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!

My second interview (the first one was with Sadie) is with a guy named Joe Watt. Here’s what he had to say:

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. 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!

(He answered both in one answer…how efficient!)

Hey, I’m Joe Watt.   I’m a blogger and video maker/musician on the Internet. I blog on American policies as a guest poster at USA Policies and I have by own blog at http://www.joewatt.tk.   I’ve been video making for a long time and I’ve been a musician most of my life;  I’m in the progress of creating an entertainment website with some of my web design and online commerce friends.   That site will have another comedy blog on it and videos created by the lovetotag production team in association with tick-tock clock productions which is still in the works.

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.

To answer you first question I think the best thing that will happen in politics this year will be literally *anything* that may fix the current economic state of America and its associated countries. To answer your second question I think the worst thing that could happen were to be if anything would happen to Barack Obama; he needs some good security around him.

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 “advisor”.

I think I would make my friend Greg Murray my Secretary of State, I would make my friend Hannah Nicholson Secretary of Education because I believe it is a very important position, I think I would make my grandmother Secretary of Health and Human Services because she seems to have such a great grip on how I should be living my life *cough* sarcasm *cough*,  and I would state the guy that sleeps under the bridge near the river Secretary of Housing and Urban Development because he needs something to do.

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 that the a lot of the Christian beliefs work well as laws to keep us happy and healthy but I struggle to see how sacrifice can help us that much.

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.

I myself am an atheist but if I thought he existed I’d think God was a Friends man, he’s all about the irony!

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?

No, because then we wouldn’t be able to shut them down because it would be seen as murder.   What a funny question, but interesting!

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?

It’s all in the eyes of the beholder in my opinion, different people like different things! For example I don’t look at a big model and think beautiful, I think, “works too hard”.

General

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

My god, you want me to screw Mini Mouse on Space Mountain??   I think I just gave away my fantasy.

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

EYES because the eyes are a gateway to a man’s emotions!

End

Thanks for that, Joe! I sure appreciate the answers.

Feel free to comment on Joe’s answers and if you think you’d like to do an interview yourself, let me know!

I have decided to do a series of interviews of various people online who have graciously agreed to answer my odd questions in an attempt to get to know them, to find out new ideas, and to show my readers some potentially interesting people online.   Everyone is answering the same series of questions so we can compare the various answers.  If you would like to participate, please feel free to go to my contact page on my personal site and send me a message, I’d be happy to send you the information.

My first interview is with Sadie from Sadie’s Skinny, a gal on a mission of health.    Here’s what she had to say:

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.

My name’s Sadie and right now I live in Hampton Roads, VA with my husband. We’re originally from Alabama and are moving back there in the spring. We can’t wait!! It’s beautiful here at the beach, but we miss our family and friends. Next month I’ll start my job search so I’ll have a job when we get there. Right now I work at a large publishing company in the accounting department, so I shouldn’t have any trouble with that on my resume. We also can’t wait to rejoin the Young Professional group we were a part of back home. Several times a month there were get-togethers and parties, and it was a great opportunity for networking. Right now we pretty much stay home in the evenings. My husband owns his own business so that takes a lot of our time, plus, we’re having to save our money right now so that we can afford to move home in a few months. It’s a sacrifice that I gladly make. Besides, we do get out every now and then and go to dinner or go have a drink at the beach or something.

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!

My website is called Sadie’s Skinny.  On the front page I highlight a different health blog or website each month. It’s called my ‘Skinny of the Month’. I’m always looking for new people, so if you’re interested, go to the site and click on the ‘email me’ link! The site also features monthly recipe and fitness ideas, and has a page of links to other great sites. From there you can also go to my blog. On my blog I have weekly weigh-ins, monthly picture updates, I bring you information from around the web that I find of health products, and I talk about my daily trials and triumphs.

You can also find me on Twitter, Facebook, and Plurk as “sadies_skinny”.

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.

As far as the best thing for politics, I hope that there will be a turn around in the economy. The way things have been going lately, I’m not really sure how that will happen. I’m afraid that with all of the bailouts being handed out, the government is going to become way too involved and they will ‘own’ all of our large industries. On the other hand, I am optomistic that something will be done to help the ‘average’ citizen and hopefully we can get out of this slump.

