohio State University) for my grad school.  We have been living in Columbus, Ohio ever since.  Question 1:  What is your geographic story?

I was born and raised in a small town in Western Pennsylvania called, confusingly, Indiana. At 18, I went two hours away to State College, Pa. to attend Penn State. After graduation, I moved to New York City and lived in three places (Greenwich Village, Park Slope, and the Upper East Side) in 3.5 years. Then I left to be with my then-boyfriend, now-husband in Chicago, where we lived two blocks from Wrigley Field. In 2000, we moved to Columbus, Ohio where we’ve been ever since.

I imagine that many people you grew up with went to IUP for their college education, the most confusing university name ever. That is a pretty fun list of places.

Question 2: Do you consider Columbus your home now in your heart of hearts or is there still a window open to Indiana, PA?

My husband and I are both from the same hometown, so we’ve definitely considered moving back to the area at certain points over the years. I have so much of Western Pennsylvania in me—I’m a coal miner’s daughter, after all. But the region has changed, and I have changed. Columbus reminds me of a bit Western Pennsylvania because it doesn’t put on airs. I like that.

You should mention to my wife that you are a coal miner’s daughter… she will quote that movie till the cows come home.  That might be a fun exercise.

So Question 3: You are a nutritionist, but I imagine you did not start out in college wanting to study nutrition. How did you come into the field of nutrition.

I gained a crapload of weight in college. Well, 15-20 pounds—but I’m just over 5 feet, so that’s like 40 pounds on anyone else. It was the first time I’d been exposed to limitless amounts of bad food, and I had no idea how to navigate it. I was eating pasta with a side of bagels and waffles with soft-serve ice cream for dessert. Then after a night of drinking beer, my roommate and I would run home in time to order a pizza at 2am. So I went to see a dietitian, who taught me about balancing carbs, proteins, and fat. It was a total revelation to me. When I moved to NYC after graduation and got a job at Self magazine, it happened to be in the nutrition department. The more I learned about nutrition, the more I loved it—and it had made such an impact on me personally, So I went back to school (and eventually lost all that weight).

In high school I was around 6’ 1” or 6’ 2” and a huge weight of 165 lbs (that is 1.85 to 1.87 m and 74.8 kg for my metric friends, and 11.78 st for any Brits).  After my first semester in school I weighed a solid 195 lbs (88.45 kg in metric or 13.9 st in imperial units).  Freshman 15 is nothing. I scoff at a freshmen 15.  My mom was overweight and to combat that she never made enough food at dinner, so she wouldn’t over-eat.  The lack of food at meal-times and the shocking amount of exercise that a teenager can do playing sports kept me at a rather thin and maybe a bit sickly 165. The small meals did not stop my mom from eating every snack in the house late at night though which did not combat her weight gain in the least.  She also made and decorated cakes for a side business, which didn’t help matters.  When I got to college, there was food… and I ate it.  Alot of it, so I am happy for you to have lost all that weight… I would love to lose more of mine.

I have been looking forward to asking this question to you since you agreed to do this, because it is such a heated question with many ramifications… Question 4: Cake or pie? Which kind specifically, and why?

Frosting, actually.

I eat the cake too, since that’s what’s socially acceptable for grown-ups to do. But I’d rather do what my 3-year-old does: Lick off the frosting and be done with it.

We always had frosting in the fridge. Always.  I would put frosting on everything… between cookies, between pop-tarts, on top of glazed donuts, on a spoon, sometimes I would even just use my finger.  Everything can be a delivery system for frosting. The best ever was adding frosting to a vanilla cheesecake. I would pants a stranger at the mall to get frosting covered cheesecake again. Frosting is the best, I have a killer recipe for it if you ever want it.

Question 5: So, what is your nutritional weakness… what is the food that you are constantly fighting against eating all the time?

Sugar. Candy corn, Sour Patch Kids, frosting (and yes, I would like that frosting recipe), jelly beans. As a kid, I would eat spoonfuls of powdered sugar from the bag. Whatever’s the quickest way to get the sugar directly into my veins. I recently did a two-week no-added-sugar challenge on my blog. The first day almost killed me, the second day I had a pounding headache, and from the third day on, I was totally and completely fine. It was nice to be liberated from sugar for once in my life. Then came my birthday. And cupcakes. And then the floodgates sort of opened. I think when it comes to sugar, I’m either all or nothing.

The problem with the recipe is just how bad it is for you…. when you know what goes into it, it is appalling, perfectly wonderfully tastily appalling, but here we go… 2 pounds of powdered sugar, 1 cup Crisco, 1/2 cup of HOT water, 1/8th teaspoon lemon extract…. mix them up… done and done.

I have heard that white sugar is crazy addictive… like more than cocaine addictive.  It is just that the side effects and negatives associated with the sugar are not nearly as acute as side effects and negatives for illegal drugs.  The effects are much more subtle and long term, and not necessarily any less worse… that being said, I am addicted to my green mistress… Mountain Dew.  Boatloads of refined sugar and a nice slathering of caffeine on top.  It is the burden I must bear.

Question 6: Kind of the contrapositive for the previous question… so, which healthy foods cannot you not help but eat?

Man, that frosting recipe sounds intense. A cup of Crisco! If you want to up the addictive quotient, substitute almond extract for the lemon extract.

Your double negative is tripping me up. Do you mean “what healthy foods do you like to eat?” or “what healthy foods do you not like”?

As a note… the lemon extract gives the frosting a crispness to cover the heaviness of the Crisco.  Vanilla extract and almond extract seems to make it “too heavy.” A dash of peppermint might work, but the lemon extract seems to work really well.  I think I know too much about frosting…

To clarify the question… Question 6 redux: Which healthy foods, if presented to you, will you always, every time eat?  For example, my wife will put some cherries away, and I have a hard time letting blanched broccoli stay on the table.

In the summertime, I require about a pint of blueberries a day. I also eat a giant salad almost every single night out of either a mixing bowl or 1.5 quart casserole dish.

I need to add more salads to my repertoire. I have them occasionally, I just don’t know how to make it a meal more often. A giant one daily is pretty darn awesome.  

You have 2 younguns at the same age as my two kids, so I know your free time is limited, but…. Question 7: What do you do in your limited or nonexistent free time?

Clean my house or write my blog. How sad is that? If I did have free time, I would finally knit the last arm on the sweater I started making my husband in 1997.

Clean and organize is something I should definitely do more of… sitting is what I definitely do more of.  Sometimes I sit and think, and sometimes I just sit.  I have been finding myself spending more and more of my “freetime” working on this blog.  Currently I have seven (maybe eight) 20 Questions Tuesday interviews going on simultaneously, all at various stages of completion.

Question 8: Part of your professional existence is tied up in your Internet presence and personal branding.  Do you enjoy/how are you enjoying the process of slowly building a niche market Internet presence?

Building an online “brand” has been odd and not something I ever thought I’d do. I’m a bit shy when it comes to this stuff—I’ve spent 15 years as a reporter/writer, so I’ve usually been the one behind the scenes, not the one out in front. But I started cultivating a presence within my niche (nutrition) because I wasn’t finding what *I* wanted to read—which was honest and humorous but helpful stories about what it’s really like to feed kids (and yourself) when you’re a mom. So many nutrition blogs made it sound too easy. I felt the need to pull back the curtain and say, “Even though I have these fancy letters after my name, it’s not perfect at my house either. Sometimes my kids eat boxed macaroni and cheese, and sometimes I have cake for dinner.” And those stories I wrote—like my frustration when my younger son refused to eat dinner for weeks or my insecurity in the presence of the fashionable all-organic-buying mom behind me in line at the grocery store—seemed to really resonate with my readers. Much more than my straight-ahead posts with helpful advice.

But my internet “brand” is also based on my personality and keeping it “real” (as in Real Mom Nutrition), so I have to stay true to that. One day, I was griping in a Facebook post about Pop-Tarts, and a reader (quite fairly) pointed out that I was sounding elitist—and wasn’t I supposed to be all down-to-Earth and realistic when it came to food? That was a good reminder that yes, people are actually reading this stuff and paying attention.

The fact that I even have people reading my stuff who aren’t my friends and family is strange—exciting but strange.

You are totally going to say something about Pop-Tarts, aren’t you?

Most definitely…  Like I said… as a kid, since my mom made cakes as a side business, I would put frosting on almost any food stuff… I really don’t want to think of the calories I ingested with the frosting between 2 pop-tarts sandwiches I used to make… For the record, even non-nutritionists can rail against the atrocity that is the pop tart.  It really is devoid of health, and chock full of convenience.  We have 2 boxes in our pantry right now.  I don’t dislike pop-tarts, I dislike the lack of healthiness on which pop tarts are built.  That is some Real Dad Non-Nutritionist stuff right there… That’s how I bring it… Boom!

The online branding stuff is truly difficult, and the idea of making a vocation out of an online presence that does not have any celebrity attached prior to the whole online thing is daunting to say the least.  I can honestly say, that I would really enjoy making a living at this 20 Questions stuff, but I am also quite aware that it is nigh impossible to do at this stage in the Internet’s developing ecosystem.  In the early wild west years I think there was a better shot, think back to the development of Dooce and that generation of Internet celeb as online forces.  I had pretty good readership on my old blog sryanhart.blogspot.com for a while.  There were moments when I had goodly amounts of people checking into my weekly questions, however those numbers died off when blogs kind of died down in 2008-2009. But enough about me and the sadness that is my online presence.

Question 9: Fill in the blanks… “I find that I am mostly ___________.” “Other people find that I am mostly ___________.”

I find that I am mostly a bit too Type A.

Other people find that I am mostly ___________. I polled a few folks and got answers like “upbeat”, “positive”, and “fun”, so clearly I don’t seem as uptight as I usually feel. Though a friend once said I reminded her of Reese Witherspoon in the movie "Election". She insisted it was a compliment, but I’m not so sure.

Having met you I would say that you are typically positive and I find your conversations quite enjoyable.  I would not say that you remind me of Reese in “Election.”  She was a nut in that movie, I would question your friend’s idea of a compliment.

Question 10: What medium for entertainment do you find yourself partaking the most, Movies, TV shows (via DVD or over the net etc…), Music, Podcasts, or Books… etc…?

That character *was* a nut, but I think my friend meant that she thought I was feisty and determined—and well, very Type A.

Books, primarily. From the library. We cancelled our cable and watch something from Netflix about once a week. Music is reduced to the stuff my kids like, which ranges from Katy Perry (one of my older son’s favorites) to “All About John Deere for Kids” (14 songs, all about tractors) when we’re riding in the car. Alright fine, minivan.

Little Man is not super into popular music as much as he is into talking about Star Wars… incessantly.  Q likes dance music and instrumental surf rock…go figure.  I think it is excellent that you cut the cord on your TV.  If it were not for soccer games that I like to watch, I think we could possibly cut the cord and be cableless… Minivans are waaay too damn convenient. I sadly see one of those in my future.

It is all downhill from here… Question 11: How adventurous are your kids in regards to trying new foods?  When Little Man was allergic to nearly everything, we missed many an opportunity to introduce new foods.  He subsisted on bratwurst and Burger King hamburgers, and now he is incredibly reluctant to try new things.

Our 7-year-old Henry is pretty adventurous. My husband and I are both recovering picky eaters—I pretty much existed on buttered noodles until college—so we are in awe when he barely hesitates before taking a bite of something new at the dinner table. Sometimes he’ll even take a second or third bite before making a judgement. My three-year-old, however, is the opposite.

Since I was such a picky eater, I really understand the impulse to reject new foods, so I think I’m pretty patient with it. I can name a slew of foods I never tried until my 20s and beyond—asparagus, salmon, beans and lentils, onions, raw tomatoes—so I know firsthand that it can take a LONG time. Just because your kid isn’t eating certain foods now doesn’t mean he never will. You just have to keep presenting them at the table (without making a big deal about them or pressuring your child) and keep the faith.

Speaking of your husband… I know that when one gets married one has to integrate 2 sets of traditions.  Most of these traditions don’t rear their ugly heads until holiday times.  Question 12: What culinary traditions did you and your husband have that were different and had to be navigated over the course of years?  For example, it took about 4 or 5 years for the fam to make stuffing that both my wife and I like.

This isn’t a culinary tradition per se, but our families have very different ideas of what “enough” food means. Growing up in my house, you got your one plate of food (that my mom portioned out) and that was it. She didn’t do that in a controlling way—no one in my family ever talked about dieting or portion sizes. But my family is big on not wasting any food, so we didn’t have a lot of leftovers. The first time my husband spent Christmas with my family, he finished his plate of lasagna and was looking around for seconds and…there were no seconds. On other hand, my husband’s family serves a lot of food—so the first time I spent the holidays with his family, I was struck (and of course totally psyched) by the huge buffet of crab dip and shrimp cocktail and prime rib and trays of cookies. Since we’re from the same hometown, we see both families at each holiday and it’s always a funny contrast.

Oh and ps: If she reads this, my mom is going to be totally mortified. So let me state for the record that since that “lasagna episode”, my mom has always made sure to have seconds for Joel. (My parents rarely, if ever, eat seconds…which is probably why they’re both very slim.)

Food was an interesting thing in my household growing up, as I stated before.  The scarcity and then lack of scarceness I think has caused me issues with portion control and creating self imposed limits.  Woe is me… wooooe is meeee.

Question 13: Do you have any superstitions and/or rituals?

Nope. But now you’ve scared me. Should I have some? Do you have any extras?

I really don’t have many superstitions or rituals anymore.  I had a very specific method of getting ready for soccer games that was very ritual-like in nature when I was in high school.  That ritual was mainly to get me in a specific state of mind before the game.  I have never been truly superstitious either.  So far the best answers, by far, that I have gotten for this question are (and I paraphrase) “Never put a hat on the bed,” and “I am a Christian, so all the rituals that are associated with the religion.”

I do think that superstition and ritual seem to be going by the wayside.  Superstition mostly, because many things can be ritualized (how someone washes a car, gets dressed, makes coffee).  I am surprised there have not been more digital superstitions though.  ”Don’t put your phone by the computer because it will corrupt your memory” or some such oddness.

Question 14: What is the central, overarching question that drives you in all that you do?  What is the burning question you are consistently and constantly trying to answer through your thoughts, actions, and intentions?

You have completely stumped me with this. I’ve been thinking about this question for a week now. I must be really shallow or something.

Let me give you an example.  MY overarching question at the moment is, “How can I get my professional existence to line up better with my personal existence?”
BTW’s: You are not shallow, this is just a method of thinking you haven’t had to do yet.  In many ways it is better to live with a question instead of an answer.

My overarching question at the moment is, “How can I explore all of these cool, interesting professional opportunities without my home (and home life) becoming a disgusting mess?” It’s a version of the work-life balance dilemma. Some people have that dilemma but hate their jobs. I love my job…plus the jobs I hear about. And I’m always wanting to do them all. But then I become a stressed-out wreck and have to have those stress cries like Holly Hunter in “Broadcast News”.

oooh, work life balance stuff is a question for the ages, and I think culturally women get the worse end of the stick on that one.  I feel for you on that one.  All we have found with my wife’s consultation practice is that the balance issues really raise their head when it is out of balance.  Adjusting for life/work balance seems to be reactionary instead of proactive… at least in our experience.  It helps to have a partner that you trust wholeheartedly to only tell you to back off when you REALLY need to back off. I hope that I am that partner for my wife.

You just got back from the Mexico for a bit of vacation, Question 15: Where is your favorite vacation spot?

I’m a beach girl. So: on a beach chair with a book or music, looking at the ocean, preferably at 5pm when the beach is at its best. The added bonus of 5pm is that it’s past prime sunburning time. With my history of blistering sunburns—and stage 1 melanoma three years ago—I’m more likely to be under and umbrella and giant sunhat between 10-3.

Sorry, didn’t mean to bring everyone down—but I like to plug sun safety whenever I can.

Oh, we are all down now… so, so down.  No worries.  This blog can be both educational and entertaining.

I am mountains and forest guy, myself.  I just am not super into the whole “sand” thing, but hiking in a nice foggy mountain valley?  You got yourself a deal.

and we are now over 2/3rds done.  I am always surprised when I get to this point.
Question 16: I would consider myself a poor question asker thingy person if I didn’t ask you about being the author of a NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING BOOK… That is an abso-frikkin-lutely-amazing feat.  How do you not have business cards with that fact as your job title?  I would “casually” drop this little nugget of personal information in nearly every conversation, yet you hardly mention it and slough it off as nothing whenever it comes up… what’s that about?

It is truly not as impressive as it seems. Prevention magazine’s “Flat Belly” book was already a NYTimes Bestseller. I was doing a lot of work for them at the time and was hired to write copy for a spin-off cookbook about families. Not that it wasn’t exciting to see it on the list and be a part of it, because it certainly was. But if I ever have a book on the bestseller list that was my totally my inspiration and creation, then you will see it tattooed on my bicep. Or at least included in my email signature.

I think you may not be giving yourself the credit you deserve, but I am not your therapist.  If you write that book I will hold you to the bicep tattoo…. and the email sig.

Question 17:  You have been freelance and self employed for a good while now… could you ever see yourself solely working for somebody else ever again?

No.  No no no no no no. I will do what it takes to help pay the mortgage, but I hope it doesn’t come to that. I’ve been freelance for 15 years. I’ve had some jobs over the years that required me to work elsewhere—like a hospital or office—and I always feel homesick. There is something magical about your house in the middle of a Wednesday when both of your kids are at school and there is just….silence. Plus my office-drama muscle has completely atrophied, so I wouldn’t know the first thing about handling gossip or a difficult coworker in the next cubicle. When I have to work with someone difficult, they are gone from my life after I hang up the phone or close their email. I love that.

I cannot imagine how difficult it would be to transition from working for yourself for 15 years to going back to a 9 to 5 job with a supervisor and performance review and office politics and commute, etc… I would imagine it would be very akin to going back into a traditional education system for a classes/papers/exams situation.  I could possibly see re-entrance into a more non-traditional degree program, but there is no way I could go back to school right now for something like history (which is a topic I find very interesting).

So, here we are at the pivot point in the 20 Questions.  I have been grilling you for 17 questions, but at 18 I turn the tables.  Question 18: Is there anything you want to ask me?

I have actually really enjoyed this process, and I love the premise of your blog. BUT, do you ever get really sick of people droning on and on and on about themselves? Don’t you wake up some days and think, “I don’t give a shit about whether so-and-so likes cake or pie today?”

Not especially.  These interview 20 Questions tend to be spread out around weeks and weeks and weeks, so I don’t really get over-tired of asking these questions.  Mainly because these questions are spread out over time and the answers are never ever the same.  It really is quite interesting to do.  As to the droning on about themselves, I am not sure if you have seen, but I drone on about myself for most of the posts.  I mean really I “wax eloquent” a bunch… a whole bunch.

Question 19:What are you taking away from this 20 Questions that you did not have when you started it?

A recipe for frosting that I plan to make and spread on Pop-Tarts of course!

So, I have corrupted a nutritionist with tales of frosting and pop-tarts.  I now consider this post a success, and my job here is done!

So, final question. Question 20: What’s next for you?  Be as vague or precise or as philosophical or concrete as you want.

Somehow, *somehow*, slowing down. I’d like to soak up the last gasps of my 7-year-old still thinking I’m cool and wanting to (occasionally) hold my hand. Enjoying my 4-year-old before he dives into the world of kindergarten and I start losing him to the world at large.

And maybe writing a book (I’ve got an idea percolating).

The fact that those two goals are not really compatible in any way, shape, or form  just about sums it up for me.

You are nothing if not dichotomous.  Thanks so much!  This was so great.  Not only was it a fun 20 Questions, it also allowed me to learn a ton about my boy’s best friend’s mom (that was a pretty good string of possession).  Next time I have to make frosting, I am giving some to your kid to take back home.

Sally is a great writer (I mentioned the best seller thing, right?) and whether you are parent/mom or not you should go over to her blog and give it a read.  Definitely follow her on the twitters.

To recap:
On Monday I had an itch on my left shoulder blade area that I couldn’t quite reach
Therefore I scrubbed my back up and down on a doorway at work
Humming “It’s the Bear necessities” while I did it to complete the picture for the co-workers
I do nothing if not complete idiotic picture for coworkers
They do not quite know how to take me
I kind of like it that way
Today I am taking video of holes we put in a road
Rather un-exciting videos
One might call them boring
I hate that “boring” is an appropriate term for much of my work
Everyone I talk to seems to think I am making a pun due to my works’ strong association with boreholes
I cannot think of another word that works quite as appropriately
Have a great weekend everyone!

20 Questions Tuesday: 203 - The Future

So this past week I was in the realm of Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida.  A whole week of hanging out with the fam and not going to work.  That and I did not get any more of my interviews moving.  Plus, whomever I interview could probably not out do Clark Gregg and 4 boss artists drawing Agent Coulson.  Anywho… aside from finding snakes right by our room for 3 of the 7 days and my wife being deathly afraid of the snakes, all went well.  Luckily, because my intrepid questioneers are so amazing, I had 20 questions in my pocket that I was sitting on and waiting for a rainy day.  Today is that rainy day.

Thanks this week go to Chris Ring, Lsig, Dr JHP, and Steev… on to the questions!

1.  Where’s my flying car?
It’s in your floating garage.

2.  Do you believe in visions of the future or is it just deja vu … or a glitch in the matrix?
Okay, this is going to take some ‘splaining.  Time much like other dimensions can loop back on itself, the reason we have deja vus is due to time looping on itself and our coincidentally being unconscious at the “beginning” of the loop.  Here is the thing, time is constantly looping on itself, but we do not recognize the loop because of all the other outside stimuli we are experiencing.  Remove the outside stimuli and one is able to experience the “future” in a dream state.  So deja vus are when we are experiencing the future whilst sleeping, and then do not recall the future until it is happening.

3.  What under the radar sport will become most popular in the future?
A google search brings up KRONUM… I am at work, so I can’t look at this “sport.”

4.  Finish this with the most likely candidate “Rise of the planet of the __________”
Ants…

5. I made a $10 bet with someone OVER 10 years ago that movie theatres would NOT disappear in 10 years, do you think I’ll get my money?
Nope… I would make the bet that you never get paid for that bet.

6.  When you think of The Future, how far ahead are you generally thinking about? Five years? Fifty? After lunch?
When I think of “future” I am thinking of 50+ years…

7.  Do you have a five-year plan?
Not at the moment… but I should

8.  Do you agree with the axiom, “There is no date but what you make?” (aka the “Terminator” theory of the future)
As stated before Time is not a linear unidirectional propagation… therefore there is no only one future… The future is limitless

9.  I’m often struck by how much we are living in The Future - touch screens, instant access to information, vacuum cleaners that run themselves,  etc. What technological advances in your lifetime impress you most?
The smart phone in my pocket is pretty amazing… that level of connection to others is pretty amazing.

10.  If you could make a wish to guarantee one thing for each of your children’s futures, what would you use your wishes for?
Significantly better healthcare… hell, our kids might be around for the Singularity… if you are not familiar with the Singularity… look it up, could be amazing.

11.  You probably will get this many times but where is my flying car?
It is in your floating garage… floating away in the ether never to exist.  Flying cars are a bad idea. They are not practical and I cannot imagine how dangerous they would be.

12.  Is the future really so bright that you gotta wear shades or is it just the hole in the ozone layer?
A little of Column A and a little of Column B.

13.  Do you believe we can glimpse at the future? Not winning the lottery per se but that odd sixth sense when some people know and prepare for something bad just before it happens?
Yes, I do.  I think that people with “true” precognitive abilities can just access loops in time better than others.

14.  Would you rather have the power to change the past or set the future?
Neither.  You change the past and your present is different.  You set the future and what is the point of decision making.

15.  Does Peyton Manning have a good future in Denver or not? A lot of people really want to know.
Payton will have 2 “good” seasons… not great seasons, and then he will be done. He will then become a rather well thought of quarterback coach, then offensive coordinator, and then a crappy head-coach… so it is written, so it shall be done.

16.  What will the world be like in the year 2000?

Much like it was in 1999, but with more manually corrected dates on checks. Remember checks… err… cheques?

17.  Time travel is always fun and the Toynbee Convector by Bradbury is my time travel story. Do you have a favorite story involving time travel and the travel and the future?
The Castings Trilogy by Pamela Freeman is pretty cool.  One of the main characters jumps back and forth in time to help resolve the plot.  It is a fantasy series though, and not a sci-fi series, but this is my blog, so these are my rules… deal with it.

18.  We’ve had the Ice Age, the Bronze Age, the Industrial Age and now the Information Age. What “Age” do you see in our future?
The Universal Age, where we find out that there is other intelligent life in the universe.

19.  If there is something you would really like to see come about in the future, what would it be?
Fat free products that taste just as good as the fatty versions, but are also healthy… guilt free donuts for everyone!

20.  If you had the word “future” in Scrabble, what would be the most points you could get for it?
30… I think.. double letter score on the “T” and triple word score on the “E.”

To recap:
There are snakes in Florida
The wife really really does not like snakes
She doesn’t want them erradicated
She wants them away from her
LEGOLand in Florida was a bunch of fun for the kids
It was a nice distraction from the wild world of Disney
Well, Capt McArmypants is now Maj McArmypants
Congrats to Maj McArmypants
Infact, I got some questions from the good Major for this week’s 20 Questions
From Maj McArmypants:
Extra 1.  2100:  So space travel, nanotech, AI, etc?  or will “Crabs in a Pot” Theory prevail?
All of the above.  The crabs in a pot will slow things down, but progress will always prevail.  Expert systems first (rudimentary AI), nanotech, then space travel.

Extra 2.  Biggest “future” invention you anticipate in your lifetime?
Clean fuel… something that takes less fuel consumption than it generates with no negative environmental side-effects.

Extra 3.  Gonna do Wetware when it comes out or are you opposed?
Definitely not 1st gen.  Maybe third generation with potential to upgrade.

Extra 4.  Is the whole “tweeting” thing proof that we should stop right now?
Nope, tweeting is awesome… follow me: @mmmmmpig

Extra 5.  So what is it with the Unitard and the future?  I mean I could honestly see the Toga making a huge comeback in the future, but I simply cannot imagine the technological breakthroughs that make the unitard standard issue daywear.
How about a toga over a unitard?  That’s where I see things going.

Maj McArmypants also had emergency back surgery for a bulging disc
Get well soon, McArmypants
Get well soon
Have a great weekend everyone

20 Questions Tuesday: 202 - Clark Gregg, et al....

Okay, I rarely call my wife and “squee” with Internety delight, but when Clark Gregg, quite possibly the most consistent (and should I say “important”) character and the binding force of the non-X related Marvel movies (Iron Man 1 & 2, Thor, and the Avengers) as the unflappable Agent Phil Coulson, agrees to answer a couple of questions for this crappy blog, I squee with Internety delight. Clark Gregg is making a living as an actor and has graced both the big screen and the not so big, yet getting bigger home screens with his talent.  

The affable Mr Gregg has graciously agreed to answer 10 of the 20 questions for this week’s 20 Questions Tuesday.  And without further ado… the questions:

I make maps for a living and have my master’s in geography, so space and place are very interesting for me.   I was born in Oklahoma City, OK, moved to Montgomery, AL when I was 3,  grew up in Birmingham, AL from 5 to 18 years old, did my undergrad in Kent, OH at KSU, and finally moved to Columbus, OH and got married, got my MA and settled down for the past 15 years. Question 1:  What is your geographic story?

It is a transient one.  Born in Brookline, Mass.  Moved to Newport R.I. a few months later. Then Providence, RI - Philadelphia, PA, Evanston, Illinois, Chapel Hill, NC for middle and high school, then New York City for a long time and now Los Angeles for a long time.

Surprisingly one can glean a ton of information from someone, by asking the next question.  I just realized that I have stolen this question from the erudite Paul F. Thompkins, but I am still curious Question 2: Cake or Pie?  Which kind and why?

German Chocolate Cake.  My grandmother used to serve it and it tastes like love, my death row dessert, and probably entire last meal.

Question 3: Now that you are firmly ensconced in the geek/nerd culture due to your portrayal of Agent Coulson, will you be hitting the convention circuits to meet up with the fans?

I see no reason to stop now.

Question 4: In many ways Agent Coulson is the Boba Fett of the Marvel movies… discuss

Very flattering comparison, the bounty hunter man of mystery.  Just glad I got to use my own face.

Question 5:  A: What is your favorite color? B: What color is your toothbrush? C: If they are not the same, why not? If they are the same, how did that come about?  Was it a conscious decision?

A: Various shades of blue depending on my mood.
B: Toothbrush is mostly white sonic one.
C: Just comes that way.  I realize I must now paint it grey-blue.

Question 6: Is there one person with whom you have previously worked that you would kick a kitten in the rain to get a chance to work with him/her again?

My wife, Jennifer Grey.  Political, yes, but also true.  Most fun I ever had acting with anyone.  And that was in the unforgettable Lifetime holiday classic, “The Road to Christmas.”  Imagine if we got to do something classy, like a reality show.

