cuervo72's Face the Board Answers

[Antmeister]

Why do you think Jim thinks you are a troll?

I think because I am not afraid to speak my mind or complain, and sometimes I might do it with a little too much edge (though by and large I try to get my points across more or less diplomatically). Part of it might be how Jim handles criticism (which is probably much the way *I* handle criticism, fwiw). Contrast to Markus. He basically has a happy-go-lucky personality, people vent, he acknowledges the venting and promises to fix every problem out there. Does he? Well, not really. But you come out of it thinking "yeah, that Markus - he's a good guy!".

Jim, you never know if he is lurking in the shadows, if he is really reading the (largely constructive) criticisms, if they are really registering. The funny thing is, his approach is probably the better one from a development standpoint - fewer things are investigated, but the ones that are are certainly fixed. OOTP, not always as much. In the end though between Jim and me, probably just a personality clash.


Tell us what influenced your decision to attend Johns Hopkins.

The rejection letter from Duke! To be honest, JHU was not very high on my list. I was looking at Duke first and foremost. Drove down there with my aunt, and I *loved* the campus. Bought a white half shirt and blue jogging sweats (I was DEAD SEXY!). I looked into Princeton, Brown, Harvey Mudd, CalTech, Rice. Out of those, I only applied to Duke and Brown, but ended up adding Rensselaer, Penn, Virginia Tech (as a Merit Semifinalist this was free...and it had NO ESSAY!). My father was big on JHU because of its medical reputation - and its relative proximity - so I applied there too. Brown turned me down, which is just as well. Probably wouldn't have been a good fit. Duke though...that hurt. I remember getting the letter, opening it when my mom picked me up from a History Club trip. But I was accepted at the rest. Penn I tossed out because I knew of other classmates who were accepted there (I am an elitist bastard...). Same with VT. JHU though...my friend Rob C. really wanted to go there, but was turned down...which I'm sure burns him to this day (we were competitive, though he ended up besting me in class rank. He's an orthopaedic surgeon now, so he's done just fine). So JHU it was.

You went through a really successful weight-loss program - how did you do it?
Discipline. Lots and lots of discipline. For years, back to my football days in HS, I hovered in the 200-205 weight range (excluding a time at the end of college where I got down to 180). We got a new scale at the end of 2005, and sometime the next March I hopped on it...and it read *235*. Holy eff. That came as a huge kick in the pants. Around the same time, my wife was looking into weight loss programs and ordered some "meals" from MediFast. MediFast is a low fat, low carb program that calls for a number of smaller meals (largely shakes), and one "lean and green" larger meal per day. Well, my wife is all about carbs, so that wasn't going to work for her. And I wasn't keen on the idea of wasting what she had ordered (the stuff isn't cheap), so I figured I'd give it a shot. I'd tried Atkins a few years prior, but didn't stick with it (my wife didn't like how I sprung it on her that time). This though I did. I cut out virtually all carbs - no rice, no pasta, no deserts, no junk snacks, no eating everyone's leftovers, etc. And wouldn't you know it, it worked. By October I had reached my target goal of 180. Now it's almost a year later, and I've eased up on the dietary restrictions a *tad* - I'll allow some tortillas now and then, pizza every few weeks, etc. I'm maintaining at around 183-185 and feel great, though I'd still like to tone a bit and get my fat % down a little more.

What do you do for a living and how did you get there?

I work in web development, developing intranet applications as a contractor at a government entity you all know and hate. I basically fell into this as a profession. After graduating JHU, I went cold calling to a number of pharmaceutical manufacturers, looking for positions that might fit with my biomedical engineering (with an emphasis in chemical engineering) background. No luck, which I guess really shouldn't have been surprising. Eventually a friend of mine who had graduated early offered that I could come work for him at the medical institutions, more or less to groom for when he eventually left for medical school (which took much longer than originally planned...). He was working for the joint head of the Department of Biomedical Information Sciences/Genome Database, a gentleman named Dr. Kingsbury. Dr. Kingsbury really respected my friend David, so his endorsement was enough to get me in the door. This was late 1995, when the internet was in its infancy.

Dr. Kingsbury realized its potential though, and thought it important to establish a web presence for the JHMI, so that is what we were tasked to do. I came in with a little experience with C++ and Pascal, but didn't know much about the web. I started with basic html, moved to perl/cgi, then some photoshop, and I was on my way.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years? 10 years?
You know, the idea of being ambitions seems like a good one on the surface. But I stop and think about it sometimes, and I'm not in a bad place right now. I have a reasonably secure job (contract just renewed for five years), a pleasant commute, a good salary and a good working environment. Yes, sometimes I think it could be more challenging. But from a flexibility and stress standpoint, right now it's ideal for a guy with a young family. So with any luck I'll be right here for a few more years.

How would you describe your political leanings and interests?
To be honest, I've been paying less and less attention to politics. Paying more attention to it would probably only lead to me getting disgusted. In general though, I am probably a shade right of center, though probably with a few libertarian leanings.

