Scooter Chronicles

Here is the first batch of answers to another edition of “Ask Scooter Anything”.

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Internet friend Roger asked the following questions:

Who will Obama and McCain pick for VP?

Good question that I can only guess at an answer.

It seems that Sen. Obama is leaning towards Tim Kaine, who I have never heard of, mostly due to not keeping my head in the political game as much as I probably should. I have only read the headlines that they are talking, so I am not sure what the draw is for them.

I think Tom Ridge, former Pennsylvania Governor and former Secretary of Homeland Security seems to be the front runner as Sen. McCain’s running mate, from what I hear. It would seem like a smart choice.

Who SHOULD they pick?

I think McCain would win more votes if he picked a woman as his running mate. Also someone that is more conservative then he is, but someone he can work with. From my general non-experienced opinion, I think Ridge seems like a good choice. He seems to garner respect.

I think Obama might want to consider a woman as a running mate as well. Personally, I liked Bill Richardson, but that might be suicide, as you pointed out in your post. A lot of people wouldn’t vote for that ticket based on race. I like the idea of Kathleen Sebelius. I don’t know a lot about her except from what has been said in the press, that being that she is very well respected in her home state. Though I do like how education and other energy sources are priorities to her. That fits in well with Obama.

And just to clarify, my comments about both having a female running mate is not meant to be sexist or anything. I am trying to think of it from their point of view of winning votes. As I have always felt, I don’t care what color or sex of the person I am voting for. If I feel they are the best candidate, I will vote for them.

Another note. Before taping of the show Marcia and I saw, Stephen Colbert took questions from the audience. Someone asked him who he thought Obama should choose as a running mate. Colbert then mentioned that Obama has been saying that he wants someone that could be the President themselves, and someone that would question what he is doing. Colbert then pointed to himself and said, “Check and check!”

Have you ever been in a blogging funk? If so, how did you get out of it?

I have been in a funk before. As it is, I usually just don’t post anything. And they haven’t lasted more then two or three days.

Most of the posts you see on my site are pre-dated as it is. At times I have five days of posts ready to do so I don’t have to come up with anything. I like setting it up so there is one post a day (though I have recently been skipping Sundays unless there is something really on my mind). Most of what I post doesn’t have any ties to being timely, so I just do it that way. Because of this, I can have funks and not have to worry about coming out of it. I have time to ease back into it.

Ten favorite cities you’ve been to.

I am going to exclude those that I took up permanent residency in.

1. Toronto, Ontario - Have always enjoyed TO (as locals call it). I worked in the greater Toronto area for about six months, and have gone there on “vacation” four times. There is so much to see and do in the area, and far less crime and grime then big US cities.
2. Amsterdam, Netherlands - I only spent one day in the city, but would love to go back. Like many, if not all, European cities, it is interesting to see the vast array of architecture. So many modern buildings mixed with buildings that are hundreds of years old.
3. Genk, Belgium - (pronounced GAYNK) I was in Genk for a little less then two weeks (same trip as Amsterdam). There is a Ford plant there. I liked being in a small European community. It’s a laid back, easy going way of life there. Some really good Italian restaurants there, too (area has a lot of Italian immigrants).
4. London, England - Like Amsterdam, I only got to spend a day there. But much nicer company (Marcia). We went to Wimbledon, got to see Centre Court and the museum. And ate at Belgo’s, meeting a fellow Yes fan and member of the Yahoo fan club David started. I would like to go back to see some of the other 99.9% that I didn’t get to.
5. Williamsburg, Virginia - I would like to see more of the Colonial part, but the whole area is really nice. Even though it’s a tourist area, it isn’t really crowded.
6. Virginia Beach, Virginia - I am not really the beach type, but I did enjoy my two visits there.
7. Louisville, Kentucky - At least the area of town that I was housed in during my six months in the area. Nigel would have loved it too, seeing that I lived about 500 feet from a railroad track that was active and followed it most of the way driving back and forth to work.
8. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - Probably a surprise to most. This hinges on the fact that I have only been to a couple of areas. Marcia and I saw two Penguins games and ate at the Ruddy Duck both times. This area of downtown is very nice. We have also stayed at the Hampton Inn in Greentree, a suburb of Pittsburgh about three to four miles south of downtown. Greentree looks like a nice to place to live.
9. Dayton, Ohio - Though I should specify the Centerville/Washington Twp. area south of Dayton. I was there for a little over a year for work. The area that I lived, and most of the area around the plant were pretty nice. There was a great selection of restaurants by my apartment.
10. Exeter, England - Last, but not least. Spent a week there, on the same trip as going to London. This city, though kind of small and not much to really see, will always be special to Marcia and I. Within the city limits is an old bridge. It appears that they diverted the flow of the river, so it crosses over a field. On this bridge I proposed to Marcia.

Favorite artist(s) - painters, sculptors, etc.

Marcia and I have become more exposed to painters due to Nigel’s “Classical Baby” DVD set (one of the three is “The Art Show”), and his “Little Einsteins” DVD’s where each episode has a composer and artist “of the day”.

I hate to say it, but Jackson Pollock’s work is really cool. Sure, it looks like a kid could do it, but I like the clash of colors. I also like the work of Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee as well. And of course, Claude Monet.

One of my favorite paintings, one that I have a copy of in my cubicle at work, is Fernand Léger’s Élément Mécanique. I like what I have seen of his other work, too.

For more modern work, I like Roger Dean. Though with me being a fan of progressive rock music this shouldn’t come as a surprise. However he has done more then just paintings. He also designs furniture and has done some architectural work as well.

