He needs to know about your schooling. Did you go to college or get certifications? What was your favorite subject?
In high school I was very fortunate to be at a school with amazing teachers and staff. I was permitted to stay late after school to fiddle with computers. I seemed to have a knack. I also helped with the lighting for plays - and I even appeared in a few plays. I was on the speech team and won several awards.
I went to college to become an engineer. I just thoroughly enjoyed this whole style of thinking. While in college I very much enjoyed volunteering at the college radio station.
In 1999 I was determined to get a perfect score on the "Sun Certified Java Programmer Exam". I was really upset to get a 97% - I got two questions wrong! Later, my fame in software engineering made it so I met the guy who created the exam and I told him my story. He said that he took the exam and also scored a 97% - even though he created it! When he looked at the two he got wrong, he found out that both of those questions had the wrong answer as the "right" answer. So a 97% was the highest possible score!
In 1996 I became a "certified master gardener" - but I almost failed the test! I studied harder and in 1997 I became a "certified advanced master gardener."
In 2001 I learned the word "permaculture" and became obsessed with studying it. That same year I managed to get my hands on three videos featuring
Sepp Holzer's
permaculture - this seemed like the best stuff I have ever seen. In 2009 I got to study under Sepp. Sepp taught me many things on many occassions and I moved my own work forward. In 2014 Sepp gave me a giant wooden medalion that said "THE DUKE" on it - he told me that it was for my exceptional work in
permaculture. It is my favorite award.
So, yes, I did go to college, but I value what I learned while studying under
Sepp Holzer even more.
Did you have any pets growing up?
I once had a calico cat named Herman. It was a bit later that I learned that nearly all calico cats are female! I still called her Herman.
Your favorite food is pie, right?
Huckleberry pie.
Unfortunately, a gallbladder event put me in the hospital. The doctors recommended removing my gallbladder, but I elected to NOT get the surgery. Instead there is a list of things I can no longer eat. Sugar and wheat are out. I suppose if somebody made a gluten free huckleberry pie sweetened with
apple juice, I could eat that! Oh, that would be a happy day!
What's your favorite book?
I'm a bit biased about my own book, so I will leave that out of this answer.
Non-fiction: Sepp Holzer's
Permaculture
fiction: My mind is reeling with about 20
books ... So I am choosing a system ... My favorite author is Christopher Moore. In looking at the list of books he has written, which book would I most like to enjoy again ... I'm going to say that my favorite fiction book is "Fool" by Christopher Moore.
Do you have a favorite sport?
In high school I rode my bicycle a LOT - sometimes hundreds of miles. I also did a lot of backpacking into the wilderness. And some horseback riding.
At 23 I played soccer several times per week - I was really awful. But one time I was playing defense and needed to quickly kick the ball far away from our goal. The ball went up really high ... too high ... weirdly high ... and it went right for the opponents goal! The ball was so weirdly high that it fell with a sharp angle. The goalie jumped to get it, but the goalie was too far forward. The ball went behind him and inside the goal. It was the most remarkable goal I have ever seen - and I kicked it! Pure dumb luck - but I sure do enjoy the memory.
If you are asking about sports to watch: I rarely watch any. I never watch baseball or basketball, but I do watch about 15 minutes of american football each year. I think american football might be the ultimate sport: brute strength, brute speed, magnificently timed choreography, and my favorite part is when the quarterback throws the ball way down the field and the receiver doesn't even know there is a ball coming his way, he just keeps running as fast as he can. And at the exact moment he looks back and puts his hands out and there's the ball landing in his hands.
Where were you born?
Moscow ....
(pause for effect - allow the russian music to start)
... Idaho.
Your favorite hobby is gardening, right?
In 1994 I avoided my work in order to garden - my new favorite thing.
I think that your hobby is the the thing you do on evenings and weekends. And for many years that was definitely gardening. And then in 2004 I got this idea that I needed to get gardening and
permaculture information into a hundred million brains. I do this all day, every day. Including the evenings and weekends. So maybe my hobby right now is "infecting brains with permaculture"?
5
. I'd never heard of that name until the books came out.