I currently work for the State Department of transportation locating dots on maps that correspond to holes in the ground that my group has drilled, but in  my free-time (I have 2 young kids, so “freetime” is a relative term) I enjoy drawing and playing some video games.  Question 7: What do you enjoy doing during your downtime?

I play way more basketball than I should and I also enjoy Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, but I’d rather go shopping with my daughter than just about anything else.

I am constantly asking myself “How do I get my professional life to become more in-line with my personality and more fulfilling for me personally?”  The answer for me is not necessarily “more money” but I don’t think that would hurt.  Question 8:  What is your one burning question that drives you?  What is the question that you find yourself constantly trying to answer?

How could this be funnier? (Clearly I didn’t figure it out with regard to this answer)

Turnabout is fair play, so… Question 9: Do you have anything that you would like to ask me?

Are paper maps on their way out?

There will always be a place for paper map products… well, thin sheet-like mapping products that are foldable.  I think more durable plastic sheet maps will becoming more prevalent than paper-based products.  That being said, the bulk of mapping will be associated with handheld smart-phones/Computers.  You can already see this trend with GPS/mapping apps on the iPhones.  So to sum up, paper maps are not on the way “out for evers” so to speak, they are just becoming less prevalent.

Question 10:  What is next for you? Be as vague or precise or as philosophical, or concrete as you want to be

Tonight sleep.  Tomorrow basketball, writing, some animation voice over, food, meetings and more sleep.  Then in a few weeks I will start a new film with my talented pal, Jason Reitman called “Labor Day.”

Thanks for the time and answers.  You really are the best part of all those movies and I am surprised you took the time to deal with me.  I love looking through your twitter feed and seeing how much you interact with your fans.  Seriously people, if you don’t follow him, you should. I love the balance of fun and seriousness that you seem to bring with your craft.  You, good sir, are the best.

Here is the thing… 10 does not 20 make, so to round out the 20 Questions, because this is 20 Questions Tuesday, I have asked Khoi Pham and Reilly Brown, artists of MARVEL Comics fame, to draw some Agent Coulson fan art and each answer the same 5 questions about Agent Coulson.  On top of that (if that weren’t enough…  I mean, come on?!?!?) I stole the top 2 vote getters for the Ten Ton Studios Sketch Challenge from a few weeks ago, who happen to be friends of this blog.  Chris Ring and Steve Wilhite have allowed me to post their sketches and been gracious enough to answer the same 5 questions.

• Khoi Pham:

1.  In many ways Agent Coulson is the Boba Fett of the Marvel movies… discuss

Totally.  I can absolutely see him mastering an outdoor grill.  No wait, that’s Bobby Flay.

2. Do you find it surprising that the “everyman” character got so much screen time within the Marvel movies?

A bit surprising, but Gregg is fantastic, so in that sense, it’s not surprising.  That answer makes no sense.

3.  Is there really room to integrate Agent Coulson in a meaningful capacity into the main Marvel Universe. Aside from his introduction in “Battle Scars,”  where could he fit long term?  What would his role be?

Head of S.H.I.E.L.D.  This needs to happen.

4.  If you were to alter Agent Coulson’s character model/apperance (G-Man in a suit with a “bluetooth”-ish headset), what would you do? or would you leave it alone? and why?

He could use an eye patch.

5.  If Agent Phil Coulson were to be elevated to a member of the Avengers, a la Hawkeye and Black Widow, which Avenger’s mantle would you like to see him take on… Yellow Jacket? Ant Man? Ronin? Wonderman? Machine Man? D-Man? Goliath? Vision? or would you include him as some completely new Super-Hero?

Hmmm.  I’d dig him as Iron Patriot.  Wow, that was sort of a serious answer.

• Reilly Brown:

1.  In many ways Agent Coulson is the Boba Fett of the Marvel movies… discuss

Because he’s a jet-pack wearing hard ass who don’t take guff from no one, and would shoot his own mother for the right price… Oh wait, no, I was confusing Agent Coulson with Khoi.

2. Do you find it surprising that the “everyman” character got so much screen time within the Marvel movies?

His “everyman” aspect is what made him such a good character.  He doesn’t immediately come off as a super spy— when we first meet him in Iron Man he just seems like a mild mannered government bureaucrat, but we slowly learn more and more about him until he’s firing a sci-fi gun at the Norse god of mischief with his dying breath.
Learning about him bit by bit is a great way to build up a character.

3.  Is there really room to integrate Agent Coulson in a meaningful capacity into the main Marvel Universe. Aside from his introduction in “Battle Scars,”  where could he fit long term?  What would his role be?

There have been a few SHIELD agents who have become more memorable members of the Marvel Universe, such as Fury’s Howling Commandos, Jimmy Wu or Maria Hill.  I could picture Agent Coulson being used like one of those guys— another super spy for your everyday household needs.

Although I do like that “everyman” aspect of his character that you mentioned earlier.  It could be fun to use a character like that who’s mostly just an average guy, but has all the most insanely awesome connections and hook-ups.  Imagine him with the full range of the entire Marvel universe at his disposal, rather than just the Avengers.  He could call up Xavier or Reed Richards when he needs something, or have an amulet that opens a door through some dark, demonic dimension to contact Dr. Strange.  The story possibilities are endless!

4.  If you were to alter Agent Coulson’s character model/apperance (G-Man in a suit with a “bluetooth”-ish headset), what would you do? or would you leave it alone? and why?

I’d consider a black SHIELD agent suit.  He’d look pretty sharp in that.  Or perhaps he ALWAYS wears suits, but has different ones for different occasions, like a bullet proof suit, or a suit that can withstand the absolute zero of outer space.   He’d be the everyman for every occasion!

5.  If Agent Phil Coulson were to be elevated to a member of the Avengers, a la Hawkeye and Black Widow, which Avenger’s mantle would you like to see him take on… Yellow Jacket? Ant Man? Ronin? Wonder Man? Machine Man? D-Man? Goliath? the Vision? or would you include him as some completely new Super-Hero?

He’d make a killer Ms Marvel!
Heh, no, just kidding, I think he’d have to be his own guy.  He’d use his skills and experiences to make his own name for himself.  It would be fun to see him as the Avengers recruitment agent like he was in the movies, and he’d have powers to accompany and aid him in that.
He’d be able to check references on a resume SO fast.

• Chris Ring:

1.  In many ways Agent Coulson is the Boba Fett of the Marvel movies… discuss

Most times less is more when it comes to cool and it’s easier to project ourselves into roles where no special powers are required … a few gadgets help but for the most part these guys are the everyman and bridge the gap between fantasy and reality to make incredible movies …well, credible.

2. Do you find it surprising that the “everyman” character got so much screen time within the Marvel movies?

Not at all, in the early days of film the straight man ALWAYS got paid more than the punch-line guy because it was always harder to find a straight man who could deliver. Kudos to Clark Gregg for delivering. The over the top characters need to play off these everyman characters like the chorus to a verse of a great song.

3.  Is there really room to integrate Agent Coulson in a meaningful capacity into the main Marvel Universe. Aside from his introduction in “Battle Scars,”  where could he fit long term?  What would his role be?

A great writer could do great things with agent Coulson. Speaking as someone who is not a teen anymore I’d definitely pick up a book which featured agent Coulson in an X-Files/BPRD/Man with no name sort of way … Hell, I’ll draw it and write it ;)

4.  If you were to alter Agent Coulson’s character model/apperance (G-Man in a suit with a “bluetooth”-ish headset), what would you do? or would you leave it alone? and why?

Much like a James Bond role I’d keep it as an iconic look but alter it depending on the situation and task at hand.

5.  If Agent Phil Coulson were to be elevated to a member of the Avengers, a la Hawkeye and Black Widow, which Avenger’s mantle would you like to see him take on… Yellow Jacket? Ant Man? Ronin? Wonderman? Machine Man? D-Man? Goliath? Vision? or would you include him as some completely new Super-Hero?

I think if you made him any of those characters, much of his everyman appeal would be forfeit. As an avenger I would keep him as is, what makes him unique is that he’s not just another costume. To quote Grant Morrison in reference to Batman in contrast to other Superheroes  ”He’s just a man … the most dangerous man on the planet.” I think fans have projected this sentiment onto agent Coulson and hopefully Marvel will run with it.

• Steve Wilhite

1.  In many ways Agent Coulson is the Boba Fett of the Marvel movies… discuss

I have to disagree with you right out of the gate. Boba Fett was a waste of time in the original trilogy. Couslon is more like a red shirted ensign in the original Star Trek. He furthers the plot, helps the team, you might get to know him a bit and then BAM!

2. Do you find it surprising that the “everyman” character got so much screen time within the Marvel movies?

No. The movies needed someone you could relate to. Think about it, I will never be a Norse God (except in the bedroom), won’t be a billionaire inventor, super soldier or a super spy but I’m good with people and could rock a really nice suit.

3.  Is there really room to integrate Agent Coulson in a meaningful capacity into the main Marvel Universe. Aside from his introduction in “Battle Scars,”  where could he fit long term?  What would his role be?

1. Sure! You need to have great supporting characters like Alfred, Commissioner Gordon and that Morgan Freeman guy that they have in the Batman movies. They may not be super but they are super awesome. Marvel needs to have some of these characters around too. They do all the crap that would look stupid if the big heroes did it.

4.  If you were to alter Agent Coulson’s character model/apperance (G-Man in a suit with a “bluetooth”-ish headset), what would you do? or would you leave it alone? and why?

I think I would give him an eye patch. But on the opposite eye from Nick Fury. It would just piss Fury off. He would be like “Fool! What’s up with that eye patch?” and could would be like “What eye patch?”. Hilarity would ensue.

5.  If Agent Phil Coulson were to be elevated to a member of the Avengers, a la Hawkeye and Black Widow, which Avenger’s mantle would you like to see him take on… Yellow Jacket? Ant Man? Ronin? Wonderman? Machine Man? D-Man? Goliath? Vision? or would you include him as some completely new Super-Hero?

All of the above would suck. If you can’t just leave him as the guy in the suit make him Luke Cage. Iron Man would say “Coulson get over here. Thor’s hair is caught in a ceiling fan again!” and Coulson would go “Sweet mother Christmas!”. If he can’t be Luke Cage then just make him a disembodied head in a jar…with an eye patch.

Thanks gents.  You are an unequaled group of fellas

To recap:
On vacation and I have one of the best 20 Questions ever
I think I might like this 10 Questions and then asking others for opinions
Any thoughts on the topic from you yahoos?
We are in the Disney World this week
Yesterday was The Magic Kingdom
Here are the kids during the Electric Parade last night

{to be added when my photobucket upload works again… stay tuned!}
Today is a day of rest
Tomorrow is LEGOLAND (not associated with Disney)
Thursday is Downtown Disney
Friday is Disney Hollywood Studios for Star Wars Weekends
Saturday is most likely going to be EPCOT and Animal Kingdom
Then we are home again home again, giggity gig
Have a great weekend everyone, we definitely will

20 Question Tuesday: 201 - Doug Hills

It is another installment of 20 Questions Tuesday with a guy from Ten Ton Studios… what? you are tired of Ten Ton Studios interviews?  suck it up buttercup and step up to the plate to answer 20 questions your damn self.  Leave a comment, leave a note, and quit your whining.

This week we take a deeper look at Doug Hills.  Doug Hills is primarily a digital comic book artist, even though he can seriously throw down some traditional work.  Doug is honestly the first person I have known who primarily works within a Manga style that I have enjoyed.  Manga is typically a form that does not appeal to me… something about the faces… Doug has made me a believer… Doug’s lines are super smooth, and they should be.  Doug is also the author of Manga Studio for Dummies, so really, he should know how to work that program (and he really does).  He has great instincts for his layouts and really knows his particular form.  I love seeing him do non-Manga icons in a Manga format.  

Doug has very strong opinions about the future of digital comics and is free with his sharing of that opinion within social networking.  His opinion is always interesting and well thought out.  So, enough of this drivel… On to the questions!

I was born in Oklahoma City, OK, moved to Montgomery, AL, then grew up in Birmingham, AL, and go off to school in Kent, OH.  I finally settle down in Columbus, OH. Question 1: What is your geographic story?

Pretty simple, when I think about it. I was born in Pittsfield, MA, lived my life across the state line in Chatham, NY, went to school at SUNY Plattsburgh, came back to live in Albany, and then spent the past ten years in Logan, Utah (my wife got a job teaching at Utah State University).

As you can tell, this is the furthest west I have ever been. I’m pretty sure I had not been off the Eastern Seaboard prior to 2002.

That area of Utah is gorgeous, but seriously what part of Utah isn’t gorgeous in some way shape or form.  

So I know a little bit about you from things you have posted before, so I am really interested in your answer to this next question…. I worked selling Nordictracks whilst in college, spent a summer in the kennel of a vet, was a graduate TA, became the Senior Cartographer/Designer/GIS Coordinator for a looong time.  Was unemployed for a year or so, made a mistake in a not-for-profit agency, and now have been in the employ of the State of Ohio for a year and a half… Question 2: What is your employment history?

Well, let’s see. I helped my dad at his construction/woodworking business. I was a clerk at a grocery store. I mowed the (very large) lawn at a Lawn & Tractor store. I worked different jobs at a diner. I was Tech Support at the SUNY Plattsburgh Computer Lab. I did some database and UI programming for a company in Albany. I quit that job and delivered Chinese Food for a while. And now, I’m writing guidebooks for Manga Studio, and drawing comics.

That is a pretty eclectic mix of the cerebral and the physical… So, I take it that your wife is the primary bread winner and holder of all things benefit-like… Question 3: If that is the case, have you gotten any “guff” from anyone for your wife holding that role?

Oh, sure. Lots of times. My comics career aside, the idea that my wife is the primary breadwinner, while I’m the stay-at-home parent gets a lot of comments. The funny thing is that if the roles were reversed, it wouldn’t be an issue (and would probably be the preferred or encouraged form of having a family). So, it’s like this two-tier sexism: on my wife for working and being the primary breadwinner; and on me for being “lazy,” or having a “sugar momma.”

I’ve talked to other guys who work from home, or are the stay-at-home parent while their wife makes more money than they do. They get the same thing from people. A lot of it is cultural: men to a degree have been expected to be the one who works and brings the money while the wife cares for the home. One does get this emasculating vibe from people; like you’re less of a man because you’re the one taking care of the kids.

It is what it is, though. I’ve learned long ago that people are going to think what they want. What matters to me/us is that this has worked out better for the family than doing it the “old fashioned way.”

Currently, my wife makes significantly more money than I do through her insanely more fulfilling job.  My job is currently being kept primarily for the benefits of having health insurance.  I have gotten some guff from some people about having a “sugar mama,” which is absolutely foolish.  Who doesn’t want their partner to make more money?  Those people are idiots, stupid inane idiots from Stoopidton.  Next question for the kept man…

Question 4:  Cake or Pie? Which one and what specific kind?

Either or, really. Today, I’ll go with pie: chocolate peanut butter mousse pie with a chocolate graham cracker crust.

That sounds delightful… chocolatey peanut-buttery mousse sounds amazing. I want one now… Seriously, now.  I have stated this before.  Most people who choose pie, really like pie, while the people who “like” cake really really like cake.  They like cake so much that they would sell people into slavery for some cake.  It is kind of an interesting unproven sociological fact that I have gleaned from these interviews, blown out of proportion, and made sweeping statements about…

Question 5: So, if you were to make up a sweeping unfounded generalization and pass it off as a sociological fact, what would it be and why?

Hmm.
Let’s go with: “Anonymous Internet Commenters know how to fix all the world’s problems, and that their words should be heeded, no matter how crazy they may sound.”

Mostly, because there’s probably some company or group out there that would actually follow through on something like that, and I want to see who’d do it. :)

Too bad all the fixes equate to “First,” “Yur so Gay,” “Look at my youtube channel found at….”

Question 6: You recently dropped some serious weight.  What was your method to your weight loss regimen?

The big thing was just mentally getting to the point where I was like, “you know what? I’m done being 225 pounds.” I say that, because I’ve paid lip service to the idea of losing weight. But until I was really, truly, mentally ready to do it, that’s all it was: lip service.

Past that, I’d attribute it to four things:

1) Earlier that year my wife and I sat down and discussed whether to go pay for a gym membership (again), or use that money, and just invest in a good treadmill. We decided on the latter. Once I was really ready to drop the weight, I just worked the hell out of that thing. I don’t run, so I just ranked it to the highest elevation (12% incline), and hiked uphill at about 3.5-4 miles per hour. I tried burning off about 600-800 calories a day using that.

2) I didn’t want to rely on the weight loss services that you have to pay for. My wife told me about MyFitnessPal, which is a combination food/exercise diary and nutritional wiki. You’d be surprised at how much you’d be willing to change what you ate when you saw how many calories you were consuming.

I never really stopped eating the kinds of food I ate. I still ate pizza, or drank beer, or had dessert. I just learned that I could get by with smaller portions. Like a basic cheeseburger instead of a double; one bratwurst, instead of two. Things like that. When you see those caloric numbers staring at you, you take heed.

Since I had a net calorie goal (at the time, I believe it was 1200-1300 calories/day) to reach, I also made a game of it. Like, if I’m going to eat that much, I need to work that much harder on the treadmill. Stuff like that. I became a bit of a stats junkie, in that regard.

3) Related to number 2, I started followingEat This, Not That! on Twitter. There they’d post things, like lists of the world’s worst desserts, or restaraunt foods. and they’d put things in real-word relations, like “that Baskin-Robbins shake is the equivalent to 42 Fudgecicles!”

I don’t know if I ever followed the “Eat This” suggestions, as I didn’t really like them. But, I did pay heed to the “Not That” stuff.

4) This last one sounds pretty dumb, but a digital scale is a nice thing to have. Watching the numbers drop as you weigh yourself every day is an amazing motivator. It’s also great at this stage, when I’m trying to maintain the weight I’m at now (175 pounds, so that’s 50 pounds lost).

Congratulations!  Dropping that amount of weight in a healthy method is very difficult.  I am currently doing some lifestyle change things to shed the pounds I have gained since I had kids.  The biggest one that I am doing is to stop eating when I am full, regardless of how good the food is or how much is left on the plate.  That has helped a bunch.  Now I just need to cut down on the morning Mountain Dew and the sugar reduction will help as well.  Increasing my exercise will help as well, but my feet need to be golden again before I will really feel comfy doing that. It is never easy.

Question 7: So, when did you realize that you enjoyed drawing and more than that, you were good at drawing?

Well, when I discovered the 1990s X-Men Animated series, that’s what got me interested in comics, and therefore, into drawing comics. Getting to draw comic book characters (either existing ones, or my own) was always fun and enjoyable for me.

As to when I realized I was good at drawing? I don’t know if I ever really thought that.

Scratch that. I think that the inverse has happened over these years. When I started drawing, I thought that I was really good, when I really wasn’t. Ignorance being bliss, and all that.

As I progressed and improved, the more self-critical I became, and the less “good’ I thought I was. I think it’s the usual artist’s deal: you’re always your own worst critic. So, I’m always pushing myself further to do better, and I tend not to be overly happy with what I produce. That can be more of a detriment, than anything.

So, I’m much better than I was five, ten, and especially twenty years ago. I do sometimes act like I haven’t improved at all.

Hell, I have seen improvement in your work in the last few years alone.  I took a way too long hiatus from drawing.  In many ways I am not nearly as good as I was 16-17 years ago.  Taking 10 years off from drawing will do that to you.  I backslid so much. It is really nice to see some of my skilz coming back, but it is still frustrating to see how much I lost.  What is really interesting is that I am stronger in some aspects than I have ever been, but still atrophied in other areas.

Question 8: The 90’s X-Men was a fairly traditional western style of animation and drawing, what was it that drew you to the more Manga-like style of drawing and art?

I always had an interest in the manga/anime style, without realizing what it was. I grew up loving shows likeVoltron, Robotech, Mighty Orbots, andTranzor Z. I remember being disappointed that the main portion of Thundercats didn’t seem as exciting as the opening looked. It wasn’t until years later that I discovered that there were these amazing cartoons coming out of Japan, and realized that I really liked that kinetic style. It was around then (mid-90s) that I re-discovered the genre, and fell in love with movies and series like Akira, Macross Plus, Ninja Scroll, and Cowboy Bebop.

I discovered manga shortly afterwards, by reading titles like Dragonball Z and Trigun. That’s when I fell in love with that style of storytelling. It was much more decompressed; it didn’t seem like you had to cram as much as you can into 22 pages. You could take your time telling the story. I think the storytelling influenced me more than the art, the deeper I went down that rabbit hole. That said, I fell in love with artists like Akira Toriyama, Yasuhiro Nightow, Katsuhiro Otomo, and Ken Akamatsu, as well as animation studios like GAINAX and Madhouse.

I think what’s funny is that my style was (and is) still influenced by western artists. But they were guys that were either influenced by the Japanese style in their own right, or just went in a direction opposite of the hyper-realistic or that Image-style that was so prevalent. I was inspired by guys like Joe Maduriera, Chris Bachalo, Oscar Jiminez, and Skottie Young. Even the Bruce Timm-produced cartoons, like Batman and Superman influenced my style. Much like the anime and manga I was seeing, these guys just had a kinetic way of telling stories that drew me in.

Ironically, for every person that tells me that my style is so “manga,” I’ve had manga fans tell me they don’t see it. I’m an artist without a genre. Whaddyagonnado?

I was going to say that your style is definitely betwixt a western style and a manga style.  I think that is one of the reasons I find your work so compelling. In many ways your genreless style is one of the reasons it is so awesome.  You are allowed to be as realistic as you want to and also easily capable to be as over the top emotive as the manga style allows for.  All I can say is draw more, monkey!  My eyes need the entertaining.

I have found that people living in Utah, Mormon or otherwise, have a seriously bias towards all things Utah… Question 9: What is your favorite part about being in Utah?

The mountains, definitely. I mean, I grew up around the Adirondack Mountains, so I thought I knew what mountains were. Then I moved west, and saw what the Rockies look like.

Big difference. :)

Actually, I’d say the countryside in general is what’s nice about Utah. I mean, it’s gorgeous here. It’s so open. You can head down the interstate, and just look out for miles. And then, when you head down south, towards the Arizona border, you get to see the most colorful mesas I’ve ever seen. Like, you can see the color banding in the sediment layers: red, orange, purple..it really is beyond description (at least beyond my description).

It’s definitely worth coming out and checking the state out at least once.

Utah, is definitely a gorgeous place.  I had the wonderful opportunity to stay in Sundance for a few days a few years ago during some off-peak seasons.  It was amazingly gorgeous.  It was still snowy and cold in the mountains but kind of balmy down in SLC.  Gorgeous is correct.

Question 10: Do you naturally find yourself to be a morning person or a late night person? I am a night owl who is cursed with morning kids.

I think I’m whatever I need to be. Prior to my daughter being born, I was most certainly a night owl. Clearly, the new schedule changed things, but eventually as she got older, things evened out some.

Now, it’s a case of however the schedule is. I can easily switch from morning person to night owl, as situations permit. That said, I tend to be more of a morning person at the moment, so that I can help get my daughter up and ready for school (give or take when my wife has to go in for work; 7:30 am classes can be brutal).

7:30 classes are nasty for anyone, even if you are a morning person.  My first TA posting was for a 7:45 Intro to Geography class with an instructor who was truly a scary scary individual.  I believe he got his PhD because his board was afraid of him bringing a gun back to his defense if they did not pass him.  He was in the doctoral program for 12 years before they gave him his PhD…. He. Was. A. Crazy. Man.

Question 11: I know via the Twitters (and my extensive stalking program) that your daughter is in ice skating.  Since you are artistic, have you tried getting her to do anything artistic, or have you noticed any artistic talent within your offspring.

Well, for one thing, she’s got one hell of an imagination. I mean, I wish I could tap into that wellspring she’s got going in her mind. It’d probably make what I do a lot easier.

As far as being artistic, she does like to do a lot of painting and drawing. Most of the stuff is abstract, though she has started to try and draw people and cats (our two cats, specifically). But really, she’ll create anything out of anything. Case in point: she’s been watching stuff on ancient Egypt (thank you Netflix), so she decided to take a group of colored glass “jewels” and made an outline of something on the couch. When I asked her what it was, she said it was King Tutankhamen’s Tomb.

Again, I wish I could be as creative as she is. Seeing the level of raw, unbridled, imagination she has is amazing. Biased? Hell yes. But it’s still true. :)

Recently she did say she wanted to be a comic book artist like me, which was nice to hear.

That is really great.  I love how creative people’s kids consistently trump their parents creativity with their raw untapped energy. My youngest is most likely going to overtake me in the crazy creativity department.  The oldest is far too regimented for the creativity bug… but I could see him creating things with Lego’s as a professional.

Question 12: So what is the status of your online comic endeavours?

Slow, mostly because I have other commitments and responsibilities that keep popping up. The second issue of Dixon’s Notch is done, and is currently being lettered, , while the script for issue 3 is going to be sent my way any day now. As far as any personal projects, I’m working on the relaunch/reboot of the webcomic I started with my wife about 10 years ago, Chibi Cheerleaders From Outer Space.

That was a comic that we enjoyed doing, but kinda wrote ourselves into a corner of sorts. And then other projects came up, so it got our comic was pushed aside. Recently, we decided we wanted to go back and do the story right, this time. So we went back, reworked the story, and I’m now starting some work on the art port on of it.

We don’t have a timetable, but hopefully you all will be seeing something new fairly soon.

Well we are up to Question 13.  And you can probably guess what that means.  Question 13: Do you have any superstitions or specific “rituals” for your life?

Outside of “knocking on wood” every so often, not really. I’m not the overly superstitious type. I think I might have when I was younger (the usual things, like not stepping under a ladder, or fearing breaking a mirror), but it was something I actively stopped following after a while.

It was probably a case of wanting to be in more charge of my life/destiny, and not let myself be afraid of superstitions and the like.

I should note that the “knock on wood” bit is done ironically these days, as more often than not, I’ll use my head to knock on. :)

I really don’t have much ritual in my life as well, and truly I don’t have much in the way of superstition either.  I was waay more superstitious as a kid, but who wasn’t.  

Question 14: Fill in the blanks…  ”I find that I am mostly _________.”  ”Other people find that I am __________.”

Hm.

I find that I am mostly creative, with a hint of being overly critical of myself. I think (from what I’ve gathered through my experiences with people on the web) others feel that I’m very helpful. Especially when it comes to technical support questions regarding Manga Studio. I get a lot of those questions.

Boy howdy, you get a bunch of Manga Studio questions.  Every once and in a while your twitter feed is clogged with “@DNHills answered X questions about Manga Studio.”  It is quite fun to see how many you have to answer at a time.  

Let’s go deep… Question 15: What is the burning question that is driving you?  What question are you consistently trying to answer though your actions, thoughts and efforts?

I guess it’d be: “What will I be remembered for?”

And it’s two-fold. First, how will I be remembered in comics? Will I be known for my work in helping people understand Manga Studio? Will I be part of the Great American (Graphic) Novel? Will I have created a legacy that will live on beyond me?

And second, how will people remember me as a person? Creating a legacy in comics is cool, but I could have a great career, and be remembered as a raging asshole. I’d rather not be remembered that way. So, I’d like to think I do my part to be there for my family and my friends, respect and thank my fans for bringing me to the level I’m at, and…well…hopefully be remembered as a good person.

I don’t have much control over whatever kind of legacy I have in comics, outside of continuing to work at it. However, if I’m at least considered a decent human being by time I shed this mortal coil, I’d be more than content with that.

A laudable question to live by indeed.  Speaking of words to live by… Sometimes one cannot live through the open endedness of a question and needs some definiteness in their existence.  I have adopted my Mother-in-Law’s personal saying, “Don’t let the fuckers get you down.” Question 16: Do you have a family saying or age old adage that you use as a mantra in your life or “words to live by?”

“Life is Short.”

Related to that is the fact that life is unpredictable. It probably sounds fatalistic, but there is no way to know what my future holds, or when I may die. I could live until I’m 102, or I could die before I finish this senten




…kidding. :)

The point is, I don’t know what five minutes from now will bring me, much less tomorrow. So, I’d like to go through it with as little regret as I can. That’s why I’m drawing comics. That’s why I tried my hand as professional wrestling a decade ago. To say that I did it. It have as few “woulda, coulda, shoulda” moments before I go.

Oh, sure, you bring out the professional wrestler thing in the answer to Question 16? That is how you roll?  FFS? you holding out on me, Hills?

Question 17: Is there anything I should have asked that I haven’t?

Well jeez, I figured that’d be easy: “Why pro wrestling?”

Well then Question 17a: Why pro wrestling?

I wanted to see if I could do it. Simple as that. :)

And, I’d say it was a fantastic experience. In addition to making some great friends, and getting a chance to live out a childhood dream, it actually helped me prepare for my life as a freelance artist/writer.

See, when you’re working on the indie circuit (I worked primarily upstate NY and Vermont), you’re doing it for the love of the game, because you’re certainly not doing it for the money. If I got paid $20, I was lucky. It’s the nature of the beast.