How would your life be different if you did not have access to a computer or the internet?
Besides having no idea what I'd be doing professionally? Hmm, what to do with the extra 8-12 hours per day... This is actually a good question to point out that you know, there are quite a few worthwhile things I could be doing besides sitting on the computer all the time.

Spending more quality time with the wife and kids. Reading. Exercising more. Enjoying music. Of course, it's more likely that I'd just waste those hours in front of the television.

I'm interested in your path to doing such interesting graphics work. Do you have any art background? Solely computer training? Academic training (in either area), or just on your own? What software do you use? Anything else that seems relevant there?
[william hung]I have no formal training.[/william hung] Any abilities I have here I've just picked up on my own, and they are largely limited to the computer. The most drawing I've ever done would have to be back in the 80s, drawing renditions of Kathy Ireland, Elle MacPherson and Stephanie Seymour without their SI swimsuits. Over the years I've become adequate in Photoshop and more recently Illustrator. I personally think my artistic creativity isn't as strong as it could be, but I'm not bad at rerendering and arranging images, and I have a pretty good eye for color (recently my wife and I went to a paint store and were sitting down with their color expert/design type, trying to match colors to a tapestry my wife ordered from - of all places - Disney. Various greens, purples. The design woman had picked out a few, but they didn't seem quite right. I went over to the samples, plucked one and brought it over...and it matched perfectly. Impressed her that a man could do that. ). Who knows, I could have some talent outside of electronic media, but I've never really explored that.

Now knowing that it was all that stood between you and a threepeat, how much does "The Drive" irk you?
It no longer does, actually. It did bother me for a time (for those that don't know the background, look here: http://www.fof-ihof.com/games/textlog.php?gameid=2319). But I felt the victory the following year more or less "validated" that run (even if it was later revealed that we only made those games because someone earlier in the playoffs had tanked). After that, I didn't bother worrying about it.

If you could have a mulligan on any life decision you've made, which one would you choose and why?

I'll give two answers here, one a bit of a cliché (heck, it was an episode of The Wonder Years) and another that is more personal (there's yet another...but I'm going to gloss over that one ).

First, the cliché. I took piano lessons at the Settlement Music School in Philly starting when I was six, going there once a week with my father, who also started lessons (he had played the cello as a youth). At the time, I guess this was a little unusual, as the school didn't typically accept anyone that young. But, apparently I was a) mature for my age and b) actually had a bit of talent. I have great memories from Settlement, and from spending time one-on-one with my Dad (dammit, don't get teary-eyed!). Heck, I even remember listening to Tic Tac Dough driving there and MNF coming home on the AM broadcast of our ABC affiliate, stopping with him at the nearby Sears surplus store...anyway. As I got older, getting me to practice just a half hour a day became harder and harder, as I wanted to

do other things (football, playing with friends, watching tv, reading, etc). When I was eleven, I decided I just couldn't do it anymore, and I quit. It wasn't easy and it was emotional, but I quit. Now, the ironic part? Not long after that I got a mini Casio keyboard as a gift, and then a larger Yamaha one. And I would play it for HOURS UPON HOURS, playing along with songs on the radio. See, that goes along with the "talent" part. I labor anymore attempting to read music (that's what practice is for too), but if there is a song that I recognize (and I have a decent musical memory) and can make out at least the melody to, I can play along with it. It's a great parlor trick. But, it's probably also a good waste compared to what I might be able to do if I applied myself (that was the phrase my dad used over and over again growing up - if I'd only listened).

As for the more personal incident, it involves my little brother Nick, three years my junior. I forget exactly how old I was at the time, but we were playing in the yard once and had a disagreement. Most of the time, I'm a mild-mannered person. But, I do have a seed of anger that usually remains dormant. But not this time. He had hist back turned, and I closed my fist, raised my hand, and brought the meat of my hand
down HARD, right in the middle of his back. I immediately regretted it, and have ever since. Here was my brother, someone who looked up to me, small, prone, and defenseless...and I struck him maliciously. He won't ever forget that, and neither will I. And I can apologize to him now, but I can never apologize to that little boy that he was.

What keeps you actively playing City of Heroes?
My addictive personality, probably. Back in college I played a MUD for hours upon hours. I always wanted to get a little more exp, get one more level. Probably a little bit the same way in CoH, though in CoH there is more content to experience, different power sets to use, ifferent bad guys to fight. Really though, I just think it's a fun game, and a good release (Hulk punch bad guys!). And the kid in me likes the superhero genre.

What was it like to see little logos you made for fake football teams put onto actual (miniature) helmets?
Very neat, though at the same time I was a little disappointed with the execution. The helmets themselves just seemed very uneven, specifically the decals. I was excpecting the heavy, clear ones you'd find on real helmets, but that wasn't the case for all of them - and for my Red Menace helmet, that WAS like that, the colors were washed out. But overall, pretty neat.

This reminds me - I put together a Fire Ants logo for Senator's youth team a while ago, and was curious if it's actually in use.

