Interview - Mousetrout
Interview from mousetrout from this post. Feel free to continue asking questions.
If you could change one aspect of your life with the swish of a magic wand, what would it be?
Reluctantly, I'd say I would have passed a bar exam. The tricky part is that I don't know that I want to be an attorney, but I do know that I feel a little bit like my career is caught in stasis.
It also is a hit to my ego that I haven't been able to pass it. Or more precisely my confidence. Combined with the student loan debt I don't have a lot of confidence about taking chances.
Where do you see yourself settling down/retiring/staying forever?
Ideally San Diego. San Francisco is, in theory, an option. I'd consider going back east to live in D.C. We occasionally talk about Portland. But the ideal is San Diego.
Is there a compelling, awesome or hilarious from your formative years you're dying to tell?
One of the things about livejournal is that I think I have used up all my good anecdotes. I actually have a convoluted theory about how this is what is really killing livejournal - most of the people who us it most often joined at about the same time (2001 - 2006), and have been going long enough to have exhausted most of their best stories, which makes it harder to reach new people and update frequently ("I've already written about that.").
I will mention a tidbit that I'm sure I've mentioned before: my first memory is of standing in the hospital when my brother was born. I was probably about 2 1/2 years old. I don't have a second oldest memory (all of the other early memories blur). But I remember the old 70s style industrial green wall, and how distracted my father was. I remember him talking to someone who I couldn't see or hear (because I wasn't tall enough) and how I put my fingers over the edges of the desk/counter and tried to pull myself up. Then I started tugging on his pants, but he was distracted.
Describe your happyland dream job. Is it one that's attainable, and are there steps you can take to achieve it, or is it something whimsical and lofty?
This relates to the first problem, but I'm not sure I have one. My ideal job would be high paying, low pressure, challenging enough not to bore me, but not so challenging as to stress me out. Probably the biggest thing would be that ideally the job would not be fast paced.
Oddly, I have always been attracted to being a bureaucrat, which probably says something really terrible about my character. Though in reality, it would probably pay too little and the caseload would probably be overwhelming.
While it is not practically obtainable, perhaps the best answer would be 'highly paid political blogger.' However it's not like there are really concrete steps one can take to do that. I mean I could blog more about politics. Publicly. But that would be hard.
What was the last amazing book you read?
I've actually tracked every book I've read so far this year!
If we're going to hold 'amazing' to a high standard, it would be Mary Shelly's Frankenstein. I didn't know if it would hold up, but I actually found it pretty awesome.
While not quite to the level of awesome, I'm falling in love with an author I've just discovered named Reggie Nadelson. She writes a mystery series about a Russian-born New York Detective named Artie Cohen.
I am a fan of mystery novels generally, including some really crappy ones. Still, it is a genre were exceptional writers can thrive, and Nadelson, so far, reminds me of the best of the best. Two and a half books in (Londongrad and Bloody London in, I'm simply stunned (in part because until I picked up Londongrad on a whim, I had never heard of her). I recommend both (I am also halfway through Fresh Kills and expect more of the same).
If you could change one aspect of your life with the swish of a magic wand, what would it be?
Reluctantly, I'd say I would have passed a bar exam. The tricky part is that I don't know that I want to be an attorney, but I do know that I feel a little bit like my career is caught in stasis.
It also is a hit to my ego that I haven't been able to pass it. Or more precisely my confidence. Combined with the student loan debt I don't have a lot of confidence about taking chances.
Where do you see yourself settling down/retiring/staying forever?
Ideally San Diego. San Francisco is, in theory, an option. I'd consider going back east to live in D.C. We occasionally talk about Portland. But the ideal is San Diego.
Is there a compelling, awesome or hilarious from your formative years you're dying to tell?
One of the things about livejournal is that I think I have used up all my good anecdotes. I actually have a convoluted theory about how this is what is really killing livejournal - most of the people who us it most often joined at about the same time (2001 - 2006), and have been going long enough to have exhausted most of their best stories, which makes it harder to reach new people and update frequently ("I've already written about that.").
I will mention a tidbit that I'm sure I've mentioned before: my first memory is of standing in the hospital when my brother was born. I was probably about 2 1/2 years old. I don't have a second oldest memory (all of the other early memories blur). But I remember the old 70s style industrial green wall, and how distracted my father was. I remember him talking to someone who I couldn't see or hear (because I wasn't tall enough) and how I put my fingers over the edges of the desk/counter and tried to pull myself up. Then I started tugging on his pants, but he was distracted.
Describe your happyland dream job. Is it one that's attainable, and are there steps you can take to achieve it, or is it something whimsical and lofty?
This relates to the first problem, but I'm not sure I have one. My ideal job would be high paying, low pressure, challenging enough not to bore me, but not so challenging as to stress me out. Probably the biggest thing would be that ideally the job would not be fast paced.
Oddly, I have always been attracted to being a bureaucrat, which probably says something really terrible about my character. Though in reality, it would probably pay too little and the caseload would probably be overwhelming.
While it is not practically obtainable, perhaps the best answer would be 'highly paid political blogger.' However it's not like there are really concrete steps one can take to do that. I mean I could blog more about politics. Publicly. But that would be hard.
What was the last amazing book you read?
I've actually tracked every book I've read so far this year!
If we're going to hold 'amazing' to a high standard, it would be Mary Shelly's Frankenstein. I didn't know if it would hold up, but I actually found it pretty awesome.
While not quite to the level of awesome, I'm falling in love with an author I've just discovered named Reggie Nadelson. She writes a mystery series about a Russian-born New York Detective named Artie Cohen.
I am a fan of mystery novels generally, including some really crappy ones. Still, it is a genre were exceptional writers can thrive, and Nadelson, so far, reminds me of the best of the best. Two and a half books in (Londongrad and Bloody London in, I'm simply stunned (in part because until I picked up Londongrad on a whim, I had never heard of her). I recommend both (I am also halfway through Fresh Kills and expect more of the same).