But, that’s not why I did it. I wanted to be a wrestler. I wanted to see how well I could do that. From bell to bell was the best time, because nothing else mattered. Politics, money, any of that stuff got pushed away, and I got to focus on wrestling. There was nothing better, and I’m glad that I had the chance to do it, however brief.

I say that it helped me as I became a freelancer, because it’s the same thing, in a way. Unless you make it really big, you’re living paycheck to paycheck. You’ll get screwed over. You will have periods where if you make any cash, you’re lucky.

But again, that’s not what drives me. Being the best comic artist I can be is what drives me. Writing the best guide book I can, to help people is what drives me. It goes back to what I was saying earlier about how I want to be remembered. I don’t think I’m going to be remembered for how much money I made (or didn’t make). Odds are, I’m going to be known more for what I created, and who I entertained or helped. That’s what keeps me moving forward in this business.

Hell, if I was in it for the money, I wouldn’t have quit my computer programming gig.

I swear to God, Doug.  Why do you wait to throw in the programmer thing at Question 17?  It is like you are trying to kill me.  Well it is Question 18, and Question 18 is where i turn the tables and open up the floor… Question 18: Is there any question you would like to ask me?

Sure. What would you like to be remembered for?

Interesting question.  I used to think that I wanted to be remembered within a small specialized community as an expert in that particular expertise.  For example, I wanted to be the most bad ass mapper out there.  I wanted my work left behind in that field to be recognized as superior… that desire seems to have died down for me.  I now don’t quite think that is what I want to be remembered for.  I think now I would love to be remembered for being someone who was thoughtful and insightful.  How one gains that reputation, even amongst one’s peers is an interesting questions as well.

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

I think I had a lot of ideas about what my current philosophy towards my life and my career, but it was never put down in words. I’d talk about them a decent amount, so they kinda just hung out there in the atmosphere. When I see it written down, I have to say I’m pretty happy that this is where I’m at right now.

Related to that, I see a lot more confidence in myself than I had even a year ago. I couldn’t tell you why; I’m sure succeeding in my weight loss goal helped a lot, but I have felt a lot more capable of myself, and what I bring to the table in this business, regardless of my status in it at present.

I guess I see a pretty decent bedrock to build upon, that I didn’t really notice prior to the interview. So, I have to thank you for that. :)

I live to serve.  Actually, I am very happy to have helped you formulate your ideas more concretely.  There is always a different feel to one’s ideas when they are written down instead of just rolling around in one’s head.

Here we are at the end of the 20… Question 20: What’s next for you?  Be as vague or precise or as philosophical or concrete as you want.

I’m going to keep plugging away at my work, I suppose. I have a new Manga Studio guide book that I’m going to start working on soon. I also have two more issues of Dixon’s Notch that I’m working on with Josh Flanagan and Charles Pritchett. I’m working on the prologue section of Chibi Cheerleaders From Outer Space that I’m working on with my wife that’ll hopefully be done in a couple of weeks. There’s always Ten Ton Studios Sketch Challenges to work on.

So, I guess I’ll be a bit busy this year. And really, what more can you ask for?

 

Busy is always good.  Everyone, if you don’t already follow Doug on the twitters you need to.  Go check out his work

I really enjoyed this back and forth.  Doug is a great guy and I wish nothing but success for him.  One day we will meet and chat in person.  Take a look at his website and follow him as @dnhills on the twitters.

To recap:
This house stuff needs to be done
We basically need to find a new house now
Or we will be the homeless
Well, technically homeless
But not really
More of an inbetween homes thing
Next week me and the fam will be at Walt Disney World
You heard that right
Disney World in Orlando
It will be stupid hot
And crazy fun
I cannot wait
The wife cannot wait
The kids are out of there freakin minds
So, I might have an issue posting next week
Deal with it
I would be deliquint as an American Nerd if I didn’t mention SpaceX
Yep, commercial re-supply of the International Space Station
The future is now
Good on ya SpaceX!
have a good weekend everybody!

20 Questions Tuesday: 200

So, here it is, the 200th edition of 20 Questions Tuesday.  Can you believe it?  200 of these darn things.  I have a hard time believing it, and yet… here it is.  So it has been a long and arduous road leading to this 200th post.  A bunch has gone on in my life since I started 20 Questions Tuesday.  It has been 6 years in the making.  Sure 200 divided by 52 is significantly less than 6, but shut up.

I wrote out a long and tiresome post where I followed the rabbit down the hole of answering the question “Why?” 20 times in a row, but that was unproductive.  IT devolved rather quickly into  me getting angry at the question “Why?” and futilely screaming at the computer for no comedic or entertainment value whatsoever.  

I have a pretty big fish on the hook that is really a departure from the typical interviews I have been doing.  But that interview is on his timeframe instead of mine. He is doing me a favor, and I am grateful for that.  It would have been awesome it it were ready… probably be ready  in the next couple of weeks.

So, let’s deal with the 200 as best we can…

On to the questions:

1.  So, if the movie 300 were actually 200, how long would the movie be?
78 minutes

2.  200 cheesepuffs.  More than 1 bag?
Nope… exactly 1 bag

3.  200 yard dash?
I ran it in 4th grade… I wasn’t fast enough for the 100.  I also ran the last leg of the 4 x 100.  I came in 4th for both events.  There is no honorable mention in track.

4.  Why don’t you ever start with “Is it bigger than a breadbox?”
Because that is hack, and if there is one thing I am not, it is hack.  Eat my shorts.  I pitty the fool.  Where’s the beef?

5.  How many interviews have you done?
26 interviews, or 13% of the 200…

6. How many of those interviews are people you have actually met in person?  How many do you just “know” via the internets?
I will go with 8.5 to 9.  I shook hands with Andrew Mayne and bought an Andrew Mayne DVD from Justin Robert Young, but that was the sum total of my in person interactions with those 2 people.  So, in all I have had at least a meal with 6 of my 20 Questionees.  A strong 4%.  As far as how many I know online?  Going with 16 for an 8%.   

7.  So, you have some water at 200° F (93.3° C)… what do you do?
Steep some tea, bitches!

8.  So when exactly did you start doing 20 Questions Tuesdays?
18 July, 2006 is when I started doing the official 20 Questions Tuesday.  I had done a few 20 Questions, but not officially a 20 Questions Tuesday until 18 July 2006.

9.   What was happening 200 years ago today?
The Imperial French Army was amassing in Poland for its ill-fated push into Russia. Silly French Army

10.  What is different from 20 Questions Tuesday: 1 to 20 Questions Tuesday: 199 - Past Francis?
Well, I think the biggest difference is that I started actively seeking out people I find enjoyable.  Now, I am trying to intersperse the non-interview 20 Q’s within a majority of interviews.  That is why I have typically around 8 concurrent interviews going on.  That being said, there are relatively few people out there willing to spend the amount of time necessary to truly answer 20 Questions.

11.  If you lived 200 years ago, you couldn’t be married to your wife (Interracial Marriage).  Who would you be married to and why?
200 years ago, I would most likely have died due to my food allergies as a child.  I would have died by age 2 and been condemned to Hell because of our humanities shared original sin.  Wifey most likely would be dead on a sugar plantation in Jamaica

12.  If you lived 200 years from now and you couldn’t be married to your wife (for some reason or another {she came to her senses}), who would you be married to and why?
Some chick from the Moon, baby!  The Mooooon!

13.  Do you have any superstitions  or rituals concerning 20 Questions Tuesday?
I have a bevy of questions that I like to ask, so that seems kind of ritualistic.  It will be interesting if I ever get the opportunity to ask someone a second 20 questions, because then I will need to get new questions for the “Geographic Story,” “Cake or Pie,” “Fill in the Blanks,” “Superstitious Question 13,” and a few others.  I have not really noticed any behaviors of my own that seem superstitious in regards to the 20 Questions.

14.  So… it is the year 200 BC… what’s up, yo?
Well Eric, Olaf, and Baleog are traipsing around doing wacky Lost Viking things in the Fourth Time World set in the Amazon.

15.  So… it is the year 200 AD… what’s up, yo?
It is the classic age of the Mayan Civilization.  That and the Empress Jingu is attacking the Korean Peninsula.

16.  Could you eat 200 of anything?
Rice, Rice Baby.

17.  Why does the Committee of 200 have 400 members?  Can they count?
This confuses the hell out of me.  It is a Not for Profit organization of powerful women trying to empower more women… awesome, yes?  Of course, you are good god-damned right it is awesome.  It is also an indication that men are better than women at math and science.  400 is more than 200, Ladies…. I kid I kid

18.  What is up with the recap?
This is a legacy from my previous “typical blog” where I would post about something going on in my life and then recap with complete non sequiturs.  It surprised some people and was lifted wholesale without attribution as a device by others… not that I am still bitter.  I am bitter unlike dark chocolate, due to the bilious nature of my bitterness.

19.  So what are you taking from these 200 posts that you did not have when you started them?
That I need to be doing this.  That I get some sense of fulfillment doing this, and I need to figure out how to make this something more significant in my life.

20.  What’s next?  Be as vague or precise as possible.
I am toying with the idea of making a podcast edition and maybe get some Skype interviews going on.  The issue there is that this is not the most fluid of processes.  It would be interesting to look and see what came from a more traditional conversation that is constrained to 20 Questions.

To Recap:
Thanks for reading all this claptrap
So, last week we put the house on the market
Tuesday of last week
We had 20 showings before Friday
We had 6 offers
All 6 were good offers
We went with the best one
‘Cause we are not idiots
Well, we aren’t THAT kind of idiots at least
Our house was on the market for a solid 3 days
The house inspection was yesterday
We wait to see what that report says
Now we need to get to looking at houses
We need to find a house
Anyone have a four-level split you are willing to part with for cheapsies?
Have a great weekend everyone

20 Questions Tuesday: 199 - Pat Francis

This week I have the honor of asking Pat Francis of… of, well…  I am sure some of you have heard of him.  I joke, Pat Francis is the “Third Chair” of the critically acclaimed podcast, Never Not Funny.  While Pat is not a permanent fixture on the podcast, he is the go to for when they need a guest and he is often the third chair on the live Never Not Funny podcasts.  Pat has a fantastically impish sense of humor, and is always ready to laugh.  He is hilarious and an absolute delight. So without further ado, 20 Questions with Pat Francis.

I make maps for a living, but I look at maps and geography as a way to tell stories.  I was born at Tinker Air Force Base just outside of Oklahoma City. The fam moved to Maxwell AFB in Montgomery, Alabama when I was 3.  Soon after, we moved up to a suburb of Birmingham, Alabama where I lived until I went off to college at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio.  After graduating from KSU, I followed my fiancee down to Ohio State and we have made our lives in Columbus, Ohio ever since…. but enough about me.  Question 1: What is your geographic story?

Lived in Roaring Springs, PA for the first 2 months of my life then moved 8 miles to Hollidaysburg, PA.  I lived there until it was time to go to college in Latrobe, PA.  After college I lived in Laurel, MD with my Aunt Nora for about a year where I worked the night shift loading trucks at UPS… a great use of my BA in Theatre//Communications. After a year I moved back to Hollidaysburg, PA and I worked as a youth counselor in a group home for about 8 months in order to save money and move to Chicago.  I moved to Chicago in January 1989 to pursue my dream of becoming a stand-up comedian.  After a year and a half of non stop open mic performing I started to get paid and from then on I was a full time stand-up comedian.  After 6 years in the Windy City it was time to head west… Los Angeles!  Left Chicago on February 14th 1995 and arrived in Los Angeles Feb. 16th.  I have lived here ever since met my wife, had two beautiful daughters and have continued to keep my foot in the comedy and TV pool in one way or another.  

Too long??,

No such thing as too long.  Just long enough in my opinion. Question 2: Since you grew up in Penn, but have made a life in LA, does LA now seem like your “hometown” or is there still a feeling a being a transplanted Pennsylvanian?

To quote the Frank Sinatra song… LA is my Lady!  It’s fun to go back and visit PA but there is really nothing there for me as far as the things I like to do and have access to such as LIVE music etc.  CA definitely feels like home. My parents family lives in PA, my family lives in CA.  Pat, Pilar and their 2 California Girls!

It is amazing how when you drop roots and have kids, the town that you have the kids in becomes home.  I grew up in Alabama and that place seems like a foreign land to me now.

So, I ask this of all my Questionees this… Question 3: Cake or pie? Any specific kind?

I agree with you about the kids etc.  When I go to the Walmart in my hometown… which I try not to do… it is like some hillbilly zombie apocalypse in that place!!

Pie!!!  Cake just seems to sweet and makes me sick after I eat it.  Pie on the other hand… I could it a whole pie.  There is never leftover pie but there is always leftover cake! Pumpkin & Lemon Meringue please!

Oooh, I am seriously curious whether pumpkin and lemon meringue would be a good flavor combination, even though I think you intended that to be an “either/or.”  I have never done any improv stuff, but pumpkin, lemon meringue seems like a “yes/and” situation to me. You have the light and fluffy mellowness of the meringue partnered with the crispness of the lemon and then adding the smooth cool (almost savoriness) of the pumpkin… I think I have a new fall concoction to make this October/November…  that sounds like it could be delightful.  Any bakers out there? If so… make it happen.

I have been asking 20 Questions to all sorts of people that I find interesting as of late. Many of whom tend to be in the entertainment industry in some shape or another.  One of the things that I find fascinating with these primarily creative types (of which I consider you a part) is what they do as a past time.  I work for the state department of transportation and catalog holes in the ground, but when I am at home and have free time I love to draw… Question 4: What do you do in your free time (other than chase down autographs on albums because that seems like something more akin to an event than a hobby)?

Free time??  What free time??  I guess I would have to say… playing with iTunes!  I am always adding artwork, lyrics, producer information.  I also like to make different playlists.  It sounds crazy but I love doing it.

Well, that does make a bunch of sense considering the podcast where you are a co-host (NNF Presents Rock Solid).  I would be surprised if your free time did not involve music is some shape or another. So keeping that in mind…

Question 5: Were you a creator of mix-tapes back in the day? Did you make a perfect one and give it to a girl… what was that outcome? (that’s right, a potential three parter!  I am on fire tonight!)

I did create a few mix tapes in my day but mostly for myself… I would take my LPs and make best of mixes of my favorite bands!  As I type this I can hear Queen pumping out of my Buick Skyhawk!!  I did make a mix tape for my wife right after we met… she was not a power ballad fan that’s for sure. Apologies to Foreigner and Journey.

I was not a big mix-taper.  I think part of that is due to being in high school at the point where CD’s were really just taking hold.  CD players were not standard in cars yet, but cassettes really were done in the house.  Mix tapes were just going out of style.  I did however have to record the alternative import bands off of Coyote J Calhoun’s indy Sunday show on the local radio station.  It was a confusing time technologically…  Why am I telling you this?

Question 6: You admittedly like 80’s metal/hair band music… do you have a favorite or is that like a “Sophie’s Choice” kind of question?

I think I have been pigeon holed as ONLY liking 80’s hair metal.  Paul Gilmartin is relentless in this opinion of me.  If you were to actually look at my extensive CD collection you would be quite surprised.  That said… I do enjoy some Bon Jovi, Whitesnake and Poison.  No Twisted Sister… those girls suck!!

I think that perception is due to your knowledge of the deep cuts off of the more obscure 80’s metal bands and albums.  However, as one listens to you more one realizes that deep cuts off of obscure albums, regardless of genre, are kind of your own personal savant ability.  Well, it is time to set the record straight then… Question 7: Do you have a favorite genre of music or couple of genres?

To say I like everything is a copout so I guess my favorite bands are 4 -piece hard rock bands.  Not metal just rock & roll… Guitar, Bass, Drums and Singer.  Cheap Trick, The Who, Queen, Pretenders, U2, Van Halen, Led Zep.  Maybe sometimes there is a rhythm guitar player too but the band is still a 4-piece… The Kinks, The Beatles.

Interesting… I like the categorization of music by pieces instead of genre.  That is an interesting take.  I think I need to really start looking at the music I like by pieces instead of genre.. A horn section helps though.

Question 8: You clearly love music, do you play any musical instruments?

The simple answer is… no I do not play any musical instruments.  

Growing up my parents never introduced us to anything artistic… music, movies, drawing… not even reading… nothing!  Yet they will now say things like… “I wonder how that Kevin Costner made it as an actor?”  Maybe because he had… parental support!!  Which was also not my parents thing when it came to my stand-up comedy career.  My parents would always say… “Just get a good job with benefits.” Loving your career and having fun at your job was never on their radar.  Last year when they were visiting California they came to see a show I was in at the UCB Theatre in Hollywood. The show  was great!  Everyone involved including myself were hysterical.  After the show my parents talked about every other performer in the show and to me they said… “Thanks for bringing us.”  That’s how it’s been my whole life.  That said… I did take drum lessons in 6th grade… no drum set… just a drum pad!  Lame to say the least.  As an adult I do like to bang around on my nephews full awesome drum kit and I think with a few lessons I could be good.  It’s never too late right? Peart, Bonham, Moon & Francis!!

My mom taught piano when I was a kid… I took a total of 2 lessons.  It always bothered my mom that I didn’t do anything more musical in my life, but you cannot take music lessons from family or in the same house as a music teacher…. Every practice becomes a lesson, and there is too much emotional baggage trapped in the parent/child student/teacher relationships.

If I step away from myself for a second, it sucks that your parents did not encourage you.  I think you are a winning though, and I know you will do well… Go get’em, Tiger! You are a force of nature and unstoppable!

Question 9: Are you trying to get your kids into some creative activities? If so, what activities?

Our girls are very active in the arts.  They have taken dance, piano, guitar and drama classes too.  These are not classes that we have forced them into but rather things that they are interested in and have chosen. Currently our 7 year-old is taking yoga! Who would have thought!

The preschool where my 3 yr old girl goes showed the kids some yoga… Now the little girl only likes to do “downward dog” whilst being super naked… It is very shameless. The amount and breadth of the arts you are showing you kids is amazing.

Question 10: The half-way point… To keep from being half-assed, what is one thing in your life (other than family) that you cannot help but get drawn into? For example, I have to draw… and I can’t help but get into internet conversation with people I find interesting for right around 20 questions.

That’s a tough one!!  We’ve already talked about music but in all honesty that is what I love to do… listen to music and go to LIVE shows.  I love podcasting, performing in front of an audience and running on the treadmill too.  That sounds boring but if you’re taking the family out of the equation for this question then those things are what I love to do!  BORING ANSWER!!!!

I hate to tell you this, but I have never really found any answers to be boring.  I love this answer.  Well, that was the first 10… so it is all downhill from here…

Question 11: Fill in the blanks…  ”I find that I am mostly _________.”  ”Other people find that I am __________.”

Here they are in the order the answers came in:

Comedian Mike Preston:  FUN
Podcast Producer & Co- Host of “Never Not Funny” Matt Belknap: A loyal friend, a devoted husband, a loving father and a complete jackass.
My nephew Kyle: Funny, energetic, and always thinking outside of the box whether it be or how to reorganize the garage.
“Never Not Funny” Intern Dan Katz:  a joy to be around
Comedian, Host, Actor, Podcaster Mike Siegel: An admirable combination of responsibility and immaturity.
Super Screenwriting Instructor, Owner of “On the Page & my Wife Pilar Alessandra: HILARIOUS, ANNOYING, GREAT IN BED
Host of the “Laughing With You” Podcast Emily Volman: “much more attractive than I look.”
Comedian, Actress, Co-Founder of SF Sketchfest and host of the JV Squad Podcast Janet Varney: "Other people find that I am encouraging and complimentary of my friends. But also a jackass."
Registered Nurse and frequent concert date Suzanne Dillingham: “funny, thoughtful, always fun to be around, someone you can count on.”
Creator of “Never Not Notes” Darryl Asher: Friendly, Funny, Warm, Interesting
Comedian and host of the “40 Year-Old Boy” Podcast Mike Schmidt: Honest
Photographer & Author of “Liezl Was Here” Liezl Estipona: Funny unfiltered jackass
Portrait Artist Rick DeMint: Funny, thoughtful, and a genuinely good guy.
Writer “Mike & Molly” Carla Filisha: a good father
Author Nina Berry: Funny and a man of integrity
Comedian, Podcaster, Marathon Runner Russ McGarry: Other people find that I am easy to share a van with for 20 hours stretches.
Comedian, Actor, Financial Advisor Chip Chinery:  Funny and organized
Comedian, Actor, Host of “Never Not Funny” Podcast Jimmy Pardo: a good roommate, hardworking, a good guy, tenacious, hilarious
3D Artist Manager for Double Negative VFX Dara McGarry: “eventually going to ask every known musician, band member and roadie to autograph an album cover.”
My oldest daughter Sara: a good dad who likes 2 joke around

I find myself to be:   Dependable, honest, a good husband and dad… a fun too.

I like that there is a consistency to the answers.  That is pretty telling.  It let’s me know, as a questioner, that within your circles, you either don’t put on airs, or if you do, it is the same… air? (that started out much better sounding in my head). I hope you are able to take in and process the affection that you are getting from this diverse and large number of people.  I can tell in our rather brief interaction that most of these, if not all, immediately ring true.  I also noticed that “jackass” came up more than once.

Question  12: I know from my extensive stalking/research/listening to Never Not Funny, that you have  hobby of collecting signatures of recording artists on your record collection.  Who is your best get, and who is your white whale… tormenting you with their very existence?

There are many best gets for me… Springsteen, Daltrey, Townshend, Ray Davies, Chrissie Hynde.  But I think my favorite was Steve Perry!  Jimmy Pardo and I had heard that Perry like to eat lunch at a certain restaurant in Studio City, CA.  So one day we grabbed some vinyl and some CDs and went there for lunch.  Sure enough about an hour later in walks Steve Perry!!  We waited until he was finished eating and then we approached him outside.  He was the nicest man.  He took his sunglasses off and talked to us for 10 to 15 minutes.  He was surprised, flattered and gracious.  Whenever you get actual one on one time with an artist you respect, that is something special.

Who is the white whale?  I would love to get Billy Joel, Elton John, Aerosmith, AC/DC but the one that has been difficult for me has been Pat Benatar! The others I have mention are on my wish list but I have never come in contact with them.  Benatar however… she has refused to sign for me twice!!  Both times were after I had just seen her perform and both times… I was the only person waiting for an autograph!!!  In her book she wrote that she would do anything for her fans… I’m not so sure about that!

I am surprised you are even remotely interested in getting Benatar’s autograph after she ditched you twice.  I am not sure about her willingness to do anything with her fans as well.  Elton would be pretty darn epic.  I mean that would be seriously epic.  

Question 13 is typically about superstitions, but I really want to know what you do with your collection… so I will table the superstition questions to Question 14.  Question 13: So, what do you do with your collection. Do you have a display room or are they tucked away in milk crates in a closet?

Benatar… she plays about once a year at a club near my house so it is not really a big investment of time or money to try again.  Plus… this next time I might be a little more vocal before I get dissed.  Maybe try and guilt her into signing by quoting from her book.

All of my signed albums are framed and hanging in our office at home.  I have close to 70!!  3 LPs on deck that are signed and need to be framed… The Bangles, Elvis Costello & Marshall Crenshaw.   Running out of wall space fast.

70? That is basically 70 square feet. If you just have them papering the wall, that is a 7 x 10 wall… That is a bunch.

Okay, now onto the superstition question.  I usually ask this on 13 because of the association with 13.  Question 14: Do you hold onto any superstitions or rituals? For example I would consider a superstition to be something akin to throwing salt over your shoulder for luck, and I would consider a ritual as something like putting on sports equipment in a specific sequence to get your head ready for the upcoming game.

That’s pretty much how it is… papering the wall.  They are spread out onto 3 different walls in the office.

Right sock, left sock… right shoe, left shoe.  No reason but that’s how it’s always done.

Question 15: Have you ever consciously tried switching that up to see what might happen?

Yes.  I once tried right shoe, left shoe, right sock, left sock… it just didn’t feel right.  Not comfortable at all.

But nothing nasty happened (aside from slipping on hard wood floors)... So that is good at least.

We are nearing the home stretch.  I am super excited that you have stayed with me throughout this lengthy process.  You are a Viking, and don’t let anyone tell you differently.  But remember underwear and then pants, otherwise you look like a superhero, but only marginally so.

Question 16: Since we are 2/3rds done, Is there a question that I have not asked you that you are surprised by the omission?

I actually didn’t know what to expect from these 20 questions… 16 so far… and I have enjoyed the ones you have chosen.  I can however  tell you that I hate the movie “Inception”

You know, I have a 3 year old and very few local friends who are movie watchers.  I have not seen Inception.  It seems like it was at least a new idea for a movie, and I have to applaud that, but as to the actual content… I have no judgement.

Turnabout is fair play, so for this question I am allowing you to turn the tables…

Question 17: Is there any question you have for me?

Of all the answers you have received from the questions you have asked, have any of the answers moved you to tears?

I love this question…  I feel like Maybe I should have given you a few questions to ask me.

I have never actually been moved to tears, however when I asked Chris Corrigan about his rock balancing hobby, he brought out a story about teaching a woman to balance rocks.  To make a long story short, he saved a life.  If I weren’t made of stone I would have been tearing up.  Question 5 over here if you want to read it.  Powerful stuff, but I am a granite statue.

So, I will return depth with depth… Question 18: What is the driving question for you that you are using your energy to answer?  For example, my driving question right now is “How do I create a comfortable space for me to turn what I enjoy into what I do for a living?”  Accompanying question is “How do I bring my work life more in line with emotional life?”… and… go!

How can I stop using all my time on small tasks and start focusing that same energy on big picture career projects?

Boy, I would love for you to be able to answer that question.  That is a great question to hold onto, and I hope that it can drive some of your future endeavors.

Question 19:  What are you taking away from this 20 Questions that you did not have when you started it?

$50.00 right?  I mean I am getting paid for these answers!!  

It was nice to read what my friends thought of me so I am taking away some self awareness and of course the aforementioned $50.00.

How about I make a deal with you.  I will kick in an additional $50 to my typical annual $50 that I give to Smiletrain during the Pardcastathon?  Is that an acceptable financial arrangement?

Question 20: What’s next? Be as vague or as specific as you want.

That is a very kind offer but I wrote all that for humor!

My Story Producing job ends Friday, going to see The Avengers on Saturday and start writing a script with my friend Carla on Monday and a Blog site coming soon! Site is online… just need to add the blogs!

I want to thank Pat so much for taking the time to do this.  He is a marvelous man and I have had a ball asking him these odd 20 questions.  Listen to his podcast, visit his site, and follow him on twitter.  Seriously, I love being able to do this.

This was fun.

To recap:
The house is back on the market
We cleaned and got things set up all weekend long
I painted 2 walls in an unfinished basement
My hands hurt from painting
FROM PAINTING
It was not a restful weekend at all
Still a few things that need to be done, but they are not major
Pull some nails here and paint some holes there
The house looks damn incredible though
Yesterday was my wife’s birthday
Happy Birthday, Love
I have 7 more interviews going on right now
But next week will be my 200th 20 Questions Tuesday
Going to do something interesting on that one… not sure what just yet
Other than the ones I have done here, I have a metric crapload of 20 Questions located at my old blog
Click here and read for days
I need to make some juice tonight
Have a great weekend everyone

20 Questions Tuesday: 198 - Justin Robert Young

Another opportunity has made itself available, and I am nothing if not opportunistic.  This week’s 20 Questions Tuesday is the vocabulist known as Justin Robert Young.  Justin is the cohost of the wildly successful podcast NSFW found on the TWiT network.  He is the cohost of the infinitely enjoyable Weird Things podcast.  He does some other stuff, but those are the things I care about, and this is my blog, gotdammmit!  Justin Robert Young, JuRY to his friends (of which I am not one… yet), has a way with words… more to the point he is a metaphor machine wrapped in a simile coupled with an ironic paradox.  I had the pleasure of meeting Mr Young (see? not friends, or I would have called him JuRY) at an Andrew Mayne (See 20 Questions Tuesday: 196) speaking engagement in Columbus, Ohio.  He was surprisingly quiet at that event, but I did meet him briefly during a bidness transaction…  take from that what you will.

So without further ado….  20 Questions with Justin Robert Young….

I typically start out with a question about your geographic history, but I think I will get to that later.  The people demand to know this information (I have a consistent 20 people who read this, so keep that in mind when you think about phoning in your answers)… Question 1:  Cake or Pie? What kind and why?

I am WAY more of a cake person. Specifically because it has the option for ice cream inclusion. Pie with ice cream is a separate thing. You never see Ice Cream Pie. BUT you see Ice Cream Cake all the time. I feel like this is a tie breaker that nobody pays attention to.

Cake FTW.

Oddly, I think you are the first person to bring ice cream and cake into the mix. Some people have tried the pie a la mode method in the past, but this is the first inclusion of ice cream cake.  Well played, well played indeed.

So, now that that is out of the way… I was born near Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, was moved to Montgomery, Alabama when I was 3.  Migrated up to Birmingham, Alabama and stayed there until I went to college in Kent, Ohio.  I followed my fiancee down to Columbus, Ohio and have been living there ever since.  Question 2:  What is your geographic story?