I noticed you're a Leo... what characteristics do you possess? Are you extremely proud? Do you love the limelight?
I have pride, but I'm not sure if I'd describe myself as proud (if that makes any sense). I do have some qualities attributed to Leos.

Actually, this is pretty good indeed (taken from wiki):

Leo is the fifth sign of the Zodiac and is popularly associated with the keywords magnanimous, generous, hospitable, caring, warm, authoritative, active and open.[2]

Leos are typically pictured as very dignified and regal. They are hard-working, ambitious and enthusiastic,[2] however they are prone to laziness and can often take "the easy way out."[3]

They are known to be exuberant, extroverted, generous with a natural dramatic flair and very creative.[4]They are typically very self-assured, and love taking center-stage in whatever arena they are in.[1]

Now sure, all of these are going to be some arrangement of mostly desirable traits. But that second line -- "hard-working, ambitious...however they are prone to laziness". That may seem like a contradiction, but that is actually a very apt description. If I want to do something I will go at it full force. If I don't...lots of activation energy needed to get me going. The part I might disagree with is extroverted. In a group where I am comfortable, I can be extroverted, even be a leader (like I was with my group of friends in college). But with people I'm not familiar with, I can be very, very shy. Another weird dichotomy.

I do like acknowledgement though. I would be lying if I didn't admit that a small part of why I make some of these graphics and scripts for various leagues isn't to get back some positive feedback.

What does your name mean?
May or may not be going out on a limb here...Especial, Clasico, Black, or?
I'll put these two questions together. I would say Especial, though honestly I haven't had Tequila in a LONG time (and would probably prefer it in a Prairie Fire). My handle/nickname stems from my last name (Ciervo). I think the first person I heard make the association was the linebackers coach on my high school team - Coach Nagy. During stretches he'd hover around, and around me he'd utter a few lines of the song ("Jose Cuervo, you are a friend of mine"). Now, I grew up in a house with NO alcohol - my dad entered AA when I was three - so I had no clue what he was talking about. The nickname popped up again though in college, as my buddies took to calling me that. I'd never really had a good nickname before (I don't count "OG" - from my football jacket - as a suitable nickname), so I went with it.

What's the worst dating experience you've ever had?

Worst...hmm. Tough one. You know what, it's probably just as easy to recount my ENTIRE dating experience!

1. Joanne J. Ok, not a date really. But she asked me to dance in Jr High, and next thing you know she wanted to wear one of my football jerseys. However, in negotiations with one of her friends

2. Jill C., I let Jill know I'd much rather let *her* wear one. And she did, for about a week, after which she ditched me for Scott E.

3. Sarah (?). At least, I think it was Sarah. Sometime maybe around when I was a sophmore, I was out eating with my friend Steve and his parents (the Shannons, who I came to regard as a second family...they took me out to eat a lot too, which always prompted my mom to warn "don't make a pig out of yourself!") at a local pizza place. Well, the waitress happened to take a shine to me, which lead to a HUGE ribbing from Steve and his dad. Ahh, embarassment. She gave me her number though, and my dad drove us to the movies once. That was about it though.

4. Lauren V., Heather B., who knows who else. Ok, these don't really count but they deserve mentioning. You know how I said I'm shy around those I don't know? Well, with girls I was *painfully* shy and insecure. So I went about wooing them in a secret stalk-er, I mean admirer fashion. I'd leave notes on desks, poetry on chalkboards, riddles on computer screens, even a stuffed animal on a basketball court. To no avail though (Lauren V. ended up going out with - you guessed it - Scott E.!). It was funny too, even the school nurse (the mom of Lauren's friend Jen) knew I liked her! Heather...well, her I think I just freaked out. One of my friends - Rob H. - tried to cheer me up/pull a gag on me by sending me a carnation (our HS did this now and then) from "Heather". Yeah, funny. But, it did lead to an interesting story, where a future NFL player (Mike Frederick) had me eating carnation petals in study hall. He assured me they tasted good, I should try them (Mike had an odd, understated sense of humor). He was right though.

5. Julie S. Set up by friends who were dating, and double dated with once or twice. They INSISTED we kiss. Which technically I guess we did, but it was well, forced.

6. Wendy G. Hey, she was on the cheerleading squad, though she wasn't one of the "in" cheerleaders. But, we went out once and she bought me a hamburger at McD's.

7. Heather K. My Jr. Prom date. It was interesting how that came about. An unfortunately named senior from my computer math class - Tracy Chapman - asked me to be her partner for the cheerleading team for our school's Gym Night (think Field Day, but inside, and also with dance numbers). Tracy was really cute, and had a SWEET body too (two side notes on that: 1) Tracy usually dressed nicely, kinda preppy. One day she came in with tight black leather pants and a leather jacket, looking HOT. My comp math teacher, the loopy Mrs. Tuffner, insisted that there was some deep psychological issue troubling her. Looking back, I like to think she was trying to get my attention. 2) I once swiped a photo from the yearbook office of Tracy in a bikini from a class trip). So of course I said yes. Heather was also on the team, and was one of Tracy's friends. Tracy arranged for us to go to the prom (though I think at the same time, she kinda wanted me to go with HER to the Sr. Prom, which might have been awkward). Heather picked me up in her van, we danced up a storm, and she dropped me off (I failed to give her a kiss even, d'oh). The next day a bunch of us went to Great Adventure, and she and her friends basically commented on all the other cute guys around the park. That was the end of that.

