Ornoth

What size shoe do you wear?

Somewhere between 10 and 12. Unfortunately, because the shoe manufacturers can't abide by a very simple standard, every time I buy shoes it's a crapshoot. I probably own more ill-fitting shoes than I do properly-fitting ones. Such gross incompetence shouldn't be allowed to persist in a modern society.
 

How many pairs of shoes do you own?

19½. I own 6½ pairs of Converse Chuck Taylor sneakers, four pairs of dress shoes, three pairs of other sneakers, two pairs of sandals, one pair of boots, one pair of cycling shoes, one pair of bowling shoes, and one pair of cycling sandals.
 

What type of shoe do you prefer (boots, sneakers, pumps, etc.)?

For years all I wore were Chucks, but I gave them up when the Converse factory outlet in Malden was closed. This year I tried switching to suede Pumas, but their sizing is so ludicrous that I probably won't be back. In recent years, I've become a sandal maniac, and you will almost always find me in my cycling sandals or my Tevas, even though Tevas are woefully passé.
 

Describe your favorite pair of shoes. Why are they your favorite?

Easily my favorite shoes are my Shimano SD-SH60 cycling sandals, complete with SPD cleats. They're elegant, efficient, comfortable, and durable. They're a sure conversation starter with other cyclists, who are always envious. And they give you the most amazing tan lines! I've ridden over 3500 miles in my first/present pair, and have every intention of buying at least two more pair in the near future. They're probably the single best purchase I've made in either realm: footwear or cycling gear.
 

What's the most you've spent on one pair of shoes?

I spent $259 for a pair of Allen-Edmonds wingtips for work back in 1996. They're okay, but I have no real emotional attachment to them. They're just shoes, as opposed to some of my more interesting but lower-priced purchases.

Would you say that you're good at keeping in touch with people?

When it comes to touching base / not losing contact I'm pretty good. Lately my participation in the Pan-Mass Challenge has helped me stay in touch with some folks I otherwise would have no reason to contact. But when it comes to daily interaction I tend to go off on my own and assume other people will indicate when they're interested in getting together. I think that kind of passivity is a common problem for young adults.
 

Which communication method do you usually prefer/use: e-mail, telephone, snail mail, blog comments, or meeting in person? Why?

Snail mail's worthless, and my blog is not for social trivia. I absolutely despise talking on the phone. Meeting in person is great if it's feasible, and if it's one-on-one or in a very small group. Parties are absolute anathema. Email and IM are just about the perfect communication tools, IMO.
 

Do you have an instant messenger program? How many? Why/why not? How often do you use it?

One: AOL AIM. I used to live on ICQ, but it didn't work behind firewalls, and then I started getting messaged by 2-3 different Brasilian high school students per day, so I left ICQ permanently. I tried Yahoo! Messenger, but it was barely functional. I got over my prejudices and installed AIM because it was the system most of my co-workers were using. It became a very pervasive thing at work; in fact, I was constantly running at the maximum Buddy List that AIM would allow me to have. I've never considered the multi-system aggregators like Trillian, because everything I've heard depicts them as flaky and fragile. And until recently, you could use a secret back-door trick to shut off the ads that AIM downloaded. I have it running virtually all the time.
 

Do most of your close friends live nearby or far away?

Mixed. Many of my closest friends are writers or former writers for my magazine, and they're all over the globe. But other than that, most of my friends live out in the suburbs of Boston. Many are former co-workers. I really haven't retained many friends from my youth growing up and going to college in Maine.
 

Are you an "out of sight, out of mind" person, or do you believe that "distance makes the heart grow fonder"?

What the hell is that supposed to mean? Who cares? All I can tell ya is Absynthe makes the heart grow, Fonda!
 

This is a particularly uninspiring set of questions...

What is your biggest pet peeve? Why?

I have a great deal of difficulty with chronic complainers. There's a certain type of person who thinks that the only way to obtain affection is through constant and unabashed pleas for pity. I have one acquaintance who has constantly harped about how bad hir job was, and the sacrifices it demanded of hir. Yet in the four years I've listened to hir, I've never seen hir lift a finger to change hir situation. Similarly, I have another acquaintance whose only topic of conversation is hir daily litany of physical ailments; sie constantly whines about hir malady du jour. This kind of conversational ploy for pity might have gotten these people attention in grammar school, but now that we're all big boys and girls it's time to grow out of it. These people have chosen to make their own unpleasant little realities, and I refuse to play enabler for them.
 

