Skip to main content

Interview with the Vampire

This is from an interview with me, done recently by rare bird magazine.
Q: So, what's up with this blogging thing?
A: Well, you know, I like to write, and - I've never been published before, so this seemed like a good way to get published without having to deal with rejection letters. I mean, who wants to deal with that, right? Some friends of mine, and my wife, also helped by egging me on to do it. And, I am an English major, and that's got to be good for something, and besides, it's just a lot of fun. You should try it sometime.
I also have a firm conviction that my ideas and opinions are crucially important to the survival of civilization, and I want to give civilization a chance, so I'd better get those ideas out there. I'm not going to run for president, so I figure this is the next best thing.
Q: Ah. You're not an egotist, are you?
A: Well - no, of course not.
Q: All right, fine. You say you're into technology. Prove it - what are the tools you use at work?
A: Microsoft (of course): we run SQLServer because our customers do, and code our GUI's in VB. Most of our programming is done in C++. We also run Oracle because some of our customers run that as well. We use Seapine's Test Track Pro to manage programming workflow. I used to maintain our user manual as a 475-page PDF, but now I'm using Help & Manual to create and maintain Help files, which our users might actually read. UltraEdit is our programmers' editor of choice.
Q: All right, fine.
To be continued...

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A Valid Path

Last weekend I completed ripping my Alan Parsons CD collection and started listening to it at work off my portable media player. While listening, I figured I might as well google Alan, maybe there would be some interesting historical stuff on the web. As it turns out, Alan Parsons is still kicking and has a new album out! Even better, he's doing electronica now! I'll be receiving it shortly and will do a review. This will be the first record without his long-time bandmates Ian Bairnson, and Stuart Elliott. The new album will take Alan in a new direction and into the world of electronica. Artists appearing on this record include: Nortec Collective, The Crystal Method, Shpongle, PJ Olsson, and Pink Floyd's David Gilmour.

US death toll in Iraq tops 1,000

Senator Kerry calls this a "tragic milestone," and the most catastrophic of the administration's mistakes made so far. Regardless of his mistakenly voting for the war at the time, he's right. For him to turn against the Iraq war is a flip-flop I would be happy with. Hopefully he has an exit strategy, even though he's not telling us about it at the moment. This is why Bush must be defeated in November. I realize the economy is an important issue, but compared to 1000++ dead soldiers? Come on. Not to mention 7,000++ wounded, and the 11,000++ estimated by the Iraq Body Count . This is a slam dunk, as George Tenet would say. Prediction: if Bush is [re]elected, the U.S. will engage in pre-emptive war against Iran and/or North Korea. Is that really what we want?

And What Happens When I Don't Wait Well?

I guess you get anxious ... and we all know what that’s like. But I think that “ yakhal ” (Hebrew) or " elpis " (Greek) does not preclude the possibility of action - whether it’s writing about the situation, or something more (and don't underestimate the power of journaling!) Indeed, you don't think of prophets or apostles as the kind of people to sit around just waiting for something to happen. They act, but their action is tempered by the realization that things don’t look too good at the moment (otherwise why would the issue even be coming up?) So they act and wait at the same time, knowing that the fruits of their action are ultimately dependent on the Lord. And of course the Lord is known to have us do things for a while before any kind of clear result is made known. Like planting, and then watering, and then waiting, for a seed to turn into a plant. Farmers probably understand waiting a lot better than we do. They think in seasons and years, not months or we...