memememe

[ciroccoj]

You know the drill:

1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I will respond by asking you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your LJ with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

leaper182's questions:
1. How did you come up with your sons' names?
2. If you had had a girl, what would you have named her?
3. Was there any particular convict that you taught who made you laugh?
4. Can you speak French, or another foreign language? (probably a dumb question, but still)
5. Do you play D&D with the son that's interested in it, or does he just play with his friends? (can't remember which one it is! ack!)


1. How did you come up with your sons' names?
First and second names were both random names we thought sounded nice, from baby name books. Daniel was picked in part because it's spelled the same in English and Spanish, but by the time Justin came along I was sort of off my Chilean heritage, so Justin was fine.

Their third names were individual and meaningful, chosen just for them. Chris says they were in part chosen because every kid needs something to hate his parents for when he's a teenager, and maybe if they hate us because we gave them goofy names they won't hate us for early curfews or something ;)

(BTW Daniel's is Merlin, and Justin's is Wolf.)

2. If you had had a girl, what would you have named her?
Julia Kathering Chinook for Daniel and Julia Megan Chinook for Justin. Julia for my mom, Katherine and Megan because they sound nice, and Chinook because a Chinook is an unexpected warm wind that blows in the middle of winter and melts the snow. Both were due in the middle of winter. Ottawa doesn't get Chinooks, but Chris' hometown of Calgary does - besides, see above re. goofy names ;)

3. Was there any particular convict that you taught who made you laugh?
Funny you should ask that because we were watching a HLOTS ep last night (Strangers and Other Partners) and there's a part where two cops who dislike each other intensely are interrogating a perp and he says something so outrageously stupid that they both burst out laughing, animosity totally forgotten in their mutual delight at how dumb the guy is, and I got all nostalgic.

We had a few like that. There was the one who came in so high we got giddy from his fumes, who claimed that nobody could ever tell when he was stoned, but who sat and stared at his screen for five minutes, utterly befuddled as to why he couldn't find his homework file - while his disk containing said file was in his hand.

And the guy who discovered Spellcheck but didn't realize he couldn't just accept all changes. His file was complete gibberish. The only thing I remember was something like "anal use the had dick four rears" which I figured was meant to say "analyse the hard disk for errors".

In the laughing with and not at category, I think the guy who complained that my assignment was boring until I told him to do it in interpretive dance would have to take the cake. He took up the challenge and danced around like a cursor and was going to demonstrate cutting and pasting until I asked him to please stop.

Oh and another day he spontaneously broke into a rousing rendition of "Oops I Did It Again" by Britney Spears in the hallway. You'd think most young inmates at a medium-security federal institution wouldn't be too eager to shimmy around hip-swinging and singing falsetto. I think it helped that he was about 6'2", well-acquainted with the weight room, and reasonably high up in the black 'gang.' He could've dressed like Britney for months before anybody thought to give him a hard time over it ;)

4. Can you speak French, or another foreign language? (probably a dumb question, but still)
French and Spanish. I'm officially trilingual in that I can and have worked in French before (I was a French-language tour guide one summer), but don't really feel as comfortable in French as I do in Spanish and English.

5. Do you play D&D with the son that's interested in it, or does he just play with his friends? (can't remember which one it is! ack!)
Chris runs a little kids' group. I played for a while, but it's not really my thing. These days Chris is the DM, Daniel plays every time with whoever else shows up, and Justin usually plays every other session. Daniel's characters are up to third level now, I think.

And sugarkane_59's questions:
1. Where does your pen name come from?
2. What kind of law are you planning to practice, once finished school?
3. Your sons are now teenagers. One of them brings home a girl who dresses like a slut, has no manners, uses excessive foul language, and smells nasty. Are you open-minded - or do you eject her from the house as quickly as possible?
4. How did you get into the L&O fandom?
5. If you actually had the chance, would you run George W. Bush over?


1. Where does your pen name come from?
John Varley wrote a sci-fi trilogy (Titan, Wizard, and Demon) where one of the main characters was an astronaut named Cirocco Jones. I happened to be reading it when I first joined an online community (Soapbox, at Queen's University) and picked the name for my pseudonym. Never bothered to change it. I re-read the Varley books every five years or so (they're not my faves but they are pretty good), but it's always a little disorienting when I start reading because... well, Cirocco is me. So it's like I'm reading about... me. Except, I am nothing like this chick who's supposed to be me. So why am I - why is she - doing all this weird stuff in the stories?

Feels a bit like RPS, actually ;)

2. What kind of law are you planning to practice, once finished school?
Million dollar question.

No, actually more like $30,000 question.

With very little answer. ADR and Drafting both really appeal to me, but I've also been pretty enthused with Criminal and International and Environmental. Who knows?

3. Your sons are now teenagers. One of them brings home a girl who dresses like a slut, has no manners, uses excessive foul language, and smells nasty. Are you open-minded - or do you eject her from the house as quickly as possible?
Eeeep.

Boy, that's a tough one. I guess it would really depend on how foul she was. I would be willing to overlook a lot in terms of dress and manners if there was something pleasant in there. I would try to talk to my sons about why they liked the girl and why I didn't, and try to maybe work out a compromise whereby, if I really, really didn't like her and they really, really did, they could just go directly to their room instead of swearing and smelling up the entire house.

I would try very hard not to be too adamant about anything; the last thing I would want would be for either of my sons to go out with somebody they weren't all that keen on just because of the rebellion factor.

The thought that it won't be that long until Daniel is of an age where this might be an issue is a little scary.

4. How did you get into the L&O fandom?
I used to flip past A&E and would stop when there was a courtroom scene. After many months of doing this, I learned that the courtroom scenes came attached to a cop show. Started watching the cop part and the courtroom parts started to make a lot more sense ;)

5. If you actually had the chance, would you run George W. Bush over?
LOL!!!

Oh, man, it would be so tempting!! But no. I would regret it for the rest of my life, I think, but I would not run him over.

I might lightly bump him or run over his foot though. Not enough for permanent damage, just enough for profound discomfort :)