My Interview, Questions by Heels

1) If you could be doing anything for a job right now, regardless of education or perceived skill, what would it be?
Right now, at this point in my life, I'd like to be a studio musician for my day job and in the evening I paint and draw what ever I want and occasionally sell something.

2) With your current education and skill-set, honestly- what do you WANT to do with yourself? Stop evading this question!
If I had the money, or knew a person with money who I completely trusted, and thought I could get good people to work for me, I'd like to open a genre book store. The novels would be science fiction and fantasy and horror, only. I'd sell comic books of all varieties, trying to sweep those novel readers into comics as well. And there'd probably be some Dungeons and Dragons and other D20 stuff there. No Magic or Pokémon or other CCGs in my store. I’d only sell things that involve some sort of storytelling.

Since I don’t have the money and I get scared just thinking about owning a store, it’s not going to happen soon, if at all.

Sometimes I still want to write for a living, but I don’t think I have some of the basic skills -- mainly structure stuff and a lack of discipline, resolve, self control (you pick the word) -- to pull it off even in a part time capacity.

So, given the education, skills, and money that I HAVE right now, I don’t know.

3) What is your absolute favorite comic strip and "graphic novel" ever? Why?
Favorite COMIC STRIP (Which I’m declaring as funnies that appear in the paper or most online comics.): Calvin and Hobbes. It’s just the best. It’s funny and at times poignant. It bounced from gag-a-day to storylines with an ease most creators are jealous of. It examined the imagination of kids better than nearly anything out there. It wasn’t afraid to show parents getting angry with their son and it wasn’t afraid to show how much they loved him. It dealt with the confusion of having a crush and the odd desire to be liked by everyone even though you’re most happy when you can just be yourself with honesty and humor.

Favorite "GRAPHIC NOVEL" (Which I’m declaring everything else comicy.): It’s so easy to give an answer that’s obvious, like Watchmen or Marvels or Bone or Fables or something like those, but, honestly, my favorite is The Tick; the first stuff done by Ben Edlund. It has nearly everything I like -- superheroes, science-fiction, ninjas, a spy, a samurai, aliens, a monolith, a chainsaw wielding madman, a man eating cow, good, evil -- and mocks it all! It’s pure fun. You’ve seen the cartoon, take that and make it a little more adult (Tick asks Arthur if he’s "funny" and when Arthur says "no" they go out and get some "manly" beers) and you have fun for nearly the whole family in some slick art. Plus, that’s basically me in the moth suit, so that makes me happy.

4) Do you want to get married and have kids someday?
Sometimes I do want to get married and have kids, yeah. Sometimes I ache I want those things so much. To find someone I want to spend the rest of my life with who is always willing to spend the rest of her life with me and then spawn kids who could grow up and live a bit through their discoveries often seems wonderful.

Other times kids seem like too much but wanting to be with someone who wants to be with me would be perfect.

Most of the time, I don’t. I don’t because that much trust and intimacy, from me and from someone toward me, scares me.

5) When you first went into college, it was for engineering. Do you ever wish you could go back and stay with that?
Once in a while I wish I had because I’d be making a lot more money, but those moments are very rare. I spoke with my professors and learned what the competition is like out there in the industry and I would have been miserable. I would have had to depend on other people to get their part done so I could complete my part and if they were late I’d be the one, or one of many, who’d have to eat the loss of time or force the next person to be running late. If I’d done that, I’d probably have gotten an ulcer before I turned 28.

6) Would you ever want to go back to school? What would you study?
No, I do not want to go back to school. I do not want to do the cramming and the paper writing. I do not want to put up with the other students and the teachers who are so wrapped up in their own projects that they don’t want to give you any time. I don’t want to do that.

Just because I don’t want to do it now, doesn’t mean that I won’t in the future.

If I did, I’d either start over, sort of, and study film and theater stuff or I’d get my Masters in literature or writing. The main problem is, what would I do with a Masters?

7) You asked it of me, so... What draws you to sci-fi, fantasy, and other fiction of the sort?
I like the imagination. I like how the stories can be allegories for events in our life. I like how the out of time settings can give the themes a new relationship to what’s happening now even if the story was written almost a century ago. I like the sense of hope so many of sci-fi and fantasy stories provide and I like the way that other sci-fi and fantasy stories are willing to let everything collapse into Hell, sometimes literally. In science fiction and fantasy there can be stories that are romping adventures through time and space or there can be stories that are quiet, in one place in one day when nothing but regular life happens.

I like the sense of wonder I get from these genres from the character who think of it as their normal day to day business.

