I'm Already Doing Meme Stuff?

Jeez, what's wrong with me? Heh. Well, I figured, keep busy, so I let CelticBuffy do an interview meme with me.

The rules are as follows:

Link back to the person you received the interview from.

If you want to participate, leave me a comment saying, “Interview me.” (And your e-mail address, please.)

I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions.

You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.

You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.

When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions. However, I'm only going to do one...so first come, first serve. Sorry.

And with that, here...we...go!

1) What led you into blogging and were you influenced by any one blogger in particular?
Well, I wasn't influenced by any one blogger at all, so that's a wash question. As for why, one day I decided I wanted to own my name on the internet. Call it what you want, I simply didn't want anyone else to own my name. Once I bought the domain name, I started thinking I could do something with it. That's what led me in to blogging.

2) Has blogging led to any real life friendships with other bloggers, and if so, who? Also, do you count your online circle of "blog friends" as friends?

Not a one, not in real life. I do talk to quite a bit of people out in the 'net world through 'net means that I met through doing this blog.
3) How has becoming a father influenced you in regards to your thoughts and actions?

Well...read my post called My Hiatus...that sort of chronicles it. It basically has made me worry more and more about more and more stuff than I ever have before.
4) If life handed you the opportunity to take any career you wanted right now, what would it be and why?

Just one? Crap. I have so many dream type stuff. Film critic, novelist, theatre stuff, etc. But right now? Something that would let me do very little and be earning in the top 5%. Heh.

5) Off the top of your head, no time to think it over, where you most like to visit in this world?

Venice.

So there we go. Any takers? Like I said, first come, first serve. I honestly won't have the time to do my own material and my job if I have to do more than one.

As a R&T Reward...

...I am getting to Pope Terry's questions sooner rather than later. Away we go, and as per usual my answers are italicized.

1. As a stranger who knows near to nothing about you how would you describe yourself to me, physically, emotionally and mentally?

Wow, you don't hold back, do you? Right out of the gate and you're making me work. Okay, physically: I'm of average height and build, especially now that I've lost some weight. I have dark brown hair, blue eyes, and wear a mustache and goatee, sometimes a full beard. Emotionally I'm rather reserved. Mentally, I'm mental. I'd say I'm of above average intelligence, though it has been indicated to me several times through my life that if I "applied myself" I could be more than above average. I have no interest in that, though, no real interest. Not at this stage of my life.

2. Your invited to a party at Chevy Chases house, but your told he will constantly be in his 'Fletch' persona, do you go and what dish do you take along with you?

Hell yeah, I do. That'd be hilarious. Plus, if you know he's going to be Fletch, it probably won't be as annoying. I think I'd take this awesome broccoli cheese casserole that Jessie makes. We haven't had it for awhile (aforementioned diet) but it's awesometastic.

3. You write Haikus, what is the attraction to this form of poetry, and can you make one up about anything

I like the fact that it's structured very short and precise so you have to really think about what you want to say. Make one up about anything? Sure.

Anything is vague
A term for general use
Not precise at all.

4. How is your new mazda going, you chose grey, is this a display of your personality or something more simple like the dealer only having that color?

It's going awesome. I really enjoy driving it. I haven't enjoyed driving in a long time. As for the gray, it was a matter of me not wanting white, red or yellow, and preferring blue. However the blue the model comes in is a very very light blue. Too light. So that left me either with the black or gray, and I would have been fine with either of those. I think the gray is cool though, reminds me of dark chrome.

5. You obviously enjoy baseball, why, it seems so slow and confined. What did you think of that whole Barry Bonds steriods thing, and what do you think the government should do about it.

I enjoy it exactly because it's more relaxed and slow, though I'm not sure how it's any more confined than other organized sport. I also like the fact that you can't hold on to the ball, or run a clock out, or anything like that. As Earl Weaver, Hall of Fame manager for the Orioles, said once, "You can't sit on a lead and run a few plays into the line and just kill the clock. You've got to throw the ball over the damn plate and give the other man his chance. That's why baseball is the greatest game of them all."

