So, I’m surfing around the usual blogs around I read, and I find a post over at Sarcomical, where she participated in The Great Interview Experiment. I thought it was a cool idea, so I signed up. (The list is now around 500 now; it’s pretty cool.)
Butterfly over at Urban Heat Island was my interviewer, and she came up with some good ones!
1. What do you wish you had invented?
I wish I had come up with the idea to put spandex in jeans and twill pants and almost all the other materials that clothes are made out of these days. It just takes that little bit of spandex to make my wardrobe so much more comfortable!
2. What profession other than yours would you like to attempt?
I’ve always been fascinated with the weather. I could sit for hours and watch the Weather Channel, and the going joke at work when storm watches go out is to have me check the radar (like no one else can get on the Internet and check it). Seriously, I’ve got like 3 or 4 weather sites bookmarked. Unfortunately, I hated science in school and spent class writing poetry instead of taking notes, so meteorology school wasn’t for me. Of course, seeing as I’m out of a job in a couple of months, perhaps it’s time to reconsider. Kidding… totally kidding. I could just see my mother reading that and fainting at the thought of the $50,000 they spent on my college education going out the window.
3. What are some of your addictions/vices/guilty pleasures/etc?
I’m hopelessly addicted to Mexican food. I eat some sort of Mexican dish at least two but sometimes three to four times a week. We have the local Mexican place, the chain fast food (Moe’s Southwest Grill), and we usually make at least one Mexican meal at home each week.
Also, my husband convinced me to start playing World of Warcraft last fall, and I now have a level 56) Blood Elf mage on the Earthen Ring server. So if any of you gamers out there wanna group up for an instance, my character name is Sennadria.
And, I’ve also been known to watch The Hills and Making the Band (the P. Diddy ones) on MTV. I… I don’t know why.
4. What book do you casually put out on your coffee table to impress visitors?
My husband and I have joked about putting my college Shakespeare book on the coffee table for company because it is one of those monstrous, hardcover, intellectual-looking books. But then, the first guest to crack open the cover would find it littered with highlighted passages and notes in the margin from my undergrad Shakespeare class. So it stays on the bookshelf.
Our coffee table has a top and then a lower shelf, and I can admit to strategically placing Pampered Chef catalogs when people come over in the hopes that they’ll look at them and want to buy something. But mainly on the bottom shelf are magazines we haven’t looked at in months, a nice poker chip/card set that has been used maybe twice, and an Apples to Apples game that has been played maybe twice as well.
5. Weigh in briefly on the following topics:
body modification (tattoos/piercing/cosmetic surgery/extreme bodybuilding/scarification/etc): I think body modification is a tricky thing because there can be a fine line between modification and mutilation, perhaps less so for tattoos and piercings, but more so for scarification and cosmetic surgery. Two words — Jenn@ J@meson. I think people can get so wrapped up in changing their bodies that their mindset becomes warped to the point that they’ll never be happy with the way they look.
religion: Oooh, there’s a touchy one. I have a set of beliefs. I am a Christian, but I don’t go to church. I know I’ll go back when we have kids, but it’s going to be a difficult process finding a church to go to. I’ve just been so tired of the people who go to church to enhance their social agenda and make themselves look better or show off how great they are.
sex/porn/prostitution and morality: Sheesh, you pick some toughies! What you do in your own home is your own business until it starts hurting someone else.
Britney Spears: Someone should just take her to Montana for maybe three years so her hair will finally grow out and the paparazzi might leave her alone for half that time. Maybe then she might be okay. Unless there’s some great big conspiracy to kill her, like this week’s episode of South Park.
cat people vs dog people (since you seem to be both): I think that everyone is one or the other, even if they have both. I believe that even animal lovers have a preference, and I think that many times the inclination toward one over the other has to do with upbringing. I myself have always been a dog person, and no one else in my family has ever really liked cats. My father’s mother hated them, and while I do think our Loki is adorable and loving, I have to say that I do play favorites and would choose Domino over him if I ever had to be forced to choose between one of them. Just don’t tell him that because I think he’d kill me in my sleep.
6. What constitutes an ordinary meal in your house?
Heh… This is a good one. Well, Cinlach (the husband… not his real name) doesn’t eat veggies, so sometimes I try to do a main dish of some sort of meat with one side dish we’ll both eat and then some sort of veggie that I want: barbecue chicken with mac and cheese and then green beans for me. We make quesadillas at home once a week, (I add chopped veggies on mine) and we do personal pizzas with premade crusts. (Mama Mary’s are da bomb!) I love cooking, and I feel especially victorious when I find new dishes that Cinlach and I both enjoy.
7. What is your favorite book right now? Your favorite author? Read anything lately you don’t really want anyone to know about?
Well, I don’t want anyone to know that I haven’t been reading a lot lately. (See aforementioned comment about World of Warcraft.) However, I have been transitioning to doing a little more writing and reading and a little less gaming, so I can tell you that I’ve started reading The Writing Life by Annie Dillard. I’ve got a whole stack of books sitting on my dresser as well, just waiting to be read.
My favorite author? I can’t pick. I can tell you that when I was in college I read Josephine Humphries’ Rich in Love and immediately devoured anything else she had written before and has written since. She hasn’t put anything out in a while though. I also love reading Kaye Gibbons, and Empire Falls by Richard Russo and The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseni are a couple of my favorite books.
8. Say that you have 24 hours to do whatever you want: family and friends, co-workers and telephone solicitors have all agreed to leave you alone. What would you do?
Sit in my pajamas all day and watch my chick flicks without having Cinlach come in and go, “What are you watch– Oh, that crap again?” The day would also include an afternoon nap and a long soak in a bubble bath.
9. If you were alone on a deserted island and could have 5 things, what would they be?
1 & 2 - A huge stack of notepads and a case of pens so I could write to pass the time
3 - Soap because I’m not going that long without a bath
4 - My iPod: Yes, I realize the battery will go dead eventually, but I’ll ration out my blessed music time.
5 - Fingernail clippers: Because sooner or later, in all the work I’d have to do to survive, I’d a nail will start breaking down in the quick… And I’m not gonna tear that bad boy off.
10. What is the difference between affect and effect?
“Affect” is a verb that means to influence someone/something or to bring about a change or an “effect,” which is a noun meaning a result of something. In my eyes, I’d rather affect someone rather than be an effect. 
Thanks again to Butterfly, and I’ll be posting my interview with Alex from The Roaming Southerner on Thursday.
