Life As It Comes 
Friday (More Than) Five3 Comments
1. Quick: you have a three day weekend and 1500 USD, where are you going and who are you bringing?
In light of the Texas heat and the fact that I’ve wanted to for a while, I’d go to Alaska. It’s within a reasonable distance, so I wouldn’t be spending all my time traveling too. I’d take Bear Grylls with me. That way I could do really challenging, exciting stuff, but also probably not die.
2. Who has left you the greatest music-only voicemail in the last couple weeks? What was the song, if you don’t mind me asking?
That would be you, Cory. The song is by Prince.
3. How many languages would you like to be able to speak?
Let’s answer this as if I could learn them a la the Matrix and just have them uploaded to my brain…. In that case I’d say: Latin, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, German, Arabic, Pirahã. I’m already counting English and Spanish.
4. What is your least favorite homeowner chore?
Cleaning the toilets.
5. After you go climbing, do you feel really cool when your forearms bulge?
Absolutely.
6. Better spanish/spanish traditional artist: Dali or El Greco?
Forced to choose between the two, El Greco.
7. Something you’re allergic to or something you find disgusting?
To do what with? Disgusting. No, allergic. Allergic.
8. If you had to find a little lost puppy, where would you start looking?
Bonus: would you give up?
The pound. Bonus: “That little boy’s gotta think ‘You got a pet. You got a responsibility.’ If your dog is lost, you don’t look for an hour then call it quits…..”
Friday Five6 Comments
1. Do you feel like you’d rather be a bit character/extra in your own life story or a supporting actor in someone else’s?
I’m going to go with a supporting actor in someone else’s, because you’ve got to accept roles that will build your body of work, right? No one’s going to cast Stan Lee as a supporting actor in a superhero movie if he keeps playing those bit-parts. 
2. Who do you think will be the better uncle to Kimi’s kids?
Who do you think will be the schmetter uncle to Kimi’s kids? It depends on what qualifies as “better.” If better means not being afraid of them, then I think I might win.
3. What are your five favorite things?
» Travel
» Fine Dining
» Water
» Time with People I Care About
» Movies/Music/Culture(s)
» Backgammon/Badminton
» Toaster Strudel
4. What keeps Austin more weird: the bats or the camels?
I’m going to go with bats. Plenty of cities have camels. Only one city has “the world’s largest urban bat population.”
5. So what were you doing Wednesday night?
I came home and fell asleep on the couch until 10:30. Oops.
Bonus: What is the lie in which you are most complicit, and what is the truth that most feeds your life?
This one’s too deep for me this week. Try asking again in the future.
Clearly I was in a goofy mood for this week’s entry. Everyone, please do me a favor, and leave the next week’s questions in the previous week’s post. Thanks.
Friday Five11 Comments
In an effort to blog more regularly (I’ll get up that NZ synopsis soon, I promise), Cory and I have decided to do a Friday Five.
However, instead of using pre-generated questions, we’re going to let you ask them. So have at it. The comments are open. I’ll choose my favorite five questions to answer (and maybe a bonus if they are all good ones) on Friday.
Update: To clarify, anyone can list questions, you don’t have to list five, and I will be picking five from all the submitted questions.
Answers:
1. What’s something you thought was hilarious at the time, but now you’re a little bit ashamed of?
When I was in Junior High, I came to school one day, and all the teachers would yell at or pick on all the students with blue eyes for no reason. Students were getting assigned detention, etc and had to wear pieces of tape on their clothes to signify that they were of the “undesirable” eye color. I remember this distinctly: I went to my locker after one class and made a comment to another student about how this was very discriminatory but that I was getting a kick out of the experience (I have brown/hazel eyes). I justify feeling that way now because it was something mysterious and out-of-the-ordinary, but I probably could have/should have been more outraged on behalf of my classmates and/or more somber about the experience. At the end of the day, we had an assembly for our grade-level (I think), and we all watched the made-for-TV-movie The Wave. Apparently our little social experiment was based loosely on that movie and was meant to show us how easy it is to fall into a groupthink-mentality and discrimination, even when on your own you might feel differently. It is also often used as a teaching tool to discuss Nazi Germany. I definitely learned my lesson though on that day and was ashamed to find out that I am capable of every treachery, every sin just the same as any other human.
2. What is something you’re willing to compromise on? Something you’re not willing to compromise on at all?
I’m willing to compromise on getting my way in certain situations (though less so in the last few years, since I used to do this too much previously), but I am not willing to compromise in ways that I object to morally or ethically.
3. How long can you hold your breath and how does this rank among other white, male engineers?
I think my answer would have to be: “I’ve never discovered my max.” When I was in Junior High (again), our Sunday School class had a contest to see who could hold it the longest. I won easily with a time that was over 1 minute (I don’t remember what it was), but I stopped soon after everyone else stopped. Cursory Googling has revealed that there are differences between the average above-water and below-water times as well as differences among cold water versus warmer water and deep water versus shallow water. All-in-all, the highest I saw in search results was 15 minutes (inhaling pure oxygen beforehand) by some Lithuanian performance magicians. You may recall that David Blaine attempted a breath-holding feat not long ago on national TV. I believe he made it to some 8 or so minutes after being submerged underwater for days at a time prior to the attempt. I think the average is somewhere around 2 or 3 minutes before losing consciousness for people who have not trained lately or do not train.
4. Do you find that you’re frightened of the ocean? Why/why not?
I think I would be frightened of a plane I was on crashing into the ocean. I also would be frightened of being shipwrecked in the ocean. However, these fears mostly have to do with sharks, dehydration, third-degree sunburns, and death more so than the ocean itself. No, I wouldn’t consider myself afraid of the ocean.
5. If/when you have a house built, what are 3 features you would want included?
1 bowling alley
2 jungle-gym
3 planetarium
… kidding …
immodest list:
1 water garden landscaping/pool
2 theatre room
3 smart-home computer system
modest list:
1 tall counters and shower heads
2 screened porch/deck
3 elaborate kitchen
