Announcing... the Friday Five

All right, I’ve decided to join another bandwagon, at least for now. This time, it’s the Friday Five, which I’ve seen on enough blogs that I thought I’d give it a shot. Don’t know if I’ll be able to do it regularly, but in a week where I’m trying to maintain my composure (jeez, will he just shut up about that already!), I figure it doesn’t hurt to take a material handout once in a while.

Basically, the site poses five questions each Friday, and asks you to answer them. The idea being that your readers may glean a little insight into your character that you might not otherwise provide in your usual format. The structured nature of it helps keep it going, or at least that’s the idea. Frankly, I think it just sounds like a fun little novelty. So here goes...

Question #1: Using one adjective, describe your current living space.

Comfortable. Sure, I’ve got the long commute, a ridiculous amount of leaves to clean up every fall, not really enough room for a big-screen television, but it’s what we’ve worked toward for a long time. We’ll be staying a while (unless I get that Hollywood deal, naturally).

Question #2: Using two adjectives, describe your current employer.

Original and profitable. Original in that nobody else out there is using the same business model (at least not in any large capacity), and profitable in that they earn enough to keep me in new equipment. No I don’t get everything I want — we’re in a battle with Finance right now — but on the whole, I’m doing better than a lot of my peers out in the rest of the world.

Question #3: Using three adjectives, describe your favorite hobby/pastime.

Creative, provocative, and fulfilling. A while ago, I would have thought of “watching movies” as my favorite pastime, but I don’t have nearly enough time to that so much anymore. In effect, this is my new pastime; hell, I’ve been doing it for almost a year now, and I’m still going strong. It’s creative, in that it inspires me to develop effective ways to express my frequently random thoughts; provocative — for me, anyway — in that it makes me take notice of the world around me and try to make some sense of it (if it’s provocative for anyone reading, then so much the better); and fulfilling in that it allows me to exercise skills I had long thought atrophied. (If I had to pick a fourth, it might have been time-consuming, ’cause I spend waaaay too much time on this; I didn’t have to, though, so that thought remains off the record.)

Question #4: Using four adjectives, describe your typical day.

Tedious, enlightening, collaborative, and loving. Tedious in that a lot of it’s spent either commuting or waiting for things to happen. Enlightening in that I’m exposed to a slew of intelligent, creative people, and I never fail to learn something new every day. Collaborative in that I work with a great team of folks, each of whom contributes a vital part to the whole process (not to mention filling in a lot of my own shortcomings). And loving in that I get to end the day at home with my family; okay, enough with the snickers — one hug from my four-year-old’s enough to make anyone smile.

Question #5: Using five adjectives, describe your ideal life.

Cinematic, secure, wealthy, instructive, and happy. Cinematic, in that I’ve got to be making movies. Secure (which, I know, isn’t all that consistent with a movie career, but this is ideal, all right?) in that I’ve got a family to take care of, and I’ve grown accustomed to a touch of stability. Wealthy, because I’m a woefully materialistic fellow (actually, I just want enough to keep myself in gadgets into the foreseeable future). Instructive, because I’ve got a burning need to pass along what I know to others; not that I’ve got an unbounded wealth of unique life experience, but I just feel that otherwise what I do have will be lost forever. And happy — which, I know, isn’t all that original a choice — because all of it doesn’t mean a thing if it you’re not enjoying it.

Okay, that’s it. Please feel free to add your reactions, comments, or your own answers to the questions here. I’d love to see ’em.