Comfy Questions and Answers, Part 3

In the interests of brevity and not boring everyone to death, I’ll edit the rest of these down to a few sentences.

12. “What is your family ancestry?” My family came from a group of Anabaptists who originated in Switzerland, moved to what is now Ukraine, and emigrated to Kansas en masse around 1874.

13. “What scares you?” A whole lot of things, mostly personal.

14. “What are you most grateful for?” Life, consciousness, self-awareness.

15. “Dream job?” Anything where I get to work on interesting, creative projects in the fields of software development, music, video, or writing. (Although I have to admit, software development is but a shadow of the fun it once was.)

16. “Do you believe in aliens?” I don’t believe in little gray men who abduct people, if that’s the question, but it seems like a statistical certainty that other forms of life exist in the universe. It’s unlikely we’ll ever see it, though.

17. “Favourite sport?” I used to love tennis, but Pete Sampras killed my enjoyment of that sport with his rather boring tendency to win every time. It’s still my favorite sport to play, though I haven’t held a racket in twenty years. I used to watch a lot of (American) football too, but I haven’t watched much of anything in the last ten years or so.

18. “How do you relax after a long day?” Writing, watching television, playing games. Anything familiar.

19. “If you could meet one historical figure, who would you choose and why?” Most of the historical figures of interest to me have had dozens or hundreds of books written about them, so meeting them would be pointless. I’d be more interested in historical figures we don’t know much about. Here’s one example that comes to mind: Several years back I read a lot about the Salem Witch Trials, and I became fascinated with the all-too-vague story of a woman named Elizabeth Cary. She was imprisoned, but “escaped” before trial. I always wondered about the details of that escape, and would love to write a historical fiction story about that someday.

20. “If you had to be a teacher, what subject would you teach?” Software development. Critical thinking. How to build a home recording studio. How to write a lot without making any money for it.

21. “Describe your perfect day.” Learning something new, accomplishing something I set out to do, making progress on whatever project I’m working on, not having to worry about some impending disaster.

22. “Describe yourself in a sentence.” That’s impossible to give a serious answer to. Even obituaries are full paragraphs.

23. “Who makes you laugh the most?” Anyone who still has the courage to joke about politically incorrect topics in 2018, a practice which might soon become illegal. George Carlin was a big inspiration to me.

24. “What superpower would you choose?” I don’t believe in superpowers. I have real powers in real life, which I try to cultivate every day through practice and experience.

25. “Favourite animal?” I think squirrels are fascinating to watch. Recently I’ve found birds to be equally fascinating. I’ve always wanted to meet a raccoon, but I never have.

26. “Biggest accomplishment?” Co-running a software company for a decade (before startups were cool). A lot of little personal creative projects… songs, albums, videos, stories, manuscripts. Transcribing my grandfather’s handwritten WW1 diaries and letters. Hopefully many future projects.