Okay! Born in Fort Worth, Texas moved to Orlando, Florida moved to San Diego, California moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. All those were due to my Dad shuffling jobs. He was part of the cellular communications boom through the 80’s and 90’s and took advantage of plentiful opportunities coupled with an uncanny knack for getting fired.

Then! Moved to Syracuse, New York for college moved Hoboken, New Jersey and commuted to NYC for work after graduation before coming home to Fort Lauderdale to work with my friend Andrew.

And THERE we go.

So the movement from place to place because of the cellular boom of the 80’s and 90’s seems to closely resemble to migration patterns of a military family. Interesting. The first 3 moves in my chain of residences were due to the Air Force, but then I spent 14 years in the Birmingham area… The military could have picked a better place for my dad to retire, if you ask me.

Question 3: What drew you to Syracuse for college, that is quite a hike from Ft Lauderdale?

Journalism. I wanted to be a newspaper writer because I like to know the business of other people. The Newhouse School was well regarded and I applied thinking I would not get in.

I applied to four schools. Syracuse was my #1. I also applied to NYU, Boston University and my safe school the University of Florida. My first response was Syracuse, which I got into. I was pumped. Then the others came. Rejected. Rejected. Rejected.

That took the edge off my ego a bit.

I understand that.  I found that going well the hell away to school fit with me very well.  My acceptance to Kent State was helped along by the fact that 6 people from my extended and nuclear fam over the course of 3 generations had graduated from there, so I got a great alumni scholarship.  One of the few times my extended family has been helpful.. at all.  They are typically an anchor trying to drag me under the icy cold waters of despair and… but wait, this isn’t about me. It’s about you.

Question 4: So, going from Alabama to Northeast Ohio was quite the weather culture shock.  What was the biggest difference for you traveling from South Florida to Upstate New York?

Snow. Lots of snow.

South Florida has gorgeous winters but brutal summers. Aside from the horrifying amounts of snow, Syracuse had amazing summer weather the few times I got to be there for it.

Cuse did have my least favorite weather phenomenon: freezing rain.

Ugh.

Freezing rain is quite crappy.  I found that the summers in Kent were delightful, but I was in Alabama in the summer… and the winters in Bama were mild, but I was in Kent for that.  Horrible scheduling if you ask me.  Learning to drive in the snow was something that had to happen.  Alabamian in the snow!  Run for the hills!

Question 5: So how did you fall in with the magicians? and how did your family react when you brought those dirty dirty tricksters into your life?

I’ve been friends with Andrew since high school. He ran an after school critical thinking group that I was a part of. I kept in touch with him through college and then got a chance to work with him about six years ago. Part of that was writing the iTricks blog, that was where I met Brian.

And yet, from my understanding you do not really do any kinds of magic. That in and of itself is an interesting thing, if true.  So… Question 6: What drew you to/keeps you in the gigantic varied fields of magic? Which part of magic is most interesting to you?

I’ve always been a fan of magic, particularly the Blaine specials that were very big when I was a kid. The Copperfield specials as well.

It’s true that I’ve never learned to perform magic. Since I started writing about it, that kind of became an angle. I write from the perspective of a spectator. Which is rare in the magic field.

Magic is an interesting art. Mysterious by nature but there aren’t many innovators in the field. Those that truly evolve it as a performance art tend to be recognized but they are few and far between.

I don’t have a particular “favorite” kind of magic. The best magicians shuffle through many different genres. I just like great entertainers.

I find that I really enjoy really well done close up work. Magician Carroll Baker does magic for the kids Sundays at a BBQ place in town.  I know how he does many of his tricks in the academic sense of knowing, but his ability to do them without me seeing his slights of hand makes them all the more enjoyable. Plus, he makes my kids smile.  

Question 7: So, with all the Internet based entertainment that you do, which I am sure does eat up much time at all /sarcasm,  what do you do with your free time?

My podcasting stuff is really what I enjoy doing.

But aside from that I like to watch sports. I always purchase the NHL Center Ice package so I can follow the Penguins and I’ll make a weekly pilgrimage to a sports bar to watch the Steelers during football season.

That’s pretty much the only thing that doesn’t on some level factor into a podcast or blog.

It is amazing that when you are really “into” something it tends to consume most of your time.

Question 8: Why the attachment to the Pittsburgh athletic teams? Your geographic story doesn’t really jive with an affinity with that city.

Through middle and high school me and my brother were raised by my mom’s boyfriend who is from Pittsburgh. During that time we pirated DirecTV. This meant Pittsburgh sports were a constant. Steelers, Penguins and, ironically, the Pirates.

Sports is a great storyline generator. If all story is about conflict than sports is the ultimate series. Every seasons is made of games every game is made of plays every play is made of strategy. It really is such a amazing source of constant conflict.

Pirating the Pirates does have a nice ring to it… So you were pirating from the Pirates and stealing from the Steelers. You were not, however, penguining from the Penguins, mainly because I have no ideas as to what that would be.  I think your point on sports being an amazing source of constant conflict seems like it might be an underlying impetus behind the FSL Tonight podcast.  A delightful little romp that was this past year.

Well, let’s get on to something completely different.  Question 9: You clearly have a way with words… analogies, comparisons, metaphors, absurd paradoxes… when did you start to notice that words, written and oral, were your particular milieu?

I’ve constantly been clamoring for attention. My family has a lot of funny people in it and I’d always looked up to them. Having rock bottom self esteem also helps. You constantly see other people who are better than you and you become consumed trying to make yourself better.

That’s something I strived to kindle even as I’ve grown more confident in myself, which is also necessary to grow.

As for the crazy metaphors, they’ve kind of always just been a great way to get a laugh. It helps that they are so evocative.

Confidence is completely overrated.  I have found that my incredibly bloated sense of self has only been a hindrance to my success.  When one has as bloated a sense of confidence, one often has a raging sense of entitlement.  It is difficult to search for a job when people should just give them to you. But enough about me, let’s keep exploring you.

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

I feel I am mostly distracted. Others feel I am mostly loud.

There isn’t really a significant difference between how you perceive yourself and how you feel others perceive you.  That either means that you either have a fairly accurate opinion of yourself or you are completely delusional.  And now we are on the downward slide, it is all kittens and unicorns from here on out.

Question 11: Between your work on Weird Things, and the NSFW Show you have to deal with boatloads of Internet wackiness (Double Complete Rainbow, Adrian Brody, NyanCat, crappy bigfoot vids, etc) is there a particular piece that you can’t help but find hilarious every time you see/hear them.

What I love about memes is that we are perpetually either madly in love with them or looking back nostalgically at them. There are so many that we can always love them in one of those unique ways.

Of them all… the Shit’s Going Down in Clay Class meta-NSFW meme is probably my favorite. —Editor’s Note:I cannot find the link to this, I will look again later—

It is amazing how short the lifespan of a meme truly is, and how few explosive meme’s actually get to make it into the longer term cultural zeitgeist. It is also amazing how often I try to fit the phrase “cultural zeitgeist” into everyday conversation.  I often fail miserably at that. At my current job I got called “Wordy McSmartpants” for saying the phrase “cognitive dissonance.”  I have a better time fitting in the words “Yard Gnome” (another daily word challenge I give myself).

Question 12: Since, at your heart, you are a writer, is there a novel within you that needs to get out?  And if so, what is holding you back from creating it, even just for yourself?

I don’t know if I have a great fiction novel in me. But I think I have a few good non-fiction stories I could help tell.

What stops me? Time and momentum. The second is more important than the first.

Momentum is definitely a big stumbling block.  I have found myself having fits and starts with creative projects, and momentum behind those creative projects is what ultimately killed those projects.  Killed those projects dead.

When I was a high school kid I had a specific ritual associated with getting ready to play a soccer game.  This ritual primarily was a very precise sequence of donning my socks, shin guards, and cleats.  Sadly, the ritual did not involve a live chicken or anything like that, but it was used to get my mind in the right frame.  I was well aware that this process was more akin to a meditative process and not really believing in a ritual bringing about a superstitious outcome.  It was a process of letting go of the non-soccer things going on in my life and getting in the right frame of mind for the game at hand.  Question 13: So, since we are on Question 13, and in light of what I consider a “ritual,” do you have any superstitions or rituals?

Playoff beard is probably the biggest of them. But even that is more of a fun way to show I like the team.

I wonder how many actual rituals associated with modern and ancient religions started out as the equivalent of the “play-off beard.” Is the Papal Tiara in truth a “Rally Cap?”

Since you are a skeptic… Question 14: Do you think there is intelligent life out there in the cosmos?  And as a follow up, If it does exist, do you think intelligent life will ever make contact with other intelligent life? and as a third follow up, because this is my blog and I make the rules here, do you consider humanity part of the intelligent life in the cosmos?  Multi-part question… that’s how I roll.

I am a big believer on knowing the limits of your knowledge. So my best answer to the first question is “I hope so.” I really don’t know enough about the probabilities to say for sure one way or another. But we are lucky to live in an age of constant surprise, I hope that’s one of them.

That being said, I think our concept of making contact with intelligent life is really just us wanting to talk to our future selves. We want to fly around the stars, we want to explore the cultures of foreign planets. How frustrating would communicating with completely alien intelligent life be? My guess would be very.

What we really want is to become a multi-planet species and visit each other. So yes, we are intelligent life.

As I stated with the Andrew Mayne 20 Questions, I do think there is intelligent life out there, however I do not think it will ever intersect with our particular brand of intelligent life.  I don’t think people really understand the vast distance that is space, the solar system, the galaxy, the universe.  The distance between places is crazy, and near insurmountable.  I think, at best humanity will be able to send photon postcards to “neighboring” civilizations… But no one has ever asked me this.

Question 15: Speaking of skepticism and the like, is there a particular genre of “Weird Things” that you hope is possible?  Cryptids, aliens, psychic powers, paranormal entities (ghosties, etc…).  I personally want bigfoot to be real.

I love cryptids. Largely because they are the crossroads between myth and biology. We already have some crazy looking animals running around and yet we invent these others. Are they elusive or just fiction? And if they are fiction, will they EVENTUALLY exist?

Ooh, I hadn’t ever really thought about genetically engineering cryptids.  I love that idea.  I guess Ogopogo and Nessie and Mokele Mbembe would be straight up dino clones,  but what would need to happen to make a thunderbird or a yeti?

Question 16: Is there anything I have not asked you yet, that I should have asked, or that you are surprised I have not asked?

I am sure there are still questions to ask, but that’s your job right?

It is indeed, but some folk get huffy when I don’t ask something they feel is obvious. So Question 16a: What would you dooo-oo-oo for a Klondike bar? There. I asked it.

Unspeakable things.

Seriously?  Right?  I mean Klondike Bars are sublime and require unspeakable things… so many unspeakable things.

Question 17: What is the main way that your myriad of podcasts (NSFW, Weird Things, FSL Tonight, Andrew Mayne Stories, all of the audio books, guest appearances on other podcasts, Good Lord! you are podcasting all the damn time) have changed your life.

The biggest way the podcasts have changed my life are the listeners. The #chatrealm /<> phenomenon is the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen. It’s so amazing knowing that there are people willing to listen or read things you’d like to put out. It’s so freeing creatively.

I think your ability to connect to the chat room/realm /<> changes this mode of media from purely generative to something significantly more collaborative, and that is truly amazing.  

Well, here on 20 Questions Tuesday, we understand (royal we) that turnabout is fair play, so for 1 question and 1 question only, you can ask me something (as long as it is not “What do you do?” I get that waay too often.)

Question 18: After all these questions, is there anything you want to ask me?

What’s your favorite Prince song?

That’s an easy question.  Seven from Prince’s “Love Symbol” Album.

Ah the penultimate question… Question 19: What have you learned during the course of these almost 20 Questions? What are you taking from this that you did not bring in with you?

That I only had to be reprimanded twice to continue answering questions. I thought I had a WAY shorter attention span.

You make me out to be a vicious taskmaster and at best a harsh mistress.  I do hope I was not too pushy about doing me the favor of answering questions. I hope to not be an over-bearing interviewer.  I am afraid you will forever refer to me as the Katie Couric of 20 Questions and you as the Sarah Palin of interviewees.

Question 20: What’s next?  Take that to be as open or as specific as you want.

Oh no good sir, you misunderstand my meaning. Keeping my attention on any one thing is a true challenge. Your questions are engaging and awesome. If anything you are the David Frost to my Dick Nixon :)

What’s next is a move. When we started this line of questioning I had to to interview with The Go Game. Now I have accepted a job and I am moving out West. It’s very exciting. I’ll be back living in California for the first time since second grade.

And alas and alack the 20 questions is over.  This is one of the best yet.  I have thoroughly enjoyed myself and cannot wait for others to partake in the glory that is this 20 Questions…  Congrats on the new job and I hope success follows you as you travel west.  As a bonus Question 21: Can I call you JuRY?

You can call me JuRY, and baby when I call you I will call you Al.

Seriously folks check out Justin Twitter, his co-hosting duties on NSFW Show, and Weird Things, his audio book podcasts of the Andrew Mayne books, and his new podcast Andre Mayne Stories.  But don’t forget his top-selling comedy album, Night Attack. Seriously, check his shit out.

To recap:
THAT just happened
Seriously, that JUST happened
So Wifey left for San Francisco on Sunday afternoon
She got back Monday night at 11:20
Whirlwind… she is a whirlwind… an anti-cyclone of travelling fury
I have many things to do around the house to get it ready for the selling
Back on the market soon
Little Man had a nasty cough this weekend
He was better on Monday
2 more weeks until the 200th 20 Questions Tuesday
I am trying to do something interesting with 200
Not sure exactly what
199 will be more typical
201 will be more typical
200 will be atypical…. atypical
The feet are feeling great
I think some running might be in order
Other than that, nada
Have a great weekend everyone

20 Questions Tuesday: 197 - Napping

**

I have seven interviews going on concurrently.  I am on Q 5, Q 6, Q 11,  Q 7, Q 9, Q 5, and Q 2 respectively. Let’s just say that cake and pie are getting about equal amounts of love.  This week, I have found myself wanting to nap more because I am not getting enough sleep at night.  I should go to bed earlier, but that is just not in my circadian rhythms, but I am trying…. mainly so I can get away from the caffeine, and the only way I can survive that is with more sleep… or if I could find a time to nap.

Napping is quite possibly one of the most luxurious activities a human can undertake.  I love napping, but with the required items in one’s day, napping often gets pushed back.  So today’s topic is napping, and answering these questions is being done in lieu of actual sleep.  How is that for irony?

Thanks this week go to Brett Wood, Wifey, Chris Corrigan, Chris Ring, and Dr John.  Thanks all onto the questions:

1.  I’ve always wondered how long is the average nap and does average nap time change from country to country?
I would say that the average nap is right around an hour.  I would also say that the average nap time does vary from country to country pending on the acceptability of napping within the culture.

2.  When I take a nap and I wake up I always feel even more tired than I did before I took the nap, why is that?
I would suggest that it means you are operating at a significant sleep debt.  When you take your nap, it just reminds your body about how tired you really are.

3.  What makes power naps so powerful?
They are kind of like tricking your system into thinking it slept longer by not allowing any of the sleep cycle to really get moving.

4.  Did someone invent the nap?
Did someone invent air? Did someone invent trees?  A nap is just a natural thing.

5.  What exactly separates a nap from actually just sleeping?
Our cultural understanding of it.  In truth this question could be What exactly makes a snack different than a meal.  Napping is just sleeping in an unexpected time-frame.

6. Why am I not napping right now?
Because you have work to do and napping does not help it get done.

7. What does napping have to do with gender and social equity?
I think it happens with more of an age disparity than a gender one.  Damn little kids and their napping ways.  That being said, napping can be a sign of privilege. People with idle time can nap while people scraping to survive do not have the luxury to nap.

8. Why didn’t you major in Napping instead of Mapping?
I majored in Math… your whole clever pun is lost due to its basis in erroneous information.

9. Napping at work? Does your union allow that?
Nope, however, I seen it happening on many levels.  Collective bargaining unit as well as managerial.  At least napping crosses those lines.

10. When I was marathon training, napping was an important part of my recovery plan…no seriously, it was. That’s not a question. Rather a justification, but there you have it.
Okay, had to drop that you ran a marathon, didn’t you?  I am striking this “question” and moving on to your next one like this never happened… bragard.

10. The Napping House by Audrey Wood…children’s story book or nirvana?
I am unfamiliar with this book… Have you been holding out on me, Wifey?

11. What does “napping” mean in the context of kidnapping and catnapping?  (English is a strange beast, yo.)
This is pure guess with no research… I imagine that “Kidnapping” is a bastardization of “Kid-Nabbing,” where one nabs kids, or “Kid-Nicking” employing the British colloquial term of stealing “to nick.”  However, “Catnapping” is a type of nap where one does not sleep deeply or for a significant amount of time.

12. When did a nap save your life?
I don’t know, I think I slept through the threat and woke up none the wiser.

13. What are your thoughts and advice on napping in public?
Well, it really depends on where and when you are napping… Don’t do it at a fast food restaurant… period.  At airports, you need to wrap shoulder straps around your arms to make sure you wake up if someone messes with your stuff.  In a library I suggest finding a tome on 11th century French poetry and just sleeping like you were studying and couldn’t keep yourself awake.  

14. What explains the TFC (Toronto Football Club of Major League Soccer) defense’s proclivity for napping lately (and what can we do to keep it going?).  Personally I think that when TFC comes to our towns we should chant and cheer so much, just gently whisper, so they don’t wake up.
It is a shame that the front office at TFC really squandered such a base of support by the revolving door of coaches and the impermanence of the players.  I would suggest that the sleepiness of the TFC defense has to do with a lack of strong center back.  With Frings back in the line up, the defense should shore up a bit….  that being said, that defense is completely porous.  I think instead of lulling them to sleep, we should just distract them with something shiny.

15. Are you ready for you nap now?
Always.

16. What was your most embarrassing moment when you got caught napping?
I think it would have to do with amounts of drool, but I cannot actually recall an embarrassing nap.

17. How long is a nap vs. a sleep?
Anything around 3 hours and more becomes “going to bed.”

18.  Are you a napper?
Any legitimate chance I can

19. What is your favorite place to nap?
I am a big boy, I sleep on a bed, or at worst on a couch.

20. Are there any references on how to nap properly? What is the optimum number of naps one should have per day?
I do not know of a National Napping Guide (nothing showed up in a quick Google search).  I wish I could write a National Napping Guide.  My guide would include information like:

• Keep a fan on
• Sleep on a bed, you are not an animal
• Set an alarm, you don’t want to sleep too long
• Blanket, no blanket, that is a personal decision
  

To recap:
The angriest man in the world slurps his soup live a 5 year old
That makes for an interesting lunch environment
I am incredibly tired
I blame it on all the chatting about naps
I go to the foot doc again today
The feet, they are feeling better daily
I need to find more time to draw
Naps are one of the purest forms of relaxation that exists
Anyone interested in doing 20 Questions with me?
Or does anyone know of anyone that would be willing to do a 20 question interview?
I will interview anyone who is interested
It is hard to believe that it is only Tuesday
This is going to be a loooong week
3 20 Questions from now will be the big 200th…
Any ideas on how to celebrate?
Have a great weekend everyone

**The first royalty free image of someone napping that was not of a scantily clad chick in a hammock or a cute widdle kitten, although I am unsure whether the dude is actually sleeping

20 Question Tuesday: 196 - Andrew Mayne

It is rare when I get to ask 20 questions to someone that I don’t really know and with whom I have only marginal connections or reasons for connections.  This is going to be a fun 20 Questions because my base knowledge of Andrew Mayne is fairly limited.  Andrew is a magician, an author, and an all around raconteur.  Andrew came to my attention through his association with the podcast, NSFW Show on the TWiT network.  I followed him from that bizarre association to the Weird Things podcast (not the Weird Thongs podcast, I don’t recognize anyone from that podcast) and then following him via the twitters.  I had the wonderful occasion to see him at a local speaking engagement in Columbus, Ohio in 2011.  He is quite the talent.  So without further ado, on to the Questions:

This is a question I often start off with now, just because it gives some good fodder for later.  I got a degree in geography, specifically cartography, so a geographic story is always interesting to me. I was born in Oklahoma City, moved to Montgomery, AL, grew up in Birmingham, AL, went to school in Kent, OH and settled down in Columbus, OH.   
Question 1: What is your geographic story?

I was born in Opelika, Alabama (a US News & World Report best city in America) and moved to Eugene, then Portland, Oregon until I was 12 and we moved to a suburb of Fort Lauderdale, FL. After high school I became a full time stage magician and lived on cruise ships and spent half a year in Japan. I then lived in Las Vegas for a little while. After that I lived in Orlando for a year before finally settling down (sort of) in Fort Lauderdale for several years. I spend a lot of time in LA now and in recent years spent half my time in Santa Monica.

So, even though I spent most of my formative youth in Birmingham, I truly and completely consider Columbus to be my home. Question 2: Of all the places you have lived, which one do you consider home? why?

I love Los Angeles. It’s where most of my friends and favorite places are.

Interesting, I would not have called that answer in 10 years. I am not sure where I would have thought, but in my limited knowledge of your whereabouts, I have rarely heard you wax eloquent about Los Angeles. On to some more meaty questions.

Question 3: If you could change the “stage magician” title, which title would you prefer? Magician, Illusionist, Wizard, Charlatan, Sorcerer, Hood-winker, Eldritch Mage, Diabolist, or another of your choice…  Would you choose a different title for other magicians you know? Are you willing to name names and give titles?

I like the idea of each person choosing what works best for them. When I was a teenager I decided I was going to be an ‘illusionist’ because it was bigger than a magician. In our trade, an illusionist is a magician that does all the huge magic like levitating girls and sawing them in half. And that was what my magic act pretty much was.

David Copperfield has always owned the title though. He’s the consummate illusionist. Just about every modern notion of large stage magic has been influenced by him.

Right now, I think I like wizard for myself. Sometimes as a joke I’ll call myself a Wizard-American. Probably all the Harry Potter books on the brain.

For some reason, I thought you would gravitate to “wizard.”  Who doesn’t want to be a wizard?  I mean, come on!  A wizard.  That would be awesome.  So, from now on I will refer to you as “The wizard, Andrew Mayne.”

Public Enemy Zero….

So, again, on a completely different direction (it all comes together later).  Question 4: Cake or Pie? Which kind and why?

Cake. I’m a recovering cupcake addict. It’s my vice of choice whenever I travel. I like a good pie, but seriously, I’m nuts about cake. I was just at a wedding with a friend and secretly glad that her dietary restrictions meant that I was going to get two slices of wedding cake. It’s that bad. The mere thought of it makes me contemplate bad things. Like dressing up as a clown and crashing a birthday party. And I HATE clowns. Why did you have to ask me that question? Now I’ve got to go find some big shoes and a red nose…

I ask that question to everyone, because the answers are so educational.  It is interesting, the pie lovers tend to love pie, but the cake lovers tend to be willing to kill for cake.  There is a subtle but sociopathic difference… When I was a kid, my mom decorated cakes as a side business… there was always cake in my house, and better than that there was always frosting.  I used to put frosting on everything.  Between two Pop-Tarts, on peanut butter cookies, as a dip for Oreos, on Krispy Kreme doughnuts, cheesecake…So much frosting…. I could share the frosting recipe with you (because store bought frosting is a teasing filthy liar), but it would clearly ruin you. Honestly, I should not continue thinking about the frosting lest I spiral out of control as well.

Just to keep you off balance, and get off the topic of cakes and frosting, I will be shifting focus again, rest assured we will come back to cake though, because it always comes back to cake.  Question 4: When you do an illusion or some close work of some kind, what is the driving force for you? Is it the reaction of your audience, the intellectual stimulation of accomplishing the feat? What do you, as a practitioner of the dark arts, gather from doing magic?

All of the above. There’s a creative part of me that always wants to solve problems and make something new. There’s also a part of me that loves attention. Put the two together and it you have an attention seeking creative monster.

From what I understand about you in my Internet stalking and “research,” you no longer have a stage act with which you tour, but you still seem to be within the magic community.  Question 5: So what made you decide to stop touring as a magician?

The Internet can be misleading. When I have the time, I still perform. I’ve performed in casinos and a few spots overseas in the last year. I’ll be doing some stage magic in Europe and then the Mediterranean in a few months.

I’m lucky to be able to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on shows, depending if it’s someplace I want to travel. When I got into producing it changed a lot of things for me and gave me more freedom in that regard. I didn’t have to be locked up on a cruise ship for six months at a time.

“The Internet can be misleading.” I am not sure I like your tone, sir!  The Internet is the last bastion of unbiased knowledge, and I will hear no more truck about it, sir… No more truck.

Question 6: So, what are the 1 or 2 places that you would drop everything to perform in, if the opportunity arises?  Have you performed in these places before?

After you’ve had hundreds of Japanese women scream ‘Anderu’, what else is there? Maybe the White House. Specifically the Nixon White House. That’d be pretty cool. I could say, “For my next trick, Dick,” and Nixon would have to give me an awkward laugh because I’m a guest and on stage and in charge. Haldeman would give me an angry look from offstage and then I’d like vanish back into the future. Nixon would freak out and demand they hide the tapes that recorded my appearance.There would be several minutes of missing time because of me. He’d get all paranoid that it was some kind of trick and get some goons to go knocking on doors. All he’d know is what I whispered to him right before I vanished. ‘Watergate.’ And that’s what happened. I mean that’s what could have happened…Um, what was the question? Ever read G. Gordon Liddy’s biography?

Now, your vanishing, I am sure, would be done with quite the flourish.  At least it better have…  And in my mental picture of this, you are wearing a tux, cape, top hat, and white gloves… can you grow a moustache: a big, bushy, handlebar moustache… because that facial hair assemblage is in the picture as well… in fact… Question 7: Can you grow a big, bushy handlebar moustache?

Given a glacial amount of time.

At least, if you are given an epoch of time, you could do it.  One of my co-workers, the angriest man alive, is partially angry  because he cannot grow facial hair except for one quarter-sized area on in the center of his left cheek (to be clear though, he is also partially angry because he cannot find a good fat free ranch dressing, and because someone ate a peanut butter sandwich the other day)…  Such an angry angry man, but that is a story for another time.  

You seem to run pretty fluidly in the skeptics community (concerning paranormal and unexplained things).  In a previous 20 Questions Tuesday I did with Chris Corrigan he described a skeptic as someone with both a high degree of hope and a high degree of doubt (of course this version of skeptic was not necessarily about the paranormal or unexplained).  So, I offer this up to you as a partial definition of a skeptic, in what I call… Question 8: Do you agree that one potential definition of a skeptic is someone with a high degree of hope yet tempers that hope with a high degree of doubt?

For me, I tend to quantize it a little bit more. Besides belief and doubt, there’s just not knowing. Is there intelligent life in outer space? I don’t know. I don’t really have doubt or hope. It’s one of those complex questions we can only have a firm position in either way based upon one extreme emotional opinion or the other. I have counterarguments for the doubtful and hopeful.

“I don’t know”, is something smart people hate to say. Especially skeptics. The problem is that leads us to a kind of scientism where we embrace something that has the most trappings of scientific veracity, but isn’t necessarily true.

Anthropomorphic climate change is a great example of that. We can start with some very basic, easy to demonstrate facts like how CO2 absorbs infrared energy and extrapolate that into potential scenarios where excess CO2 could raise the planet’s temperature.  But the question of by how much and with what consequences is a really complex problem lots of people pretend to understand; yet a specialist in upper atmosphere climate may have little more grasp than an educated layperson on what the implications are for sea level change and things like bacteria-influenced hydrological cycles.

We trust our scientist friends because they say it’s true. Or at least the most outspoken ones say so. What’s fascinating is when you separate them from the politics and ideology and ask specific questions about their own area of expertise, you find out it’s a really complex problem with so many variables, that they even tend to take a lot of things on faith.

That’s where we get into dangerous and unscientific terminology like “consensus” or adopt strange interpretations of the precautionary principle. Experts in one narrow field then decide they’re perfectly capable of offering opinions in disciplines they have no real insight into and start proffering political and economic solutions.

We then get into a kind of siege mentality and start looking at anybody who doesn’t agree with our kind of hope or doubt as an out group and resort to name calling and strawman arguments. When you call everyone who is unconvinced or has questions about the evidence a denier or a flat earther, you’ve lost the legitimacy science offers.

I always get into trouble when I bring this up because people assume I have a strong opinion on this. I really don’t. It’s a very complex question that is beyond my ability to understand.

On one hand, you have people who won’t accept any amount of evidence that man can influence climate. On the other, you have people who accept the political positions and politically shaped scientific consensus without question, saying things like “The debate is over.” We’re still testing relativity one hundred years later. No physicist in their right mind would say the debate is over.

We’re now getting a very dangerous theme of linking acceptance of anthropomorphic climate change with evolution. One is a very open ended question shaped by politics and the other something you can observe on a laboratory bench and easily test.

