Just... two? Gah! Ok. Last vacation I took I brought the Aeneid and one of David Weber's Sci-fi burps. Won't lie: on the way home when the hot girl pulled out the Brothers Karamazov, I put away the sci-fi and pulled out the ancient Greek stuff. Next vacation might be the Orestes cycle and a Dresden book.

Album-wise? Beggar's Banquet and... Shostakovich 7th? Which is both awe inspiring and depressing. So maybe not that last one.

I very carefully pick the lock on the cage, getting myself and my friend the Yankee fan out of that fucking cage. And then I make said Yank's fan buy us tickets to the next A's/Red Socks home stand, where I make them suffer the dual humiliation of rooting for the 'Socks. I did, after all save their life.

I'm not really a fan of cheese, so the idea of a meal that's mostly cheese just don't appeal to me.

I used to be a huge milk drinker, but literally one day when I was about 14 or 15, I just stopped drinking it. Didn't care for it, didn't want it. I was done.

I'm actually not a fan of dairy at all. I don't have any food allergies, as far as I know. But milk, cheese, yogurt, etc, all kind of leave me saying "meh".

Make mine pizza. Extra sauce.

How did I get in? That's the question, isn't it? I did it the hard way.
I did a lot of student government stuff in college. Tip about that: It's really important and great practice. But it's not intrinsically important. I've seen some _awesome_ parliamentary unwaivering over t-shirt design. And then used those same moves to block city-council resolutions that I didn't like (I won't say which ones).

Student government is sandlot baseball or 2 on 2 basketball. The skills are important but the score is not.

Next, I took a detour into corporate sales. Gods, the money is good. Really, really good. Like "Order the most expensive thing on the menu just to see if it's worth the price" good. But it's a bit soul destroying. One Friday in 2008, I got a call from a buddy on the campaign trail. Would I come work for Obama in Ohio?

I quit my job the next Monday. We did alright in that campaign.

When I got back, I did a series of odd political jobs and pulled an internship at SF City Hall. Those jobs gave me the connections that let me meet the people who would hire me for my last few jobs.

The theme here: the way into politics is to know people. This, I think, is shitty and corrupting. It creates a sort of incest of ideas and echo chamber for action. I hate it. I don't see a way out of it.

Now: if you're asking for advice, or if you're reading this hoping for advice, my suggestion would be this: do an internship. Take out a loan if you have to. That's where the people are. It's illegal to do useful work unpaid, and you'll be doing the shit no one else in the office wants to. But that's how you'll be able to meet the people who will know the people who are hiring.

Anyway: that's how I got in. Let's see if I can stay there.

The general answer to this question is yes, though a specific answer will depend on circumstances.

That's not an easy question! Let's see if I can do this without accidentally talking about my favorite musical.

I'd say that I don't really have a single favorite, though I'm pretentious enough to say that they're thematically similar. For instance: I couldn't hope to avoid mentioning "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead". It's a fantastic story about the nature of time, memory, and reality. Also: the dialog is incredibly clever. This is actually not my favorite Stoppard play, however.

That honor would go to "Arcadia". This play moves back and forth between two time periods, and is another examination of the human condition. It features Stoppard's signature wit and singular style. I am particularly fond of the conceit of Ms. Chater-- a woman who drives the action but never appears onstage.

Another favorite of mine would be Picasso at the Lapin Agile. This is a Steve Martin play, and a cracking good one! I believe it manages to observe the letter of all three of Aristotle's unities-- while breaking their spirit utterly. If nothing else, this would serve as a summation of the 20th century-- which is the running meta-theme of the play. Highly impressive.

And no discussion of theater would be complete without mention of the Oresteia cycle, which documented and dramatized the rise of the Athenian legal tradition over older systems of vengeance and blood. It's a nice companion piece to any discussion of Hobbesian leviathan.

And what do these have in common?
Just beauty, truth, death, youth, love, life,
anguish, angst.

Oops. Failed.

I'm almost positive you wanted to use a colon there, instead of a comma. 'Cause "Puddles, Splash or Bypass" sounds like some awesome variant of of "Rock, Paper, Scissors".

In general, I prefer to stay dry and warm. So I'm going with "bypass", as long as we understand that I mean "at home, reading a good book, snuggled up to a cat or woman."

Master of Orion 2. Sadly, I picked it up again on Good Old Gamers a couple weeks ago. I say "sadly", because I'm unemployed and MoO isn't going to help me get a job...

Probably my first: Paul Simon and Bob Dylan. Those guys are both legends, and, well... That show proved why.

Hawaii. The humidity was just _awful_. And I'm not that outdoorsy a guy, so the idea of just laying around on a beach all day is not appealing...