50 Question Quiz.

It's all Nattars' fault.

1. What time did you get up this morning?

9:30 am.

2. How do you like your steak?

Bllodd rare

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema?

Green Hornet. Under protest. Deservedly so.

4. What is your favourite TV show?

Terriers and/or Farscape

5. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be?

At the risk of sounding tritr, I like living in LA. If I had to choose, though, it would be overseas; maybe outside of London or Paris.

6. What did you have for breakfast?

Coffee & a bowl of Kashi Heart to Heart oat flakes & blueberries cereal with soy milk

7. What is your favourite cuisine?

Mexcian or sushi

8. What foods do you dislike?

Greek. Also tomatoes, chocolate, goat cheese, etc.

9. Favourite place to eat?

La Paz Mexican Restaurant just blocks from my apartment. Just ask Stevivor about it.

10. Favourite dressing?

Light Caesar

11. What kind of vehicle do you drive?

I don’t.

12. What are your favourite clothes?

Jeans and a t-shirt or a three-piece, bespoke suit, black with red dress shirt, white collar and cuffs, no tie

13. Where would you visit if you had the chance?

Australia, Montreal, Iceland, New Orleans, and just about everywhere else I haven’t been

14. Cup 1/2 empty or 1/2 full?

Depends on the day

15. Where would you like to retire?

Northern California; Portland, Oregon; Vancouver, B.C.; or maybe somewhere in Australia

16. Favourite time of day?

1 to 3 am

17. Where were you born?

Torrance, California

18. What is your favourite sport to watch?

Hockey

19. Who do you think will not tag you back?

It’s not about reciprocity

20. Person you expect to tag you back first?

I expect nothing

21. Who are you most curious about their responses to this?

Oh, I’ll read ‘em all. I just wish the questions were more interesting

22. Bird watcher?

When it’s on a rotisserie, maybe

23. Are you a morning or night person?

NIGHTTIME!!!

24. Pets?

Not anymore

25. Any new and exciting news that you'd like to share?

Nothing I can speak publicly about, yet

26. What did you want to be when you were little?

A writer or Robin Hood

27. What is your best childhood memory?

An anonymous, beautiful blond woman reading me my recently purchased Schloumpf books in French on a train bound for Paris when I was 7

28. Are you a cat or a dog person?

Both, but I prefer to own cats

29. Are you married?

No.

30. Always wear your seat belt?

Yes.

31. Been in a car accident?

Several

32. Any pet peeves?

Nuisance noises; like tuneless whistling and humming, muttering, making sound effects. Eating while on the radio or on the phone (with me). Eating with your mouth open. Not using a proper apostrophe mark. Bad grammar. Talking on your cellphone while being served in a store or restaurant. General rudeness.

33. Favourite Pizza topping?

Olives.

34. Favourite Flower?

Don’t really have one, but if pressed I’d say Tulips or Pansies

35. Favouite Ice Cream?

Stephen Colbert’s Americone Dream from Ben and Jerry’s

36. Favourite fast food restaurant?

In-N-Out Burger

37. How many times did you fail your driving test?

2 (for both written and driving)

38. From whom did you get your last email?

My project manager with client revisions to my current job

39. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card?

The Comic Bug J

40. Do anything spontaneous lately?

Nothing Major

41. Like your job?

Almost all the time

42. Broccoli?

Only al dente with a light dusting of butter

43. What was your favourite vacation?

Either spending 20 days skiing in Chile or a weeklong roadtrip from Los Angeles to Vancouver, B.C., and back

44. Last person you went out to dinner with?

My mate Patrick and his family; Morgan (wife), Jane (mother-in-law), and Raoul (father-in-law)

45. what are you listening to right now?

American Front: The Great War, Book 1 by Harry Turtledove

46. What is your favouite colour?

Orange and or green

47. How many tattoos do you have?

None

48. How many people are you tagging for this quiz?

Haven’t decided

49. What are you doing when you finish this quiz?

Going back to work

50. Coffee drinker?

2 cups a day

Thirty Days of Me - Day 4


Day 04- A habit that you wish you didn’t have

Smoking. Admittedly, it’s no better than those who smoke your run of the mill cigarettes, but I only smoke Djarum Bali Hai clove cigarettes. I can’t stand the taste of almost any other kind. It’s a nasty habit that I picked up over a decade ago when I was night-clubbing three or more evenings a week. I’ve tried several times to quit, but always seem to fall back on the bad habit.

Thirty Days of Me - Day 3


Day 03- A picture of you and your friends

A weekend rock-climbing trip to Joshua Tree National Park, circa 1995.

From left to to right: Rychard Cooper, Robyn Ryder, David McGregor, myself and Steve Gerdes.

Rychard is one of my best friends and one of the most influential people in my life in forging the man I grew into. We recently reconnected after a separation of about 14 years.

Robyn was my girlfriend at the time. At the time the picture was taken, we would have been together for roughly 5 years with about 2-2 1/2 to go.

David was Rychard's roommate and a good friend to both of us. His favorite phrase was "Okay, where's our next fun?"

Steve was a friend of Rychard's who had the patience and of a monk, the mechanical smarts of MacGyver and the slow laconic wit of Steven Wright.