On Barry Bonds, I don't like him beyond the steroids/performance enhancement drugs thing, and that doesn't help. He's already tied the all time home run record as of this post, and breaking it is a foregone conclusion barring major tragedy to him. I'm pleased that I'm alive to lay witness to it but I also hope I'm witness to Alex Rodriguez crushing the record in about 8 years or so. The government should keep their noses out of it, though. I'm glad they are forcing the issue since it helps baseball clean up the game, but I don't want them actually doing anything besides forcing MLB to do it themselves. Government's got too much to worry about already.

6. Asshole drivers seem to only you, does anything else and have you ever acted on any rage enduced moments you may have had.

Not sure what you mean? Did you mistype and mean to say anger you? I get miffed at a bunch of stuff, and I have definitely acted on rage moments, though way less than in the past. I have a pretty wicked temper and I do my best to keep in check.

And that's that. Thanks for playing.

Yet another Interview!

This time from Dan Mega, who funnily enough, cut and run. He gave me the questions, then bolted as far as he could. Probably scared to death of the power of my answers, I'm sure. Anyway, as usual, my answers italicized.

Bart, I would thank you for you're time. However, you should be
thanking me. I have a few questions to ask of you. Answer them
correctly or be cast off my bridge.

1)Where did you grow up and how far do you currently live from there?

I grew up in the Baltimore suburb of Glen Burnie, MD. Plenty of derogatory nicknames for it, but one of my favs is "where the ghetto meets the gunrack." I live exactly 0.0 miles from where I grew up. I inherited my parents house, and woo, free house. Casa Del Bart has pretty much always been Casa Del Bart.

2)Who is your best friend in the whole wide world, and why? Note: your
wife doesn't count. Thats just what men say to prevent getting beaten
by female fists of fury.

Well, since you arbitrarily eliminated my actual answer with rules that don't actually apply to me, I'll go with my friend Ryan. We're pretty much the same person, and that actually makes for good friendship as opposed to butting heads.

3)What was the most "popular" band that you've ever done the sound
engineering for?

That's easy. No one. The nature of the job means that I mix only smaller outfits, and usually one of my co-workers handles live sound mixing for bands. Not that I never do it, but it's not my "forte." But, if one of these bands ever does break big, I'll be sure to crow about it. I did put a lapel mic on Ray Lewis once for a video shoot.

4)Is Caddyshack the greatest movie of all time?

No, but it's definitely on the short list of best sports movies of all time.

5)What was your favorite quote from Rodney Dangerfield in Caddyshack?
Was it "hey you wanna earn $14 the hard way"?

No, but that's definitely a good one. I'd have to go with "I hear this place is restricted, Wang, so don't tell 'em you're Jewish, okay?"

6)Are you willing to accept that Brian in Oxford truly is king of all internets?

No. No offense to him or anything, but somehow I doubt he'd want such a dubious honor. Plus, if he was, I'd get so many more referral hits off his page.

7)Do you think you could defeat David McMahon in spirited game of thumb wars?

Hard call. I mean, I've got pretty strong thumbs from the years of Nintendo, but David's got years of experience. It'd be a Pay-Per-View worthy throw down, I'm sure.

8)Who is the greatest blogger of all time, besides Dan Mega?

How do you fit your head through your doorways? Or did you get those made special? Anyway, Kevin Smith is up there to me.

9)Doesn't a Chipolte Burrito with ranch sound excellent right now?

Not so much with the ranch, but Chipotle is always on the brain. ADDICTIVE CHEMICALS I TELL YOU.

10)I'm going to be away for a week. Will my minions (I mean readers) miss me?

I know I will, but be warned, with every passing day my aim improves...

Boy, I enjoy those. Anyone else want to step up? Hell, I may even pull a Dawn and get you all to ask questions via comments, load up on them and then gatling gun your backsides with them all at once.

So, uh...

Yeah, my hotel in Cooperstown has free WiFi. Glad I brought the Lappy in case!

So, I'm doing a second interview, because I can. This time from Deborah over at Uncommon Notions. Away we go, and my answers italicized!

Bart,

It is with great pleasure that I accept the offer to interview you. You are a very interesting man and so I am entirely completely unable to limit myself to only five questions.

1. Your blog is chock full of sarcasm and humor. In elementary school were you the intellectual kid with a dry sense of humor that no one understood? Do you mind posting a picture from that era?

No. I was way more spastic. Up through high school. The dry humor was still there, but not as prevalent. I don't have access to a scanner, but when I do, I'll throw some embarrassing photos of that era up.

