Five questions!

Propter Doc wants to know...

1. Which character from Harry Potter do you think you are most like, and why?
Ahhh, I'm a Harry Potter junkie :) My first thought was Hermione (what other character would happily subject themself to grad school?) but after thinking about it a bit, I'd have to go with Tonks. After all, as an Auror, Tonks certainly went for plenty of extra study after finishing at Hogwarts. She may have some issues with clumsiness, she doesn't let them get in the way of being a badass at her job. She is upbeat and talkative to point of being annoying, and has a familiar-looking irreverent streak. And I can slide into a funk with the best of them, as Tonks so understandably does in Half-Blood Prince. (Lupin also happens to be my favorite character).

As a professor I hope I'm Professor McGonogall - I have a seriously under-used capacity for being really strict, but if you read closely, she's got a touch of mischief under the tartan.

2. How did your blog get such an interesting name?
Okay, nobody's guessing :P One of my favorite books, randomly, is Edward Abbey's The Monkey Wrench Gang. I certainly don't agree with all of Abbey's views - he a cantakerous angry misanthrope - but he readily acknowledges this fact, which makes his writing lovably rebellious. He was also a persistent and important voice for conservation at a critical time in history. (He also happens to write exquisitely.) Anyway, the term "monkey wrench gang" refers to the motley crew formed by the book's four central character's. At a point in the book he is writing about their troubles deciding on a name. I had the book on my desk when I was naming my blog, flipped idly to that section, and landed on "Peanut Butter Cabal" as one of their rejected choices. I like peanut butter. I like the word "cabal". It clicked!

3. If someone handed you 1 million US dollars to do with as you pleased, what would you do?
Huh - I think about this a little more than is probably healthy. First: loans. LOANS. Kill my loans. And kill TB's loans. Then...probably invest about half, upgrade my travel/outdoor gear and travel around the world, donate to a few charities close to my heart (breast cancer research, National Parks Conservation Association, music education in my home town). Hire an agent and try to launch my subversive side career as a wanna-be writer. Shell out for maybe one or two pairs of fancy consumer-whore designer-ish jeans, since in my experience the more overpriced pants are, the closer they come to actually fitting my atypically-proportioned legs (grrr). Finally, just look around for cool stuff to see/do/do for other people! I think after traveling the world and possessing $1 million my views would have changed a bit - I'd want to find out what they had become!

4. What did you most want to be as a child?
I swear I'm not making this up - I wanted to be a Useless Scientist. Typically it went something like "I want to be a ballerina/firefighter/movie star/President...or a Scientist!" The brand of science changed occasionally - marine biology, astronomy, paleontology, archaeology, oceanography, physical anthropology - but one particular discipline always made the list. And here I am today. On bad days this can either be really reassuring ("I'm doing what I've always wanted to do!") or really discouraging ("...THIS is what I've always wanted to do??")


5. Is the glass half full or half empty?
Half-full. It takes a lot of successive crappy days to get me all the way to half empty. And by then I am usually ready to smash the damn glass.

Okay, I think now I should offer to give someone five questions! Anybody?