The common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it. It serves… to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection [and] opens the door to foreign influence and corruption….

— George Washington

The Spotlight

I answered these questions for a “spotlight” section in the ward newsletter. Understandably, my lengthy responses were pared down prior to publication. Here I give you the original, uncut spotlight. I’m quite proud of it. Here goes….

Where are you from?
Kennewick, Washington — the bone dry, brown, not-ever-green part of the Evergreen State.

If you are still in school, what are you studying and how far along in your program are you?
I graduated in Linguistics and this fall will be starting the Master’s program in Computer Science at BYU.
If you work, where do you work and what does your work entail?
For the most part I’m an unemployed lazy bum. However, my dad has been occasionally paying me to do some editing work for him.
If you had the opportunity to serve, where was your mission?

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

What are your favorite pastimes?

Reading books that nobody’s ever heard of, writing, cooking for my dinner group, being the leader/ridiculous figurehead of the Curiously Poetic Altoids poetry club (meets Thursdays at 9pm in the lounge, or in apt 304 if the lounge is occupied — all are welcome, even if they don’t feel particularly poetic!), undertaking random computer programming tasks that I scarcely understand, and the eating of pizza.

Do you have a book or books you would recommend, or particularly enjoy?

I recently enjoyed reading “With Fire and Sword” by Henrik Sienkewicz which chronicles the civil war in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 17th century, and just last week finished reading “Silence” by Shusaku Endo which is about a Portuguese Catholic priest trying to serve Christians in Japan in the environment of intense persecution that prevailed there (also) in the 17th century. Currently I’m working on “The Knight Triumphant” which is about the role of the knight in medieval warfare in Europe. It has lots of pictures 😉


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