What irritating habits do you have?

Oh, I have many! Let's see... I usually pay more attention to cats than people. I often recite (not 'sing', but 'recite') song lyrics in the middle of a conversation. Another great habit I have is interjecting a meaningless word in the middle of conversations. I usually have one word that I'll run to death for four to six months before moving on to the next; past favorites include "quack", "marmot", "mukluk", "Krakatoa", "Moncton", and my current favorite "meow". And probably my most irritating habit is that I will always tell you the truth, no matter how offensive, embarassing, painful, or annoying. I'm the poster boy for "brutal honesty".
 

Have you tried to change the irritating habits or just let them be?

Never! Well, except when Inna asked me to pay a little less attention to the Puggle and pay more attention to her...
 

What grosses you out more than anything else? Why?

The one thing that really bugs me seems to be human frailty, which includes operations, sickness, injury, and aging. I can't think of anything grosser, which makes me a very unhappy caregiver.
 

What one thing can you never see yourself doing that other people do?

Being unhappy with my life but not lifting a finger to do anything about it. Too many people don't realize that there's an alternative to sitting around passively and hoping some external force is going to make you happy, rather than taking some responsibility for your life and going out and making it happen.
 
But the question probably meant "what can't you do that other people easily choose to do", in which case I'd have to say "being social". I find socializing to be a huge challenge, although there have been times when I've been successful at it. But it's definitely not my natural element.

There's a lot of inane stuff on LJ, but I think I've gradually come to think of the Friday Five as something marginally useful. It's weekly, which is a good frequency, and its questions do give you some degree of insight into the person who is answering. So I think I'm gonna start doing them myself.

Now, I can hear the jaws clanging off the floor, and the now-jawless people trying to articulate "But I thought this journal was just for yourself!?!"

Well, it is. But obviously some folks do read this, and FF would be a good way of sharing. But moreover, it's also a way for me, sometime in the unspecified future, to get an idea of what life was like at the time of writing. I guess it's another way to record / infuse this journal with more of my personality than you get from the typical-but-infrequent rant...

So let's see how this thing works:

What is your current occupation? Is this what you chose to be doing at this point in your life? Why or why not?

I am currently unemployed. In a sense, it's what I chose, in that I was planning on taking a three-month unpaid leave of absence from work all summer anyways; now, with a good severence after seven years at the firm, it's sort of like taking a paid leave of absence! But as far as occupations go, I'm a Web User Experience Designer, which includes everything from user research to information architecture to visual design to HTML to database implementer; basically, I do it all, but right now I'm focusing on bolstering my graphic design skills.
 

If time/talent/money were no object, what would your dream occupation be?

That's difficult. I love the Web work I do, and that'd be hard to trade in. I also aspire to be a novelist, although most of my writing is short stories. I also think it'd be cool if I could work full-time on the e-zine I publish; its mission is establishing a collaborative and supportive environment that brings aspiring writers together in the interest of helping them improve their craft. And I would also think that photography would also be a really wonderful career. I never would have anticipated it, but there's a strong theme of creativity there, isn't there?
 

What did/do your parents do for a living? Has this had any influence on your career choices?

My father... started as a jeweler, then became an advocate for local businesses working in various chambers of commerce, then became executive VP at a firm that did lobbying at the state level for small businesses. My mother was a nurse, then head nurse at a hospital, then a specialist for a urologist practice. Those have had no influence on my own career.
 

Have you ever had to choose between having a career and having a family?

No. I've chosen not to have a family (which sort of includes all relatives, not just spouse and offspring), so that it doesn't interfere with my career and my other pursuits (such as my writing and magazine, mentioned above).
 

In your opinion, what is the easiest job in the world? What is the hardest? Why?

I think photography is likely to be one of the easiest. While there is undoubtedly both an art and a skill to it, photography seems very forgiving, and I suspect it usually doesn't require quite as much effort as some of the other creative arts. Hardest jobs would include ones with a great deal of physical risk or stress, and ones which involve much interaction with the public. In his college days, my brother used to spend his summers painting the insides of the huge oil storage tanks you see near seaports. I can't imagine that was much fun, between the fumes and the oppressive sun beating down into those things...

That's it. Doesn't feel very exciting, but we'll see how it goes.