Sunday Morning Questions: Diving Right In Edition

I'm running a little late this morning—okay, a whole lotta late—and I've already accidentally deleted this column once (thanks Blogger!) so I'll keep today's Q&A session rather brief.

A couple of things, though. Thank you guys for the pleasant variety of questions I received at formspring.me this week. You can either see the answers at the website, or check back here in another three or four weeks when they get incorporated into my weekly round-ups.

Another thing—thanks for all the thoughtful answers to Friday's forum about early shame. Some of the stories you folks shared are funny, touching, and thoughtful. If you didn't get a chance to read the comments, take a chance and do. That's what the forums are all about!


If you have a "smart phone", what are the apps you use the most on your phone?

I use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and my email and camera apps the most. I also make heavy use of my web browser, and peruse my RSS feeds with an aggregator called Reeder.

The game I play the most at the moment is Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer.



Do you prefer hairy or smooth asses?

I prefer asses that are on my face, actually.


Do you like to ride roller coasters? If so, what is the name and amusement park of your favorite?

I love roller coasters. My favorite is a sentimental choice—The Grizzly, at King's Dominion in Virginia. It's a wooden coaster that rattles your bones as it takes every corner at breakneck speed.

It's probably my favorite because I associate it with the time I spent working at the park, and the nights after closing when employees could ride the coasters without lines for hours at a time in the dark, until long after midnight. Working in the park was not a great experience overall, but those employee parties were a great deal of fun.


You mentioned that at one time you played WoW...I was wondering if you ever played LotRO? And if so would it be possible to connect with you there?

I played World of Warcraft for six years, since the beginning, and then gave it up last April. I was not a fan of the Cataclysm expansion at all. Giving it up was tough, and I still miss the game, but not enough to go back at this point.

I played Lord of the Rings Online for about six months, after it opened. It was a vast world, but I didn't really enjoy it a whole heck of a lot. So after I bought my hobbit's player house, I let my subscription lapse.

I had a lot of issues with the leveling experience—namely that I'd get a kerjillion quests and they'd all be worthless before I was even vaguely finished with a region—and with the respawn time on trash (way too fast!). I also didn't like the weirdness of the character classes. The archer who was required never ever to move in order to fire at maximum strength was just bizarre.

I believe the game fixed a lot of my concerns later, but by then I was gone.


What do you feel is the single greatest invention of your time?

Plain and simple—the internet. The ability to communicate with parts of the world immensely far away, and on the most obscure of topics, has sparked a change in the way we all live. It's a scope of change that I feel we won't even be able fully to appreciate in our lifetimes, either.


Whenever I've thought of moving to the NY metro area, the cost of housing made it seem unattractive, unless I moved into something close to the size of my college dorm room. What are your longer term housing plans, should you stay about where you are?

Housing is expensive in the NYC area. If you're moving from somewhere with a low cost of living, like pockets of the midwest or south, it's positively obscene.

Originally my plans were to buy a house here. I think now I'm looking at condo options, or I may continue renting for a while longer. To be honest, since I had to sell at an all-time housing depression, the home-owning experience did not turn out to be all-American dream of prosperity I was always promised as a young person.


Grower or shower?

I'm a grower, but I can do some fairly good showing from time to time.


Is there any TV series that miss and wish was still being made?

I really think Firefly was canceled before its time. And Angel, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Oh, just throw Dollhouse in there too and we'll have a Joss Whedon wake.