2. You seem to be one that can get ticked off at seemingly small things, like big cars that park too close to your Japanese hybrid while you are picking up a ream of not-so-white 100% recycled paper at the office supply store. Or when people just misuse a common word that just about everyone misuses. Do you consider yourself short tempered? Or simply one who is passionate about things in which you believe? Were you raised by strong willed people that fought for their beliefs? Or what do you think causes you to react so strongly in certain situations?

I'm infamously short-tempered. Though I tend to get mildly irked at little things as a way to vent the overall anger. Kinda works, too. But I'm also passionate about things I believe in. For the record, I currently drive a Chevy S-10, not a Japanese hybrid. And I'm not particular pressed about buying recycled paper. However, my friend Ryan, on the way to Cooperstown, after I finished ranting about something, said "I love seeing you get worked up over trivial things."
And I react strongly because I'm a relatively strong personality, really. Not much more to it than that.

3. It is apparent you possess a distaste for organized religion. Or at least those religions with proselyting missionaries. However, are there any organizations to which you claim allegiance? A recreational soccer team? The local Thespian group? AA? Or a knitting club, perhaps? On a personal note, if there is ever anything I could do to get you to listen to the Mormon missionaries, is that something you would share with me?

How shocked would you be if I told you I was an ordained clergy member? Okay, I got it off the internet, but still. I have a card and everything, proclaiming me as ordained member of the clergy, of the church of Spiritual Humanism, and I have an officiant's manual. I can marry people, which is a frightening thought. But yes, on the whole, I'm not a huge fan of organized religion. George Carlin once commented that the last commandment should be "keep thy religion to thyself." That's my main complaint, really. I don't begrudge people their religion, but sometimes they sure seem to begrudge me my belief system, because it's not theirs. Not everyone, mind you. But that's what I have against "proselyting missionaries," as you put it. I currently don't belong to any organizations that I can think of off the top of my head, though.
If someone where to pay me by the hour to listen to the missionaries, I'd consider it. My time is valuable, though.

4. You seem to be a bit of a word wizard. A message mogul in a sense. Has your passion for the English language ever brought you real fame or benefit? For example, did you ever win the school spelling bee? Or have a Letter to the Editor published?

Beyond this blog, and some college paper stuff, nothing. However, considering the nature of my job, occasionally people are surprised by my vocabulary. I don't think people expect a person in my job to bust out the five dollar words. Most recently, a high school principal was impressed by my use of purview ("I'm afraid chair arrangement doesn't fall under my purview").

5. I’m sure we’d all agree that your persuasive writing skills are top-notch. Did you ever consider law school? Or did you at least take the LSAT? If so, do you mind sharing your score with us? If not, have there been career dreams you wish you would have followed? Or still plan to follow?

No, but my mother sure did. But I had plenty of career dreams. I want to be a writer, but I also wanted to be a critic. Movies or books. Preferably movies. That's a hard field to get in to, though, at least for me it seemed to be. I also want to own a theatre. But that's like, THE DREAM. But I was strictly liberal arts throughout school.

6. We are somewhat familiar with your book in progress about a has-been rock band. What about the roadie life interests you enough to write a novel surrounding that theme? And…When you were ten and the kids in your neighborhood formed a garage band (all kids do this at some point right?) did you play the Quaker Oatmeal cardboard cylinder drums? Or another instrument? You weren’t the lead singer were you?

This summer seemed to be the summer of the reuniting bands. The Police, Smashing Pumpkins, etc. It was really The Police getting back together that made me think of that idea, though, because they broke up for a reason. I worked a Guitar Congress a few years ago that Andy Summers (Police guitarist) spoke at. He clearly didn't like Sting. I figured that never went away, so this tour was probably really interesting behind the scenes. Voila.

I was not in a garage band at ten. However, from 19-23 I played guitar in some bands. One outfit played a few shows in the area. We even played with Good Charlotte before they got all big and stuff. I'm not the best choice for singer, though. I have a fairly deep voice. It works very well for an Eeyore impression, but as a singer, I sound like the guy from Crash Test Dummies. Remember that song? Mmmm mmmm mmmmm mmmm.

Thank you for taking the time to be interviewed. I feel like Katie Couric. Except I’m not that small. And I’m not blonde. And I don’t live in NYC. And I don’t own anything Prada. Nevertheless, this was a hard-nosed interview, would you agree?

