interviewed by hlinspjalda
The interview meme is making the rounds again.
1. What key does your voice naturally prefer to sing in?
Based on some quick trials: A or B-flat (major) and their relative minors, mostly. There's enough variation that I suspect it has to do more with other factors, but I'm not sure what they all are. (Tesitura and overall range are probably two.)
2. What's your favorite piece of adaptive technology?
Firefox. Seriously. With extensions like Stylish and Greasemonkey, it's possible to change the appearance of badly-designed web sites to the point where I can use them without making my eyeballs bleed or getting horrible headaches. I am but a neophyte in properly using those tools, which have way more power than I know how to tap into so far, but even the little bit that I know has made a huge difference for me.
The adaptive technology I crave hasn't been invented yet: I want glasses that can be user-adjusted for focus, light filtering, and the like. At my ophthamologist's office I encounter gadgetry that does this (the machine that auto-focuses an image by scanning my eyeball, as a starting point for a glasses prescription, is awesome), but no one has yet bundled it up into a multi-function wearable device.
3. Which is your favorite trope?
Either zakeif gadol (dramatic but not overly so) or dargah when paired with t'vir (nice symmetry, and pretty). I'm talking about regular torah trope here; I don't know haftarah or high-holy-day trope yet, to say nothing of the megillot. (The only megillah trope I've heard is Eicha; our rabbis usually read rather than chant.)
4. It's Shavuot. Blintz soufflé, or luckshen kugel?
That's hard. :-) I think the kugel, even though I've never actually made it myself. (I've made kugels, but not luckshen in particular.) I do like blintzes, but I don't require them to be in souffle form in particular.
5. Do you see yourself eventually retiring (or moving) to another place, or staying where you are?
I see us staying put. Sure, there are drawbacks (particularly if you pay taxes instead of consuming them), but Pittsburgh has the right balance between "small enough that you can get around and not feel stifled by the looming apartment buildings" and "large enough to have a good variety of things to do". I like having a 15-minute commute (off-peak) but having my choice of theatre, museums, art, music, geekery, libraries, etc. We have friends, family, and community here, and (for me) an excellent congregation and rabbi. The people are generally decent. The weather, while having rough spots at both extremes, is overall decent. Things are generally affordable, particularly housing.
1. What key does your voice naturally prefer to sing in?
Based on some quick trials: A or B-flat (major) and their relative minors, mostly. There's enough variation that I suspect it has to do more with other factors, but I'm not sure what they all are. (Tesitura and overall range are probably two.)
2. What's your favorite piece of adaptive technology?
Firefox. Seriously. With extensions like Stylish and Greasemonkey, it's possible to change the appearance of badly-designed web sites to the point where I can use them without making my eyeballs bleed or getting horrible headaches. I am but a neophyte in properly using those tools, which have way more power than I know how to tap into so far, but even the little bit that I know has made a huge difference for me.
The adaptive technology I crave hasn't been invented yet: I want glasses that can be user-adjusted for focus, light filtering, and the like. At my ophthamologist's office I encounter gadgetry that does this (the machine that auto-focuses an image by scanning my eyeball, as a starting point for a glasses prescription, is awesome), but no one has yet bundled it up into a multi-function wearable device.
3. Which is your favorite trope?
Either zakeif gadol (dramatic but not overly so) or dargah when paired with t'vir (nice symmetry, and pretty). I'm talking about regular torah trope here; I don't know haftarah or high-holy-day trope yet, to say nothing of the megillot. (The only megillah trope I've heard is Eicha; our rabbis usually read rather than chant.)
4. It's Shavuot. Blintz soufflé, or luckshen kugel?
That's hard. :-) I think the kugel, even though I've never actually made it myself. (I've made kugels, but not luckshen in particular.) I do like blintzes, but I don't require them to be in souffle form in particular.
5. Do you see yourself eventually retiring (or moving) to another place, or staying where you are?
I see us staying put. Sure, there are drawbacks (particularly if you pay taxes instead of consuming them), but Pittsburgh has the right balance between "small enough that you can get around and not feel stifled by the looming apartment buildings" and "large enough to have a good variety of things to do". I like having a 15-minute commute (off-peak) but having my choice of theatre, museums, art, music, geekery, libraries, etc. We have friends, family, and community here, and (for me) an excellent congregation and rabbi. The people are generally decent. The weather, while having rough spots at both extremes, is overall decent. Things are generally affordable, particularly housing.