Arlen Ward dot com

I saw an interview with Cookie Monster from NPR on one of their blog sites. Other than insight into Cookie’s sordid tales of compulsive eating and the trials of stardom (no, not really), I was interested in the reference to the modified questionaire the interviewer used. It turns out to be the “Proust Questionnaire”, now often used as a personality questionnaire. So I thought I would run though it here just for fun.

Your most marked characteristic?
My complete inability to read people.

The quality you most like in a man?
Someone that will use reason and logic when arguing a point.

The quality you most like in a woman?
See previous question.

What do you most value in your friends?
Someone that will listen when I vent, and vice versa.

What is your principle defect?
Multi-tasking

What is your favorite occupation?
The one I’m in. Engineering.

What is your dream of happiness?
A family following their dreams, and a job that is challenging.

What to your mind would be the greatest of misfortunes?
To spend your entire life going every day to a job that you despise.

What would you like to be?
Honorable.

In what country would you like to live?
I’m rather partial to the one that I’m in.

What is your favorite color?
Green.

What is your favorite flower?
I can’t really say that I have one.

What is your favorite bird?
I’ve always liked the meadowlark. It reminds me of being a kid walking to school in the morning.

Who are your favorite prose writers?
Lately I have enjoyed the writings of Edmund Morris.

Who are your favorite poets?
Whoever is responsible for that limrick about Nantucket.
Seriously, it would have to be Homer, though it has been a while.

Who is your favorite hero of fiction?
I rather like Ender. He always seemed a little tortured by his gifts.

Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?
Dagny Taggart.

Who are your favorite composers?
Frederic Chopin

Who are your favorite painters?
Edouard Manet

Who are your heroes in real life?
My Father

What is it you most dislike?
Knee-jerk reactions to a temporary situation without considering the long-term effects.

What natural gift would you most like to possess?
It seems to me that most “natural gifts” are the result of years of hard work and sacrifice.

How would you like to die?
In the words of my grandfather: “Shot in the back by a jealous husband”.
Actually, as an old man surrounded by generations of family.

What is your present state of mind?
Exhausted. A little word-weary.

To what faults do you feel most indulgent?
Those without immediate consequences.

What is your motto?
Vir sapit qui pauca loquitur.

Anybody that wants to keep this going feel free to post your answers in the comments, or in your own blog and link to it here.