Here's cornsail! His interview will run until November 2nd (wow this year happened fast)!

Please remember a few simple rules:
-Ask only a few questions at a time.
-At the end of the week, the interviewee will pick who gets interviewed next out of those who participated in his/her thread.
-Please don't argue with the interviewee if she/he says something that you disagree with. It's an interview, not a debate.
-The interviewee can decline to answer any question, and anyone chosen to be interviewed can refuse.



Enjoy!

How did you end up having dinner with that actor/kung fu guy?

Same question I ask everyone else:

Do you believe in Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster?

Boxers or briefs?

Do you enjoy crafts or any kind?

Oh my...

Have you ever been convicted of a felony?

Do you have any posters in your room?

Do you run a lot?

Sunil is an interesting name, what does it mean and in what language/ethnicity does it mean that?

What got you interested in online communication (forums like VB)?

What's your story, man?

Where do you find the avatars of cute terrorist cats?

Why do you use them?

Do you think cats are a threat to matters of planetary security?

Not a great story, but it was pretty cool because I liked him in Kung Fu Hustle. I was stuck in the San Fransisco airport on layover at the customer service desk. They were giving us hotel and shuttle vouchers. This quirky Chinese guy was in the same situation and his English was not very good, so he asked if we could help each other. He kept wanting to borrow my phone to call his wife and whoever he was meeting on the other end of his trip. He found me again when I went down for dinner in the hotel restaurant and sat at my table. He said something about being in movies, so I googled his name and figured out who he was later on. He lives in SF apparently.


No.


I think I switched from briefs to boxers in my late teens.

I'm horrible at physical crafts, but I enjoy playing with flim and audio editors.


No, I think my only legal penalties have been for parking offenses.


No posters at the moment (very transitory living arrangements), but I like Jean-Michel Basquait artwork posters.

I jog occassionally, not a lot.


I believe it's Sanskrit and I've heard a bunch of different claims about what it means from "clear sky" to "very dark blue" to "the good one". It's a popular Indian name, but I'm English/Scottish/Danish.


I've just always liked web forums and the internet. I started when I was 13 or so. I like VB, because I love veg people.


Tough question! A friend of mine used to say "I'm just a lil pigboy trying to get his din-dins in this ****ed up world."


My Arab cat avatar was not a terrorist and I can't remember where it came from to be honest. I found this one with a little googling to participate in the Halloween "find a scary version of your current avatar" club.

Cats are a threat, but in a good way. They keep the planet on its toes.

If you had to have your toe nails painted for the rest of your life, what colour/ design would you like to have on them?

Do you keep any stuffed animals?

If you were a cereal, would you be "No sugar added" or "5lb of sugar in a 16oz box"?

Do you love bunny noses, or do you love bunny noses?

Do you wear any jewelry?

Mountains or the ocean?

Hmm, I can't come up with an answer to this that I like.


No

I would be "naturally sweet", but it would be false advertizing

I'm jealous of bunny noses. I feel like a freak for not being able to wiggle mine.

No, I don't really care for jewelry on men or women. I used to shield my eyes from prominent jewlry as a little kid and words like "necklace" or "dangley" still make me cringe a little. I don't know why, maybe it's a "girls have cooties" thing.

Both

What are your hobbies?

What is your job?

Why aren't these things standard questions?

Just changing abodes, or are you nomadic (re: the transitory living arrangement)?

Nothing special. Games, travel, films, music.


I was a cognitive psychology grad student / teaching assistant / research assistant in Ohio for the past couple years, but I recently took a leave and I'm trying to get into a statistics masters program instead. I'm hoping to get a statistics or accounting job for a non-profit after that.


I don't know, that's a good question.


My parents just moved and I'm staying at their old house while they slowly move out. I was living with 3 roommates in Ohio while I was studying psych befire that, my lease just ended in August.

How much can you bench press?

How many times have you read Gödel, Escher, Bach?

If you could steal someone else's voice, whose would it be?

If they made the movie Children of the Cornsail, who would play your children? Who would play you?

How does one's interests transition from cog sci to accounting? Or did they not?

Why do you like cats-in-clothes avatars?

I don't know.


Less than once.


I wouldn't steal anyone's. That'd be weird.






Statistics is an important part of cog sci and I learned to love it. I don't know a ton about accounting, but there's some intersection with stats and I can take a CPA to make myself open to accounting. The job market is good for both of the two fields right now, although I'm more interested in statistics.


I like one cats-in-clothes avatar (for no particular reason) and I changed to a different one to participate in the "use a scarier version of your avatar for Halloween club". After Halloween I'll probably be done with cat avatars.

Oh, wait - you're, cog psy, not cog sci...

What's the first CD you bought?

What's the first concert you went to?

Who's the best Bond?

Who's the best Bond girl?

Do you play any musical instruments?

What word are you most likely to misspell?

Technically both if you consider cog psy part of cog sci.


I think it was Dark Side of the Moon.


The Cure


Daniel Craig


M


I can play the drums badly.


Sequitur

If you could borrow anyone else's voice, without their losing it at the same time, and without causing offense, whose would you borrow?

What kind of movies do you watch? What are some of your favorite movies?

How do you feel about carbs?

What kind of car do you drive?

Would you eat a newspaper if paid a large sum to do it?

Do you want the ability to bend air?

'Lo Cornie

As an aspiring statitician what is your response to the famous saying:

"Lies, damn lies and statistics"?

I meant it'd be weird having someone else's voice. I guess I'd borrow Ron Bennington's, since he's one of my favorite people to listen to on the radio.


My favorites are anything by David Lynch, Andrei Tarkovsky or the Cohen brothers, but I'll watch just about anything.


They're delicious (especially pasta).


Geo prizm


Yes


I didn't until you mentioned it, but I guess it couldn't hurt


Hello fellow UKian (lived in England till age 6).

Statistics can be easily misinterpreted and can be used to mislead those who don't understand them. Since it's used by so many fields of science, this can apply to things that don't sound overtly statistical such as "X was found to be a predictor of Y" or "a study found As to be more Z than Bs". There are two relatively easy things I'd recommend to anyone who doesn't want to be mislead. 1) Learn what "statistically significant" means. 2) If poll results are reported without giving the actual questions, find the study and read the actual questions. Studies / science papers reported on by the media can usually be found online for free and most aren't that difficult to read. I'd like to start a blog on this stuff at some point.

Statistics explained clearly and honestly are not lies though.

OK. Sally always wants to know- Who was your favorite teacher and why?

Have you ever had tortilla soup?

Do you like CornNuts?

Have you ever befriended a grasshopper?

What's your favorite dinosaur?

If you could have a conversation with any person living or dead, would you really choose among both living people and dead people even though corpses can't say anything back to you?

If you could sing at the future funeral of any VB member other than me, who would it be?



(oh, and the same disclaimer that there's no picking of me for an interview, as always)

Who is your favorite Fred Willard character?

What happens if you fake the funk?