Relatively so, yes. :D

Carol Vs. Bart: The Interview.

I'm sure most of you read Carol's work. If you don't, you should. Seems to me that we share a sense of humor, though she skews towards the British penchant far more than me. Not to say that I'm not that weird mix of dry and absurd, but she's got a distinct advantage over me, the actually being British part.

Well now it's on like Donkey Kong, because she's grilling me like a villain. In layman's terms, an interview. She cheated outrageously by asking me about 20 questions in a 5 question format, but that's okay, she's merely trying to be in depth. So without any further ado, I give you the figh...I mean, interview. My answers italicized.

VS.

1) Let's start with a little back round (sic) question; Most of us are aware you have a dear (and may I say long-suffering) wife. How did you meet, how long have you been together, are you both from the same State, what are your pet names for each other, and do you wish to have any children, if so, what kind of a father do you think you will be?

She's not all that long suffering, actually. We've been married less than a year. August 12th will be the year anniversary. We met using an online dating service, which, if you're anything like me, I highly recommend. The only drawback is that people can't seem to differentiate "online personals" with "meeting someone in a chat room and 'falling in love' then meeting." We talked for a few days, then went on a date. If this were 25 years ago, it'd have been newspaper personals. Same beast, different technology. We've been together coming up on 3 years, total.

Yes, we're both from the same state (Maryland).

Pet names? Beyond baby and honey, we really don't use pet names anymore.

Children are in the future, yes. Give us a couple of years. I'm actually quite scared to death about what kind of a father I'll be, but Jessie assures me I'll do fine. I do always joke that if we have a daughter, she's screwed. She's so gonna hate me when she gets to be a teen. I'm only partially joking, though.

2) Are you a political animal? What are your views on the war in Iraq? Have you ever been to any political rallies/protests? What are your views on global warming? (Yeah, I know, I'm making you work hard with all these multiple questions, but these are my rules now, hehehe..)

Yes, you are, you cheater. I have views, but I wouldn't say I'm an animal. I try to stay mostly out of that stuff because if I were to start waving my political flag on a regular basis, I'd get in to altercations. Anyway, I'm diametrically opposed to the war in Iraq. When it started, I was skeptical, but willing to give some benefit of the doubt to the administration. Now that the pretenses for entering were proven false, and the whole thing has become FUBAR, I support the troops. Meaning "I support their right to not die." In order to not cause any altercations, I will not continue on that line of thought.

Global warming? Well, it's pretty much scientific fact. However, I don't claim to know what's actually going to happen, or when, as a result of the greenhouse effect.

3) We all occasionally put our foot in it, our show ourselves up in some cringe-inducing fashion, I should imagine this is something you might do on a regular basis - what is the most memorable one for you?

I think I've managed to repress most of those memories. You're right though, I tend to do this on a semi-regular basis, on very small scales every time. But nothing like, story-time memorable, though. Not that comes immediately to mind. Sorry to disappoint.

4) What is the first job you ever had, and what does your job entail now? What do you see yourself doing ten years from now, and if you could pick your dream job, what would it be?

Paper boy. That's pretty standard around here. The first like, "go to work, get cut a paycheck" type job was at Chuck E Cheese. I've discussed that before. I've also discussed my current job, but basically, I'm an audio/visual/multimedia engineer. Sound guy, light man, and computer/projection guru in one awesometacular package. In ten years, I haven't the slightest clue. Ten years ago I would never in a million years have predicted this outcome for myself, so I'm not about to try and predict the results of the next ten.

My absolute dream job would be to own my own theatre, and then produce/executive produce the material. Live, mind you, not film.

5) If money were no object, (after you bail everyone else out and give to any good causes) what would you do with the rest of your life?

The theatre ownership thing. If money were no object, it'd be spectacular. I could make it state of the art and keep it that way, and do whatever I wanted there. I could put on spectacles of budget excess one season, then put on a struggling playwrights work the next.

And there we have it. Of course, this is a cross promotional type thing, which means if you want to...I can interview you. Here be the rules, you scalliwags.

Do YOU want to be interviewed?

Interview rules

1. Leave me a comment saying “Interview me.”

2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions. If you don't have your email on your blog or profile, make sure I get it somehow.

3. You will update your blog with a post containing your answers to the questions.

4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.

5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.