Five more Questions
I feel just like Craig Kilbourn.
five questions from the Queen of the Surface Streets. ask and you shall receive five from me, whereupon you post your answers with these instructions and perpetuate ad infinitem.
1. if you could ensure that the Mariners would play in and win a thrilling World Series by not watching/listening to same, would you do it?
And give up my Season tickets? You drive a hard bargain, o Queen. If it were that easy, the Padres would have won it years ago, as I watched neither of their appearances, during years when they really had a chance. But were the Mariners to advance that far (and keep in mind that I have printed and unused World Series tickets here in this office) wild dogs dragging sacks of $100 bills couldn’t keep me from the ballpark.
Of course, I’d buy the dogs their own tickets. Fair’s fair, after all.
2. if you could have two characters trade fates in Serenity, who would they be, and why?
A fascinating question. I did not end up seeing the movie for the fourth time tonight, and I’d hoped to have that experience to hand when answering this question.
To be perfectly honest, I’m one of the few who is happy with the outcome of the piece. Being a writer, editor, and film nut, I grok all that occured. But If I must play Joss, I’d have liked to have saved the guy on the street. It was a hard choice, and one not easy for him to make. But it was a little early for that, even though it shapes the entire rest of the movie.
The twins I could do without in a heartbeat. They have to go.
3. when and why did you decide to stop using a car?
In the Summer of 2002, I was faced with the somewhat unhappy prospect of unemployment. The startup I was anchoring was just out of money, and there was no way to keep me on at my going wage. I ended up doing pro bono work for another 6 months and enjoying the fruits of 8 years of labor at increasingly higher paying jobs all the while.
At the same time, I was engaging in a series of life changes, designed to make me not turn out like an accquaintance for whom I did not particularly care. I realized that the reason I really didn’t like him was that he was the person I would be one day, and I didn’t like me very much either.
One of the things I didn’t like about us is my Rage. Not Anger, anger is controllable with discipline. But Rage, that boiling, buring red that clouds all and removes reason. The first thing in the day that I raged against was my commute to Redmond (more later), which was about 45 minutes for 10 miles. I had 30 minutes each day of getting myself ready for that drive, and about an hour afterwords calming down and getting to the business of making people have fun while playing games. At the end of my day (usually 12-14 hours later), I repeated the same process.
That’s about 5 hours of every waking day being uncontrollably upset about something over which I had absolutely no control. And to top it off, there were other things that made me angry throughout the day. Doing some quick math, you’ll note that left 5 to 7 hours to do happy things for myself.
Like sleeping, shopping, laundry, or paying bills.
Not a happy Bhagwan.
My general unpleasantness had already contributed to the end of a relationship which could have been something special (sorry about that, S). I hadn’t renewed my driver’s liscense, and I really wasn’t happy with the mounting maintenance bills for my truck, or the cost of fueling, insuring, and parking it. Plus, I really had nowhere to be.
So I opted out. Bought a bus pass, stripped all of my personal belongings from the vehicle, and told them to come and get it. Were it not for family obligations, I probably would have sold everything I couldn’t carry, and hit the road. But, I had my season tickets, money coming to me, a good place to live, and I had just started a relationship with someone new.
In retrospect, I should have packed a bag, thrown it in the truck, and driven into the rising sun. But those that knew me then as opposed to now can attest that I am a much better person these days. I still get angry, but I hardly ever rage. My response to incredible idiocy now is to laugh. Laugh, loud and long.
So the short answer (which you all have earned) is three years ago, because I felt I had to.
4. favorite animal flesh and why?
Pig. Because bacon tastes gooood. Pork chops taste goooood.
And Doctor Dolittle (Rex Harrison, and shame on you for thinking differently) most regretted giving up pork most of all.
AND THEN I HEAR POOR GUB-GUB SQUEAL!
OH ME! OH MY! –
A RELUCTANT BUT SINCERE VEGETARIAN
AM I!
Like hell.
That had better be one charming m*****ing pig.
It also doesn’t make me sick, something I can’t say about almost every other flesh I’ve eaten.
5. if you had to choose between living in Redmond and living in Winslow (now known officially as Bainbridge) which would you choose and why?
Redmond, Hands down, every day, and twice on Sunday. I considered living there when I first moved to Seattle, I work now in Downtown Bellevue, and were a house in Redmond to fall out of the sky tax free, I’d move in in a heartbeat.
It’s still farther away from the city than I’d like to be, but I have a lot of friends on the east side, the very same friends that were a major factor in my decidion to move to Seattle in the first place. I know no-one on or in Winslow, and to my knowledge, I’ve never been there.