I think the worst thing we can do right now in politics is pull out of Iraq – or even give an exact pull out schedule. That’s like if, in the Super Bowl, one team walked over to the other sideline and said, ‘Here, look at my playbook. This is what we’ll be doing.’ I think there does need to be some kind of plan. We need to give the people there something to look forward to. Having family in the military, I’ve been told that the people there really are thankful for what we have done. The media has skewed things so much to show only what they want that the truth gets lost. But at some point we have to let them handle their own country. The only problem is, if we tell the world exactly what our plan is to leave, that’s just opening the door for the terrorists to come back and take over as soon as we leave. We need to make sure that we leave the country in safety.

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 “advisor”.

I would have to pick my Mom for Secretary of State. She’s just got a way with people and I think she’d be great with foreign affairs. She’s been a volunteer with our church for shut-ins and has done work with all kinds of different counseling services.

For Secretary of Treasury I’d pick my Dad. He’s retired now, but he used to be a VP for a bank and worked in banking his whole career. He’s a real ‘analytical’ thinker, and very good with money.

For Secretary of Defense I’d pick my step-Dad. He’s retired military – he made a career out of the Army. He went to Vietnam, and he now works for a government contractor that does work with aviation services for the Army. He’s got great ideals and he loves our Country.

Attorney General is a little more tough. I guess I would pick my father-in-law. He’s not a lawyer – he’s an insurance sales man – but he’s smart, he’s good with people, and I just think he’d be good at it. He’s just got the kind of personality of a lawyer.

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.

Well, off the top of my head, since it’s that time of year, I think Christmas is a great example of a religious tradition that helps us – not just individually, but as a community. During the holiday season we become more in tune to giving and helping others. There seems to be more people willing to donate to the poor and the homeless, which is a wonderful thing. Of course, it would be better if it happened more times out of the year, but it’s great that it happens around this religious holiday.

A bad example – that’s tough for me. I have a hard time judging other religions. I’m a Christian, but I’m not one to say that other people are necessarily wrong. Who am I to judge? Isn’t that God’s job? So, having said that, I’m not really sure that I can pick a religious tradition that’s bad because all traditions are good to someone, and I don’t believe that I have the authority to say otherwise.

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.

I’ve never really thought about God having a sense of humor. There having been so many things happen in my life that it’s never really been something that crossed my mind. It’s an interesting point, though. Reading this question has made me think about it. I bet God would like to watch Everybody Loves Raymond. I say that because it’s got a sense of family and real life, but it’s also really funny because people can relate to it. I think God would like to see how people can find humor in family life.

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?

That’s a hard question. I think that should be decided when it happens. I know it won’t be in my lifetime so I won’t have a say. There should definitely be some kind of way to hold them accountable for their actions, but as far as rights, I don’t know. Immediately I want to say no, but that time period is going to be completely different from anything we can comprehend right now, so it’s hard to say.

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?

Some things are definitely universally beautiful. I’m not sure that anyone would argue that the beaches in Tahiti are beautiful, or a sunset in Hawaii, or a temple garden in Japan. There are a lot of natural wonders that are universally beautiful. As far as people and objects, however, I believe that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Love makes things beautiful.

General

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

Definitely Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp!) on a deserted island somewhere. No questions about 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 believe that the best feature of being a woman is our ability to nurture. The world would be a cold place without that element. It’s also a very rewarding feeling to be able to give yourself in that way to someone. Our ability to love and nurture and be soft is what I enjoy best about being a woman. No matter what else is going on in the world, we have the ability to bring a calmness and center back to it.

End

That’s all for Sadie!    Many thanks to her for exposing a bit of herself and her thoughts on these questions.    I’ll have various interviews from time to time as I get answers from folks.    In the meantime, feel free to comment on Sadie’s responses and, if you don’t want to do the full interview yourself (you’re welcome, of course) you can feel free to answer some of the questions in a comment yourself!