Thirty Days of Me - Day 2

Day 02- The meaning behind your Blog name
“Quiet Arrogance.” Long ago, in the distant past just after high school, I was given a book as a birthday gift from a female friend. She and I had known each other for years and years. The book itself was, I struggle to recollect, “The Collected Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” by Arthur Conan Doyle. I was always a big Holmes fan when I was younger, but I had not evidenced it since in the time I’d known my friend and she would have had no real way of knowing that.

I told her that I was indeed a huge Holmes fan and asked her how in the world she knew that. Her reply?

“I didn’t. There’s just something in him that reminds me of you. You both have that kind of… Quiet Arrogance.”

Needless to say, I liked that so much it has stuck in my head all this time.

Thirty Days of Me - Day 1



Day 01- A recent picture of you and 15 interesting facts about yourself

1. I attended 4 different colleges over 10 years in pursuit of a college degree; El Camino Community College, Cerritos City College, UCLA, and Cal State Long Beach
2. I have had a comic book story I wrote published
3. I was friends and worked with Quentin Tarantino before before he made Reservoir Dogs
4. I have 2 degrees: an Associate Arts degree in Art and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design
5. I am fluent in Spanish
6. Over my life I have been a Hippie, a Goth, a Raver, a Jock, Nerd and Geek
7. I once had Korean BBQ with Jeffrey Donovan (Burn Notice)
8. I have served time in county jail
9. I have over 40,000 comic books in my collection
10. I partied all night with the band Sigue Sigue Sputnik
11. I have been on Television twice
12. I once rescued a streetwalker from an attack by her John
13. I bake pies
14. I’ve traveled to 3 continents, 17 countries, and 151 cities worldwide
15. My truck was rear-ended by Gary Coleman car on the freeway

Thirty Days of Me

I got this from Rachel and a couple of other people have needled me to do it, so what the hell. The concept is simple - a post every day for thirty days containing the following:

Day 01- A recent picture of you and 15 interesting facts about yourself
Day 02- The meaning behind your Blog name
Day 03- A picture of you and your friends
Day 04- A habit that you wish you didn’t have
Day 05- A picture of somewhere you’ve been to
Day 06- Favorite super hero and why
Day 07- A picture of someone/something that has the biggest impact on you
Day 08- Short term goals for this month and why
Day 09- Something you’re proud of in the past few days
Day 10- Songs you listen to when you are Happy, Sad, Bored, Hyped, Mad
Day 11- Another picture of you and your friends
Day 12- How you found out about Blogger and why you made one
Day 13- A letter to someone who has hurt you recently
Day 14- A picture of you and your family
Day 15- Put your iPod on shuffle: First 10 songs that play
Day 16- Another picture of yourself
Day 17- Someone you would want to switch lives with for one day and why
Day 18- Plans/dreams/goals you have
Day 19- Nicknames you have; why do you have them
Day 20- Someone you see yourself marrying/being with in the future
Day 21- A picture of something that makes you happy
Day 22- What makes you different from everyone else
Day 23- Something you crave for a lot
Day 24- A letter to your parents
Day 25- What I would find in your bag
Day 26- What you think about your friends
Day 27- Why are you doing this 30 day challenge
Day 28- A picture of you last year and now, how have you changed since then?
Day 29- In this past month, what have you learned
Day 30- Your favorite song.

While I can say that I'll be honest, I can't sat that there won't be some obscure and enigmatic portions. Names withheld to protect the innocent (or the damned) and all that.

Alright, let's kick it off with Day 1.

Atomic Thoughts

My father read an interview the other day about the first atomic bomb. It spurred him to write down some thought about my grandfather, his dad, who worked on the Manhattan Project. Rather than intrude on his prose, I'll let it speak for itself:

"The "bomb" had a great impact on our family and my youth. It was dropped on my eight birthday. and that was the day my Dad disappeared.

Dad was a "dollar-a-year" man working as the Chief Structural Engineer on the Manhattan Project. Some how the drop on a "civilian" target caused a major guilt trip resulting in a full mental breakdown. and he just disappeared. Everybody got involved including the FBI (remember, I'm seeing all this through eight year old eyes). After quite a long while, he was found pretty ragged at the "Grotto of Lourdes" at Notre Dame. He spent a month in the hospital before he recognized my mother, then more months of convalescing.

Dad owned a fairly good sized company in Detroit making parts for the auto industry. He went back to work but couldn't seem to be his old self.

So here's the big change...He sold most of the stock to his jr-partners, went to the upper peninsula of Michigan, bought an old hotel across from the ferry docks, then also bought a 23 cabin resort on a large lake. We, my mother, sister and myself moved from a nice Detroit suburb to a small cabin 300 miles North and 20 miles from the Canadian border.
No plumbing, no electricity, no gas. And Mom, God bless here (first violinist with the symphony) made the adjustment and we had a very happy "lil house on the prairie".

Chores were a constant (50 boats to be anchored every night, ice cut and delivered to all the cabins each day, fish cleaned for the fishermen, and on and on) but it was really a great way to grow up and learn. We were "sustenance" hunters and Dad and I shot a lot deer, rabbits and game birds. Fortunately we spent the down-state with all the comforts.But our resort didn't get electricity until two years after I graduated from college.

And Dad was happy. Not as gregarious as before but loved his family and our simply (also complicated) life. He was the best "shot" in the county and trolled out each evening to catch his nemesis big-mouth bass."