If you’re a student of history it’s especially disturbing because when evolution was linked to politics, you had highly educated people and even moral by most standards, advocating eugenics as a way to solve the problems of poverty. Even Margaret Sanger, who I think is one of the most important people of the 20th Century (founder of Planned Parenthood) was a supporter of this idea.

We think that if we’re rational and moral, our beliefs can’t be corrupted if we have the power to make decisions for others. The tragedy is that more people died in the 20th century from well-meaning futurists who believed science was on their side than from all the wars combined. The Soviets bet the literal farm on Lysenko’s ‘scientific’ ideas and millions starved. China’s Great Leap Forward also embraced Lysenkoism and a naive concept of industrialization. Even the Nazi concentration camps were based on a “scientific” view about euthanasia and genetic hygiene. These ideas don’t start in a vacuum. Someone comes along with an ideology that finds it compatible and begins to promote it. The next thing you know you get government mandated agriculture practices decided by someone who has never been on a farm, backyard metal furnaces based on a hoax or carbon markets lobbied by Enron.

This isn’t to say science betrayed us. In fact, the opposite, we betray science when we use it to push our political and philosophical ideologies onto others and refuse to apply them to our own positions.

So back to your original question. “I don’t know”, is a very healthy position for a skeptic. I don’t know the answer to a lot of things. But I’m happy to lay out what would convince me.

I’ll just add that a sign of a healthy field of inquiry is its willingness to entertain and communicate with people who are skeptical. When people want to shut anyone out, not just the ones on the extreme end, that’s a warning sign to me.

Well thought out as usual.  It is interesting… after hearing you speak on all the Weird Things podcasts, I can kind of hear your voice saying that expository text.  I think what I was trying to get at about the “hope v doubt” piece is that I think deep in the marrow of a skeptic is the hope that some of these paranormal mysteries and science fiction fantasies are possibly true, but the burden of proof is in line with other observed scientific facts.  I think, for you, deep down, you would love for the yeti to be a real thing, but you don’t want hoaxers (or even ardent believers) bringing that weak ass game into your house and calling it truth.

Growing up in Alabama, I have had the occasion to converse with some people who ascribe to creationism, and I have had the occasion as a geographer to have conversations with people who believe the earth is, indeed, flat. Rarely, in my experience of those conversations, does the discourse stay at a civil level, because so much of one’s identity is wrapped up in those particular ideas.  But that is neither here nor there…

Grendel’s Shadow

Going back to the hopeful skeptic idea, Question 10: Is there a paranormal thing (a cryptid, alien contact, ESP, conspiracy theory, ghosts, etc..) that you, deep down in your heart of hearts are hopeful for? Or if there isn’t, which of the myriad of paranomal stuff would be the coolest if it were real?.  If you do have one you are hoping for, is it also the coolest?

In my mind paranormal is something that runs counter to how we believe science works. So I’d leave cryptids, aliens and conspiracy theories off that list. When you step back for a moment and take a broader view of these ideas, you come to some interesting realizations.

Bigfoot is real and alive and well, from my way of looking at things. For most of modern man’s 200,000 year history we lived side-by-side with other bipedal intelligent apes. We may call them Neanderthals, Denisovans (a newly discovered species) or Homo floresiensis. But they fit many of the descriptions.

We’ve always had stories of the ‘wild man’ in the forest because they’ve been there for most of our history. If you go to South America you’ll find the use of jade in burial rituals along with other cultural holdovers from when their ancestors migrated from Asia 20,000 years ago. Seeing how long those concepts can last, it’s not difficult to imagine that our bigfoot and yeti mythos is based in very real cultural memories of Neanderthals and other members of the Homo genus.

Bigfoot alive today because we find Neanderthal genes in the genome of people whose ancestors migrated out of Africa. Even the Denisovans have passed on their genes to a group of people living in Melanesia.

As far as what I hope for, I don’t really hold out for any one thing coming true. I think the universe we’re creating with science is far more interesting. I prefer a universe with no other intelligent life, because that means it’s ours to do with as we please. A Manifest Destiny where invaders and natives don’t kill each other.

Imagine what the future would be like 1000 or even just 500 years from now when we create our own cambrian explosion of artificial life and spread out to far reaches of our galaxy. If the speed of light holds up, it’ll create a fascinating universe of different cultures isolated by time. History up until now will seem like a footnote. That’s when the real story of civilization begins.

So in answer to the question, none of the above. Alien contact is a far more boring idea to me than when we turn on the first artificially intelligent being. If we want to meet Mr. Spock, we just build him. Or we tell the computers to surprise us.

Side note: I’d like to point out that I’m very doubtful (and obviously not hopeful) we’ll ever encounter intelligent alien life. I used to think it was inevitable, but then I realized that we were conflating the argument for life elsewhere in the universe with intelligent life. There’s a big difference. There’s been life on earth for 3 billion years. As far as we know (excluding sentient squids that left no artifacts) intelligent life in the form of man and our Homo relatives, is less than a 2.5 million years old. 3.8 billion years is a long time to wait for intelligent life to show up.

I’m not saying it can’t or hasn’t happened elsewhere, only that we need to look at our own history to realize how difficult  it really is.

Your take on extra terrestrial intelligence really is interesting … it reminds me very much of the Douglas Adams definition of intelligent life where he looks at the total of life in the universe and the vast expanse of area in the universe, an intelligent life density, if you will.  With all life being finite and the universe being infinite (in his system) the density of intelligent life was 0… I should probably break open my Guide again to find that passage instead of relying on my faulty think mellon.  I personally think that there is intelligent life out there, but the vast distance of space will ensure that the intelligent life never comes into contact with each other… I think there will only ever be inklings of other intelligent life out there without ever having any confirmation of that fact.

and now for something completely different… Question 11:  Is your toothbrush the same color as your favorite color? If not, why not, you can buy toothbrushes in pretty much any color… why wouldn’t you get your toothbrush in your favorite color? Have you no pride, man?  If so, is it a coincidence or was your toothbrush color/favorite color mashup intentional.

I buy whatever is the handiest. I never even think about color. Am I missing out on something.

Ah, Practicality, thy name is Andrew. You are definitely a practical, practical man.  Either that or your favorite color is some weird color like puce or persimmon.  I am going to go with your favorite color being… let’s say… gamboge.  There just isn’t a gamboge toothbrush out there, and for very good reason. Seriously, gamboge is a horrible color, and frankly I am surprised it is your favorite color considering the practically billions and billions of colors out there.

Question 12: How would you finish the following statement, “I find myself to mostly be ______.” And how would your friends finish the similar statement “I find Andrew to mostly be ______.”

…full of myself.
…full of himself.

Interesting, usually there is some discrepancy between the two perspectives… I guess that by the time you realize that you are “Full of yourself” everybody else has already gotten seats on that train.

When I was in sports and did sporty things I had some rituals to prepare myself for the game at hand… a very specific method of preparation to get me ready for the competition.  So… Question 13: I know you are not superstitious, but do you have any “rituals” to get you in a correct mental space for your writing/ magic/ mountain climbing?

I wear a long sleeve shirt to protect my elbows as I write (I tend to sit for long periods while writing). I also have my headphones on and listen to a soundtrack.

That is quite the ritual you have there.  Seriously, could you be more superstitious?

I have found through many conversations (whether it is conscious or unconscious), there is a central question at the core of everyone that personally drives that person. For me, the current question that is driving me revolves around where I am professionally and how my current vocation does not seem to fit well.  I cannot quite put it into words, but I understand the overall direction of the question is “How can I align my thoughts and feelings into a more fulfilling professional life that more closely reflects my personal philosophy.”

Question 14: What is the internal question that is driving you?

How can I be living up to my creative potential? Happiness for me is creativity and traction. I’m always trying to push myself further and streamline my life towards the things that make me happiest.

I like to create and I like to see those things I create get traction in the universe. Everything else it a matter of scale.

That difference in scale really can be a kick in the teeth though.  And seriously, and I say this with love and affection born of 14 previous questions and some foreknowledge of you, I think it will be difficult for you to live up to your creative potential because you seem to have near boundless creativity, and that is near impossible to live up to.  I have to say though that I enjoy watching your efforts, because they’re great.  Anyone else want some Frosted Flakes, or is that just me.

The Chronological Man

Question 15:  What new creative endeavor do you want to do of which you are having a difficult time gaining traction and momentum?

I’m doing what I want to be doing right now (writing). My biggest problem is finding enough hours in the day. I’ve turned down opportunities I would have jumped at a year ago, just to focus on writing.

It is amazing how when one finds, what some people call, a calling that one finds there is not enough time in the day.  I haven’t quite found that for my work-life just yet… one day though.. one day and I will be neglecting my wife and ignoring my children, but that time it will be because I am intensely focused on something professional.

Associated with creative endeavors is the fact that coupled with all of the various successes are a boat load of disappointments.  That is how success works unless it is a fluke.

Question 16: How do you deal with disappointment?

I only worry about things I can control. It gives me far more focus on what I should be responsible for and lets me deal with things that might be frustrating but worrying about won’t help. It sounds simplistic, but it’s how I live my life.

Sometimes the simplest philosophies are the best.  I personally ascribe to my Mother-in-Law’s mantra of, “Don’t let the fuckers get you down.”  It has come in more handy than one might think.  

And now something silly Question 17: What is your favorite kind of footwear?  For example, I am partial to hybrid hikers/street shoes, primary made by either Merrell or Keen (that being said, I also love Tsubos, but I need to get my feet back to snuff first). 

I wear a pair of Nike trainers all the time. I walk a lot.

Well, turnabout is fair play, so here it goes…. Question 18: Do you have any questions for me?

Where do you want to be in five years?

Well, don’t pull any punches there.  I think the first thing that I must come to grips with is that where ever I THINK I am going to be in 5 years is most likely no where near where I will actually BE in five years.  Look back at any five year period and I am sure the statement holds true.  So, keeping that in mind, and keeping the axiom I learned in my mathematical modeling (I do my le turn on the catwalk, on the catwalk, yeah) class, “It is better to have a general answer to a specific question, than a specific answer to a general question,” I will be intentionally vague in my answer.  I will be more creatively fulfilled.  I will be happier with who I am.  I will be doing something more substantial with this “20 Questions Tuesday” part of my life.  How that shape actually turns out is a completely different subset of this collection of loose thoughts.  

And back to you… Question 19: What are you taking away from this set of 20 Questions that you did not bring in with you?

How cowardly you would answer question number 18. Also, how uncomfortable I’ve become in my old age talking about myself.

Okay, Okay, I will go a bit more deeper into my hedges about the 5 year plan.  I am currently in a pretty significant state of flux.  I dislike my job, and more importantly I dislike my chosen vocation.  It is unfulfilling and dullness surrounded by uninspiring and angry people. I am seriously contemplating some more education for a major shift in my professional life, but, while I find the new educational direction interesting and promising, I lack the information to make a cogent decision about my mid-range goals. In a year, hell in 6 months, I will have more information and will gladly update you on my five year plan. That being said, I have started noticing that this 20 Questions Tuesday piece of my life is becoming more of a driving force than it ever has.  I enjoy doing this… I am starting to be fairly passionate about it.  I am concerned about the quality of product that I am putting out.  I am trying to get more and more significant “gets” for my interviews (you being one of them).  The gist of what I am saying right now is that in five years there are many things about my current professional life that will not be present, but the options that I am leaving myself open to are limitless.  Does that make more sense?  And that being said, your answer to 19 is pretty weak sauce.

Angel Killer

So, I will throw the light back on you, and feel free to be as concrete or philosophical as you want, Question 20: What’s next for you?

I want to write a lot more and expand into different genres. That’ll be difficult because some of the places I want to take my writing aren’t what my fans know me for. It’s kind of scary, but if I want to grow, I have to be willing to expand out into different areas and take some risks.

I want you to push into as many genres as you are comfortable, if nothing to start blurring the lines between them.  This has been more than delightful.  I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did, because I had a great time throughout this process.  I will be eagerly awaiting your next books and wow-ing my kids with the “hypercards trick” I learned from you when you spoke out in Columbus, Ohio.  Next time you are in my cow-town, I will gladly buy some dinner and get you some cake.

To recap:
So, my work with my feet coninues
They are getting better
I know this because I have clearly turned a corner at PT
It is no longer about correcting an injury as much as it is about restrengthening
My legs and my feet are tired… so so tired
Taxes are done
Taxes are really expensive
Oh wells, I like getting my garbage picked up
And having an infrastructure
Even if it is a decrepit and under funded infrastructure
I drove 300 miles for work yesterday
Seriously peeps, subscribe to the Weird Things podcast
It is quite the enjoyable thing
Have a great weekend

Andrew Mayne Books… buy these

20 Questions Tuesday: 195 - Christopher Hastings

So, I have been reading a few web-comics in my life.  I am looking at the PVP Online's, the Penny-Arcades, the XKCD's and I am just soaking up the Internet goodness… I start looking for other properties online that I can consume with my voracious online comic appetite.  Nothing is truly filling the bill… until… Dr McNinja. Dr McNinja is both a practicing medical doctor and a near super human assassin of the night.  There is an internal war within the good doctor, and hijinks ensue.  The creator of Dr McNinja, Christopher Hastings has decided to grace my meager online presence with another installment of 20 Questions Tuesday….  So without further ado, I give you 20 Questions with Christopher Hastings!

I was born in Oklahoma City, OK. Moved to Montgomery, AL when I was 3.  Grew up just outside of Birmingham, AL. Went to school in Kent, OH.  Then I have finally settled in Columbus, Ohio.  Question 1:  What is your geographic story?

WELL, I was born in Cumberland, MD, and then lived within 15 minutes of it until I went to college at the School of Visual Arts in NYC. Upon graduation, I moved to Brooklyn, and have been living in the same neighborhood since.

That is not much a geographic footprint, yet you seem rather worldly in my completely uninformed opinion…

Question 2: Have you traveled much?

Haha, what gives you that impression? I mean, yes, I have. But I’m not sure how I give that off, other than posting to twitter when bored in airports. I’ve seen most of the continental U.S, been to the U.K. a couple times, the Netherlands, and I visit Canada a couple times a year. Most of that is because of various comic conventions.

I think the impression comes through with the level of worldliness associated with the McNinja Clan…The amount of odd tangents and weird happenings you have running through those stories speak of someone who has been outside the continental US borders.

Question 3: Have you ever been to or plan to be at Mid-Ohio Comic Con in Columbus, Ohio…. where I live?

I’m afraid this is the first I’ve heard of it!

Well, if you do ever consider Mid Ohio CC, lemme know and I will take you to places that have good food…

Speaking of good food, Question 4: Cake or pie?

Pie, I think! There is a wider variety of pies than cakes.

I have found people who like pie, really like pie, whereas people who like cake would curb-stomp a baby for cake.

I have a home away from home on the Internet in the forums of Ten Ton Studios.  I post things I draw over there and get comments and criticisms from other artists.  Question 5: Do you have an online artistic community that you bounce ideas off of or an offline community for that matter?

Not… really. I’m friends with a good number of cartoonists who have web presences, but I think we only actually “talk shop” in person. But it’s certainly not organized at all.

So, John Byrne’s run on Captain America in the late 70’s and early 80’s is what hooked me on comic books (goodness I am getting old)… I can even go so far (and have on previous 20 Questions) as to mention the exact issue that grabbed me as a medium. Question 6: Is there a specific moment or specific title/issue that hooked you on sequential art/comic books?

I was reading comics as long as I can remember, specifically Harvey and Disney comics. But one year for Christmas I got a grab bag of Spider-Man comics that the JC Penney catalog sold, and that was my first real intro to superhero comics, and when I really started getting a little bit more nerdy about them.

I remember those grab bags fondly.  Those and I believe Toys R Us had some random bags of comics as well.  So for me, clearly the super hero I tend to drift back towards is Captain America.  I think it was due to his imprinting on me at an early age.  I rember running out to my mailbox hoping that my Cap subscription came in the brown paper sleeve as a kid… cause I clearly am old and weirdly nostalgic… So Cap in many ways is “my guy.”

Question 7: Is there a comic book character from any genre that you just cannot help but follow?

Funny enough, comic book collecting has become too expensive a habit for me to keep up with. I’ll pick up trades if I hear about a particular run begin exceptional, but I don’t really follow any specific character any more. Batman is probably my favorite, though.

Oh, don’t get me wrong… I feel I am probably in about the same boat as you concerning the price of comic books.  I haven’t collected anything in years due to their exponential price increases, but, thanks to the Interwebs, I follow Cap as best I can.  I had an inkling that Batman was your guy, just because of the “What Would Batman Do” motivational stuff you have going in Dr McNinja.

Speaking of the “inkling" ooh pretty… probably be better in a few generations… Question 8:  Do you primarily do all of your work digitally now, or is there still a large component of your work that is done traditionally?

Right now it is 100% digital. I prefer doing my layouts on the computer, because it’s easier to work quickly sketching stuff out and moving elements around without making a mess. And Manga Studio just magically makes me a better inker because again… I don’t make a mess like I do with a real brush. I’ve always lettered digitally, and the colorist works in Photoshop too.

Okay, enough comic booky/web comic-y stuff…  Let’s get deep inside Christopher Hastings… Well, not that deep… this next one is a four parter

Question 9: As a kid, did you watch a bunch of TV? What decade of TV did you consider your childhood TV? What was your favorite type of TV show? and why?

I actually grew up in the middle of the woods where there was no television service available. Satellite TV (which my parents now have) wasn’t the easily manageable thing it is now. So the TV I got to watch was tapes of the Disney Afternoon, and Ninja Turtles that my grandmother would record for me. And when I visited my other grandparents in Baltimore, I would watch Nickelodeon all weekend, and that was a big deal because that wasn’t available in my area where there was cable. So I guess that was the late 80s, early 90s.

Wow, I feel like this is a rabbit hole that I should have gone after earlier.  As a kid, we only had over-the-air channels, because my parents wouldn’t get cable. So all my questions about 80’s TV are right out of the widow… 

So Question 10: Did you read tons when you were a kid or did you live off of VHS? How did you spend your free time?

It was about split between the two! My brother and I made weekly trips to the library, and monthly trips to the bookstore. But we also rented a lot of movies and video games. We also lived in the middle of the woods, and it was a really terrific place to play outside.

We were on about a quarter acre of land in suburban Alabama, and about half of that land was into some woods that led to a larger tract of wooded area behind the neighborhood.  My brother, his friends and I played out in the woods All. The. Time…  So many nice memories of that.  One of which was making a crappy little tree house in our section of the woods… Question 11: Since you played in the woods a great deal, did you also have a tree house?

No tree house! There was a uh… large tree that fell over and was propped up against another tree in an interesting way, and I sort of faked it into being a “fort.”

No TV and no treehouse?  You are just biding your time before going on a murderous rampage… clearly you are a ticking time bomb of lost childhood rage.  It is times like these that I am glad that I am not in Brooklyn…  When you start plinking people off from a bell tower, I will remember this answer and take relish the fact that I called it.   

So, Question 12:  In all seriousness, do you consider your childhood to be a fairly happy and healthy one, or are you dealing with demons in your past like the rest of us?

I think you *might* be jumping to conclusions! Yes, my childhood was perfectly fine! (Except middle school, of course. Middle school is awful.)

You are right on the money, middle school was a horrible time for everyone.  If anyone says that they liked middle school, they are clearly a liar and should be treated as such, or they are trying to sell you on some term life insurance or something.  

Since this unlucky 13, we should discuss rituals and superstitions… When I played soccer in High school, and when I fenced épée in college I had these little preparation rituals and superstitions.  I had to put my gear on in a  specific sequence, and repeat a couple of little mantras to get myself “into the game” Question 13: Do you have any specific superstitions or rituals?

Nope! Well, not anymore. As a kid, I had some specific rituals to protect myself from ghosts. The big one was that to go into the basement, I had to turn on the stair light from outside the door, then unlock the door and open, then go down to the bottom of the stairs, and hit the switch for the lights in the rest of the basement. When going back up, I had to do it in opposite order, and that kept ghosts contained in the basement.

Ghost containment always involves rituals, usually more complex rituals than a sequencing of lights… I think your basement ghosts may not have been trying too hard… maybe throwing you a pass because you were a kid.  Who knows… All I know is that the attic ghosts I have to deal with now wouldn’t put up with that weak game in their house (until I get rid of them, it’s their house… jerky incorporeal assholes, the lot of them).

Many people I have asked this next question have asked their friends to chime in as well because sometimes other people’s input can be interesting.  So feel free to canvas people you know for this… but you certainly do not have to…  Question 14: Fill in the blank:  ”I am mostly _______.”

Okay, I popped out of my office into the apartment, where my wife and our mutual friend/neighbor chimed in with “well dressed, confident, unflappable” and then started in with jokey answers.

No worries, this really is intended to be really casual.  I just love that you have stuck with this for so long
Back to the task at hand…

Those are all great answers… Question 15: do you feel that there is a significant disconnect between how you perceive yourself and how others perceive you?

If there is, I am not aware of it!

It is an odd thing when someone’s perception of themselves is similar to, if not the same as other people’s perception.  That is a good quality.

Question 16:  Since you are a digital comic book creator, and in some ways on the front line of the digital comic revolution, how do you see digital distribution of comic books moving forward?

I honestly have no idea. I do know that right now the system is still pretty broken, but it will be interesting once it’s all sorted out.

I think in many ways it is very interesting right now, but in some ways it is completely boring.  Mainly it is boring in the “This is kind of a boring question” kind of way.

Question 17: Since AxeCop is currently invading the PVP Online universe with the the guest strips that Ethan Nicolle is doing on Scott Kurtz’s web-comic… AND AxeCop has already done a cross-over with Dr McNinja… will there soon be a super group much like the Justice League comprised of AxeCop, Wexter, LOLbat, @ReTweet, Dr McNinja, and Gordito?  Think of the epicness.

Maybe! This has come up with one of the writers of another “humorous” super hero and we stalled pretty quickly. Maybe I should revisit that email.

It would be fun, mainly just to think of the characters being all in the same universe… maybe you should slyly throw some cameo’s of other properties in the background of your stuff.  Wouldn’t it be fun to see Brent Sienna just buying some coffee in the background panel of a crowd shot in Dr McNinja?

Anyway… turn about is fair play…

Question 18: Anything you want to ask me?

What is your favorite beverage?

That is an easy one.  I am chained, sometimes happily so, to my lovely green mistress, Mountain Dew. Mmmmm Mt Dew

Question 19: Is there anything you are taking from these 20 Questions that you did not bring in with you? Have you learned anything over the course of this conversation?

It’s funny, I remember very strongly once when I was probably 7 or 8 years old, getting a can of Mountain Dew at a peewee baseball game, drinking some of it, and thinking that it tasted like someone had put a cigarette inside. I asked for another can, same thing. And I haven’t enjoyed Mountain Dew ever since, except Code Red.

Well I haven’t thought about my “tree fort” in a while. Next time I’m at my parents I may go into the woods and scope out the state of it. Hmm… actually no I probably won’t. Horrifying spider webs canvas the forest around my parents’ house now.

Good call, when I was a kid, I had a spider experience camping, and now I have significant spider issues… Stupid spiders and their freaky amount of legs.

And last but not least… Question 20: What is next for you?  Be as literal or existential as you want or even as literally existential as you want.

Well, career wise I’m doing my best to prepare for Life after Dr. McNinja. I’m planning on quitting the comic in 2015, which will be 10 years working on it. I figure that’s a good point to make sure that the comic can end on a high note instead of slowly falling into mediocrity. Since I’m planning for that, I have the luxury to start working on other projects now, and set myself up for a broader creative career, which should hopefully make the transition off McNinja as painless as possible.

So right now I’m collaborating on a new comic with another popular webcomic artist, and it’s the most I’ve been excited about a project since when I started Dr. McNinja. And I’m also writing a Dr. McNinja novel, and of course I’d love to get more work like Fear Itself: Deadpool.

I think it is always a smart thing to bring a property to a conclusive ending, so I can honestly say that I am looking forward to seeing where you take the McNinja storyand how it culminates.  I also think it is a very brave idea to be willing to let a character go, and I applaud that ideal.  It is better to allow a life cycle than to slowly draw out the demise of a character into obscurity.  I cannot wait to see what other properties you generate and to watch your success in the future.

This has been an absolute joy for me to ask you 20 Questions.  Thanks so much for taking the time with me.


To recap:
Well, the Easter Bunny brought a Limited Edition xbox 360 with Kinect

AWESOME
It was the Star Wars edition
It makes R2-D2 noises
That too is awesome
Little Man and Q were dancing up a storm…. as Star Wars peeps
Again, more awesome
It was a great holiday weekend
Really it was awesome
Did I mention “Awesome?”
I thought so
I need to think about more
I need some caffeine this morning
I need some bad
I really enjoy doing these 20 Questions hootnannies…
Anyone out there want to be asked 20 Questions?
Leave a comment and I will be happy to start up a 20 Questions with you
Have a great weekend

20 Questions Tuesday: 194 - Ritual

"The first picture I could grab from the ‘Ritual’ search on the Googles" 

I was hoping to have another interview done for today, but it is running long due to hecticness on my part and, well, it will be up next week.  We have been in the process of assembling a wardrobe from IKEA.  We still need to get the hardware on the drawers and doors.  There is now a long list of things that need to get done to the house.  I guess it is time to get some of stuff taken care of so we can get the house back on the market.  this time we are going to sell… for realsies!

So this week, I have settled on the idea of “Ritual.”  Ah, “Ritual…” such a loaded word.

Thanks this week go to Lord Pithy, Chris Ring (of 20 Questions Tuesday fame), Capt. McArmypants, Dr B-Dawg, and some other guy.  On to the questions!

1.  When you perform a Black Sabbat, which comes first, the headless chicken or the live mouse?

Does the order change if it’s a Dark Charcoal Sabbat?
Let’s be clear, Dark Sabbat is waaaay better than Milk Sabbat, but with it being Easter-time, there are just way too many Milk Sabbats out there on the market. European Dark Sabbat is seriously the best, especially the Swiss Dark Sabbat.

2.  Did you ever go through the blood brother routine with a friend?

Nope, I didn’t.  You are referring to the ritual of draining the blood from a dark ancient and consuming it together to bind your souls together with the powers of the forgotten ones, right?

3.  As a parent, what ritual with the kids do you most look forward to?

I tend to like the bed-time rituals pretty well… the kids are not that keen on them, because it means they are going to bed.

4.  Is there ever a good reason for ritual scarring?

For yourself or for others?  The context matters.  I would be willing to brand some people as dumbasses, right on their dumbass foreheads.

5.  Why is it more fun to pronounce it as “rishual”?

I think the voiceless postalveolar fricative is just a fun thing to add into a word.  Like pronouncing the word schedule with an “sh” instead of a “sk.”

6.  What’s the craziest ritual you’ve seen in professional sports?

I do not think we are privy to the pre-game rituals that professional athletes go through, and that, I imagine, is where most of the really bizarre rituals take place.   

7.  What’s the quirkiest ritual your pet has?

Well, we are petless due to animal allergies.  But, when we had acts, we had 2 littermates that came from a farm.  Lenny was sickly and Senor don Gato was a robust kitten.  Anytime Lenny needed to sneeze, he would walk over to Senor don Gato and sneeze on his brother… it made him feel better.

8.  What is your oldest ritual?

Hmmm… Doodling prior to drawing something.

9.  Have you ever stopped a ritual because you thought “enough’s enough”?

Well, if you consider any of the Christian rituals that I used to to do… then the answer is “Yes.”

10.  When does a ritual become spiritual?

When the ritual has to do with existential issues.  Typically they have to do with communicating with a higher power or connecting into something more cosmic.

11.  I mean how do you wanna define ritual?  Do you see it as just habit or action consistently followed?  Ornate habit?  Habit where there is just the hint of superstition that this tiny thing has more meaning and influence over the world that it would logically appear? I mean if it does not have more meaning than the obvious than it is just a habit right?

I think a ritual is a set of actions that assist with generating some intangible result. For example, religious sacraments have an intangible result.  You cannot see the result, therefore it is a ritual. Going through a set of exercises to calm your mind is another ritual.  Again, it has intangible results.  Going through a set of motions that result in a turkey sandwich is not a ritual… unless the actions are also followed to quiet one’s mind or bring some level of relaxation.

12.Which childhood rituals do you still personally engage in for the sake of comfort?

Hmmm… That is an interesting question, because I am not really all that ritualistic. When my mind is racing, I do some controlled breathing exercises that I learned reading an OMNI magazine coming up on 25 years ago, so I guess that counts.

13.Which childhood rituals do you still personally engage in for the sake of habit?

Hmmm… again, this is a bit of a stumper, since I am not too ritualistic.  I have many habits from my childhood, but I cannot think of any of them being a ritual instead of a habit.

14.Any good luck rituals that you engage in?

Not really.

15. Do you have a doughnut eating ritual?

Bite, swallow like a duck, repeat until no more doughnuts.