8) Where did your comic strip go? Did I miss its retirement party?
It stopped being fun, so I stopped doing it.

Hell, I think that’s exactly what I wrote under the last one that I posted. If I didn’t, I should have because that’s what happened.

Most are still online. Check out this link they should be there. I did two years worth, I think, but some were removed because I used other people’s art a couple of times. Oops.

9) Do you really want to move back to Cowtown, or is it actually that you want to get away from where you are, regardless of the end location?
Okay, a big part of moving is to get away from here, yeah, but I like Cowtown. I like many of the people. I like how it’s not too far for a day trip to SF if I want to go to a show. I like that there are three theaters that do plays. Much of my family live there. I’m more comfortable with the small(er) town setting that I am in any sort of city. There’s real nature there. In the winter snow falls and skiing is really close, if you have the time and money. And most people there want to get on with their lives rather than try to impress other people with stuff (although the more city-folk who move there the less this is true).

I'm not a large or even medium-sized city person, so I'd like to move some where that the town or city's population is less than 20,000.

In some ways Cowtown bothers me, but for the most part, it's home.

10) What qualities attract you to a girl? (You don't have to answer this one if you're uncomfortable.)
One of the main things that attract me to girls/women, in a general way, is that I rarely feel a sense of competitiveness from them. With most guys they immediately want to set up a pecking order, of some sort, and using brain or brawn or whatever set about trying to prove that they are your better. With girls, probably because I’m not female myself, I don’t get that. I don’t like to be competitive, and that probably one of the reasons I’m usually more comfortable around them.

In a more romantic (for lack of a better word) way, I like women who can challenge me so that I want to learn and grow and stretch out into areas I hadn’t before. I like girls who are smart, funny, and honest and are (or at least act) comfortable with who they are and don’t change much when they’re alone, with me, or in a group of twenty. I like girls who smile easily and can laugh at their foibles as easily as they can laugh at mine. And confident women, I like confidence, too.

Also, there are the physical features. Shining eyes and a nice smile on a sweet face are good. I like a variety of body types because it’s not so much the shape of the woman (although that does come into account) as the way she carries herself that makes her attractive.

11) What are YOUR favorite cookies? Favorite food of any sort?
My first thought when it comes to favorite cookies are peanut butter cookies, but when I eat peanut butter cookies I’m always a little disappointed. They’re usually too dry and don’t taste enough like peanut butter, for me.

Ginger snaps and the minty chocolate one that the Girl Scouts sell run neck and neck in the favorite category. (And unlike some *cough* I don’t have to be the one that makes them.) They’re both so different and leave my mouth feeling fresh and I like the way they pop when my teeth go through the cookie.

As for other foods, I’m not that picky. I really like good Thai. The stuff that’s not greasy that’s spicy and a bit sweet. That’s always good.

But maybe fresh, warm sourdough even beats that. The smell, the texture, the crunch of the crust -- fresh sourdough is like a feast for all senses.

12) Wonder Woman vs. Big Barda- who wins?
In the comics universe there’d be a misunderstanding and they’d fight for a bit before they figure out that they were being manipulated by the villain and then they’d work together to crush a common enemy.

In a fight to the death, or unconsciousness, Big Barda’d win. Barda would win because Wonder Woman wouldn’t be willing to start out fighting her strongest, Barda would. Those early hits that Barda got in at the beginning wouldn’t seem to do anything at first, but they’d make Wonder Woman wear out just a little faster than Barda. Plus, Barda has a freakin’ Mega-rod. What can a lasso that forces people to tell the truth do against a freakin’ Mega-rod? Nothing, that’s what. In the end Barda would be bruised, bloodied, and broken, but she’d be the one standing.

13) What the hell should I do with the 10 grapefruits currently residing on my kitchen counter?
For me, there are only two things to be done with so many grapefruits:
1. Candy them.
2. Let them get nice and soft and then hurl them at the house of someone you don’t like.

14) How do you feel about your muzzer? Just kidding! Actually, IF you have kids someday, how many would you want to have (we'll just say that, for our purposes, your partner is cool with whatever)?
I like my muzzer. She’s weird and funny. And every now and then she still wonders how that guy makes doughnuts.

If I had kids, two seems like the best number. Life evens out with me and my wife and our kids. The kids would always have each other. They could be friends if everything goes well, and if it doesn’t at least they always have family if my wife and I die unexpectedly in a plane crash or something.

15) If you were given enough money to live comfortably for a year, but you had to write a book that would be published in that time, what kind of book would you write?
If I had the money and a comfortable place to live and the dedication to write a book, I’d write this book, although it feels more like it’d be novella length, that I’ve had buzzing around in my head for a many years now. (I actually mention it in a very early post on my blog.)

