In which Zach breaks his LJ hiatus
It's been a while since I posted anything, and here I break this silence for a bit of interactive journal participation.
Below is an interview between me and Vambot5, the internet's sexiest robot mathmatician.
Vambot5: You're from Noble, yet I don't think I've ever heard you speak fondly of life there. Was it always that way? Or was there a time in your life when life there became dissatisfying for you?
WrexSoul: No, Noble has been pretty much been a dark, pussing pimple growing in the shadow of the much bigger neighboring town of Norman. I've been jealous of Norman ever since I made friends who came from there and heard all the stories about how much better it was.
It probably first started when I was in first grade- I was in Soccer with a team in Norman (because there weren't enough people for a Noble team) and got first place. The next year, when I joined the Noble team, we got last place in our district. Since then it's just been everything from the people (far less cowboys in Norman), to the scholastics- I envied Norman's orchestra, its math classes, its Latin.
Noble wasn't terrible, but as far as I'm concerned it pretty well sucked going there.
V5: You play piano, I've heard you play some trumpet, and you play a pretty mean recorder. Would you rather learn another instrument in those same categories, or a completely different one? Which instrument might you like to learn, and why?
W: Instruments I have learned to play in the past (in order as I can recall learning them): piano, oboe, trumpet, french horn, mellaphone, recorder, bassoon, shamisen, hand-flute... I probably learned how to make a sound and some notes on several others, and I have forgotten most of what I learned from those listed above.
If I were to pick up a musical instrument again, to learn something new, I'd probably want to learn something different fundamentally from what I already know. Aside from shamisen, I have never learned to play any stringed instruments, and I think if I could pick any, I'd like to learn the electric bass. I just appreciate the kind of sound you can make, and think a nice driving bass line or the all-too-elusive bass melody line is just too cool.
I'd also like to learn the drums, but I honestly don't think I'm coordinated enough.
V5: You wear jungle boots all the time. What do you like so much about them?
W: I wear them any weather, any season, with any clothes, and they're always acceptable. I like the support of the ankle-high bootline, and the ventilation of canvas. More importantly, I don't think about shoes much, and they're my only pair. This particular pair is due for a replacement. We'll see if I get some jungle boots again. Signs point to yes.
V5: Spoze you never had the opportunity to learn Japanese. Would you have wanted to learn a different language, or would you have been happy with your high school spanish and left it at that? If you would have learned a different language, which would you have chosen, and why?
W: I doubt I'd have the continuing interest in another language to pursue it as I did with Japanese. I had only the most passing interest in Spanish, even though I was naturally very adept at learning a new language.
If I could choose any other language to speak, right now I'd like to know how to speak Chinese, Korean, and German. Learning a whole family of east asian languages is interesting, and gives a lot of insights into different means of communication and many of the things we take for granted as demi-romance language-speakers. Also, at least for Japanese, learning Chinese is a double-edge sword as it both reinforces the kanji and the sound origins of many words, but also subverts it by its subtly different similarities.
Most of this interest in foreign languages came after studying Japanese though. I probably would have been content to be uni-lingual and taken my degree without a single foreign language class.
V5: You're pretty good at video games. Do you think you have a particular talent for playing them, or are you just good at it because you've been playing for so long?
W:I'm good at a lot of things I do. I also suck at a lot of things I do (or often, don't do). Video games just happens to relate to part of me that I'm good at, the reasoning and reaction skills. Whether I'm naturally good at this kind of thing, or if these talents were fostered by my hours of playing games that demanded them, I can't say for sure. Probably, it's a combination. I tend to not do the things I'm not at least marginally good at naturally. This probably applies to video games, too.
I have noticed, however, people who don't play video games ever, and never played them as a child, tend to lack the familiarity with the input devices that is crucial to being good at them.
I would say with confidence though, that I think my strong points include planning, reasoning, and strategy (tactics, strategy, and role playing games) and real-time reaction, judgment, and pattern-matching or spacial skills (puzzle and action games). Unsurprisingly, those are my favorite kinds of games. I'm admittedly not as good at, say, first person shooters.
And now the obligatory self-perpetuation mechanism:
If you read all this, you can be interviewed too! Here are the rules:
1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I will respond by asking you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will post the answers to the questions (and the questions themselves) on your blog.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post. (or a separate post, but not too long after. Be honest here, people!)
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.