8. Hyon S. My Sr. Prom date. I really didn't want to go to the Sr. Prom, but Hyon was a friend of mine (though admittedly an attractive one), and with some arm-twisting from Kristin S. (notable in her own right) and Steph S. (friend going back to 1st grade, where we called each other "Alligator Brain" and "Tarantula Teeth"), I agreed to go with Hyon. I was under strict orders though to get her back early, and when I picked her up, her dad called, warning me over the phone that there should be "ah no hanky panky with my daughter".

9. Rachel C. Girl I worked with at BK the summer before college who was um, fairly chesty. We made out after closing one night until about 4AM. At one point, she reached for my hand, I believe to slide it somewhere. I INSTINCTIVELY PULLED IT BACK! Smooth. Anyway, things didn't go much of anywhere past that.

10. Kara B. Sophmore year of college, a few of us from our floor went to a "club" on campus. Ok, so we were really the only ones there. But they had music, and we decided to just act like idiots, doing the goofiest dancing you'd ever want to see. Well, some freshmen girls from the College of Notre Dame of Maryland (CONDOM) up the road came in. And before I knew what the heck was going on, this 5'11" blonde girl was bumping and grinding with me. OMGWTFBBQ! I mean, this was unprecedented. I called her back, and we had fun, things progressed.... After a month or so, she made the first mention of the "L" word, which really had me freaked. I mean, I was having fun, but I wasn't really ready to be serious (I also started to feel a bit guilty I think...damned upbringing). One night she called me up and I told her I had to stay home and do homework and laundry. Really I just wanted some time off. She came by and found a bunch of us on our floor just playing board games (including a couple of her friends, I think). She wasn't too happy. Anyway, being the puss that I am I figured I'd give her a few days, then I'd call her. That became a week. Then two weeks. Then...well, I never did call her back.

11. Kim A. In my HS yearbook, Kim (a junior) left a message something along the lines of "if you're up for some fun sometime, give me a call". Yeah um...ok! This girl was in one of my history classes, and was a real pistol. Short little redheaded thing with some nice curves, a quick wit, and some attitude. I went back and forth from REALLY wanting her one day, to being turned off the next. Weird situation. I think she felt similarly. Turns out, her mom worked in the same office as mine, and I decided what the heck, I'll call her up. We went out a couple times, though it never advanced anywhere (sitting outside once she did offer me gum - which was probably a "oh, if you're not kissing me because you're unsure of your breath, then take this and get on with it" sign, but her parents seemed to be hovering about). I was working construction 7AM across the city, so I had no energy at night to do much (and one time when she said she'd call she didn't...after which my mom DISAPPROVED!). She wrote once when we were back at school, but I didn't reply.

12. Judy T. Junior year, a couple of us went back to the same establishment (redone a bit) where I met Kara. There was a girl in this funny little hat that we started talking to, and we flirted a bit (random note: this was during my bearded phase!). Got her number, and we hung around some. I wanted to get to know her better, but every time she came over to watch TV she seemed to end up in some state of undress (FOBL folks note - this is the "Buffalo Bills Girl"). She was aggressive, even telling me she was the designated "condom girl" back home. Interesting line you don't often hear too - "are you SURE you're not in me?" Anyway, she made a fatal mistake - she told me she was a virgin. After that, the conscience set in, and I dropped her.

12b. Forgot Shannen M. I should include her (2nd semester Jr year), even if it wasn't really a date...

13. Kristin S. Back to summer. My old friend from HS, and one who I really clicked with. We were great friends, but there was a little more there. She had a bf going back to Jr High though - Big Bob, who was like 6'7" - so I never felt it proper to make a move. I caught up with her later and Bob was long out of the picture, but things weren't quite the same as before.

14. My wife.

Well, I'm sure that's MUCH more than you bargained for Cam, but in the absence of any really bad experience, I offer the whole haphazard thing.

We've discussed a shared, weird interest in collecting Monopoly boards and have discussed a little bit what our plans were for them - any update to the collection or solid plans on what to do with them?
The collection is not being actively expanded at this time, beyond a Christmas gift here and there. And I forget what the count was, but it's maybe 50 or so. The history here. I have a bit of a collector's mentality. First it was baseball cards. Then Monopoly games, as I ordered a few foreign sets through Parker Bros back in the 80s, a friend's Dad brought back one from Japan, and my aunt brought back some from her trip to Europe. More baseball cards, then Playboy Magazines (flea markets were a gold mine for back issues, going back well into the 60's), then cards again, then back to Monopoly sets. Hooray eBay! Right now though they are down in the basement on shelves. As my kids get older, I will break more of them out for actual use.


