you've got a lot of choices. If getting out of bed in the morning is a chore and you're not smiling on a regular basis, try another choice.

1. Did you have a nickname growing up? What was it and why were you called that?
   my nickname growing up was a diminutive derivation of my given name, no big stretch. Most kids probably get a nickname like that to start out with. I always wanted a more sophisticated name, something with multiple syllables and prehaps a few more consonants, but I wasn't creative or annoyed enough to insist upon being called by something other than that with which I'd been saddled at birth. I don't really feel like my name 'suits' me, but I've no clue what else would do better, so, there you have it.
2. If you had to go live with one of your relatives for the next year, who would you ask for a room?
   I would ask my brother if he were still single, but since he's a newlywed, that would be pretty awkward (particularly since he's got a pretty full house anyway). My next two choices would be my cousin Curtis, who is the world's most awesome guy, or my godparents, an aunt and uncle who live part time in the old hometown and part time in home state south.
3. What movie has influenced you the most? How?
   The Professional [Léon] has been an enormous influence on me. For one thing, it's just a kick-ass action film, and helped me realize that I LOVE action movies. But it's primarily a love story, really--a story about the effect that love has on our lives and the choices that we make. How violence is awful and destructive but sometimes necessary. How love comes out of nowhere and punches you right in the stomach when you're not prepared. How hot people are sometimes (maybe more often than not?) totally flippin' craaazy. The film made me fall for Jean Reno (who, as you may realize, is not the average cinema hero), and made me champion Natalie Portman before all other actresses, and set in place a little quiver of fear/excitement every time I so much as think about Gary Oldman (watch True Romance and tell me you don't feel the same way).
   The most important effect that The Professional had on me, though, was to help me understand that I really do love movies. I might not watch them as often as other people do, or see everything that everyone else sees, or (God forbid) like what everyone else likes, but when you plunk me in front of a movie that I like, I'm as happy as a hog in slop. Yay, movies! Thanks, Léon.
4. Show and Tell. What comes to mind first when you see this picture? Or, tell a story if it reminds you of one.
   
   
   Public Domain Photo
   “be careful what you wish for, because if you wish hard enough you are pretty sure to get it.”
   [Sarah Orne Jewett, in "Betty Leicester’s English Christmas," from St. Nicholas, V.23, Pt.1. 1883]

[from the original source; the title quotation is by Steven D. Woodhull]