Know, though, that I may or may not come up with questions.
We'll just see.
Below is an interview between me and Vambot5, the internet's sexiest robot mathmatician.
Vambot5: You're from Noble, yet I don't think I've ever heard you speak fondly of life there. Was it always that way? Or was there a time in your life when life there became dissatisfying for you?
WrexSoul: No, Noble has been pretty much been a dark, pussing pimple growing in the shadow of the much bigger neighboring town of Norman. I've been jealous of Norman ever since I made friends who came from there and heard all the stories about how much better it was.
It probably first started when I was in first grade- I was in Soccer with a team in Norman (because there weren't enough people for a Noble team) and got first place. The next year, when I joined the Noble team, we got last place in our district. Since then it's just been everything from the people (far less cowboys in Norman), to the scholastics- I envied Norman's orchestra, its math classes, its Latin.
Noble wasn't terrible, but as far as I'm concerned it pretty well sucked going there.
V5: You play piano, I've heard you play some trumpet, and you play a pretty mean recorder. Would you rather learn another instrument in those same categories, or a completely different one? Which instrument might you like to learn, and why?
W: Instruments I have learned to play in the past (in order as I can recall learning them): piano, oboe, trumpet, french horn, mellaphone, recorder, bassoon, shamisen, hand-flute... I probably learned how to make a sound and some notes on several others, and I have forgotten most of what I learned from those listed above.
If I were to pick up a musical instrument again, to learn something new, I'd probably want to learn something different fundamentally from what I already know. Aside from shamisen, I have never learned to play any stringed instruments, and I think if I could pick any, I'd like to learn the electric bass. I just appreciate the kind of sound you can make, and think a nice driving bass line or the all-too-elusive bass melody line is just too cool.
I'd also like to learn the drums, but I honestly don't think I'm coordinated enough.
V5: You wear jungle boots all the time. What do you like so much about them?
W: I wear them any weather, any season, with any clothes, and they're always acceptable. I like the support of the ankle-high bootline, and the ventilation of canvas. More importantly, I don't think about shoes much, and they're my only pair. This particular pair is due for a replacement. We'll see if I get some jungle boots again. Signs point to yes.
V5: Spoze you never had the opportunity to learn Japanese. Would you have wanted to learn a different language, or would you have been happy with your high school spanish and left it at that? If you would have learned a different language, which would you have chosen, and why?
W: I doubt I'd have the continuing interest in another language to pursue it as I did with Japanese. I had only the most passing interest in Spanish, even though I was naturally very adept at learning a new language.
If I could choose any other language to speak, right now I'd like to know how to speak Chinese, Korean, and German. Learning a whole family of east asian languages is interesting, and gives a lot of insights into different means of communication and many of the things we take for granted as demi-romance language-speakers. Also, at least for Japanese, learning Chinese is a double-edge sword as it both reinforces the kanji and the sound origins of many words, but also subverts it by its subtly different similarities.
Most of this interest in foreign languages came after studying Japanese though. I probably would have been content to be uni-lingual and taken my degree without a single foreign language class.
V5: You're pretty good at video games. Do you think you have a particular talent for playing them, or are you just good at it because you've been playing for so long?
W:I'm good at a lot of things I do. I also suck at a lot of things I do (or often, don't do). Video games just happens to relate to part of me that I'm good at, the reasoning and reaction skills. Whether I'm naturally good at this kind of thing, or if these talents were fostered by my hours of playing games that demanded them, I can't say for sure. Probably, it's a combination. I tend to not do the things I'm not at least marginally good at naturally. This probably applies to video games, too.
I have noticed, however, people who don't play video games ever, and never played them as a child, tend to lack the familiarity with the input devices that is crucial to being good at them.
I would say with confidence though, that I think my strong points include planning, reasoning, and strategy (tactics, strategy, and role playing games) and real-time reaction, judgment, and pattern-matching or spacial skills (puzzle and action games). Unsurprisingly, those are my favorite kinds of games. I'm admittedly not as good at, say, first person shooters.
And now the obligatory self-perpetuation mechanism:
If you read all this, you can be interviewed too! Here are the rules:
1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I will respond by asking you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will post the answers to the questions (and the questions themselves) on your blog.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post. (or a separate post, but not too long after. Be honest here, people!)
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.
Know, though, that I may or may not come up with questions.
We'll just see.