What logo/helmet creation are you most proud of?
If you had a cuervo logo monopoly board - what would be Baltic/Mediterranean and what would be Park Place/Boardwalk (I guess this overlaps a Subby question)?
Yeah, I'll group these together. This is a tough one. Many of the logos I've done are adaptations/recreations of existing logos, so I can't really count them. I think some of my favorite ones though are probably Ayr and South Carolina from FOFL, and SLO, CHE (piggy special),

OAK in IHOF. Maybe Muscatine too, even if it's not overall very popular. I also like the logo for my FOBL team, the Las Vegas Lightning, which pulls elements from a logo Fritz put together.

As for Baltic Mediterranean...I think unfortunately the logos I put together for Chesapeake and Hell Creek in FOFL (one just letters, the other a dino that I never felt I got quite right) are ones I think could probably be improved. Though I did make a nice little hot dog mascot for CHE that I like a lot.

What is your favorite pro-team logo, why?
You know, I've never really thought much about that. I like the new Eagle logo. I like the simplity of the Giants' "NY". I've always loved the *colors* of MIA. Not sure much stands out for me in MLB. In hockey, probably the classic MON and TOR logos. NBA I don't much care.

What makes you unique?
Tough to answer without seeming conceited. Let's just say we're all unique.

What kind of kid were you?
Hmm. I was fairly bright, somewhat mature, but at the same time a bit mischievous. In elementary school I was always finding my way into the office (spend a few lunches there). Highlights were shooting peas in the lunchroom, lofting a chewed up wad of oranges ten feet up on the cafeteria wall (where they stuck and I later had to clean them off), demanding 5th grade elections for my class - which I won because my opponent had some girls mad at him - and then setting up a multi-desk compound in the back of the room to serve as my "office", littering the lights of the same classroom with papers and erasers, and sneaking out of the classroom through the back courtyard door, crouching through the courtyard back into the hall, and then sneaking back into the room through the front. Poor Mrs. Hoagland... Into JR High and High School I still cracked a lot of jokes, and had teachers with great senses of humor who didn't mind. I was in the running for "funniest in class" - getting much of the "nerd" vote, but lost out to less sophisticated clowns.

What are your hobbies?
Playing computer games (CoH lately), playing my keyboard, following sports, FOBL/FOFL/IHOF, playing my keyboard. Oh, and more recently comic books.

What are your values?
I'm a little partial to Planck's Constant and Avagadro's Number.

If you could be on any reality show, which one would you choose?
Hmm. I don't really watch many reality shows. My wife probably wouldn't approve of The Girls Next Door.

Where's Waldo?
Hopefully stuck in the 90's, where he should remain.

Define yourself in 3 words.
Not easily categorized.

Have you ever done drugs? why or why not?
Anti-drug. Though at one spelunker camp out, my friends did attempt to buy some "weed" from a guy there. However, we strongly believe that they were duped and it was actually oregano.

How do you feel about plastic surgery for women?
Not for it. Not that I have ever felt silicone mind you, or even seen it first-hand (revealed, that is). I think natural is the way to go, and I'm disappointed with how many women are opting for it. And beyond that, how many hacks there are out there. I mean...some of the work is laughable.

And how do you feel about plastic surgery for men? Would you consider it? What would you have done?
Same answer. Now that I'm not as fat, I'd say a couple of things that detract from my appearance are my nose (nice bump in the middle of it) and well, the fact that I have no hair! Ok I have a little hair, pretty much on par with say, Ed Harris. But no, I'm not going to do anything about it.

Who is your hero - or who are your heroes - and why?
I'm not really sure I have a hero. At times I've admired what a few have done in business (Ted Turner and Hef come to mind). But by and large, I'm for your basic everyday heroes.

You just won 200 million in the lottery after taxes - how would you spend it?
Paying off the house and land in Flagstaff my wife will have just bought! Other than that, not sure. There's not too many things I feel I just HAVE TO HAVE. Maybe I'd buy an ice cream shop or something, give me something to do.

Can you make the case for the existence of a supreme being?
A serious one? No, I'm in no position to prove the existence of a God or god-like entity. Do I believe in one? Yes, to the dismay of the logical thinking types here.

How do you feel about hip-hop music?
Honestly, I'm not exposed to it much. I mean, I live in Fredneck, work in Gettysburg, and don't really watch too much tv or listen to much besides sports talk. So really, by and large I've not heard much in the way of new music since the mid-nineties. I'm not against it if it has a good beat. I did hear 'It's Goin' Down' by Yung Joc by chance last year...made a point of finding it on YouTube.

Black licorice: Yay or nay?
Hmm, not sure if this is some slang my sheltered self isn't familiar with...as far as the candy goes though, yes, when I'm not low-carb.

How do you wear your jeans? Tight, loose, or baggy?
Until recently I've had a pretty large ass - one which has been referred to as a bubble butt. Seriously, when I gain weight some goes up front, some goes in the rear, and with my posture it looks like I'm sticking them both out. I look like an S from the side. Even now though I prefer the "comfort fit" cut of jeans (usually LL Bean). I'm all about comfort.

