Interview Answers: Liralen

[bryant]

liralen asks...

1. What's you're favorite place to eat in Mass.? Ca.?

In Massachusetts? Ask me in a year or so. I'm digging Anna's Taqueria right now, because it's cheap and solid and a decent burrito and makes me miss California not quite so much. But I suspect there are better places out there.

In California, I'm gonna go with Betelnut on Union Street in San Francisco. It's yuppie as all hell, and I'm sure it'll go out of business with the dot com crash, but it was such a fun place to eat. You ordered a la carte from a really decent menu of various Asian cuisines and pigged out. Lots of room to say "Hey, I want some of what I just saw the waiter take to that other table." Yum.

2. Who is your favorite RPG character of all the ones you've played?

The most recent. That'd be Reese Beulay right now. But while I was playing Cian, he was my favorite, and while I was playing Paul, he was my favorite. Paul was probably the most complex.

If you count online play, Constantine. He's very comfortable; a second skin. Not as complex as Paul, though.

3. What's the most important lesson you learned from all your job experiences?

Don't hire friends. The downside is too painful.

4. What was your biggest scare?

My biggest scare was a private thing. My second biggest was starting to run out of money this past summer. I did not particularly want to move back in with the folks; it would have been somewhat silly, to say the least. My backup strategy (involving Gamescape) would have worked out OK, but fortunately I got a job in my field before it was too late.

5. What do you do to cope with a bad day?

I read one of the comfort books. Heinlein can do a good job of taking me away from it all. Some Guy Gavriel Kay, although I just reread the Fionavar Tapestry and my but it's not as good as I thought it was. Dennis Lehane's Kenzie and Genarro series is good for sharpedged eloquence.