16. What is your morning ritual?

I set my alarm for 5:40 AM, then for 6:00 AM, and then get up at 6:20 AM. Get out of bed, find some clothes (hopefully clean), go downstairs, get new podcasts on the iPhone, get my medicine, grab my Green Mistress (Mt. Dew), grab my bag, grab my keys, get in the car.  From get up to leaving is 20 to 25 minutes.

17. What is the difference between routine and ritual?

Ritual has an intangible quality to it.  One uses a ritual to calm, to excite, to prepare oneself, etc… One uses a routine to accomplish a task.

18. What is your favorite ritual?

The pizza and Mt Dew ritual of watching soccer games on the TV…. It is a calming ritual that I need to do more often.

19. You can’t spell ritual without “ultra” can you?

Well, you can’t spell it without the letters in “ultra,”but the spelling is completely different.  I mean, come on, the “r” is at the beginning of “ritual” but it is penultimate in “ultra.”  Let me throw this back at you then “ritual can be better broken down to “I, ultra” or “ultra I.”  How do you like them apples?

20. Any taboo rituals that you take part in?

Umm… no, or they would not be considered taboo.  duh

To recap:
TheMikeStand and I are at Round 53 of Draw Something
It is like we are in each other’s head
Get out of my head!
Mike, for the record, there was no bacon on that sandwich
Ham was taking the porcine place of honor
Mmmmm Ham
Little Man is digging the Angry Birds Space
Q just got done with a round of Orapred
Hopefully that means she will be in a better mood tonight
Wifey’s work is getting the better of her a little bit
But she is a Viking and will plunder her work
I am having a hard time shaking a “stuck” feeling
My dad just had the titanium knee removed for a sexier porcelain one
The docs think he is allergic to one of the metals in the titanium alloy
Just his luck
Comment me or email me if you want to be asked 20 Questions
Have a great weekend

20 Questions Tuesday: 193 - Chris Ring

I don’t remember exactly when (it has been a few years) Chris Ring started posting in the forums on my Internet home away from home, the Ten Ton Studios forum, but when he did, he immediately set alarm bells off for most everyone there.  Aside from his glowing personality and rapier wit, he has mad drawing skills, yo!.  Everything he does is insanely polished.  I have never really seen a “sketch” or “thumbnail” from him… only drawings… full fledged drawings, often in full color, and always professional.  He has a very clean and clear drawing style that allows for a strong sense of texture without over cluttering the drawings with any extra lines.  He has a strong sense of design and movement in his work so, it did not surprise me to find out he delt with art professionally.  I always learn from looking at his finished pieces, which just tells me that I would learn tons if I could watch his process from beginning to end… so get to video-ing yourself drawing so I can get better…

He and I have been chatting via the Internets for a good long while, and I would unequivicably consider him a strong Internet friend, and I he is one of the few people from the Interwebs that I would be willing to make an effort to meet in the real world.  Oddly, he seems to have a good head on his shoulders, but that could be an act.  Without further ado, I present 20 questions with Chris Ring:

I have always been interested in geography and maps, so it is should not be a surprise that my first question tends to always be the same.  If you have read my blog before, you know mine, so let’s just get into it, Question 1: What is your geographic story? Where have you lived in your life?

The phrase “You can take the boy out of Jersey but ya can’t take Jersey out of the boy” tends to follow me around. Born and bred in Monmouth County NJ (Springsteen Country). Crossed the river to go school at SJU in Philly and have been in PA ever since, Williamsport area to be exact, but I’ve still managed to keep all those endearing qualities that Jerseyians are famous for.

I am surprised, I would have thought you had lived more places.

Question 2: Do you travel much, and if so, how much and how far?

Nope, don’t move a lot but travel, yep, travel quite a bit. Not really exotic place travel but more get in the car and go traveling. I average over 25,000 miles on my car every year and I don’t really drive for my job so that’s a lot of extra curricular driving divided over: visiting, comic shows, car shows, sports and misc. adventuring. The farthest away I’ve ever been is back to the motherland, the town of Ring in the south of Ireland. Unfortunately it’s one of the few towns where they still speak Irish … and I don’t, but Guinness is Guinness in any language. Love Ireland and would go back in a heartbeat.

Question 3: So are you a straight up stout man or do you go with a black and tan configuration…  Me?  I like some Harp or some Bass underneath my Guinness…

For convenience sake I usually drink it straight up but if you know a place that will cozy a nice half pint of Guinness on top of a half pint of Bass, I say LET’S GO! For Christmas I received a Sam Adams variety case which consisted of Lagers, Porters, Ales, Stouts and a couple combos like Black & Tan. It was awesome. One thing I WILL NOT drink is Coors Light. I would not could not in a car. I would not, could not in a bar. I would not could not with my mates. I would not, could not on a date. I will not drink it so let me be, that swill tastes too much like pee!*
(*for the record I have never actually tasted pee)

I think we are lucky that we came of age in the micro-brew revolution.  Sometimes I feel bad for people 20 years older than me who only had the opportunity to have mass produced crap to swill.

Onto some comic-booky kinds of questions…  I have mentioneed many times that it was John Byrne working on Captain America in the late 70’s early 80’s that hooked me on comic books. Question 4: What was “THE’ moment/issue that hooked you on comics?

That’s an easy one. As a kid, they used to give out a free comic when you bought a pair of Buster Brown shoes. My first comic was a Daredevil comic if I remember correctly and he’s still my favorite character. I can’t say I was hooked then though, because I only read a comic every time I got a new pair of shoes and then later just sporadically. I was HOOKED years later when I  stumbled into a deli/newstand for lunch, and while I was waiting for a sandwich I saw the second issue of “Kraven’s Last Hunt” which was running through all the Spidey titles at the time. JM Dematteis, Mike Zeck and Bob Mcleod worked on all the issues and it was stellar. That trio infused so many emotions into those pages, FEAR being a constant theme. I quickly found the first issue and waited anxiously for the rest. Probably my best comic reading experience ever and the art… well let’s just say it changed me from a casual doodler to aspiring artist… to eventually a professional illustrator. Though my living comes from commercial illustration (comics are more of a casual freelance thing) it all started with seeing that Zeck and Mcleod art, that’s when I started to get serious about my own art and reading comics regularly.

It is really amazing when you talk to people who enjoy drawing and are either drawing comics, aspiring to draw comics, or just enjoy drawing comic book characters, they usaully know the exact issue that hooked them.  For you it was Kraven’s Last Hunt, and for me it was the Baron Blood story-line for Cap.

Question 5: When did you realize that you not only enjoyed drawing, but that you were really good at it?

Hmmm, that’s trickier. I realized in kindergarten that I was better at drawing than most of my classmates so I was “that” kid early on in school. “Get Chris to draw it, he’s a good drawer”. In 7th and 8th grade I actually did a little story featuring “Eggberts”. Eggberts had human bodies with Pac-man type heads and sharp teeth. You could make them into any historical character. I think the first character I did was Marco Polo Eggbert. Why? No idea, probably studying him at the time. Anyway I started incorporating classmates into the world of Eggberts for a nominal fee of 50 cents a drawing. I made about $5 before “the man” shut me down … got caught drawing during music class … I failed music class. Still never gave any thought to being an artist when I grew up. I was into sports heavily and honestly thought only people who were like Rembrandt, Davinci and Picasso from birth were good enough to be professional artists. It wasn’t until I sold my first comic strip in college that the light bulb went off and I thought, hey, maybe I can do this. That’s when I started to devote serious time to it and even then I didn’t consider myself really good at it, because the artists I who inspired me were a gazillion times better. So talent was recognized early on but if you don’t do anything with, which I didn’t, you have a boatload of catching up to do, which I did.  

Interesting… I am even more inpressed by your abilities than I was before.  To have really picked it up and start taking it so seriously, so late… damn, man.  I think I might dislike you some because of your innate ability.  Stupid innate ability. So do you have any of the Eggberts left? Care to share if you do?

So, I love the answers to this question, and I cannot wait to see yours… Question 6: Cake or pie?

Haha, I WISH I had an Eggbert left to show my kids. Nope, most went to classmates and the rest hung in the corner of Mrs. Donnelly’s classroom coat closet, surely taken down and discarded at the end of the year by the custodian. Aaaah, Mrs. Donnelly, we all had mad crushes on Mrs. Donnelly … but I digress. CAKE OR PIE???! No contest. PIE!!!. Pie beats everything … except Batman, nothing beats Batman. If you’re playing Rock, Paper, Scissors always throw down Pie, Pie beats everything. Pie is so versatile it literally can be every course of a meal. You can start with a nice quiche for an appetizer. Chicken Pot Pie for an entree. A nice fruit pie (blueberry is my favorite) to cleanse your pallette. Then for dessert, finish with a nice Key Lime Pie or Boston Creme Pie. Really, your choices are only limited by your imagination. I’m not dissing cake but Pie rules.

That is the thing about pie… it is very versitile, much like pizza (which is often referred to as pie anyway).  Cake is merely for dessert or snack.  The interesting thing is that people who choose cake, love cake with a rabidity can only be described as meth head-ish…

Question 7: What is it about cake eaters that makes them so virulent?

Excuse me while I look up virulent, see kids, you actually learn things on “20 Questions Tuesday”. I have no hard facts to back this up (that’s Reilly’s thing) but I’d say there is an air of pretentiousness and competetiveness that goes along with cake decorating. Sure you have your annual pie baking/pie eating contests at your local county fair, but it all seems more neighborly and Americana. With cake, it’s televised battles, Cake Bosses, Cupcake WARS, and Kim Kardashian spending more time picking out her wedding cake than actually being married. In a particular pie, every piece is deliciously the same but in a cake one piece may have the coveted ROSE or may be a corner piece with more icing, so even in cake eating there is a competition to get the best piece. Pie is like the Knights of the Round Table, no place is more coveted than the rest. Cake? … not so much. It’s a cake eat cake world out there and everyone wants the Rose… And don’t even get me started on tiered cakes as a metaphor for social hieracrchy.

I so want to read your metaphor about social hierarchy and tiered cakes… at the moment there is not much else I would like to read… I have to say, your assessment of why is pretty incredibly well thought out.  I’m digging it… a bunch.

Speaking of social hierarchy… Question 8: How do you think the democratization of entertainment on the Internet (the ability for regular Joes without the aid of a massive distribution system to makie their creations available) will end up affecting the social entertainment hierarchy?  How do you think this whole “new media” will change the “old media?”

Wow, that’s a Reilly question but I’ll take a stab and I’ll be candid (in other words, probably wrong). The cream rises to the top and with “new media” it can get out there almost instantaneously (once completed of course, there’s that hurdle). So yeah, I’m all for the little guy taking a bite out of the media pie (see that? see what I did there? it ALL comes back to pie). In the 90’s I worked on a creator owned limited series called CarbonKnight and I used every means at my disposal to get the book out there. I was a self promotion whore doing newspaper, magazine and even local TV interviews to talk about the series and comics in general and it was all FREE! that’s the whore part. I convinced people in the media that it was something worth talking about and I was able to convince them because I believed it was. In the end I sold over 5000 books from the series and while I had a blast and considered it a success, it certainly wasn’t enough to make a living off of and wasn’t enough for Diamond to keep distributing at the time, so when the story arch ended I moved on. My point is if you have something good you believe in use every means possible to promote it but in the end to be a continuing success it still needs to eventually be embraced by “traditional media”. Hits on the internet may be fun to rack up but if they don’t translate to cash, to me, they are more of a novelty than a viable product. The one “new media” tool I’m still on the fence about is comic kickstarter projects. Investing is one thing but “kickstarting” has the air of internet panhandling. I funded my own projects through hard work and long hours and took pride in doing so. If someone handed me a few g’s to start a comic and it panned, I’d feel responsible for it. In an investment if it pays off, the investor gets a piece of the action but kickstarting is just a hand out, right? A movie kickstarter project I can grasp a little more but a comic?? Really?? Roll your sleeves up Nancy. Like I said, I’m probably wrong and I have friends who are involved in kickstarter comics but it leaves me scratching my head a bit. Anywho back to the original question, RIGHT NOW I think “new media” can be a tool to present new work and ideas but to be a success they still have to be embraced by “old

media”… but that could change tomorrow.

I have found that with most kickstarter campaigns, of which I have currently pledged funds for 7 campaigns, all 7 of which met their goals…. I have said it before and I am saying it again, kickstarter campaigns should start paying me to fund their projects because I am less a project backer and more a success prophet… anyway… with the kickstarters I have been associated with, the funding is pretty much guaranteed sales.  I am not completely bank-rolling a job, but pre-purchasing a product.  For one I bought a pack of cards, for another I get a book, for another a t-shirt for rather reasonable prices.  I don’t see that as necessarily hand outs.

Question 9: Why do you feel that Reilly’s opinion is more valid than yours in this instance?  Do you feel inferior to Reilly?  Why or why not?

See, I told you I was probably wrong. In all your instances your support paid off and was rewarded, obviously the system works. Maybe I’m just jealous I did things the hard way, you know like walking to school uphill, both ways in a snow storm type thing. Perhaps my next project will be a kickstarter but I’ll be sure to run it by you first since you obviously can spot a winner.

As for Reilly’s opinion on the matter, I totally yield to it. He has done more research on the subject and is m

ore in tune with the latest technology in terms of “new media”. I don’t even have an iPhone and an app. is what I make to see the dentist. Do I feel inferior to Reilly? Reilly is a young, smart, talented, handsome lad. I was all those things once and I’m fighting the good

fight to hold onto a couple of those attributes. When Reilly talks sometimes I think “there’s the next  CEO of Marvel”, other times I think, “ah, he’s just a kid”. I think any aspiring comic artist can learn from Reilly, the kid works hard and sometimes I think aspiring artists don’t realize how much work is involved and how much one gives up to be a comic artist. I love comics and will always draw them but my love for other things has and will probably always keep me in the commercial art field where my talents and experience are better suited. So inferior? Hell NO! I’ve been truely blessed in my family, pursuits and successes… but Reilly is a better comic artist than me and he’s still in his twenties, for that he deserves a punch in the nuts.   

I am sure that there are many things for which Reilly deserves a punch in the nuts… in fact , I bet there is a list out there somewhere in the Interwebs that defines in some semblance of an order his nut-punching offenses.  I think Reilly is much more knowledgeable in the distribution model shifts because he has dogs in that fight, in fact, almost all of his dogs are in that fight.  You and I have careers outside of convincing people top buy sequential art.

Infact… Question 10:  Tell me about your day job… not really a questions as much as a request, is it?

Currently I’m the Art Director for JanWay Company. We mainly provide promotional and fundraising items for libraries across the country but we also have a business division that provides advertising and promotional items for businesses. So that leaves me and my team in the art dept. the task of creating all the art and logos needed for both divisions. This entails: illustration, photography, design and layout using traditional media and the entire Adobe Creative Suite. One of the reasons I usually use traditional media at the home studio is because I’m on the computer a lot for the day job. The best part of my job is that being in charge I get to keep the more interesting projects and get to dole out the more meat and potatoes stuff. Like many artists the most frustrating part of my job is focusing on the task at hand when you just want to draw Hellboy … buuut while Hellboy pays Mike Mignola’s mortgage, it doesn’t pay mine. It’s a good job and leaves me the freedom to do freelance work and spend time with my family, that’s really important. I’ve attached a couple samples to give you an idea of what I get to do in terms of illustration, though much of my job is more managerial (overseeing projects, meetings, dotting i’s, crossing t’s etc…).

Ah, I wasn’t sure what the focus of your company was, but promotional materials for libraries makes complete sense.  I have always dug when you showed off your dayjob stuff online.  Always so crisp and clean.  Great stuff, I love all the pieces you have there.

Speaking of wanting to only draw Hellboy, Question 11: Is there a particular comic book property that you would sacrifice small animals on an alter to draw?

Daredevil. I just feel there is an endless well there to be tapped. I mean if Law & Order can be on forever and produce a number of spin offs that have had great runs, producing great DD stories continuously should be doable. I have been collecting DD on and off for a long time and there have been some great runs by some talented teams. Miller/Romita and Smith/Quesada were two of my favorites, but I’ve also dropped the title flat when I thought the story or art weren’t up to my standards. I definitely hold that book to a higher standard than I do others. It’s a book that should have the high flying adventure a superhero book promises but can also be quite intelligent/intriguing by tapping into the court room side. Can you tell I want to write it too? LOL.

I followed JR JR from X-Men to Daredevil in the 80’s.  His run on that was pretty amazing.  I have always felt that he has been sort of an afterthought in the Marvel universe.  I would love to see you write and draw a treatment of DD.  That would be teh awesomest.

So, I know from previous interactions that you have kids.  I, however, didn’t care enough to remember relative ages of your offspring or if there is more than one of them.  It is a selfish character flaw of mine.  I have 2 relatively young kids right now (8.667 and 3.5), and I was wondering… Question 12: Do/did your kid/s ever ask you to draw comic book characters for him/her/them or for his/her/their friends?

Not really. I used to get more of that from my family growing up, you know, special occasion cards/gifts and such. All three of my kids have sketchbooks that me, Ten Ton members and some other heavy hitters have drawn in so they have that. Occasionally they’ll ask that I don’t sell something. For instance my son called dibs on my “Calvenom & Hobbes” sketch challenge and my daughter called dibs on my “Hellboy’s Summer Vacation” sketch challenge, that makes me happy. I think they pretty much know that they can take whatever Dad draws as long as it’s not a commission, so they don’t request much. They also know I always have a couple freelance things that I’m already late on and Dad’s studio time is money. More drawing time is less time spent with them doing other things, so there’s that too.

I always love your take on existing iconic properties, you have a great ability to mimic the style of others.  Seriously, your ability to mimic Watterson on the Venom and Hobbes is delightful.  Occasionally I get a request for Batman or Spiderman, but typically I get requests for Clone Troopers from The Clone Wars.  Overall, I need to make the helmets bigger.  

So Question 13: What would you do-oo-oo for a Klondike bar?

C’mon! you can’t make a comment about needing bigger helmets and not expect me to knock that one out of the park. Is this a family show? I’ll show some restraint. Mimicing style can be frowned upon in the comic world if it’s taken past the point of an homage. In the commercial field it’s essential and not given much thought. If a client says they want something to have the feel of a Leroy Neiman painting or a Norman Rockwell painting well that’s what you deliver because they’re paying you and they want what they want. If you don’t deliver, they’ll find someone who will so you learn to be a bit of a chameleon. One time someone had looked over my deviantart gallery and asked “Do you have a style?” because I do tend to work in more than one style, from very realistic to cartooney and some stops in between. Many have used the word “retro” when it comes to my comic style which I still don’t see but enough people have said it so I’ve been working on modernizing it so as not to have my work look dated. I will always try to grow as an artist, like a dolphin you have to keep swimming or you die (I know that saying is for sharks but I don’t like sharks).

What would I do in a Klondike bar? Probably order a Molson, shoot some pool, talk some hockey and after knocking more than a few back join in a rousing version of “O’ Canada”.

Many people do not know that most graphic design is not art.  Art is personal expression, design is a job trying to meet client expectations… The designer can try to give some artistic direction, but it is always about managing and meeting client expectations.  I am always amazed by how many designers fight supervisors and clients to maintain their “artistic integrity” and lose jobs and contracts because of this.

The best answer I ever heard for the Klondike things was when I asked this guy and looked at his best friend and said, “I would eat my own best friend’s fucking heart in a soup.” We all laughed and laughed and laughed and nervously changed subjects.

So Question 14: You do artsy stuff all day and you draw during your off time, do you do anything else to pass the time?

LOL! we all need a friend with whom we have that type of rapport. I do EVERYTHING else to pass the time, too much in fact, I’d be a better/more prolific artist if I didn’t. I’m a sports nut so I rarely, at risk of getting fired, miss any of my kids sporting events. That fleeting time period is so short I refuse to negotiate about it. I’ve actually come out of retirement as a runner because all three kids are running and two are on the High School Track team so maybe we’ll see what Dad can do on the roads this Summer … my mutant healing factor ain’t what it used to be.

Then there’s the car thing. Long story short my wife Marcie is the president of the SVTOA and freelances as a designer/writer for Ford, she’s worked on numerous car books and posters and does various shows across the country. We are currently restoring a 1964.5 Mustang and she is writing a book about it. At any given time, we have a about a half dozen Mustangs or Ford Prototypes in our basement. I’m her #1 indentured servant and travel quite a bit with her on her car excursions. We’ve met so many great people and even ended up on movie set of “Arthur” when they were filming with the Batmobile… Oh, and occasionally I’m a guest at a comicbook show or two. Our life is an adventure, but really shouldn’t it be? Thoreau said “Most men live lives of quiet desperation” …that’s a shame. Say what you want about comic geeks

but we don’t do that.

THAT car stuff sounds incredible.  I am glad that I started drawing again because I was finding myself with just some empty time that really was just being wasted on computer games and bad TV.  It is always good to have other things to do… now if I could just find an exercise that I enjoy…

Fill in the blank: Question 15: “I am mostly _______________.” and… go!

I’m glad you started drawing again too. Yep, the car stuff is pretty cool, Marcie is quite talented. She was actually interviewed by Jay Leno for his web car show. I didn’t get to go out to CA with her to meet him (I was committed for the Baltimore Comicon) but when Jay called the house I kept the message on my cell phone for giggles.

Hmmm, I am mostly A DAYDREAMER, always have been. It’s probably been the most consistent attribute about me since I was a kid. Being an artist, and at times writer, is just an extension of that. Like a lot of kids, Calvin & Hobbes reflected my childhood and I’ve spent my life trying to make sure I hold dearly to some of that magic while life as an adult tries to wear it away. Fortunately I’ve picked up some allies along the way to help me fight the good fight: My Family, my friends, my Ten Ton brothers (and a few sisters), and all those wonderful people who’ve plunked down some hard cash or more importantly given a kind word to say “Hey, keep daydreaming, we dig it.”

oohh, a Daydreamer.  That is a great response… I really love it.  I have found that having kids can really squash the whole holding “dearly to some of that magic.”  I have found that kids tend to force parents (at least good parents) into some stark relevations of reality.  Stupid reality getting in the way.

So, a question completely out of left feild… Question 16: Whatis your favorite Summer Olympic event and your favorite Winter Olympic event and why?

You’d THINK that having young children around would keep you young but I think that only works if you’re a grandparent. As a parent those really are the years that age you quite a bit because, yes, there are some stark revelations of reality to deal with … and deal with them you must. As my kids got older though (12, 14, 16 now respectively) you are a bit more “freed” up. You don’t change diapers anymore, THEY TRAVEL BETTER, you don’t have to take them to the “potty”, they can get themselves a snack, they can dress themselves etc… Plus they can be an active participant in adventures, comicons, sports etc…

Winter Olympics is easy, Hockey, I was just a kid but I remember the “Miracle” in 1980, we were all glued to the TV, so yeah, US Hockey would be my fav. Summer Olympics is soooo much tougher. I ran Track in H.S., College and even an Olympic development meet so of course my favorite would be in the Track & Field arena. I never qualified for the trials but had lots of friends who did in the mile, steeplechase, 5000 & 10,000 so any time an American has a shot in those events it’s a huge deal but really ALL the Track & Field events are must see for me. If I could take a week off and watch all the Track & Field Olympic events that would be fine by me. Now that my kids are running track in High School, we’re all track junkies.  

I remember when our oldest turned 4 and we did not have the youngest yet…. so much freedom… we are nearing that again as the youngest approaches 4 herself. I was a mere 5.5 yrs old when the miracle on ice happened.  I remember watching my dad watch the game and him going absolutely nuts more than I remember watching the game.

My wife has just seriously gotten into the whole running scene.  last year she started up and ran a half in October and a full in February… she is a badass.  I have shitty feet, although I am getting some physical therapy to help with the shitty feet.  I need to start running, just so I can keep up with her.  The PT thinks that everything should work itself out with exercises and stretching.  I am hoping that is the truth, because I really do want to be able to run again.  I am tired of not being able to keep up with my wife.

This is the last question prior to the three capping questions I always ask, so I will try to make this one a good one.  Question 17: What is the absolute earliest memory you have?

Read about your wife’s running in some of your other posts, she is totally badass, you tell her I said so. Never got into the whole marathon thing, farthest I ever ran on a training run was 17 miles. When I was at my best I could run a 4:13 mile and 24:15 for a 5 miler. My theory is if I could win at those distances why go farther? hell, if I had Usain Bolt speed I’d have run the 100m… . sadly I did not.

Earliest memory? I remember looking through the bars of my crib thinking “naps are stupid, I don’t need a nap”. A few years later when I got to kindergarten and they had nap time I thought “naps are stupid, I don’t need a nap”. Now I wish I could have all those nap times back. I didn’t use them, I should have a naptime IRA sitting somewhere just waiting for me to cash it in.

Naps are the absolute best…  I wish I could have one daily… I think it would eventually increase my productivity.  Okay, a 4:13 mile is insanely fast, and a sub-5 pace for a 5 miler… damn!  that is some crazy speed for that distance.  I imagine if you wanted to run a marathon, you would be able to transfer your running skill pretty easily… but I understand that you don’t want to do that.

So we are at the point where the tables are turned…
Question 18: Do you have any questions for me (please don’t ask what I do)?

I know what you do, you make enter/exit strategy maps for seal team six. The correlation of applied mathematics, cartography and too many hours playing

D&D has provided better security for our great nation … and for that, we salute you. Amongst the living, Who is your dream interview for 20 Questions?

I live to serve.  My unsung Seal Team Six logistical support shall remain unsung…

Huh, That is truly an interesting question.  I am not sure that I have a number 1 That I want to ask 20 questions.  I will answer in 2 parts.  The first part is the person that I want who I could never get in a million years.  I think someone crazy cool and un-touchable like George Clooney, Angelina Jolie, Barak Obama.  Any of those would be great and surprising.  I would love to hear whether Angelina or Brad likes cake or pie.  The second part would be the person, who I may actually have an outside chance to get answering my 20 Crappy Questions.  I think in that group would be some of the podcast celebs I love listening to.  Chris Hardwick at Nerdist, Marc Maron from WTF, or (especially or) Jimmy Pardo from Never Not Funny. (yeah, seriously, Jimmy Pardo is the number 1 since I already got Behrendt).

So, Question 19: Is there anything that you are taking out of this that you did not bring in with you?

Ah, I see, so “Cake or Pie?” will become your signature trademark question when you become as famous as James Lipton. I like it. Well, from your intro I take humble gratitude for your kind words describing my scribblin’. From your questions I take the re-affirmation that I’m pretty full of myself (because I already kinda knew that), who else would answer questions like these thinking that somebody out there amongst the interwebs would find my answers halfway interesting. I also take that I really need to do

the Mid-Ohio Con and knock back a few with my Ten Ton brethren out there, maybe someday. Lastly, as a regular reader, I take away a greater appreciation for 20 Questions Tuesday, thanks for making our lives a little more interesting … or at least sounding that way.

Well, thank you very much.  I honestly do not ask Question 19 with the intention of getting any praise, but I will take it, cause that’s how I roll. I am a needy needy black hole of need.  That being said, as far as if this is interesting to anyone else on the Internets, it is interesting to me, and for my blog, that is all that really matters.

So, the last and final question… Question 20: How can people keep track of you, iffens they want, and What’s next?

I’ve heard that about you. People can keep track of my work at 93cobra.deviantart.com, or through catskill comics at www.catskillcomics.com, or through Ten Ton Studios and Facebook. Right now I really have to finish up the children’s book I’m doing the illustrations for. I’m always taking commissions through Catskill Comics. Next month Con season starts and I will b

e at the Pittsburgh Comicon April 20-22. Then for FREE Comic Book Day - May 5th I will be at Comics & Paperbacks Plus in Palmyra, PA. I have a couple stories in the works but talk is cheap until projects are actually done. Then there’s the day job … there’s that. Just hired somebody to help me out so hopefully my production in other areas will go up. Oh, and Track season is under way so if I’m not working, you’ll find me alongside some Track in Central PA cheering on my kids. Thanks again Scott!

The pleasure was all mine, Ringer!  Everyone please feel free to wish Chris a happy birthday! His birthday was on this past Sunday.  So Happy birthday, Chris, you old old man.  

To recap:
My feet are sooo, sooo tired
But they are feeling better every PT session
Well, they do better every session
Good lord, my feet need to get back their strength
I think it may be time to ditch the orthotic inserts
I think they may be hurting more than helping at the moment
Which, of course, means I need to see some quality time on Zappos.com
Who knew my legs would be so tired as well
Stupid tired feet and legs
I have a few other good interviews going on right now as well
Another, of which has the name of Christopher
So, if that one gets done by this upcoming Tuesday… it will be 3 Chris’ in a row
I have some other folk that I am interested in doing some 20 questions with
Hopefully some of the people I have gotten in contact with will say “Okay, fine, will it shut you up.”
Have a great weekend everyone  

20 Questions Tuesday: 192 - Chris Corrigan

A few years ago (a little over 3 to be exact) my wife had the amazing opportunity to work with 5 other incredible individuals and help re-shape an existing conference into something deeper and more meaningful.  At the time it was pretty close to assembling the Avengers with my wife playing the part of the rookie hero. One of the tried and true members of this super hero troupe was Chris Corrigan.  Chris is, in an enigmatic phrase, a presence. He holds space and extends himself to create appropriate containers for group wisdom.  I wish I could explain more concretely what it is he exactly does, but it is a very nebulous line of work that he and my wife find themselves within.  Oh, you want more than that?  Chris uses dialogic practices and technologies to harvest group wisdom about client driven issues. If you want me to go all corporate double speak, I could leverage his action items some.