It’s fiction and it’s more bitter than sweet. The main characters are a high school student, his teacher, and his teacher’s wife. I’d use a devise at the beginning of each chapter that’d be what the wife says in her therapy sessions and spin that out into the action of the regular chapters, sort of.

I know the basic beginning of the book and I’m absolutely sure of the last word right now. The middle is very sketchy, though.

But if I had the means, that’s what I’d write.

16) Do you want to travel? Where? Why?
I want to travel everywhere. It’s a cliché, I know, but it’s also true.

First, I’d travel through Europe, though. It’s the place that’s full of the history of my history. It’s where my family came from and it, arguably, sprung the most influential cultures that our planet has ever seen. I’d have to go to England and Italy and Greece, but I also want to see and experience France and Germany and Russia and Turkey and Spain. There’s so much in Europe.

17) If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be? (Name the movie!!)
"I'd have good strong roots in a town like Mt. Rose, a solid Christian trunk, and long, leafy branches to provide shade for handicapped kids on a hot summer day."
(I remembered the movie, but I had to look up the quote. Thanks IMDB!)

If you want a real answer, I’d be the kind that people leave alone. Probably something out in the middle of nowhere, like those oaks that live at really high altitudes. I wouldn’t want to live at long as those do, though.

18) Do you honestly like musicals? I mean, really? WHY?!
Yes, I honestly like musicals. Really. I do. If you want me to, I'll look through myPod and tell you how many musical soundtracks I own and how many I have to listen to because I "borrowed" the music from my dad.

Musicals are another form of fantasy. People don't (or rarely) break into song out on the street in real life, right? But in musicals, they do. Not only do people randomly (sort of) break out into song, but when others are around, they all know the words and they all agree on the music. And even when there are conflicting words and conflicting music, the two sounds meld together into something that sounds beautiful and is more powerful than the either tune was separately.

You've seen Amadeus, right? There's a scene in that where Mozart is explaining a part of his opera that starts as a solo and grows into a duet and grows and grows and even with more people singing, it's always music. That's something that I like, even though it doesn't happen in many American musicals. There's a song in Sondheim’s A Little Night Music where there are three people singing at the same time and one of my favorite things to do is try to focus on one voice at a time, to pick out that one character's words, then switch to another character and then the other and then let the three work together to create something else entirely.

Musicals create a sort of an ideal world, too. Characters who hate each other will sing at opposite ends of the stage, but they're using the same music and singing in harmony. Lovers are linked, not only through their desire for each other, but through the songs that they sing for one another.

Also, it's fun to sing along with the sound tracks. Unlike most albums out there, musical soundtracks have all these songs that, much of the time, tell a part of the story and even if they don't tell a narrative, listening them in order often do a good job of showing a character's emotional arc during the story. How often do you get that when you buy a regular album?

I must admit, though, I'm not so much into the dancing. Sometime it can be kind of fun -- the fighting in West Side Story, or the way Harold Hill uses it to seduce River City's people -- but most of the time it feels like filler to me, an excuse to pay a choreographer. I like the music and words a lot more. I'm sure there are people who are just the opposite

19) Buffy Summers- Hot or Not? How about Faith? Or are you more a Fred kind of guy?
Buffy and Faith are both hot, but I’m way more of a Fred kind of guy.

Buffy’s too afraid of not being liked. She’s too afraid of not getting attention when she’s part of a crowd. (Even when she was invisible, she called attention to herself.) Also, she seems comfortable around people, but she never seems to be comfortable with herself, she's always second guessing who she is and any time she comes back to Slayer, she curls up and tries to deny it.

Faith is scary, plain and simple. I’d always be afraid that I’d piss her off and she’d knock my head off.

Fred’s the type of girl who I’d want to be better for. I’d want to learn about what she knows so we could talk about it. ('Course, the Illiyra/Fred thing would bring me right back to the Faith answer.) Fred started out uncomfortable around people, that was after being stuck in a demon dimension for years where she was basically cattle, she got more comfortable around other, but she always seemed to be comfortable with and confident about herself. She also has one of the greatest smiles of all the women who appear in the Buffyverse, except for, maybe, Jasmine.

20) What thing that you have done in your life are you most proud of?
Nothing. I have done nothing that I am proud of, let alone most proud of. Also, I haven't done anything that I'm disappointed in, so that's okay.

21) Can I stop asking questions now, because thinking them up is hurting my brain! MAKE IT STOP! MAKE IT STAAAHHHHHPP!!!!!!
Sure, you can stop, if you want to.