My third interview is with a guy named Brandon from Springfield, MO. Here’s the random musings and mutterings of Brandon:

Yourself

1. Introduce yourself — your name (or nom de plume), where you hail from, what you do during the day, and what you do at night.

Hi, my name is Brandon Bohannon [27/M/Mo] originally from the small town of Conway, Missouri but moved to Springfield, Missouri to seek my fortune. During the day I am a computer programmer for an entertainment/party rental company in Springfield. I write the software that runs our business and we also sell that software to other rental companies. I have been married just over 5 years to my wife Nicki and we have two girls. My oldest, Madi turned 2 in August, and Aubree is 10 months. The age difference wasn’t planned but we wouldn’t change it for anything. My nights are spent with my family for the most part, and when they all go to bed I slip back into geek mode and work on personal programming projects or websites. One day I hope my nightly adventures become my day job.

2. Plug yourself — do you have a blog, a Facebook, a MySpace, a website, a software project…tell us where to find more information about you!

I do have a personal blog at http://brandonreese.justfree.com/ . In that blog I generally just talk about whatever is on my mind, anything from religion, politics, cools things I find on the net, or just writing down ideas. That’s what a blog is for anyway, right? I however do NOT recommend using justfree.com because they recently lost the 3 accounts I had with them during system upgrades and they could only restore one from a backup. I’m just currently too lazy to move my stuff from there.

If anybody out there reading this in the “blogosphere” (I actually hate that term) is in the party rental business check out the Event Wizard Pro.

Politics

3. 2009 should be an interesting year for politics. A new president, a new Congress, and some huge problems to solve. Tell us what you think the (A) best thing that will be accomplished in the world of politics will be and (B) the worst thing that will happen in politics.

Despite being an optimist in most things I’m pessimistic about the next four years in America. I’ll be honest I’m having a hard time writing about the best thing that will be accomplished. I think middle class tax breaks would be great, but on the same hand I don’t think putting more of the burden on the rich and rich corporations is the answer. I think what needs to happen is a tax break for all Americans and for our government to stop throwing billions of dollars out the window on bailouts and other pet projects. So a best thing would be tax breaks.

I think the worst thing that will happen is a slide more toward socialism. It’s already started with the bank bailouts and the proposed UAW bailout, all under a Republican president which is disappointing to me. I think the policies laid down by President Elect Barack Obama lead us down a socialist path and that frightens me. Specifically the policies that frighten me are raising the national minimum wage, universal health care, dictating policy to health care companies (i.e. forcing them to cover pre-existing conditions), reducing our military defenses, and pulling out of Iraq.

I’m not convinced many people in D.C. know how to fix the economy. I think the government needs to get out of it and let our economy run it’s course. When so many experts all say something different it’s hard to know who to believe.

So to sum up the worst thing, socialism and further government involvement in our current “economic crisis” (A.K.A Americans mismanaging their money and living on credit for FAR too long)

4. A good leader is often known for the company you keep. If you were president, you’d have to pick your own cabinet. Give us a rundown of 4 people in your life that you would make as your cabinet, how they are related to you, what position they would hold, and why. (They must be real people — friends, family, coworkers…) For non-Americans, the question still stands, but you can phrase that as “adviser”.

Wow, this one is actually really tough. First of all I would make my wife the first lady… oh that ones an automatic… ok nevermind that then.

For United States Secretary of Transportation I would have my dad because he currently works for MoDOT (Missouri Department Of Transportation). He’s not a “big wig” but he sees the stupid things the “big wigs” in government do and would learn from their mistakes.

For Secretary of Agriculture I would nominate my grandfather since he has been a farmer as long as I’ve known. He doesn’t have a huge farm and probably isn’t qualified for the position, but I want to make sure he has a great retirement. Hurray for nepotism!

For Secretary of the Interior I would nominate my wife because she would love to decorate the White House. Ha ha, I know that’s not what it means but honestly I haven’t a clue to what most of the cabinet does and I am quickly realizing I need to start networking with a more diverse group of people.

For Attorney General I would nominate my friend Jason from high school because he wanted to be a Lawyer. I don’t directly know any real lawyers.

No, really. If I was president I would give my cabinet more thought and not resort to nepotism, and if I was elected president I would probably know more people also.

Religion

5. Sometimes the traditions, dogma, and rites of religion help us and sometimes they hurt us. Give an example of each kind — a religious tradition or ritual that helps people and one that hurts.

I think prayer universally helps people whether they believe in it’s miraculous power or not. I personally believe prayer has real tangible power through faith in God. I also think it can give comfort to those who don’t believe. If somebody close prays for them they can take comfort in at least knowing that person loves them enough to take their needs before their God.

6. Some people think that God (if he/she/it exists) must have a sense of humor. Given this, what sitcom would God most likely sit down in the cosmic easy chair and giggle at and why? You can pick current or past shows.

First of all I think God would sit down and watch something family friendly that doesn’t mock Him at any point. Something that is edifying to the building up of the spirit. Given that criteria I can’t think of any show past or present. If you think of something God would like, let me know.

Philosophy

7. Some people think that if we can make a robot sophisticated enough, it will behave exactly like a human would in all situations and therefore be essentially indistinguishable from a flesh-and-blood human. If this becomes possible, do you think we should treat these robots with the same rights afforded humans? If not, why not?

First of all I do not believe it is possible given any amount of time that robots would become indistinguishable from a flesh-and-blood human. But given the hypothetical situation that it does become possible they should not be afforded the same rights as humans. Despite how well these robots would imitate real humans they would be just that, an imitation. They would not have real feelings, real hopes, real dreams, real desires, real happiness and therefore would not need rights to protect those things.

8. Is beauty truly in the eye of the beholder, subject only to what a particular viewer thinks, or are some things universally beautiful because of certain properties? If so, what properties distinguish “universal” beauty?

If we are talking about people I don’t think there is anything universally beautiful. We can all agree that certain people are beautiful, but swap their individual features with somebody else’s features and it won’t make them beautiful also. Also think of photography. You can say that sunset is beautiful, but there will be somebody that can disagree or point out the real beauty in another sunset photo. Beauty is truly in the eye of the beholder, and beauty is also relative. My cousin went to a camp with all boys, the only girls worked in the cafeteria. When they first arrived they were not at all attracted to the girls working in the cafe; come the end of the week without contact from beautiful girls those girls in the cafe started looking really attractive.

General

9. Name a Disney cartoon character that you would like to get intimate with and where?

When I was younger I always had a thing for Jessica Rabbit. Can you blame me? Can’t really say I’d like to get intimate with her or anything like that.

10. Pick a feature of your particular gender (physical, emotional, psychological, etc) and tell us why that’s the best feature of all.

I think the best feature of the male of our species is emotion, actually the lack of emotion (or ability to repress emotion) is the best feature. Men tend to be less driven my emotion than women and I think this is a great feature. While it may get us balked at by our wives or girlfriends about being more in touch with our emotions in the long run it’s a blessing. I have seen my wife almost shut down from emotional overload and I have never experienced that. That has allowed me to function in emotionally trying situations like when my father-in-law was bleeding internally and had to be air lifted to the hospital or when he had a stroke and we had to drive an hour to the hospital, and when my brother was in a head on car crash and was air lifted to the hospital. If I hadn’t been there my wife probably would have been able to make it, but me being there and being able to repress my emotions allowed her to release her emotions instead of fight them.

End

A lot of thanks to Brandon for amusing us and taking part in my interview. Thanks!

Toss some commentary out about Brandon’s interview and, if you think you’d like to do an interview yourself, let me know!