Why did QuikSand steal all my questions?
Be thankful they weren't your draft picks. Quik is usually a couple steps ahead of most, you'll get used to it.

What sort of music do you listen to?
Ehh...my musical tastes are scattered. Lets go down some of my YouTube favorites list. KC & Sunshine Band, ABBA, Was Not Was, Wilson

Pickett, Eddy Grant, Goldfrapp, Chicago, Little Richard, The Escape Club, Aretha Franklin, Queen. I posted this over at FOBL, my 20 most

listened to in iTunes:

1. Clap! Shake! Jump! - Behavior w/ Andrea Rovel - 505 (this is just since April...short song)
2. Connection - Elastica - 366
3. Pon De Replay - Rihanna - 335
4. I Feel Love - Donna Summer - 310
5. Strict Machine - Goldfrapp - 301
6. Hot Stuff - Donna Summer - 282
7. Jungle Boogie - Kool & The Gang - 268
8. Mississippi Queen - Mountain - 247
9. Knock On Wood - Amii Stewart - 246
10. Soul Bossa Nova - Quincy Jones - 241
11. Superstition - Stevie Wonder - 234
12. My Chinchilla - Cub - 233
13. Get It On (Bang a Gong) - Power Station - 233
14. Love to Love You Baby - Donna Summer - 231
15. Twentieth Century Boy - T-Rex - 227
16. I Love You Always Forever - Donna Lewis - 226
17. Match Game 1975 - Score Productions - 217
18. Peach - Prince - 212
19. Tall Cool One - Robert Plan - 209
20. Ladybug Picnic - Sesame Street - 209

So all over the place - 80s, classic rock, disco, motown, funk, soul, big band (Glenn Miller)/swing, the songs from NFL Films (Sam Spence).

Generally if something has horns and/or keyboards in it, I'll like it.

how much money would you require to name one of your children "cyril"?
Not *that* bad a name.

what is the drunkest you've ever been?
I'll list two, both around the same time period. I got started late (well, early by legal standards) with drinking - not a drop until I was 19 - and ended relatively early, at least as bar hopping is concerned (early 20s, when my wife and I became serious).

1. OTR (Old Timer's Reunion). This is the caving/spelunking campout I mentioned a bit above. Basically, each week a number of caving clubs get together at this huge farm in WV, camp out, cave a little, and drink a lot. One of the beer vendors basically had the deal where you'd buy a mug for $5, then you could refill it throughout the week. So...Steve (also mentioned above), Roger, John and I were basically drunk for

a week. Highlights of the trip:

* wearing the same pair of cutoff jean shorts most of the week
* a bunch of Canadian guys who brought a lot of high-octane beer, one of which traded a Labatts tank top to me for a pair of "sunglasses" (actually safety goggles from the warehouse I was working), and another who was a dead ringer for Charlie Sheen who went simply by "Dude"
* coed naked showers
* coed naked hot tub and sauna. This in and of itself deserves more explaination. Basically Roger, me, possibly Dude, and a girl we hung around with went into that area where you undress and pile your clothes...somewhere. I was worried about losing my stuff, for sure. So we're
sitting on this log waiting for either the hot tub or the sauna, and this woman is standing next to me...bush right at eye level. Okay! That and the girl we're with is sitting next to me, and I'm basically there doing my best to try to prevent any kind of um, bodily response (ended up being successful, thankfully). At one point we get to the hot tub, where I'm pretty sure a couple were going at it doggie-style. I'm also pretty sure they were both *male*. At some point I made it to the sauna, where the seating circled around the heated rocks. Of course, my reflexes were a little slowed...so I stumbled into the damned thing. Thank goodness I only burned my leg.
* me walking around the camp in the mud, barefoot, with my foot dried and cracking
* John yelling "Play Man In The Box, BITCH!!" a number of times at the DJ (who had the first setup I've seen where the songs were programmed by computer)
* John and Roger asking a couple of underaged teens to flash for our videocamera

Apparently, after that year the organizers started cracking down on folks who weren't actually active cavers...

Oh! I almost forgot the other time.

2. Steve was having a big party at his house with a number of his hockey buddies (he, Roger and John were on an indoor street hockey team).

Early in the party, I tackled this guy Scott into the pool. He was a little miffed that I messed up his beeper. Last thing I remember of the party was talking to a couple of girls who were friends of friends of friends...basically, we didn't know who the heck they were. But I was hitting on them! They said they weren't there for that. Ok, so not that, and you're not friends of the host...so I asked them "then why the F*CK are you here!?!" After that, it goes blank. But my brother said he convinced Scott not to throw me - by then passed out - into the pool, that it "probably wouldn't be a good idea". Yep, probably not.

how did you first learn of FOF?
I believe I was looking for info on Football Mogul, and came across an article that also mentioned FOF (one of ESPN's old "business" articles). I found the board, and that was that.