Anyway… I have had a great time getting to know my wife’s co-workers and Chris is waaaay up there with the most fun and the best.  So, without further ado… onto the questions!

I am going to get this one over really fast because I think it will be a launching point for other questions. I was born in Oklahoma, grew up in Alabama, went to college in Ohio and decided to settle down in Ohio as well.  Question 1: What is your geographic story?

Wanderer.  Born in the city of Toronto where I spent my first 10 years.  We then moved to England for three years and lived in three different towns - Cheshunt, Hertford and Widford, all in Hertfordshire, just north of London.  In Spurs country.

We moved back to Canada in 1981 and I lived in Toronto for five more years until I pulled up stakes and moved to Peterborough, Ontario, where I lived for five glorious years, studying Native Studies, writing music reviews for the local paper, hosting radio shows and playing lots and lots of guitar.  

Also met my wife there, Caitlin, who was born in South Africa but raised in Vancouver.  Together we moved to Ottawa for three years and when she got tired of the cold we up and left for the west coast of Canada.  Arrived in Vancouver in 1994, had a couple of babies and then up and moved to Bowen Island in 2001 where we no live and where I hope to spend the better part of the rest of my life.  Bowen is only a few miles from Vancouver, but we have a two mile wide moat around the island, traversed by a ferry, which means that no one knows anything about us.  And we all like it that way.  

My second home is the Vancouver airport. I travel extensively doing all the ineffable things you have valiantly tried to describe in your introduction.

Clearly, within all of that, you have definitely called Bowen Island home.

Question 2: Since you are an EPL Tottenham Hotspurs fan, what the hell is going on with Redknapp?

You mean the offshore bank account and the gift from his former Chairman?  It seems like more of a misunderstanding and a naive move on his part rather than anything malicious.  But others would accuse me of being partisan - no shame in that.

But I think the sentiment of most Spurs fans was best captured in the terrace chants from the Watford FA Cup draw the other week: “He pays what he wants, he pays what he wants, Harry Redknapp, he pays what he wants!”

At any rate, we love Harry at the moment.  He has a lot of credit with the Spurs faithful and we look well set to make the Champions League again, so hopefully he doesn’t go to jail or get picked to succeed Capello. What a choice.

Honestly, I am just happy that some teams have broken up the perennial top 4.  I may not love Man City, but it is nice to see a different team vying for the Prem title.  I thought the Redknapp case died last year, and I was honestly surprised to see it rear its ugly head again this year.

Question 3: Which of the places that you lived in the past would you most like to go for an extended long-term stay (I understand that no one is capable of making you move away from Bowen Island) and why?

I also love that the top 4 are getting broken up, but I still resent Chelsea and Man City for buying their way in.  At least Liverpool, ManU, Spurs and Arsenal have academies to speak of, and home grown players in their sides.

As for places I would take an extended stay - I love eastern Ontario.  Still feel very at home when I’m in Ottawa and Peterborough, and could easily go back there.  But having just returned from a couple of weeks in England and Ireland I have to say that I think I could definitely feel at home in the Hertfordshire countryside as well.  I went walking with my dad on some old paths that we walked on 30 years ago and it felt like home to me.  That was a surprise to me, how familiar and comfortable it still felt.  Thirty years is a long time to still have that memory in my bones.

The more the perennial top 4 gets broken up, the better.  Even though Chelski and Al ManC did buy their way into the top 4, diversifying up there and in the European tourneys can only be a good thing in the long run.  The money clubs will not last as serious contenders because they are always looking for quick results.  How many managers has Chelsey had recently?  How have they been doing compared to their rosters as of late.  When you sink that much money into a team, 2nd is an unacceptable result.  Mancini will not be at City next year if they do not win the Prem, and they purchase headcases like Tevez, Balotelli, and phenomenal over purchases like Torres.  That is not a long term successful solution.

I know a bunch about the Birmingham, AL area, but it is not a comfortable place.  I honestly do not think of any place other than the Columbus area that is home-like to me.  

Question 4: So… Cake or Pie?

Pie.  Especially cherry pie.  Unless you mean cheesecake and then it’s cherry cheesecake.  Pie rules because it’s all about the crust and a good crust is hard to make, and so I appreciate the best ones.  Artistry in cake is more like sculpting and I have seen many a beautiful cake in my time that has tasted like poo.  You can’t fake pie.

Also pie can be sweet or savoury and I love me a savoury pie.  Veggie pot pie, tourtiere, spanikopita, and then sweet pies like cherry, peach or whatever has just fallen off the bush or tree in the heat of summer.  My birthday is in June, so my family always bake me a salmonberry pie, and that is like eating rosewater lotus manna straight from heaven.

It is always fun to see people’s answer on the cake or pie question, because people are typically very passionate about their answers without realizing that they have that amount of passion for something so banal.  In fact, your Treatise on Pie makes me realize that the whole “savory” aspect could be added into this question. which reminds me….
I have heard tale of a magical savory cheesecake.  It is a mythical feast born on the backs of unicorns and basilisks.  They say that the treasure at the end of the rainbow is not a pot of gold, but a savory cheesecake guarded by leprechauns and fey warriors….

I know from my unfortunately limited time with you that you have an impromptu hobby of rock balancing.  Question 5: How exactly did that hobby come about?

Well, back in the mid nineties when I first moved to Vancouver there was a guy who balanced big rocks on the seawall near Granville Island Market in Vancouver. It was crazy to see what he was doing, because he balanced huge 50 pound rocks on fine points and edges using no adhesives or anything.  

He started a bit of a trend actually and soon people were doing similar work along various stretches of the seawall.  One of my favourite evenings was a summer night when we walked past dozens of rocks that had been set up at low tide with each one holding a candle.  The candles were lit, the sun went down and the tide came in making it look like these flaming rocks were balanced on end on the surface of the ocean.  Amazing.

I started doing this little hobby by, well, just doing it - which is how I get into all sorts of trouble.  It became a little obsessive, and I have since created a collection of photos of rocks balanced at impossible angles from places I have been too all over the world.  You can see them here:

Anyway it’s a fun pastime, very meditative, a creates ephemeral and delightful art for passer’s by.  And sometimes it can do more.  Once I was balancing rocks on the seawall in Victoria and a woman sat down next to me and asked me to teach her how.  I showed her and she started balancing rocks with me.  After a while she asked me if i thought this kind of thing could save a person from committing suicide.  I stopped and we chatted for a while.  I said I thought that it probably could, because every day the rocks fall over and every day you can come back to put them up again and make a little beauty.  We kept going for a while and then I took my leave and went to my hotel for the night, a little worried for my new friend.  The next morning as I was taxiing on the seaplane past the place where we had been balancing, I saw her there putting up rocks that had fallen over in the night.  

So it’s interesting the things that can happen when you mess around with an impromptu hobby.

That is pretty much one of the best stories I have seen in a while, and truthfully, rock balancing is a bit addictive.  Little Man was trying his hand at it the last time we were in Nova Scotia.  He was pretty good too.  It seems anytime we find medium sized rocks, there ends up being a few balanced together.

Question 6: Since for both of us, childhood seems like a long time ago, is there any activity that you took part in your childhood that you wish you were able to (or made the time to) do in your adult life?  For me, it was the occasional wonderful activity of rock climbing.  I had a few sets of friends that had boatloads of equipment for rock climbing, and I was able to tag along occasionally and be a rock lizard for a day.  I kind of miss that.

Seriously?  Rock climbing eh?  I don’t know WHAT is keeping you from moving to British Columbia!

I really miss winter things, especially living here on the west coast.  Especially I miss skating and playing hockey outside.  On cold winter days growing up in North Toronto we used to play hockey up at Eglinton Park where there was a public outdoor skating and hockey rink.  Shinny games would go on for hours, from the time school ended to 10 o clock at night when they turned the lights off.  I can’t describe to you the incredible sensation I get when, back in Ontario, I hear the sound of a puck being shot against the boards on a cold and still deep winter night.  It is enough to nearly bring me to tears thinking about it.  I think I miss that the most living here on the temperate west coast.  And I long for those nights almost more than anything from my childhood.  

Funny because I actually misread your question and wrote these paragraphs about things I have CONTINUED to do since childhood.  So maybe you’ll be interested in that too.

As I think about it I guess I have to say music has been a constant, which I started late in my childhood (if 11 can be considered late).  My dad had a guitar and used to sing a lot in my childhood, all kinds of popular white folksongs from the 1950s like Pete Seeger stuff and The Kingston Trio.  I found all that music kind of hokey in my preteen years and my attention turned to Queen for whom I developed a serious fanboy complex. I started singing along with Queen records, putting on little rock concerts in my head.  In between listening and singing with Queen, I was learning a little guitar, and learning how to put my voice and guitar together.

A little while ago someone asked me if I had a spiritual practice.  While I have certainly gone through phases of “spiritual practice” I had to admit that the thing I do everyday that brings me a little closer to the source of life in the world is to make music.  I play guitar, sing, play Irish flute and tine whistle, and I am pretty competent on various percussion instruments and didgeridoo as well.  And that means that every single day, if only for a few minutes I make music, and I can’t honestly think of a day that has passed when I haven’t done that.

And also I read, which I started doing before I was in kindergarten, again thanks to my dad teaching me.  As a kid I was a voracious reader, even reading the phone book if there was nothing else to look at.  These days I read like a crow - dipping into to whatever seems shiny.  I don’t seem to have the attention I once had for sitting down with a book and reading all the way through, but I read all the time anyway - blog posts, essays, poems, articles, short stories, non-fiction, sacred texts…whatever grabs my fancy.   One of the things I love about having an iPhone is that I can read almost anything anywhere, so that is something else I do every day that I have done since childhood.  

What have you kept doing?

I started “seriously” drawing around the age of 5, and I have recently (within the past 5 years) re-picked up the pencil, pens, and markers.  That is something that I am trying to do for at least 5 minutes daily… I would love to be able to consistently carve out an hour or 2 a day to devote to drawing, but the wee beasties need food and for me to go to my job and keep the roof over their head.

Question 7:  you already answered what I intended to make my Question 7.  It was going to be “What activities from your childhood have you kept?” So, now my Question 7 has hit a hard right turn… Question 7: When and how often do you read my mind? and how did you come to the realization that you could read my mind?

I don’t know Scott.  I think it must have something to do with feeling like I knew you long before i met you.  You see, your wife talks ALOT about you, they kind of person you are and her real admiration for you.  When i finally me you I think I had a sense of a little of who you were already.  And then as our friendship has slowly grown over a long distance it turns out that we have common interests and also that we need each other to fill out our picture of the world.  For example, there are very few other people I can ask about Jeff Cunningham’s transfer to Guatemala.  So as I learn about MLS some, I have you as the deep resource.

Not to make more of the question than maybe you intended, but a large part of my work in the world is actually about helping people find this place that we have as friends, because it can be a productive and generative place…it can create things in the world that otherwise wouldn’t have any chance of living.  This interview for example. Or the work I get to do with Tuesday which, as much as it is made possible by me and Tuesday being friends, is also made possible by our families being a part of what is held.  So, perhaps it is in working like this that means I’m not surprised that from time to time, mind reading goes on.  

Also I love that you still draw.  And I still have that little sketch you made of me playing guitar.  So that is one place where both of our childhood talents overlapped.  Cool.

I keep telling that woman to keep her mouth shut about me!  I am supposed to be an enigma, a cypher, a code that only a few understand, but that wife of mine, with her yapping flap tells everyone my bidness.

As far as the Cunningham thing goes, I guess that Guatemalan team was looking for a ball hog with no vision.

Question 8: So (and, dear readers, this is about to get just a bit off the norm) when you are actively holding space, for am open space or cafe or some other collaborative process can you intuit where and when negativity or other damaging energies (could merely be super unhappy deep rooted skepticism) into that space? I ask this prior to entering the boringest meeting known to man.

No I can’t intuit these things in advance.  I am sensitive to what is happening in the moment though.  Over the years I have developed a sense of courage I guess to be able to name such dynamics.  It helps that I don’t really belong anywhere, so I can sit in with a group and just name negativity and cynicism.  I try o name it in a way that is helpful, noticing patterns or thinking in a group that is getting in the way of working together.  

Seem times people knock what I do as “touchy feely” but I have a different perspective.  I think good relationships are important in every kind of group. Without good relationships you cannot do good work because you spend all your time and energy fighting, distracting, protecting turf, being mean and so on.  Not much time left to be cool, innovative, kind, creative or productive after all that.

Anyway, I hope your boring meeting goes well.

I was so hoping that you had some kind of super-power for holding space, sense there is a noticeable container that you place around any of the spaces you are holding. Oh well, my conception of you is shattered.  Question 9: Is there an appropriate function for cynicism in collaborative processes?

This is a good question and it puts me in mind of this Jessica Nagy diagram:

Now when I am working collaboratively, I don’t mind working with skeptics, because they bring useful reality checks to the situation. Cynics on the other hand, are generally poisonous.  

Having said that, I do spend a lot of time building processes in which cynics are ultimately welcome, but it’s not a good idea to involve them in the planning of these processes.

Cynics can be converted to skeptics sometimes.  What it takes is working with them to find out what they believe IS possible and what they are holding out for. Even the staunchest cynic has a little hope (see diagram).

Interesting, I never thought of Skeptics being Hopeful Doubters, but that makes sense.  My issue is that I am rather sarcastic and often people will think that my skeptic sarcasm turns the corner to cynicism.  In truth I am typically healthily skeptic.  My cynicism only rears it’s ugly head in my belief that the horrible hateful humans who attempt to sabotage collaborative processes (I am looking at you JG and SG) can change and be helpful instead of being self-loathing process road-blocks.

So, I am sure that when you were growing up, you did not sit back and think, “When I grow up I will be a group process facilitator/host.” Question 10: When you were getting ready to enter the professional world… what were you going to be?

Dude…skeptical snark is sometimes quite helpful, if only in making me laugh. Witness football terrace culture.  Cynical snark has no place at the heart of a process.  Such witty terrorism needs to be dispatched with haste.  (Am I kidding? Am I?)

As to your question, when I was a teenager, I was going to be a minister in the United Church of Canada.  In fact when I was about 14 I did one of those aptitude tests that help you think about what you might become and it came out equal as a minister or an army officer.  Heh.

Those aptitude tests are ridiculous, because, as I tell my kids all the time, the job you will do in ten years hasn’t been invented yet, so there is actually no way you can learn it at school.  Even something traditional like a plumber or a lawyer or a pilot are all completely different jobs now than they were 20 years ago.  

In some ways I look back on that calling and I actually see that I am doing the best of what I wanted to be doing as a minister.  I am looking after the quality of groups and communities, walking alongside people as they find their way in a confusing world and asking good questions.  So in a funny way, perhaps this really is the calling I felt drawn to as a teenager.  

None of the jobs I have ever done are jobs that I wanted to do with my whole life. The job I was most proud of was “writer” which I did for two years, writing business cases for a management program.  My other actually jobs have included lifeguard, cemetery worker, gas station attendant, policy analyst and public information and consultation advisor.  Since 1999 I have been hard pressed to describe what I actually do, but “helping groups of people sort out complex situations” is pretty close.  

None of those were on my “to do” list.  The only other thing I wanted to be as a kid was an airplane mechanic, but that went out the window when I found myself cursing at basic bike repair.  It occurred to me then that I perhaps didn’t have the temperament to fix 737s, nor should I probably be allowed in the proximity of the mechanical workings of a 737 with that impatient attitude.

For the longest time I was going to be in the US Air Force and fly fast planes, but that turned out to be more of my dad’s dream than mine. With my rather healthy obstinence and contrariness, the military really wasn’t a good idea for me.  Sadly, I did major in math like my brother and my dad.  I guess the apple doesn’t really fall that far from the tree…  but a minister?  That just does not seem to fit at all theologically.  That being said, as a medium to bring people from disconnectedness to community, I could see that.

My wife would like to ask you a question, so Question 11 is from Tues… Question 11: Who is your favorite bi-racial female Art of Hosting host you have worked with who is solidly behind introducing Art of Hosting to the social justice field? (warning, she has stated that if you get this question wrong you will be punched)

Perhaps you need to update your theology, or take a closer look at what I actually do for a living, but yeah…you’re on the right track!

As to this question…Well there is a reason it is 20 questions Tuesday, isn’t there?

So I know you’re fishing for something here - well truthfully you are being put up to something - but I’m going to take the bait.

Your wife, Tuesday Ryan-Hart, is amazing.  She is a smart, warm, funny, generous and very serious practitioner of her art.  She is one of my closest friends in the work, and a great colleague and a great teacher.  We have done some truly huge work together, running consecutive Food and Society Conferences for 600 people core to the good food movement, which was a task that would have been impossible without her deep dedication to the justice angle and the harvesting work.  We have rocked social justice activists in Chicago and New York - and that is no mean feat.  We have sat in deep reflection together on issues of race and gender and power and love.  And we strolled with all the confidence in the world into an exclusive country club in Virginia and hosted 40 type A east coast social entrepreneurs in what began as a great punch line and ended as the best staff retreat Ashoka Changemakers had ever had.  She is simply one of the few who I would never hesitate to have alongside me in the work in any context.  

So I hope that’s the right answer, but if it isn’t I’ll happily take a punch, because it was a pleasure to get all that gratitude out.

She is truly an amazing person, and I am extremely lucky to be able to share my life with her. What I love about the work that you and Tuesday do is that she absolutely loves the people she works with, and, in most cases, loves the clients that she works with as well.  As our wee ones get older, I am sure that her enjoyment of her work will only grow.  Truth be told, I am a bit envious of her vocational situation since mine is a bit craptastic currently.

Since you are a person who is continually growing, Question 12: where do you see yourself targeting your own growth in the near future?

Targeting my own growth.  Mmm.  Sounds strategic.

A few years ago someone asked me what my business goals were, and my response was that I have no goals.  And that is the truth.  It’s impossible for me to know how this job will evolve so what I do is just hold questions and follow those,  some of the questions I am holding right now include understanding the relationship between talk and action and love and power, figuring out how to balance the information and creativity in group settings, and looking at how conversation as a leadership practice translates into organizational structure and design.  I find that holding these questions as inquiries leads me into all kinds of interesting situations.

If anything my business model consist of invitation and friendship.  I pay attention to invitations and issues invitations and I cultivate and work with friends.  That model has served me really well over the years, both from a business point of view and from a personal point of view.  I am a learner, and I try to put myself in situations where some new insight will strike me.  That is true of work, parenting, music, living in community, playing soccer, whatever. Mi get bored easily if I’m not learning, so the only targeting I do is to put myself in novel situations.  Always on my edge.

Seem times when people ask me what I do I say that I help groups of people live with the complexity of unanswerable questions.  When this is your core mission, work never gets boring because complexity always throws up new challenges and new questions that we have never dealt with as humans.  That is a growth industry.

Having said all that, I’m definitely trying to get better at playing centre back. Figuring out how to tackle people who are faster than me is an ongoing challenge!

Center back (notice how we can switch between Canadian spelling and American spelling fluidly, we are truly multi-lingual) is a tricky position, especially if you are playing with a 3 man back line.  The way you close down faster opponents is all about angles and reading the passing lanes.  You have to rely on guile and wisdom when dealing with a faster opponent.  That and it helps if you broke someones leg a few games beforehand… then the forward tends to dish the ball off instead of trying to get past you. Overwhelming fear is a great defensive tactic.

I feel I did a disservice to my previous question in my phrasing.  For example, the targeting for growth that I am doing currently has to do with accepting failure and realizing that is sometime necessary for long term success.  Also, I am trying to take care of my physical health more.

Back to your hosting practice. Question 13: Do you feel that being biracial affects your hosting practice?  

Well thanks for the advice on playing centre back. And my answer stands about targeting my growth.  But then I’m good at over complicating things.  It happens at centre back too.

As to the question, it’s hard to tell, given that I have never been anything else. Things is that although I have Native ancestry, I have very white skin, and so in multi racial families in Canada white skin often means ” oh good…we can keep it a secret.”. However due to a helpful great aunt (who, like my grandfather, had skin the color of burnt mahogany!) I discovered the secret.  A few years later talking to an Elder about it, he told me I was like a living treaty and that everything I felt inside, all the confusing feelings about unreconciled ancestral relations was actually useful, because I could feel what society was feeling.  The difference of course is that an individual can know those feelings while society generally doesn’t and as a result often engages in shadowy activity.  Hosting is a good way to help society deal with all the shadowy bits, but sometimes the bits that are unresolved in me get charged up, so it’s a blessing and a curse.  That’s probably an area for growth I should target.  

The moniker of “living treaty” has been helpful for me in thinking about my hosting practice, and the idea that I am hosting some little bit of the energy of the bigger field has also really helped me.

Reading back that sounds very west coast.  Is there a Buckeye way to say what I just said? If not, then the answer to your question is “yes.”

I know that for Tuesday, her biracial status definitely informs all of her hosting.  I also love the “living treaty” aspect of who you are.  I love learning about other cultures and cannot wait to spend more quality time chatting with you about our disparate cultural roots.

Let’s go deep into collaborative process.  In my brief and limited exposure to the application of collaborative processes and, more importantly, the results that come out of these processes, it seems like these methods have a great generative energy.  The resulting projects that fall out of this generative energy tend to slowly wither on the vine prior to developing its promised fruit.  To clarify: These processes seem to really generate good energy, but are hard to sustain and even harder to come to a good closing point. Question 14: Is this a phenomenon that you have noticed?  and if so, why do you think this is the case?

That is an interesting analysis Scott…I wonder if yer not doin’ it right.

The point of collaborative process is to generate sustainable and effective ways forward.  My mantra is designing these kinds of things is “I’m not planning a meeting, I’m planning a harvest.”  In other words, it is easy to create a gathering of people that have a good time together - that is called a party - but that isn’t what I do.  For me it’s about generating a powerful and positive mix of good relationships, powerful and necessary work and appropriate co-learning.  If you are missing one of these three things, you don’t get sustained smart action.

I think lots of facilitators are in love with their tools, and certainly when many people learn a new process they are keen to try it out, but if you use these things in the absence of a context of need, then you don’t get action planning, you get commitment ceremonies.

For me, meeting design is about process design, and any given meeting is embedded in a context of need.  Why do we need to do this?  What are we putting in place up front to ensure sustainability?

Also, it’s important to notice that in complex situations we can’t know in advance what the answers are, so it is important for some actions to whither on the vine. We call those “safe to fail initiatives.”  in other words, if you are putting the pressure on every little idea to be the right and correct way forward, you will miss the possibility of learning from and adjusting to things that don’t work.  In working in complexity, failure is as important as success, and without that good generative energy, failures can often rip a system apart.  When people are in good relationship with one another, the system becomes more tolerant of failure and is better able to embrace it, and learn from it.  Failure becomes as important as success for moving forward.  That is a good definition of resiliency.

Another thing: we often measure results in limited ways, making it hard to see changes that have actually happened.  Sometimes the desired results don’t occur, but many other changes have taken place within a system.  We have to learn to look at those, and work with results in complex ways, not merely identifying the causes and effects that we can see.  Complex system contain many invisible relationships which are far outside of our control, but which have important consequences for planning and action.  Willful blindness to these dynamics creates a kind of delusion that contributes to the assumption that we know what we’re doing.

Lastly, to your point about closing.  Some things have a life span and some things don’t.  In complex and evolving systems, there are no finish lines.  We move from start line to start line, heading in a general direction and learning as we go.  For example, you can work for world peace, but if you measure your success by whether or not you stop every war, you will be sorely disappointed.  Also, if you DO stop war, you can’t just sit back and put your feet up…the work continues.  In this world right now we have an obsession with finish lines that sometimes is unhealthy.  Things are so geared to outcomes that we forget our place in the world.  We tell our funders or our bosses that we have more power over the context of our work than we do, and when things don’t work out the way we promised, we blame others.  It’s not helpful.  My biggest wish for the world is that we would learn to think about complexity properly and learn how to take appropriate action in a complex system.

An example.  If you are a professional centre back, does it makes sense for you to have a contract clause that says you will make five sliding tackles in every game? Of course not, because the circumstances and situations in every game are different.  You COULD go out there and get your five sliding tackles, but that has nothing to do with the game or the result. You could even keep to that contract clause for a whole season and yet concede 7 goals in every game, and you’d still be a success by the standards of your narrow definitions of outcomes.  That is the kind of thinking that powers the world at the moment (thank you “management by objectives”), and collaborative process, especially tied to the needs of working in complex systems, helps to give a new view to things so that we can act more appropriately and effectively.

That all makes good sense.  In my experience, I have seen a few ideas get caught in the generative energy.  Basically, I think (for those times) in the generative space, people over-estimate their level of energy for a project.  

So, Question 15: In your opinion, is there an optimal number of people for collaborative processes?

Now that I think about it, I think it’s not really true that energy is generative if it catches ideas like a whirlpool.  That is a kind of trap.

As to optimal sizes, it all depends.  Innovation generally starts with individuals, so I like to build time into to processes for people to just be quiet and think for a bit.  Small groups can help refine and test good ideas, and large groups can help propagate ideas and connect them to larger patterns.

In small group work, in general, working with an odd number is helpful because it creates an instability that keeps the group moving.  If you want solidity, you work with even numbers.  So it goes like this:

1 = innovation, idea generation, inspiration and commitment
2 = Pairs are good for long and exploratory conversations, interviews, and partnering
3 = Good number for a small team to rapidly prototype a new idea
4 = A good number for a deep exploration.  You benefit from having two pairs together, and from having a little more diversity in the group than in two.
5 = good number for a design team; there is always an instability in a group of five and good diversity, but the group is not so large that people get left out.
6 = Good for noticing patterns, and summing up.  A group of six can be entered from three pairs coming together as well, allowing for insights gathered in pairs to be rolled up.
7 = At this scale we are losing the intimacy we need for conversation, and so generall I will work a group of seven into 3 and 4 if we need to break up.
8 = is too big.  And it is no coincidence that big conferences are boring, because most hotels have tables that can accomodate 8, 9, or 10 people which is too many for real conversation.  At these scales, people start to be able to dominate and introverts dry right up.

It is a good practice to use a huge group (like in the dozens or hundreds) to source the diversity that is needed for good dynamic small groups, and then to find ways to propagate ideas from the very small to the very large.

This is good…I’m going to go post this on my blog now!  Thanks for asking the question!

I live to serve.  I have often been credited by people who are uncreditable for helping them flesh out ideas merely by saying things like “Huh?” “I don’t get it,” “Say again,” and “are you gonna eat that?” It is a talent.  Sometimes I just need to walk into a room and pause beside them.  I am an idea catalyst by my very existence…

Seriously, that answer seems to make super great sense.

Which leads me to ask Question 16: Bearing in mind your previous answer… What is your specific sweet spot?  Of those numbers 1 through 8 numbers, is there 1 or 2 sized groups where do you most enjoy seating yourself as host and processing?

I’m partial to five for lots of things.  And I like 1s and 2s as well.  You know it really depends on what we are doing, so it’s hard to say what my favourite number is.  2 is perfect for a date.  3 is not.  4 is perfect for a double date. 5 is awkward.  6 could be good for a triple date, but that seems culty.

Context matters, y’dig?

"Culty" is now a word I will use… That one has made it into the everyday usage lexicon (unlike “lexicon” which is only brought out for special occassions, much like the good silver).  Context always matter, but I think your gut reaction to 5 speaks to the type of group work you enjoy most.

This is the last random question for this 20 Questions.  Q’s 18, 19, and 20 are prescribed to cap off the 20 Questions.  So, I will try to make Question 17 count. Question 17: When are we going to see another match?  I mean seriously, that needs to happen this spring/summer sometime maybe 4-28 for Whitecaps at Crew (only Crew v Whitecaps game this season) or some other game at BC Place?

4/28 will be tricky to make, because my son will be playing in an Ultimate Tournament in Seattle.  But I wouldn’t completely discount that possibility…let’s just see.

As for coming here, you know, anytime.  And you will be my guest.  I share six season’s tickets with six other guys and we divide them all up and all get to see a fair number of matches.  We have great seats on the edge of the supporters section, on the 18 yard line.  Right in the atmosphere and the glory of the Southsiders, of which we are members.  With my travel schedule this year, I think I can only make 7 home games (not counting CONCACAF Champions League which we will certainly qualify for this year!).  My son and I are heading to the opener tomorrow against one of all time bitter rivals, the Montreal Surrendermonkeys.  

Going to watch the Crew with you and Tim Merry last year was a delight, and I hold out for the day when we get to watch Vancouver and Columbus do battle live (or who knows, Spurs/Fulham…?). I think our friendship will not only survive that test, but be strengthened by it.

