Blogger Insider

For this round of Blogger Insider I’ve been paired with Tinka of dust.from.a.distant.sun..

Her questions and my answers:

1. I noticed your Hemingway Blog. Has his writings influenced your own writing to a particular degree or do you ‘just’ admire him as an author or icon?
   I actually started the Hemingway Blog as a project in college. I do enjoy Hemingway, but he isn’t my favorite author. When I created the web site in ’95 or so, the internet was just starting to become really popular and creating a web site for a class was considered very “new”. It was really just a way to avoid writing another term paper … I don’t know how much his writing has influenced my own, although I do try to remember how well he was able to convey so much using so few words.
2. What is your very first memory?
   I have two memories that I consider my earliest, but I don’t know which one came first. I remember playing with Matchbox cars while my mom was ironing some clothes. The radio was playing and they announced that John Lennon had been killed and I remember my mom crying and I didn’t understand why, just that she was terribly sad. My other memory is of running around in a diaper and my mom being very upset because it was … uhm … “soiled” and I was trying to avoid letting her change it for some reason. Y’know … now that I think about it … I’m sure I was out of diapers by the time Lennon was shot, so that memory must be the earlier one.
3. Any particular film you’d cite as a way of explaining your personality to someone you’ve just met?
   Cool Hand Luke.
4. Is everything bloggable? (note: not a question of quality, but rather where your personal limits are placed)
   Yes. Sometimes I will refrain from writing about something if I know that it will hurt someone’s feelings, but generally I am pretty much sure to write about anything interesting that happens in my life.
5. What is the very height of laziness?
   Playing video games when I know there is something more important to do.
6. How do you feel about your nationality? What makes you uniquely American? Or do you feel like a citizen of world?
   My grandfather fought in World War II and he instilled in me a great pride of my nationality. I consider myself an American and am quite patriotic, although I try to be well-informed about not only what other nations are doing, but how the United States is responding to them and why. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I don’t believe in “blind” patriotism. There are some times when you must make a decision about where you stand on your country’s actions, and there is nothing un-patriotic if you feel that your nation is being dishonorable. Vote.
7. What sort of first impression would you like to make when entering a room?
   <understatement>I enjoy being noticed.</understatement>
8. Have vanity web sites been replaced by blogs?
   I’m not really sure what you mean by “vanity web sites”, but I would say that blogging is a much more accessible way to present yourself to the world.
9. You wrote: “Am I really a “computer programmer” though? I don’t know. It’s what I do right now, but I don’t think it’s what I am, if that makes any sense.” And I started wondering: “What defines us nowadays? It used to be our local communities and our families. Has the focus really shifted and careers have become that which forms our identities”. Ugh. Big question.
   Everyone is different. There are some people I know that view themselves completely in respect to their career. I don’t think that’s wrong or bad, but it’s not me. I am David Vincent Gagne. If I am chopping chicken wings or loading trucks or writing computer code I am still David Vincent Gagne. To know me is to allow yourself to become exposed to the totality of my thoughts and emotions and, perhaps, to suffer my existence as a part of your life. I don’t think I’m very easy to accept because I can be very black-and-white and tend to remark on things that others simply ignore. I don’t really know who I am and I’m not sure that I ever will. There is a very good chance that no one will ever know me, and that is disturbing.
10. How do I get to the pizza parlour from here?
    Pizza is best when delivered. Bertucci’s in Boston is a good place to start.
11. What’s your poison?
    I like beer, but have been known to consume vast quantities of Hurricanes while in New Orleans.

My questions for her:

1. You certainly seem to be an avid reader. Who is *your* favorite author? Why?
2. What is the first movie you remember seeing? Where did you see it?
3. What are your thoughts on corrective eye surgery?
4. Happy birthday! (I know it’s a bit late.) Did you do anything exciting? What is the most eventful / exciting birthday you can recall?
5. Are you close to your family, geographically and / or spiritually? How and / or why?
6. What is your favorite breakfast?
7. What started you on the road to blogging? When you blog, what is your “goal”?
8. How long until you graduate? What degree will you have?
9. How often do you go grocery shopping? What is the one thing you can’t leave a grocery store without purchasing?
10. What is your least favorite web site?