same question I asked Subby: if you had to choose between FOBL and FOFL, which would get the axe?
Man, that's a hard one. I'd probably give up in order IHOF, FOBL, FOFL. FOBL would be tough, but irony of ironies, I'm more into FOFL right now because of FOF's reporting deficiencies. OOTP has player pages, stats sliced 80 different ways, and a million HTML pages. Other utilities that I've made for FOBL in the past aren't used anymore, but there is a HUGE amount of stuff I can create for FOFL. So that keeps me interested. Plus, I really do think I like FOF more than OOTP. FOF I bought because I wanted to play a football sim. OOTP I bought because I wanted to play in FOBL. There's a difference. Not saying OOTP is a bad game, but it's also reflective of my preference of football over baseball these days.

why do you think Firefox is flagging "axe" as being misspelled?
Good question. How does it treat "color" and "gray"? Maybe it's Canadian.

and, really, shouldn't misspelled be spelled with one s?
No, for the same reason "butttastic" is spelled with three ts.

what did you want to be when you grew up, and what would you rather be doing now?
Hmm, at various points an astronomer, a scientist, a doctor. Now, not really sure. Comic book artist might be pretty cool.

Are you originally from the mid-Atlantic area?
I am originally from a suburb of NE Philly - Feasterville. Moved to Baltimore for school, then to Owings Mills, then here to Frederick.

What is your favorite sport? Is it the same as answer as when you were a kid?
Football. I've always loved it, though for a long time baseball was probably even with it. I think the strike was the start of my declining interest in baseball, and it's to the point where now I'm lucky if I watch a couple of games each year.

Have you enjoyed picking up running?
I've enjoyed the feeling that I've accomplished a little bit. In the past, I was lucky if I could run a mile. Now, I've gone as far as 4mi on the treadmill, and finished at 28:48 (I think that was it) in a 3k (on a pretty warm day too). I'm not in the same club as you, Subby or AA (or soon tauter), but for me, that's great. Lately I've been feeling a lot of soreness in my hammys and haven't run for I guess two weeks now (combo of running outside more and not stretching enough I think), but I NEED to get back to it.

Why Bar Harbor? Will you please have pity on Sam's Town at some point?
Because I am a uber-accommodating mamby-pamb. I'm not the original owner of BRH, I took over about halfway into the FOFL's inaugural season from frozenrope. He had chosen Bar Harbor because a female friend of his (not even his wife) vacationed there and really liked it. When I took over, he asked me to keep the name because of this. Sigh....well, ok. I did come up with the sailor hat theme though, had to put *some* stamp on things of my own (the helmet before was simply all-white except for a small "BAR HARBOR", White Album-style). We even have our own sassy cheerleader outfits!. My FOBL team name is also inherited, kept as a promise to NoMyths. Oh, and with Zack Wells, Sam's Town will have its day.


What's your favorite text/sports sim and which game(s) pulled you into the genre?
MicroLeague Baseball. Baseball Mogul pulled me back in in the late 90's, which lead to Football Mogul, then FOF, then OOTP.

Are you looking forward to the challenge of the post Jackie Percy era? And what's up with the Communist theme around your franchise in IHOF?

Partially, though it's a losing proposition. If we don't keep right on rolling, it's "proof" that we were only good in the first place because of Percy and the rest of the allocation draft. If we get back to the bowl I guess that's vindication, but a rebuild is something that I've already accomplished in FOFL (the Whitecaps' team history is here: http://www.thefofl.com/teampages/barharbor.php - we were BAD in 2003), even if it took a while to finally reach the pinnacle.

The Communist theme...I have Fritz to thank for that. The name of the team came from a time when my son - a redhead like his mom - was three. He was a handful, a "menace" in the Dennis the Menace sense. I originally made a logo that was basically the face of Darth Maul (he was pretty menacing). Fritz suggested I go for something more in the style of Soviet/Communist propaganda posters from the 50s and 60s. Which of course was a brilliant idea.

How much has joining the FOxL cost you in additional hobby expense (see: CoH, comics)?
Egads! Well, CoH I think is what, $14/mo, and that's been going on for 27 months. Um, and I've had a second account for maybe six. Comics I started up in what, April? May? Maybe a good $10-$20 a week on those. There are the periodic donations to FOxL itself too. Yeah, it hasn't been cheap. But, I've spend countless hours in FOxL related activities, so on the whole it's worth it.

Who is the hottest redhead? Blonde? Brunette? Why?
Man, this is hard. Oh wait - actually maybe it's not. Ok, let's go with Nikki Cox, JLH, and Scarlett J. (when she's a blonde anyway), though it's been a while since I really made a thorough evaluation. Why? I like curves.

Jaws, Cunningham, or McNabb?
I'm probably a little too young to fully evaluate Jaws, though I will say that my dad always seemed to be cursing him. Cunningham...man, I loved Randall. Frustrating at times, but he could do so much. He was exciting. Donovan is steady, though I worry that he doesn't quite have that drive, and he may be breaking down.

[wade moore]

Great read cuervo - as I told you before your monopoly collection is certainly better than mine as mine are all ones created in the last oh.. 10 years that i've bought at the store..