And by the way, what is the stake on this year’s game?  Last year you won a BowenFC shirt and a sweet Whitecaps scarf off me.  We are a better team this year, but I we’ll see how our road record in the eastern time zone is.  So what would you like to win off me this year?

Ha!  I would love for you to get here for the 4/28 game.  Since it is so soon, I was kind of coyly throwing it out there, but if it sticks, you are more than welcome!  It is too bad that the crew and the ‘Caps are only meeting once this year.  I totally dug grabbing a game with you, your lovekly wife and Tim this past year.  I liked it even more since the Crew beat Colorado.  This year, I think we should slip back into something less permanent like food… who doesn’ like food?  I proudly wear thr Bowen FC shirt all the time, and the boy loves the scarf. I am also proud to say that Vancouver has taken over for Houston as my “away team I follow.”  So let’s go caps.  Your team this year seems to have some really amazing personalities on it, and I hope that they are able to gel into a strong cohesive unit.

Turn about is fair play… and I am a bit nervous about this question… Question 18: Is there anything you want to ask me?

Okay. Food it is. Some kind of smoked salmon for you. How about a box of those crazy good Buckeye chocolate things from you?

As for a question for you.  Let me pick up on that nervous bit. I have a favourite question from Peter Block that is right for these kinds of occasions. What is the gift you have for the world that you haven’t yet offered us all?

Done and done..  That stuff is called Buckeye Crunch and is made by the Krema Nut Company… next time you are in town and not crazy always busy, we should go there and take a look at the wares.

As for the answer to your question…. for the world: I do not have the mathematical chops to extensively and rigorously test a theory that I have that would shore up a fundamental piece of mathematics.  It has to do with Bertrand Russell’s paradox as seen in his treatise on set theory.  More specifically it has to do with sets and compliments of sets.  To get the full theory, libations are necessary and graph paper… you can always use graph paper.

On a more local scale, I do not feel (at the risk of sounding pompous) that my overall potential for graphic recording/ graphic facilitation group and participatory process harvesting has not been even remotely tapped.  I feel I have a far different perspective that I could offer in that type of role… if only AoH type of work had a strong benefits package…

Question 19:  What are you taking out of these 20 Questions that you didn’t have with you when we started it?

Wow. Those answers were good. I have no idea what you are talking about with the first one - so yes, libations seem important. As for the second, it is true that hosting practice has limited benefits, but they are great benefits. Anyway when you move to Canada you won’t have to worry about health insurance. So that will free you up.
What have I learned?  Well considering that we started this a while ago and the restarted it, I’ve been the beneficiary I something like 52 questions from you.  I think I’ve learned how much I enjoy staying in touch with you, bit of banter, bit of serious chat. I’ve learned more about you, and it’s all good!
So less learning and more rediscovering our friendship. Glad we’ve taken the time to do it. And I look forward to spending some face to face time together. I’ll see about scheming up an excuse with your partner for getting to Columbus during football season. See if Renteria is really all that!

Renteria can be a beast, but he needs someone to run off of, so the 4-5-1 is not his best formation. I have enjoyed the absolute heck out of this one.  You are a deep and wonderful person that I am happy to have met, and extremely fortunate to get to know more thoroughly.  I look forward to our increased connection and watching some footie with you.  What this has done for me is really let me know that I need to make a greater effort to keep in touch.

Now for the last question.  It is open-ended and awesomely vague… Question 20: So, what’s next?  

What’s next… Things unfold, stuff happens, calls come and I go and try as best as I can to help serve the longing that humans have to be whole, for their interior lives to count for something just as their exterior actions matter too. And to dive into it with friends, this is the greatest gift of my life. So I’m off to do that, in Minnesota, Chicago, Toronto, Calgary, Slovenia, Denmark and in who knows what other places near and far.
It’s a pretty sweet life, and I’d be a fool not to just ride it with  a wave of gratitude.

Thanks for asking. Good questions!

The pleasure was all mine.  This was absolutely great!

To recap:
The wife is in Minnesota right now with the good Mr Corrigan
I am a little jealous of them both at the moment
Except they are working like dogs right now
I think for the 6.5 days that my wife is in Minnesota she has approximately 3 hours of free time
And somehow she has to find time for hygiene during those 3 hours
The wee ones are doing well
And eating like royalty
It really is the “This is the food the kids love” week
Mainly because I don’t want to deal with the grousing
Went to the physical therapist about my feet yesterday
The therapist did this weird stretch on my right foot that allowed my foot to work better
It was amazing
I am seriously surprised I was able to get that level of change with one crazy stretch
Then they used ultrasound on my feet to help reduce the inflammation
It was really surprising
yet, my feet are sore and tired today
Chat with you yokels later
If anyone wants to ask me to hit them up for questions when I am not doing these interviews
Leave a comment or get in contact with me
If anyone wants to be asked 20 questions by me, also let me know
I have a few more interviews going on right now, but I could use a few more
It is always nice to get some new perspectives
Have a great weekend everyone!

20 Questions Tuesday: 191 - Ethan Nicolle

It is a wonderful day when one of my requests for “doing a 20 Questions Tuesday” is actually accepted by someone I have never met in real life or online.  Today’s 20 Questions Tuesday is one of those days.  I sent out a pitiful email to Ethan Nicolle, the co-creator of the online comic Axe Cop and the creator of the online comic Bearmageddon.  If you have not read either of these comics, you should.  They are delightful.  Axe Cop is drawn by him and written by his younger brother (he was 5 when he started writing it), and is the best insight into the inner workings of a 5 / 6 year old, that has ever graced our world.  It is delightfully tangential.  Bearmageddon is his camp horror comic about bears going on rampages… think Piranha 3-D with laboratory tested and augmented bears, kind of like Deep Blue Sea on land.

His is an extremely talented artist.  His style is an exaggerated stylistic drawing that is very well grounded in reality.  Basically, his lines are fun and fun to look at.  Ethan has graciously agreed to answer 20 Questions here and let’s stop wasting his time and yours.  without further ado… onto the questions:

I am a map nerd and have my MA in geography, as well as loving a good story.  I was born in Oklahoma, moved to and grew up in Alabama, went to college in Kent, Ohio and then settled down in Columbus, Ohio.  Question 1:  What is your geographic story?

Born in Okanogan, WA… at some point lived in Canada somewhere when I was really young. My earliest memories are in Watkins, Colorado, living in a trailer park.  We then lived in a house in Bennett, Colorado.  From there we moved to Coquille, OR.  After that I lived around Coos County until i was 25 mainly in Empire and Lakeside (these are all very small towns) then in Coos Bay.  After that I moved to Vancouver, WA (just over the river from Portland, OR) then I lived in a van with the rock band I was in for a few months, then I lived in rat infested basement for a month in Portland, then I moved to Oregon City and lived in an attic over a garage until I moved down to Hollywood because I managed to get a show optioned at Cartoon Network.  I lived in Sylmar when I moved here and I now live in Glendale.

That is a whole bunch of the Pacific Northwest.  Question 2: Is there any place in particular that you consider to be “home” more than others?  For example, I spent most of my life growing up just outside of Birmingham, Alabama, but I truly and completely consider Columbus, Ohio my “Home.”

I usually say I am from Coos Bay.  I lived in and around that area the bulk of my life, from age 8 to 25.  It’s where most of my memories are from and it made me appreciate small town life.

Whence I was unemployed for a year and a half, I applied for a job in the Coos Bay area… I had a wonderful phone interview, and then did not hear anything after that… Anyhooo… So, since you are doing some stuff for Cartoon Network, is it as awesome as those commercials from the early 2000’s say it is?  Do you see Magilla Gorilla and Thundarr hanging out with Auggie Doggie and Doggie Daddy?  I bet that is awesome…  Hanna Barbera characters are awesome.

Question 3: What Hanna Barbera cartoon character would you love to hang out with?

I really only got to Cartoon Network for meetings from time to time.  I have not worked on a series there yet, I have only had some optioned.  But no, I have never seen actual living cartoon characters walking amongst the humans.  I think you have to have proper clearance.  As for what ones I might hang out with?  I think Magilla Gorilla and I would get along, though I would really like to hang out with, Hong Kong Phooey and Captain Caveman all together and just trade life stories.

Magilla Gorila, Hong Kong Phooey, and Captain Caveman? THAT’S a dinner party!

For those not “in the know” (myself included), and please correct me if I am wrong… “Optioned” means that a network/production company has purchase the rights to produce a show concept that you created. This, sadly, does not mean that the concept will make it all the way to our TV sets, but without being optioned, an idea cannot ever be on TV. —-The more you know

So for this exquisite dinner party where the definitive conversation of humanity’s future will be discussed by you, a talking gorilla in pink pants with suspenders, the number one super-guy, and a furry dude with a cape and a club, do you end the conversation with cake or pie?

Question 4: What’s you particular favorite, cake or pie?

Yes, an option is the network giving you a small amount of money for them to develop your idea for a small period of time (a year or two). After that time is up, if they don’t buy the rights they remain yours.  

I think I would order cake.  I like chocolate cake.  I’m pretty much a cliche of a fat guy.  Also I could make a joke once my face is covered in cake and say “cap-tain CAAAAAKE MAN!” which I’m sure would get a laugh out of Captain Cave Man.

You would be amazed at how opinionated people are about the Cake v Pie question.  As I said to another person I am currently in the middle of a 20 Questions Tuesday interview, people who choose pie, really like pie, but the people who choose cake would skin a kitten and sell family members for cake.  

I draw a bit.  And after a protracted hiatus (I am slowly but surely creeping back into after almost getting a minor in studio art in college, oh so long ago) I am finally trying to get some solid hours of pencil on page.  I knew when I was about 5 or 6, when I drew a fighter jet and was able to put a pilot and his seat in the little tiny cockpit, that drawing was something that meant a whole bunch to me.  Question 5:  When did you know that drawing was going to be a major part of your life? Was there a particular moment you can point to?

That really happened before I was cognizant.  My guess is at some point in my mother’s womb I scraped a drawing of a poop joke into my mother’s uterus wall and began laughing (gurgled laughing obviously) and that is probably when I came to that realization.  My mom says as soon as I could hold a piece of chalk I was on board.  When I got into preschool I had already been drawing constantly for a year or two, so I was drawing at an eight year old level (according to the teacher anyway).  I think that being better at something than other people perpetuates your investment in it, and since art is something I could always excel at, I always honed it and worked to get even better.  I actually feel like my learning has slowed down as I have been doing a lot of comics, because now I am so busy churning out books that I am not taking the time to focus my discipline in uncharted areas.  I learn new things here and there, but the real key to getting better is deliberately practicing elements of your craft you have not yet mastered.

Even though pushing yourself in new directions is the best way to stretch yourself, continued exercise and repetition is also a way to grow.  You may be selling yourself a bit short on the amount of growth that you have gone through.  I have noticed a growth in your story telling ability in the sequential art as you do more and more pages, but enough of the fanboi-ness here.  

So drawing for me is a wonderful exercise, but I have a question of motivation for you.  When I am inspired to draw, I can bang some lines out and feel really confident in the finished product. My question to you, my Question 6: is, how do you get yourself to draw when you are completely uninspired?  How do you motivate yourself to put the pencil to paper when you just don’t “feel it?”

I think it is important to have a general skepticism of doing anything based solely on feelings.  Feelings exist as indicators to add spice to live, but they are not good guides for decision making.  If you want to be a good artist, you need to practice drawing.  If you can only draw well when you feel like it, you are not ever going to be a professional.  A professional can perform their craft in demand, as needed.

When I was in a rock band I realized I could not write music on demand.  I to an extent I could get myself to work on writing more often, but I could  not churn out songs anywhere near the rate I could churn out comics pages.  Perhaps I could have with more practice, but I had reached a point where I could pump out comics at a much higher rate, and I got do it regardless of mood.  That is when I decided music is my hobby and comics was my career goal.  I think if your art is fully dependent on your mood, you are setting yourself up for failure to try to make that your job.  Make it your hobby, you will enjoy it more.

Though it is true there are times when you simply lack inspiration.  There are a few things I do to remedy things.  One is to always be working on a few projects, that way if one gets tiresome, you have something else to work on that feels fresher.  I also have a shelf full of books of art that really inspires me.  Look through Simon Bisley’s book of images from the Bible, a book of photos from the animal kingdom, or some books of art from various films (some of my favorites: District 9, Rango, Peter Jackson’s King Kong).  Also, artist’s sketchbooks can inspire you.  You also may just need a break.  Take a half hour and do something else, then try again.  Whatever you do, don’t just lay around waiting until you are in the mood.  You will do your best work when that mood strikes, but you must be able to generate good work even without it.

Awesome… I have asked that question of a bunch of different people, and the answers have been all over the place, but the gist of everyone’s response is to push past the ennui and just do some drawing… I know of some musicians that actually sit down and write some trite unimaginative schlock when they are uninspired, and that sometimes this exercise will get rid of the cobwebs and kick start the creative process.  Anyway… Back to the questions…

When I was a young-un I fell in love with John Byrne’s run on Captain America, and Captain America became “my comic book hero.” I can even remember (and I have stated it before in other 20 Questions I have done) the exact issue that drew me in… Question 7: Was there a particular character or, even more specifically, a particular issue of a book that really just let you know that comic books were THE thing for you?

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles definitely had a huge impact on me.  I distinctly remember picking up #13 of the Archie Series from 711 when I was a little kid and loving it.  I would practice drawing every image in the comic.  I recently found this back issue at Kevin Eastman’s gallery that was at Meltdown Comics for a while.  It really took me back.  You can see my influences all over those pages… the randomness, the mish mash of characters, the style.  Here is the cover of it:

Other comics that had a big impact were Calvin & Hobbes and the Far Side.  As I got older, the Maxx, Cyberfrog, Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and Squee all had a good sized impact, but I attribute a large amount of my influence to the Turtles, both the Archie series and the Mirage comics.

Great!  I just listened to a podcast (the Dork Forest with Jackie Kashian Ep 95) where Eastman chatted about starting out… It was delightful.  Question 8: Have you had the opportunity (especially since the success of the Axe Cop #1 published by Dark Horse) to meet any of your comic book industry heroes? and as a pre-follow-up question to that, Who are your comic book industry heroes?

Yes I have had the opportunity to meet and befriend many of my comic industry heroes.  It started with Doug TenNapel, who really became my Master Splinter in the industry and eventually my best friend.  Once I released Chumble Spuzz on SLG, Jhonen Vasquez became a friend and very supportive of my work.  Kevin Eastman has also been one of the nicest guys in comics to me and has taken time to give me lots of advice.  Those three guys represent a large influence on me when it comes to comics.  I have met a lot of other creators since. Countless.  And it is crazy when I meet someone like Erik Larson or Rob Liefeld who I used to read about in Wizard Magazine when I was in high school and they have heard of my work.  It’s somewhat surreal.  I think my favorite connection to be made with geek culture out of Axe Cop was the Mystery Science Theater 3000/RiffTraxx guys.  I’m only a geek for a few things, and MST3K is one of them.  Those guys are genuinely good dudes and Mike Nelson has become a trusted friend.  The coolest thing about meeting your heroes is finding out they are actually heroic.  This rarely happens, but when it does, you find a person in your life that makes reality feel bigger and your aspirations grow but also become more attainable.  Good heroes who are truly good people don’t just do good work, they cause people around them grow in their own potential as people.  I am really thankful to have seemed to have found a lot of these kinds of heroes.

That is pretty awesomely surprising that the some of the people you considered your heroes were actually heroic.  That, from what I have heard, is very rare indeed.  It is even rarer to meet a hero and befriend that hero.  That is pretty great stuff there.  

A bit more technical and traditional here, but… Question 9: What is your drawing process like? Are you still producing traditionally, or have you made the switch to digital?  If you are primarily digital, do you still follow a traditional process (e.g. thumbs, roughs, finished pencils, inks) or something radically different, and what tools do you use?

I started working all digital back when I made Chumble Spuzz for SLG.  At the time, I was just going to do it on that project because I was not trying to do real detailed artwork, I just wanted it to look like an animated cartoon in panels.  But I was surprised to see how detailed I could go with digital, and how no one could ever tell if my work was digital or not.  It was so efficient that I couldn’t go back.  I do work traditionally using digital though, I still layout my pencils and everything and my process is fairly similar, it is just more convenient and efficient.  I don’t thumbnail so much as I just do a really rough pencil of each page, then before I ink I do a more defined pencil where needed.  Because editing is so much easier in digital, the thumbnail process can be morphed into the penciling process, at least that’s how I do it.  Lately on both Bearmageddon and Axe Cop I have done some ink and brush work then scanned it in and worked it into the finished digital art, so sometimes I still use real ink, but rarely.

I find that I still have to at least start out traditional and then clean clean clean in the digital space.  Even for the fantasy maps I make, I always start with pencil on paper.  I, however, would drop this process like yesterday’s fish if I had a Cintiq… I would need to have piles of forgotten money laying around in the house prior to that being an issue.  Other people I have chatted with that work primarily in the digital space often blend together the thumbnail to pencil step

Question 10: My wife wants to know this, If you have a wife do you ignore her, and if you don’t have a wife would you ignore her if you did?… I am not sure what the wife is getting at…

haha is she really asking me this or was this one for you?  I don’t have a wife.  But obviously if I had one I hope I would not ignore her.  I have an awesome girlfriend and I definitely pay a lot of attention to her, which is one reason I have gotten behind schedule recently.  I could see myself going into periods of recluse during marriage when I am deep into a project, but hopefully I will try to combat those tendencies.

As far as the motivation for this question, it is a little of column A and a little of column B.  My wife was waiting on me to comment and then ask you a question so we could get Archer started up on Netflix… She was a bit impatient last night, and her question was all in good fun.  It does raise a more interesting specter though.  The issue of creative immersion.  When doing creative work it is sometimes necessary and at other times unintentionally unavoidable to descend into a near catatonic creative space.

Question 11: How often, when you are working, do you look up and notice it is 3 hours later than you thought it was?

That doesn’t happen to me a lot.  Only if I am REALLY into a project, but in general it has become a daily grind and my internal clock is always pretty well aware of what time it is.  All the Facebook and email distractions, as well as text messages and other things break my day up too.  Sometimes I think I should lock myself into a silent chamber to get more work done, but I don’t really want to become an albino comic artist cave man.

I kind of want to see a comic book about an albino artist cave man… it could be super meta… I know that if I get into the trees of a project, I can seriously lose time working on details.

So my mother-in-law has a family mantra that has stuck with me as a mantra to live by.  That particular mantra is, “Don’t let the fuckers get you down.”  I am planning on creating a family crest with that inscribed as the motto…

Question 12: Do you have any mottos, creeds, credos, adages, or mantras that are either family sayings or that particularly speak to you?

I’m an avid reader of G.K. Chesterton and his general theme of trying to see the world for how wondrous it really is rather than glossing over it and making everything small is something I really try to apply to my life. One quote is “It can be maintained that the evil of pride consists in being out of proportion to the universe.”. He says this right after telling a story about a boy who wishes he’s  a giant and he becomes bored with the world because it looks like just another toy.  His friend wishes to be a Pygmy and he never runs out of wonders even though he never leaves the tiny garden in front of the house.  We have a tendency to overlook the beauties and the robustness of life.  I really try to see the world through a microscope rather than a telescope, which is another Chesterton analogy.

Here we are at the seminal Question 13… the number 13 always makes me think of superstitions and rituals.  Prior to soccer games in high school and fencing bouts in college, I used to have a very distinct method/ritual to get ready.  Now I find myself doing some very regimented processes online to get ready to artistic things. Question 13: So are there any superstitions or rituals that you adhere to?

Well I am an active Christian so by some people’s definition I am insanely superstitious.  I practice the age old ritual of studying the bible, praying for the people in my life and that I would continually become a better man every morning at breakfast.  I think it is very important to pray to God daily and thank Him for as many things as I can think of, because I believe in the superstition of gratitude and treat it like a ritual.  Actually I honestly believe in God.  I also ritualistically sit down with good friends, smoke a pipe, drink a little whiskey and talk about life, God and politics.  I also participate in the ritual of communion.  I think without these things I would be a much more hollow person.  I know this question is geared more towards something like wearing the same pair of underwear the entire time I am working on a graphic novel, but no I don’t have any of those rituals.  I tend toward the traditions and rituals that have stood the test of time, the ones every generation says are old and tired and yet they stand firm with every passing fashion. 

It is interesting that you seem to be a devoutly Christian person (something I knew about you prior to starting this 20 Questions), yet are able to recognize that much of the trappings of Christianity that you ascribe to can seem like superstition and ritual for people who do not believe as you.  That makes it seem like your faith is one that has been investigated and internally questioned. Which, honestly, is all that I truly ask of people who are religious.  The people who infuriate me are the dogmatic unquestioning practitioners… the ones who spout off tired dogma without having once truly contemplated the meaning of their faith.  That being said, when I truly sat down and questioned my faith, faith did not win.

The depth of your answers has been rather delightful, and I have to say rather unexpected considering most of the work you have out there for people to look at is full of absurdity and whimsy.  Question 14: Do you feel that your current work is, overall, an accurate portrayal of who you are as a person? as an artist?  If not, why do you think there is a discrepancy.

Thanks I appreciate that.  I find any person who dogmatically clings to a set of ideas without questioning them obnoxious, and there are plenty of those in every camp, including the non religious.  As for my work… I think my work so far only represents one part of me, it is the part I find easiest to express: humor.  One work I have done I feel misrepresents me, that was my involvement in Jesus Christ: In the Name of the Gun.  I ended up apologizing for it.  My humor, being a strength, can also be a weakness, and I disagree with modern culture who claims that in comedy, nothing is sacred.  When people say that, they usually don’t really mean it.  What they really mean is nothing average Americans hold sacred is sacred.  There are plenty of topics they would never joke about.  I put humor on a pedestal with that project and I do wish I hadn’t done it.  I do hope to branch out and do some other types of stories as I get better at writing.  I have mainly stayed where I am comfortable (humor) because I feel like this is still practice.  I don’t feel like I have really done my great project and become the creator I wanted to become.  Maybe I never will, but I’ll always work toward it. 

I think that constant striving to be better, the “Maybe I never will, but I’ll always work toward it” mentality is what eventually takes people from the realm of merely “good” to the heights of “great.”. I have no doubt that with the creativity you are showing with your online properties, great is in your future.  Enough fawning on my part.  Seriously, I feel kind of ill after that.  

Now to a more industry related topic, Question 15: How do you see the digital marketplace and digital distribution changing the medium of sequential art (“comic books” I think is starting to be a narrow name for how the stories are delivered, but I think will take on the colloquial name for the method, much like Band Aid or Xerox)?  I ask this because I know that much of your success is due to the creation of a compelling property primarily in the digital space.

I think it will change things, but I don’t know exactly how yet.  I think there is an uncertainty in all forms of entertainment right now because we are in this metamorphosis between offline entertainment like movies, books, CDs and comics to Internet-based entertainment.  I think all the mediums know that the Internet is changing the way things are done and I don’t think any of them have nailed it down yet.  It is changing so rapidly it seems hard to find a good solid way of doing things.  Right now it is clear to me that for comics to succeed they need an internet presence.  Big name comics may be ok just releasing a preview, but I think indie comics, if they are trying to seek an audience, are fooling if they don’t use the great tool that is the internet.  The net is a way to reach people on a massive scale from your home, it’s access we never had before and all the old gatekeepers like publishers and studios are in a frenzy trying to understand how to handle the loss of power.  I started doing web comics not because I liked web comics, but because I made comics and wanted people to read them.  I couldn’t think of a better way to accomplish that than to post them online.  I wasn’t going to make any money anyway.  I am about as confused as most people how to really monetize this kind of thing.  It feels like a big ongoing experiment.  I make money but it’s not great money and it feels like a very fickle income to base my life on.  What it has done is gotten my name out to other industries like film, TV and animation.  As far as will comic books become obsolete?  I am guessing that the paper book will become an antique some day.  As tools to view these things develop and as new generations don’t hold any sentimental value or nostalgia for physical paper books, I think there is a good chance they will become pretty rare.  I don’t say that in any other spirit but just being honest with trying to see things go as they usually do.  I love books and I love owning them, but if I grew up only reading books on a Kindle I think I would consider physical paper books a real hassle.  I feel like I could write you an entire essay on this topic, but we will leave it at that.

Well, I hope that the model solidifies soon such that you are able to live comfortably off of your online products, and that your other work in more traditional media becomes more like vanity projects.  That would be a wonderful thing.  I have been a part of a few interesting conversations on the “new media” models that encompass fledgling artists all the way to Internet success stories like Jonathan Coulton and statistical outliers like the Louis CK distribution model that just happened.  I too could probably go on for days about this topic, but seriously, I don’t think it would be the most captivating 20 Questions I could think of.

Question 16:  So what digital properties do you follow? Podcasts, Web-Comics, blogs, vlogs, vid-casts, etc..

I listen to audiobooks from Audible.com and watch Netflix pretty regularly.  I listen to some podcasts, mainly talk radio shows I like that are podcasted after they air.  I don’t really read any web comics regularly though I do check in on Kris Straubs Chainsaw Suit from time to time.  I like Dr. McNinja but I like reading it in book form.  I have a few comic reading apps on my iPad but I don’t use them much unless I want to sample a comic I have been hearing about.  I have been doing most of my book reading on a Kindle. 

I have stated on this here blog before that I listen to about 35 hours of podcasts per week.  It is a sickness and the name of the sickness is “Shitticus Jobasucks.” Seriously, it is a crappy job that takes very little metal engagement, but enough about me and my digital consumption.

Question 17: Is there an absolute worst job out there that you can think of?  The one I think of is Assistant Crack Whore or Understudy to Meth Head Number 1.

Well barring prostitution and slavery which I do not consider legitimate jobs, I think the most miserable job would be a job where you have to stay completely still, or do one very monotonous thing over and over again without getting to listen to a radio or talk to a co-worker.  I think that kind of work is degrading and I feel sorry for anyone who has to do it. 

Sadly, in many ways you just described my position… Very monotonous and with a cadre of co-workers who are, in many ways, duller than doorknobs… and hyperbole is the funniest form of humor ever… In effect, you do not envy me… just great…

Well, turn about is fair play… so Question 18: Anything you want to ask me?

What do you do for work?  And do your co-workers read your blog?  I bet they are more interesting than you give them credit for.  I bet if you literally worked alone in a room full of door knobs you’d begin to miss them.

For the record I work for the state of Ohio in the DOT’s geotechnical engineering department.  I am the geographic information systems specialist.  My job is to oversee all the historical bore hole locations being digitized and create the digital GIS files for the newly drilled bore holes.  My current coworkers, as far as I know, do not know of this blog, and, truthfully they are more interesting than doorknobs.  One of the gentlemen I work with is quite possibly the angriest man in the world, and he has reason for it… to a point.  That being said, my office has one door, no windows and is tucked around a corner such that if anyone doesn’t NEED to see me, they do not have to.  There was a 3 to 4 week period where my boss didn’t speak to me, just because there was not a reason to turn the corner and say something to me.  So, yes, it is technically more interesting than a doorknob storage room… but not by much.

Question 19: So, what are you taking away from these 20 Questions that you did not bring in?

This is a really long interview haha.  But I got to answer some questions I have never answered before and I think people who want to know more about what makes me tick will get enjoy it, if any of them are out there.

It is a long process, but I hope it was not arduous or burdensome.  The idea behind the 20 Questions is to really drill past some of the typical questions and smurf out how you tick.

The last question is vague and nebulous and wonderfully open ended…  Question 20: What’s next?

No it was cool, I had fun.  What’s next… well, there are things I can talk about and things I can’t.  The big thing that is very close is March 28th the third volume of Axe Cop will be released by Dark Horse Comics.  After that, in July we will begin to release the new miniseries titled Axe Cop: President of the World which is another three part series that continues where Bad Guy Earth left off.  I know the Steve Jackson wants to do a Munchkin Axe Cop expansion pack down the road so that will be cool.  I will also be attending conventions including Wonder Con this weekend and Emerald City Comic Con at the end of month (Malachai will also attend that one).  Outside of those things, there are things I would love to talk about that are pretty exciting but I just can’t mention them publicly yet.  Lots of potential awesomeness.  Thanks for the interview!

OK, seriously?  Seriously?  This was soooooo much fun for me, and you have been more than patient with me!  This has taken a bunch of your time and you have been absolutely wonderful throughout this entire experience.  Thanks so much for your generosity!  The Internet is an amazing place

To recap:
How frakkin cool was that?
I mean, Come ON!  That was bad. ass.!
The Plantar Faciitis is quite annoying
Annoying in a painful way
The 3 year old little girl is still awake
It is 10:53 pm right now
Ethan finished question 20 right under the wire!
Thanks so much!
I am looking into IA and UXD as a new potential path
Google it your damn selves
Tomorrow I get to go take pictures of holes in the ground…. from the inside
It is like a colonoscopy…. FOR THE EARTH!
I need to finish this up and get to bed
Good night all
Have a great weekend everybody