Bruncvik

I guess it depends on the person. 30 years ago, I was actually living and working in the US. I was driving a 1988 Volvo 760. I was still driving it 10 years later; best car I've ever had. Gas was under a buck. Interest rates were so high that once I got some savings, I lived off the interest and ended up saving 80% of my salary (years later, when the rates went down, I used those savings as a down payment for my house). I could get lost for a full day at Borders. I was able to hitchhike up the east coast, get odd jobs without any resumes or background checks, while on a road trip across the continent. There was a lot of new and exciting technology: CD's and discmen, computers and the beginnings of the Internet. I read the news via Gopher (unless it was Sunday, then I bought the papers for grocery coupons). I feel that now there are too many limits on people. Lots of them are self-inflicted: I'm middle aged and with kids, so I need to be far more responsible. But when I look at my kids, I feel that they won't have the same opportunities I had, for travel, education, personal growth, or independence.

In the evening. In the 7+ years since my first kid was born, I haven't missed a single evening at home, to wish them a good night. I even excuse myself from business trips.

As my father used to say, "The only decision you should make while angry is to stop being angry."

Don't come to Ireland. I've lived in the US for nearly two decades, made lots of friends and even helped some to immigrate here. The harsh reality is, however, that we're going through a really bad housing crisis, with our own homeless numbers growing every month, and house prices and rents exploding (a recent statistic showed that our growth in rents is four times the EU average). So, please, for our sake and yours, try a different country.

I love the album, but it stands to mention that this was a solo project by Roger Waters. Still, the lineup was stacked, and I loved the energy.

TV/movie: Motoko Kusanagi (Ghost in the Shell, especially from the SAC.)

Video games: Nicole Collard (Broken Sword series)

Electric Light Orchestra, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, The Rubettes. Essentially the same as when I go running.

I have a 486, but with MS-DOS 6.2 and Norton Commander as a UI. Haven't booted it up for about a decade, though, but don't see a reason why it shouldn't work. My Win98SE computer (Pentium 100), on the other hand, is still my gaming rig. Don't need anything better for HoMM2, Master of Orion 2, and TES: Daggerfall.

No idea why they'd want those tethered caps. My speculation (and that's 100% unfounded, so take it as you will) is that they are lobbying for something simple and cheap (tethered caps, plastic straws, etc), to blind people from the real environmental issues that are far more costly to tackle. Kind of like the plastic recycle logo, which is a total scam, but makes people feel good enough to not further question the big corps' recycling practices.

An EU regulation that was heavily lobbied for by Coca Cola.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Back when I was single and living alone, I did my share of nature photography, mainly landscapes and wildlife. Sitting for hours, waiting for the perfect moment, was my meditation. And yes, there were times where I just lived for the moment, rather than taking the pucture.

I saw the movie a few years after I settled down, and it triggered my only occasion where I questioned my life choices and wondered what might have been if I remained alone and unattached.

I'm being self-censored. Working for a very large corp that has a long list of topics I'm not supposed to discuss, and I'm pretty good at not talking about them under my real name. I'm quite certain that my anonymous comments may also be traced back to me, but the HR doesn't care about those.