(no subject)
Meme via Erica_roo
Here are the rules:
1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I will respond by asking you 5 questions of a very personal nature.
3. You will update your LJ with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this and an offer to interview someone else in the post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them 5 questions.
My questions from Erica_roo (behind the cut):
1. What is the proudest moment of your life?
Most of the time, I don't like pride. Pride gets people into trouble. It was through pride that the Devil became the Devil, and those few times in life I really did think I was all that AND the bag of chips I invariably got smacked down hard. The happiest moments of my life went beyond petty pride. Joy holds no pride, it only holds thankfulness, and while it probably would be the expected thing to say "walking down the aisle with my wife" or "holding my newborn son for the first time," those moments weren't Pride. They were Joy.
There are, however, two incidents that really can be classified as pride, and I earned both of them.
First, when I won the Geometry section of the North Central Kansas Math Contest when I was in 7th grade. It was the only time in my life I stood on a stage and people applauded just for me. And not only did I take first place cleanly, I beat my nemesis Amy Alexander to do it, so there was more than a measure of pride in that.
Second, my first assignment at Cessna was to do a competitor's analysis on the Eclipse 500. If you don't know the story of the e-clips, here's the short form: Vern Raburn (of Microsoft fame) decided to start an airplane company to make little, tiny business jets. He raised a lot of capital by badmouthing everybody else in the industry, calling us 'dinosaurs' and such. In my analysis I concluded that they weren't going to be able to make their target cruise speed with the engines they were reported to have, and there was no way they were making their range numbers. I wrote the memo, but hand-wringing about Eclipse continued among some of my higher-ups. Then, a few years later, when Eclipse was actually in development, we got word at a staff meeting that 1. they had ditched the Williams engines they were going to use in favor of bigger Pratt & Whitney engines, and 2. They were making wingtip fuel tanks standard. At that moment, I felt absolutely vindicated. The junior engineer at Cessna knew more about airplanes than the glad-handing CEO of Eclipse. If I ever meet Vern face-to-face, I fully intend to tell him about my analysis, point at him, and laugh.
2. What is your biggest regret?
My biggest regret is that I wasted the better part of 15 years of my life, nursing an emotional attachment to a woman who never, ever had any sort of attachment to me. It affected every single relationship I ever had, and only within the last three years (and I've been married 8 1/2 years) have I really put it behind me. I wasted so much time, the prime of my life, with her image gnawing at the back of my mind. That is time I will never get back, and there is nobody to blame for it except myself.
3. What is your favorite ice cream flavor?
Strawberry. Vanilla is a staple, I always thought Chocolate was overrated (as an ice cream flavor), and stuff like Butter Rum and Rocky Road and Cherry Garcia and the like I always thought of as overdone. Strawberry is the perfect ice cream (when made properly). It's a unique flavor, it has bits of fruit in it, and it still mixes well with any syrup or topping you want to put with it. When I was visiting Burlington, Vermont (when I was working in Montreal) and went to an actual Ben & Jerry's shop, I ordered Strawberry. I don't care how many dozens of flavors you can put in one overpriced little container, the true test of the skill of an ice cream maker is how good their Strawberry is.
For the record, Ben & Jerry's Strawberry did, in fact, past muster.
4. If you could choose to relive one happy memory any time you wanted to, what would that memory be about?
It has to do with Veronica, and that's all I'm at liberty to say.
5. If you were granted just 1 wish, what would you wish for (and extra wishes are not allowable).
Here's the funny thing: As many mistakes as I've made in life, I wouldn't change anything that happened to this point. The current timeline has ended up being pretty darn good for me, and there are a couple of people in my life who I wouldn't want to risk not ever knowing. Immortality on this Earth doesn't interest me because 1. I believe that immortality awaits us elsewhere, and 2. At some point the sun would nova and I'd be stuck here, trying to swim to one of the moons of Jupiter so I could try and cobble together a ship to a planet with Strawberry ice cream under the light of a white dwarf. Mo' money, mo' problems, and I've read "The Monkey's Paw," so that's right out, and I can't even make some high-minded wish that all would see the love of Christ because that would violate free will.
Wisdom. I would wish for wisdom. You can do a lot of things with wisdom, and I'm still young enough to accomplish most of them. I could earn a lot of money, and I'd be wise enough to know where to spend it and who to donate it to. I'd know how to be a good father, husband, and son-in-law. I'd know how to barbecue brisket. I could evangelize for the Lord without sounding like a complete tool. Wisdom is better than money, and it makes the best use of the time you have. It doesn't, by itself, impinge on anybody else, and strangely enough there is precedent. When God asked Solomon what he wanted most Solomon asked for Wisdom, and God was so pleased with him that He gave him lots of swag to go with it.
