ABOUT ME (The Proust Questionnaire)

1. What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Moments that lack any self-consciousness or ego. Happens when I am fully in the moment in a scene as an actor or being in the zone on a song or jam with my fellow players as a musician.

2. What is your greatest fear?
Cockroaches. Circus clowns would be a close second.

3. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
I can be too hard on those I care for the most.

4. What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Dishonesty. A close second would be pretentiousness.

5. Which living person do you most admire?
Nelson Mandela. I admire people who spend their lifetimes fighting for what they believe in, and serving others in the process.

6.What is your greatest extravagance?
Being a homeowner.

7.What is your current state of mind?
Um, the answer my friend, is blowin' in the wind. Doo doo doo doo doo doo

8. What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
Chastity.

9. On what occasion do you lie?
When the person receiving the lie has to discover the truth for himself or herself.

10. What do you most dislike about your appearance?
A little tuft of hair on my toes.

11. Which living person do you most despise?
A former boss. He used to verbally humiliate other senior managers that worked for him in front of college interns. A horrible, horrible human being who would confuse cynicism with wisdom.

12. What is the quality you most like in a man?
Empathy. Someone who knows that being right isn't the same as being compassionate.

13. What is the quality you most like in a woman?
Same as above.

14.Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
Y'know.

15. What or who is the greatest love of your life?
My family.

16. When and where were you happiest?
June 25, 2007 driving on Highway 1 in Vancouver.

17. Which talent would you most like to have?
Throwing a 90mph fastball. I grew up playing baseball (pitcher, catcher) and had a baseball stats book I read religiously.

18. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
A few inches... taller.

19. What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Learning to play the guitar parts for Van Halen's "Eruption" "Hot For Teacher" and "Panama" note for note.

20. If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?
I'd come back as a giant tortoise, because they live for 150 years or more, and they are peaceful animals.

21. Where would you most like to live?
Springtime in Paris, Summer in Vancouver, Autumn in New York (I can hear Frank Sinatra croon...), and Winter in Costa Rica.

22. What is your most treasured possession?
My Martin acoustic guitar.

23. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Living a double life, a lie.

24. What is your favorite occupation?
Aside from acting, I'd say musician because I could play until I am really old.

25. What is your most marked characteristic?
That I seem to remind everyone I meet of someone else they know.

26. What do you most value in your friends?
Their sense of humor and reminding me not to take myself too seriously.

27. Who are your favorite writers?
Oscar Wilde, Tom Robbins, JD Salinger, Harper Lee (yeah she wrote one book but it's my favorite book of all time), Kurt Vonnegut, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Tom Wolfe.

28. Who is your hero of fiction?
Atticus Finch in "To Kill A Mockingbird." I've read that book so many times in school and watched the movie with Gregory Peck that the character represents the kind of man I aspire to be - compassionate, articulate, humble, loving, honest and wise.

29. Which historical figure do you most identify with?
The Barack Obama who wrote "Dreams from My Father" because like him, I grew up straddling multiple cultures as a racial minority - the US and Indonesia for him, Canada and Libya for me. Feeling marginalized for not fitting neatly into any socio-economic or cultural category was what caused him (and me) to yearn for that connection with others - driving him to politics and me to the arts (acting, writing, music, art). Like him, I am an Ivy League grad who took an unconventional life/career path. He is the President of the United States though, and I am not.

30. Who are your heroes in real life?
The anonymous nurses, physicians, school teachers, firefighters, policemen, soldiers, and clergy members who quietly put themselves in the service of others and/or in the service of something larger themselves - and never care to take credit for being heroes.

31. What are your favorite names?
Ashley, Christina, Michael, Zoe

32. What is it that you most dislike?
People who text or take calls during a meal without excusing themselves from the table.

33. What is your greatest regret?
Majoring in economics.

34. How would you like to die?
In my home, with a few days to say goodbye to family and friends.

35.What is your motto?
Have integrity, even when no one is looking.