I've started on several occasions to work on designing a frame to frame it and house pieces, etc... even bought a book on making frames... I've just never gone that final step.. I keep telling myself to do it if nothing else that I can show it to you and have someone besides me appreciate the idea ...

[Subby]

Wow - that was waaaaay better than I thought it would be.

Seriously...good read. Your mulligan answers got me a little choked up.

[Jim G.]

I shouldn't post in response, because I can't win this argument.

But I needed to address the comment that I don't investigate every single bug report I receive. I absolutely investigate everything.

Unfortunately, that's not enough to satisfy George, who probably believes to this day that there's catch-up code in FOF. There isn't, but I can't control that. I have no interest in lying about the game, and I don't think catch-up code is a good idea.

This is not a case of me not liking someone who speaks his mind. This is not a personality clash. Not in the slightest. This is a case about someone who simply wouldn't stop beating a dead horse, long after the fact.

This is the last time I'm going to talk about George and the troll post. I said it. I shouldn't have, but I stand by it. The record backs it up, here and on the IHOF board.

[Radii]

good read, cuervo!

[Subby]

Originally Posted by Jim G.

I shouldn't post in response, because I can't win this argument.

But I needed to address the comment that I don't investigate every single bug report I receive. I absolutely investigate everything.

You probably should have stuck with your initial feeling. No where in what cuervo wrote did he say that you don't read every bug report you receive.

Try reading and comprehending what he is saying there instead of reading and reacting. He was actually paying you a compliment in a lot of ways.

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by Subby

You probably should have stuck with your initial feeling. No where in what cuervo wrote did he say that you don't read every bug report you receive.

Try reading and comprehending what he is saying there instead of reading and reacting. He was actually paying you a compliment in a lot of ways.

Yeah, the way I read it cuervo was saying that Jim approaches bugs much in the same way that he does and that he respects that and likes it in a lot of ways.

*shurg*. I thought cuervo was laying out the proverbial "Let's agree to disagree" for it to just go away once and for all.

[VPI97]

Good read, cuerv.

[Draft Dodger]

great job, C!

[flere-imsaho]

Another good read. Very enjoyable.

Now sure, all of these are going to be some arrangement of mostly desirable traits. But that second line -- "hard-working, ambitious...however they are prone to laziness". That may seem like a contradiction, but that is actually a very apt description. If I want to do something I will go at it full force. If I don't...lots of activation energy needed to get me going.

I'm a Leo as well, and agree 100% with this.

[CamEdwards]

Excellent read! Thanks Cuervo! I loved your dating stories. Brought a much needed smile to my face.

[sabotai]

Originally Posted by Subby

You probably should have stuck with your initial feeling. No where in what cuervo wrote did he say that you don't read every bug report you receive.

Try reading and comprehending what he is saying there instead of reading and reacting. He was actually paying you a compliment in a lot of ways.

And Jim didn't claim that cuervo said he didn't read every bug report, Jim was responding to cuervo's claim that he doesn't investigate every bug that is reported (which cuervo did say). You should follow your own advice.

Anyway, great read cuervo.

[cuervo72]

By "issue", I didn't mean bug, though it might have read that way by later using the term "fix". Issue could also be a suggestion. Poor choice of words. It is my impression that Markus tries to follow up on many more suggestions - probably too many. Jim is more selective.

[Subby]

Originally Posted by sabotai

And Jim didn't claim that cuervo said he didn't read every bug report, Jim was responding to cuervo's claim that he doesn't investigate every bug that is reported (which cuervo did say). You should follow your own advice.

Sorry I blame that one on my dyslexia. Did you know that Makaveli backwards spells Tupac?

[Anthony]

Jim G. is Solecismic?? i thought it was just a coincidence.

[korme]

Nice job Ciervo!

[terpkristin]

Holy moly you're a caver!
Didn't know that, wonder if we ever crossed paths at OTR.
Of course, I haven't been caving in years, with my ankle, I really can't do that anymore. Haven't felt right about going to OTR since, actually, though I know it wouldn't make a difference..once a member, always a member. I used to be fairly active with ER-NCRC and such, too.

Edit: if Dude is the same one I'm thinking of, we've at least met some of the same people. Would be hysterical if Steve was the Mr. Science/Mr. Wizard Steve who normally hangs wout with WVU Student Grotto and Nittany Grotto.

Small effin world. I miss the saunas.

/tk

[cuervo72]

Nono...I was one of the NON-cavers who crashed the party.

[terpkristin]

Originally Posted by cuervo72

Nono...I was one of the NON-cavers who crashed the party.

LOL. Still wonder if we ever crossed paths. I used to help one of my friends work at OTR, so it wouldn't be out of the question.

/tk

[cuervo72]

I think the year I was there was 1994. I don't think it was after I'd graduated (95), and I *think* it was after I turned 21. Whichever year it was it rained and ended up making the grounds quite a mess.

[NoMyths]

My FOBL team name is also inherited, kept as a promise to NoMyths.

And one I've always been pleased was kept.

Though I wish you'd have kept the one to win a Solecismic Series.

[cuervo72]

Well, at least I *have* gotten there three times.