Questions

My older sister had these questions up on her LiveJournal blog; I figured I'd answer them, too, for all of my screaming legions of fans.

1. Elaborate on your default icon.
When posting on LiveJournal, I use a portrait photo of a monkey (a capuchin?) by Jill Greenberg. Recently Greenberg became the subject of some controversy because of a serious of photos of crying children she made, since she supposedly "abused" the children by making them cry. All this "abuse" really amounted to giving them candy and taking it away, which is a stupid thing to get in an uproar over. Anyway, they're great photos qua photos, although they're better if you just consider their inherent qualities instead of hearing the photographer talk about how she imagines the kids crying over the re-election of George Bush, which makes them sound like the lamest protest ever.

2. What's your current relationship status?
Happily married for close to four months now.

3. Ever have a near-death experience?
No.

4. Name an obvious quality you have?
Retention and recall of trivia.

5. What's the name of the song that's stuck in your head right now?
Some godawful crap by AFI that's only suitable for whiny teenagers.

6. Any celeb you would marry?
There are plenty of hot ones, but they're all probably nuts.

7. Who will cut and paste this first?
Maybe my younger sister.

8. Name someone with the same birthday as you.
Shannon Elizabeth. Same day, same year.

9. Do you have a crush on someone?
From time to time, yeah, sure.

10. Have you ever vandalized someone's private property?
One time I stuck a note with chewing gum onto the driver's side window of a car that was taking up two parking spaces.

11. Have you ever been in a fight?
Yes, but not in years.

12. Have you ever sung in front of a large audience?
Depends on how large. With Stale Urine, I sang solo in front of crowds many times but never before more than maybe 100 people at most. As a kid I was in a chorale called the International Children's Choir where we sang at various public events around Southern California, including an indoor soccer game and Carnation Plaza at Disneyland.

13. What's the first thing you notice about the opposite sex?
It depends on whether I see them from the front or the back.

14. What do you usually order from Starbucks?
I never drink coffee and almost never go to Starbucks, but when I do I get a steamed vanilla milk or something like that.

15. Have you ever hurt yourself on purpose?
No.

16. Say something totally random about yourself.
I once had my vomit cleaned up by a pitcher on the Atlanta Braves.

17. Has anyone ever said you looked like a celebrity?
Yes, Drew Carey, on multiple occasions.

18. Do you wear a watch?
Yes, on my right wrist, even though I'm right-handed.

19. Do you have anything pierced?
No.

20. Do you have any tattoos?
No way.

21. Do you like pain?
No, but I think I have a fairly high tolerance. What's up with all these masochistic questions?

22. Do you like to shop?
Oh yeah, if it's fun stuff to shop for.

23. What was the last thing you paid for with cash?
Lunch at the Mediterranean Cafe.

24. What was the last thing you paid for with a credit card?
Dinner at Black Angus (technically a debit card, I guess). This a day after I submitted some environmental documents that would allow the place to be torn down in favor of a mixed-use development.

25. Who was the last person you spoke to on the phone?
A co-worker from the San Diego office.

26. What is on your desktop background?
A photo I took in the Florida Panhandle last year of a field of black-eyed Susans:

27. What is the background on your cell phone?
The default.

28. Do you like redheads?
I don't dislike them, but they're not generally my bag.

29. Do you know any twins?
Not since college.

30. Do you have any weird relatives?
Yes. Who doesn't?

31. What was the last movie you watched?
At home, Master of the Flying Guillotine. In a theatre, Snakes on a Plane. I thought it was a pretty solid B-movie, hitting the right balance of being knowing without being a parody, though Vern makes some valid criticisms. The internet hype around this thing was pretty stupid, though, and this photo is stupid on so many levels that it boggles the mind:

Note that this guy got his tattoo several weeks before the film opened. So he wasn't a fan of the movie per se, just a fan of the internet meme surrounding the movie.

32. What was the last book you read?
I'm 2/3 of the way through Moby-Dick*. The last book I read in its entirety was Freakonomics.

*or, The Whale