26. Are you retired or working? What are your plans for retirement?

I am currently working and having this constant dread that I'll probably have to do this until the day that I pass away.

Life has a lot of twist and turns. A lot of restarts and some plans that had not materialized.

So, I’ve moved all my available resources into making sure that my children have everything they need in order to succeed.

25. Is there a special food from your region or heritage that you a particular appreciation for?

I'm in California and there are a lot of different foods in our area that I get to sample. There are two foods that I find to be special and that I make for myself time to time.

The first is hot dogs and beans. I like to class it up a little bit by using lil smoky sausages that I pan fry before adding the Bush’s baked beans. Now, these are both processed foods and probably have the total amount of sugar for a whole week contained in one serving. I shouldn’t admit it but no one is going to read this and respond, but I eat the contents of both the package of sausages and can of beans in one seating.

The family finds out soon enough.

My second food is a pan fried baloney sandwich. There is definitely an overlap when it comes to the meat that I’m eating in this situation and I’m ok with that. I usually get the baloney from my local deli and then place a piece of cheese on top of the baloney.

24. Write a review of your favorite album. What lyrics mean something special to you?

A LOT of people love Michael Jackson's Thriller. It's got a lot of big hits on it and the title track is a halloween dance favorite. My favorite album is the one before it, Off the Wall.

I find myself really enjoying the entire album. It starts off with a bang with “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough” that really gets the energy up. I feel that it’s more of an anthem at that point as it tells the listener not to settle.

Although, I do have a confession, I never knew the lyrics to that first song. I just groove with the vibe and I have that feeling about a lot of my favorite music.

The second song, “Rock with You”, starts off with a quick drumbeat and then a steady beat that contains some of my favorite lyrics of “relaxing to the beat”. I think this is a great song in that it highlights how you can be uptempo without having to be full force.

“Workin’ Day and Night” wasn’t a track that I understood until I was much older. It’s not so much of a song about getting out there and working as it is about why we do things in the “real world”.

I feel that “Girlfriend” is the embodiment of what it means to be “the other guy” in a relationship. Well, technically, not really in a relationship. Usually, you see this situation in media as someone feeling betrayed or hurt. In this one, I feel a sense of longing and hurt. If the roles were reversed and placed in a movie, you would hear a line like “oh, he’s just waiting for the right moment to tell his wife”. That hope that you just need to hold on for a little long and that person will be yours.

“Burn This Disco Out” is the last track on the album and it’s somewhat a wake up call to pay attention because after this moment, you’re going to have to start the album over.

23. What words of wisdom would you have appreciated from your younger self?

Sometimes I don't think I've become any wiser in my years. Just a little more patient in some areas and less in others.

But, if I could say something to my younger self it would be that I should be more present with the time that I have with those in my life. I would try to tell him about what things matter and what things don’t.

I would also tell him to buy bitcoin and get a state job as soon as I can.

22. Have you been to a memorable concert? What made it stand out to you?

My first memorable concert was the [Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Coming Out of Their Shells Tour](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teenage_Mutant_Ninja_Turtles#Concert_tour).

At the time, my school had a reading program where you could get a personal pizza if you read a certain amount of books. As a kid, these were my two favorite things pizza and reading! I don’t remember all the details, but I do remember that PizzaHut had tie in with the Ninja Turtle tour and that you could buy the sound track with the purchase of pizza.

I remember listening to the soundtrack on cassette a lot when I was a kid. I think this is the first time where I would listen to an album and want to skip to the next song. I don’t think I was allowed to do that at that age would have occurred sit through it.

I only remember one song from the cassette called “Tub-in” that I really liked but don’t really remember from the concert. In fact, I don’t remember a lot from the concert except that it was pretty loud and kind of slow in some places. I do remember the Shredder singing a song about hating music. That always stuck with me and I remember sharing a dorm room with someone who said he didn’t like music.

We weren’t roommates the next year.

Coming Out Of Their Shells was a studio album, and subsequent live musical tour that occurred from 1990 to 1991 (in 1992, it toured overseas). The tour was endorsed and sponsored by Pizza Hut. The very first showing of the tour was broadcast live on Pay-Per-View. A VHS recording of the broadcast was made released, as well as a "Making Of" direct to home video. The tour is generally lambasted for its terrible costumes and wafer-thin plot. The band featured Donatello on keys, Leonardo on bass guitar, Michelangelo on guitar/lead vocals & Raphael on drums/percussion/tenor saxophone/vocals. Guest vocalists include Master Splinter, April O'Neil, and The Shredder.

I don't do a lot of hobbies like I used to.

21. What kind of adventures have you had pursuing your hobbies?

I think the closest thing I have in terms of adventures related to hobbies is trying to find hotels or things along the way when we are going on vacation.

You don’t really know what you are going to get as far as quality along the way and driving in America has become more and more… um… aggressive as people speed by in order to get there just 2 minutes faster so that they can wait at the next light or traffic congestion.

At one point, I thought it would be cool to work at a movie rental store.

20. How do you like to watch movies? Are you a theater goer, a streamer, or do you like physical media?

I used to love going to the movies. It was a wonderful time to sit back and enjoy watching something. I still like it occasionally because of the assigned seating removes hassle of trying to get there early to get good seats. Unfortunately, the movies haven’t been a fun recently because I’m usually sent to get food in the middle of the good parts.

I feel that I was an early adopter of streaming and remember the days when Netflix would send you a disk so that you could install the client onto your PlayStation. It felt that having access to everything was inevitable and I could give up looking for things that had fallen off the back of a truck. The last couple of years have proven that online libraries are uncertain to be there and having multiple subscriptions is untenable.

Physical media was the only consistent. I say was because we’re on our fourth dvd player and they are becoming more and more scarce. I’ve been looking into how rip these for the future.

But, back to the question.

I would say I like to watch movies uninterrupted.

I do like talking about food and this one is lighter than yesterday's entry.

19. What is your favorite food? Why do you like it? What is your history with it?

My favorite food is pizza 🍕. I’ve enjoyed it since I was a wee little lad. I do appreciate that there are many styles and combinations in the ways you can make and eat pizza.

For me, I feel the combination of meat, cheese, dough with a nice tomato based sauce is comforting. And for most of my life, I have eaten it with someone else. I know that there is pizza by the slice or personal sized pizzas, but pizza is more of a social experience for me. Collaborating with friends and family as to what toppings are going to be on it and trying to get the size right for possible leftovers is part of the fun.

I didn't expect this kind of question. I feel it is relevant to a lot of things in my life.

18. How do you feel about alcohol? Is it something you enjoy? What do you like? What do you dislike?

The amount of times that I’ve seen alcohol used as a way to relax and have a good time has never come close to the amount of times that I’ve seen it make things worse.

I have addiction on both sides of my family and see the signs in so many people who use it just to get through the day. The problem being that it’s multiple days and multiple drinks.

It’s the magic ingredient in most of the arguments that I’ve had as an adult. Either during the drinking or some time the day afterwards.

I feel it’s the combination of being free of your inhibitions and having the excuse of having your inhibitions loosened that make it tantalizing for some.

I was drunk!

And it’s to number one drug in America.

I feel that it’s probably for the best because of all the regulations that have been placed over it. I’ve heard too many stories about other drugs being laced with unknown substances or prescriptions leading to people turning into zombies.

Ultimately, we should all find a better way to relax and have a good time.