Here are the rules:
1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I will respond by asking you 5 questions of a very personal nature.
3. You will update your LJ with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this and an offer to interview someone else in the post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them 5 questions.
My questions from Erica_roo (behind the cut):
1. What is the proudest moment of your life?
Most of the time, I don't like pride. Pride gets people into trouble. It was through pride that the Devil became the Devil, and those few times in life I really did think I was all that AND the bag of chips I invariably got smacked down hard. The happiest moments of my life went beyond petty pride. Joy holds no pride, it only holds thankfulness, and while it probably would be the expected thing to say "walking down the aisle with my wife" or "holding my newborn son for the first time," those moments weren't Pride. They were Joy.
There are, however, two incidents that really can be classified as pride, and I earned both of them.
First, when I won the Geometry section of the North Central Kansas Math Contest when I was in 7th grade. It was the only time in my life I stood on a stage and people applauded just for me. And not only did I take first place cleanly, I beat my nemesis Amy Alexander to do it, so there was more than a measure of pride in that.
Second, my first assignment at Cessna was to do a competitor's analysis on the Eclipse 500. If you don't know the story of the e-clips, here's the short form: Vern Raburn (of Microsoft fame) decided to start an airplane company to make little, tiny business jets. He raised a lot of capital by badmouthing everybody else in the industry, calling us 'dinosaurs' and such. In my analysis I concluded that they weren't going to be able to make their target cruise speed with the engines they were reported to have, and there was no way they were making their range numbers. I wrote the memo, but hand-wringing about Eclipse continued among some of my higher-ups. Then, a few years later, when Eclipse was actually in development, we got word at a staff meeting that 1. they had ditched the Williams engines they were going to use in favor of bigger Pratt & Whitney engines, and 2. They were making wingtip fuel tanks standard. At that moment, I felt absolutely vindicated. The junior engineer at Cessna knew more about airplanes than the glad-handing CEO of Eclipse. If I ever meet Vern face-to-face, I fully intend to tell him about my analysis, point at him, and laugh.
2. What is your biggest regret?
My biggest regret is that I wasted the better part of 15 years of my life, nursing an emotional attachment to a woman who never, ever had any sort of attachment to me. It affected every single relationship I ever had, and only within the last three years (and I've been married 8 1/2 years) have I really put it behind me. I wasted so much time, the prime of my life, with her image gnawing at the back of my mind. That is time I will never get back, and there is nobody to blame for it except myself.
3. What is your favorite ice cream flavor?
Strawberry. Vanilla is a staple, I always thought Chocolate was overrated (as an ice cream flavor), and stuff like Butter Rum and Rocky Road and Cherry Garcia and the like I always thought of as overdone. Strawberry is the perfect ice cream (when made properly). It's a unique flavor, it has bits of fruit in it, and it still mixes well with any syrup or topping you want to put with it. When I was visiting Burlington, Vermont (when I was working in Montreal) and went to an actual Ben & Jerry's shop, I ordered Strawberry. I don't care how many dozens of flavors you can put in one overpriced little container, the true test of the skill of an ice cream maker is how good their Strawberry is.
For the record, Ben & Jerry's Strawberry did, in fact, past muster.
4. If you could choose to relive one happy memory any time you wanted to, what would that memory be about?
It has to do with Veronica, and that's all I'm at liberty to say.
5. If you were granted just 1 wish, what would you wish for (and extra wishes are not allowable).
Here's the funny thing: As many mistakes as I've made in life, I wouldn't change anything that happened to this point. The current timeline has ended up being pretty darn good for me, and there are a couple of people in my life who I wouldn't want to risk not ever knowing. Immortality on this Earth doesn't interest me because 1. I believe that immortality awaits us elsewhere, and 2. At some point the sun would nova and I'd be stuck here, trying to swim to one of the moons of Jupiter so I could try and cobble together a ship to a planet with Strawberry ice cream under the light of a white dwarf. Mo' money, mo' problems, and I've read "The Monkey's Paw," so that's right out, and I can't even make some high-minded wish that all would see the love of Christ because that would violate free will.
Wisdom. I would wish for wisdom. You can do a lot of things with wisdom, and I'm still young enough to accomplish most of them. I could earn a lot of money, and I'd be wise enough to know where to spend it and who to donate it to. I'd know how to be a good father, husband, and son-in-law. I'd know how to barbecue brisket. I could evangelize for the Lord without sounding like a complete tool. Wisdom is better than money, and it makes the best use of the time you have. It doesn't, by itself, impinge on anybody else, and strangely enough there is precedent. When God asked Solomon what he wanted most Solomon asked for Wisdom, and God was so pleased with him that He gave him lots of swag to go with it.