I am not really into sculptures, however I do like architecture. In some respects it’s along the same lines, but on a much bigger scale. However, I don’t have any favorite architects.

Why are left-handed people called southpaws? (Actually, I know, but your readers may not.)

I am going by memory here, not looking it up. Let’s see if I am correct.

Back in the early days of baseball, most fields were positioned where if the hitter put the ball in play, the general direction was east. This was done to keep the sun out of the batter’s eyes since games were started in the afternoon. Because of this, when left handed pitcher was standing on the mound facing home plate, his left arm would be on south side of his body.

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My sister Jenn asked the following questions:

If you had your own NHL team and could have any player (still active), who would be your “dream” starting forward line and defense pairing?

Tough choices, but here is goes (with the addition of a goalie).

Center: Sidney Crosby. No real need to explain why, I hope. (HM: Mike Richards, Jonathan Toews, and Joe Thornton)

Right Wing: Patrick Kane. He’s a great young guy to build a team around. (HM: Marian Hossa)

Left Wing: Henrik Zetterberg. Conn Smythe winner, Selke candidate, and has a great attitude and work ethic (as if I had to tell you, Jenn). (HM: Dany Heatly, Ilya Kovalchuk, and Rick Nash)

Defenseman: Jay Bouwmeester and Brian Campbell. Bouwmeester is big and tough, but has been picking up the scoring. Campbell can score and is still not a liability. (HM: Niklas Kronwall and Dion Phaneuf)

Goalie: Roberto Luongo. I think his numbers would be even more impressive on a better team. Plus he comes across as very confident that he could carry his team. Always good to have that between the pipes. (HM: Miika Kiprusoff, Evgeni Nabakov, and Marc-Andre Fleury)

I stuck with younger guys, or at least no really old men. For instance, Niklas Lidstrom would be an obvious choice for defenseman, and Martin Broduer as goalie, but they are both on the back end of their 30’s.

What sport do you love to watch but have never played?

Australian Rules Football. A fellow member of our fantasy league (Brian) plays for the Philadelphia Hawks. It’s nothing more then a rec-type league, but the opportunity is there. But given my state of being, I would need to slowly get fit and work my way up to playing.

Is there (if yes, what) a show that your love to watch but hate having to tell people you love?

I don’t really watch TV these days. Haven’t for a long time. But if I am flipping through channels and come across re-runs of “The Nanny” (and there is nothing better on), I will stop and watch. I am not a big fan of the show really, but I like her character. I also like the way she dresses (though sometimes over the top) and how Fran Drescher looks in those outfits.

If someone was going to do a movie on your life who would you want to play you (and who you would want to play your great little sis!)?

Back when I worked for Forward Planning we used to joke around that the office coming-and-goings would make a good soap opera. We then decided to cast the parts of us in a movie. Somebody said that Billy Baldwin would best play me. I kind of disagreed. I was leaning towards David Marshall Grant. Both are older then me (especially Grant), but we couldn’t come up with anyone else. Not sure who would be best now.

As for you, not sure. Sometimes there are obvious choices, like those of us at Forward Planning found out, but sometimes they are harder to pinpoint. Some of our choices were based on background, too. That makes it tougher to choose. (As if this all mattered anyway!)

One other thing, I have always said that if anyone of us had a movie made of our lives (meaning our household growing up), Alan Alda would have to play Dad. Alda’s not as broad chested, but no one else comes close.

What would you do if you won a 10 million dollar lottery?

Pay off all the bills. Buy a house. Hire a lawn care company to do just that and snow removal in the winter. Put most of what is left away for the future in a good secure investment. Try to live as we do today, but splurge a little more often (which would be easy given we wouldn’t have a mortgage payment).

Are you going to complain that your sister will be taking a ton of photos at family gatherings now that I am taking photography classes?

Not really. I can really appreciate the art.

I am not a fan of getting my picture taken, but it’s not something I dread or run away from. Now video taping, that’s a whole different story. You wouldn’t be able to find my hiding place. (And I tried not to think about the fact that I might be on TV when we were at the taping of the Colbert Report last week.)

Its early, but who is going to win the Stanley Cup in 2009?

Yeah, it’s early yet, but I always make my prediction at the start of the season anyway.

As it stands right now, I am leaning towards the Red Wings repeating. They will still have to come out of the very tough Western Conference where Sharks and Ducks will again be top contenders, too. Had the Penguins held on to more of their players, like Hossa (now a Red Wing, thank you very much!), I would have pegged them as the favorites. And I get a sneaky feeling that the Lightning are going to surprise a lot of people. At least next year they will. The Flyers could contend in the East as well, and if the Senators put the right guy behind the bench, they can’t be counted out either. (Though with the talent the Senators have they should be able to win with a monkey as the coach, just never seem to play to their potential.)

Nothing official as of yet from me, but I will probably go with the Red Wings or Sharks.

Do you like your name or wish that Mom and Dad had picked something different?

I am not thrilled about my first name, but there are certainly many that I am glad I don’t have. I would say that the list of names that I am glad I don’t have is much, much, bigger then names I would like to have or names I am indifferent towards combined (and my name lands on the latter list).

Do you think that if you had a different name that you would be a different person than you are today?

That is a great psychological question that I can’t answer. I doubt I would be any different though. The only big difference in my life right now is that my blog would have a different name.

Why are you such a big fan of Rush?

There is something about the music that they write that really strikes a chord in me. Even their material that I don’t like as much as others, there is still something that I can find to like about it. Each musician is great at their craft (though Peart can overplay at times). The lyrics are some of the most thought provoking and intelligent in rock history, if not the most. And they continually change, being influenced by other artists that haven’t been around as long as they have.

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Thanks to those that participated.