genderqueer chaos reading

I mentioned earlier that having only partially done the Orion questionnaire, I was somehow now destined to keep coming back to write in my journal even after NaBloPoMo was over, like the blogging analogue of the siren’s call of the Trevi Fountain.¹

I find myself with a quiet moment here today and only multitasking less than a dozen other things, so why not move it along a little further as well?

• If you could make pancakes with anyone living or dead, who would it be?
  I’m going to make the assumption that the question is asking about someone I can’t readily do this with today if I wish, so the easy answers of making and sharing breakfast with my spouse and children which would always be my first and everyday desire, or even my own parents, should be stated but for our purposes here set aside for the sake of the deeper “what if…” implied here. I think my grandfather would be my choice. As a young boy I spent many hours with him, learning a lot about his technical expertise and generally looking up to him and spending time with him. It would be nice as an adult to be able to have pancakes (or whatever) with him and be able to share our perspectives now about life and everything looking back on our experiences after all this time.
• What are some of your favorite words?
  你們 (nǐmen—in Chinese they have a plural form of “you,” distinct from the singular— nǐ 你—which is brilliant to make it clear whether you mean “you” as the one person you’re addressing, or the group of people you’re with; there’s yet another form of “you” when addressing a large audience as well), scrumptious, kerfuffle, ephemeral, gazebo, skullduggery, quux, firebottle, frobnitz.
• Who are some of your heroes, heroines, real or fictional?
  The previous question revealed one of mine already. My father has always been another of my real-life heroes especially as I was growing up when it seemed to me there was nothing he couldn’t do. Even as I got old enough to realize he was a regular mortal, I started to appreciate the choices he had to make and how he sacrificed to support his family, always putting others first with patience and compassion that was a role model to me to try to aspire to be like.
• What is something new you’ve done recently?
  Maybe not extremely recently but I’ve been expanding my range a bit on the microcontrollers I’ve been playing with in recent years. Back in the early 2000s I was exclusively using PIC chips but now it’s all Arduinos and Raspberry Pis these days. And I’ve been dabbling a little more in trying to appreciate Anime a bit more.
• What’s the wildest thing you’ve experienced or witnessed in nature?
  Earthquakes, monsoon season, and a really good tropical thunderstorm with lightning bolts striking way too close for comfort certainly remind one to respect Mother Nature and realize how small we humans are when out in the elements by ourselves.
• It’s late afternoon on a summer Saturday, you’re sitting with your feet in a cool creek and someone hands you the perfect beverage. What is it?
  Right now, it would typically be a Diet Coke, I’m embarrassed to admit, but I need to cut down on that, so let’s say a lemonade.

I hate giving interviews.
—Bobby Deol