I actually do have a lot in common with Steve McQueen. We have the same rakish good looks, car, taste in women, and tendency toward backhair. I decided to go by MCQ one day when, quite by chance, I discovered that those letters were, in fact, my initials.

Interests:
Fishing
Internet
Favourite Music:
Beatles
Stones
Beachboys
Jet
Coldplay
Good Charlotte
Favourite TV Programmes:
Two And A Half Men
NCIS
Favourite Films:
Monty Python And The Holy Grail
Monty Python And The Meaning of Life
Monty Python And The Life of Brian
Favourite Books:
The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail
Any other books like that which expose Roman Church myths
Favourite Quotations:
“All criticism is a form of autobiography” — Oscar Wilde
About me:
Work hard, play hard, and on my tombstone: “He Loved”

I’m coming for you Dan. At this rate, I’ll claim the top spot in about 2016.

2. Where were you born, are you LDS, were you raised in the church, how do you characterize yourself? I was born in SLC, UT, raised in the church to a very believing dad and a middle of the road mom (quite liberal in church doctrin, very conservative in morals/modesty, etc). I characterize myself as Mormon but have huge issue with some of our history, some of the doctrine, and a lot of the quirky social aspects of Mormonism. That said, I’m raising my daughters (one is on the way via adoption but not here yet) Mormon and I go most Sundays.

3. Do you have a college degree? Yes, a BA in English from the University of Utah. Some grad work from George Mason University in business writing.

4. Are you married? Kids? Yes, onto marriage #2 just a few months ago. One daughter, two step daughters, and a daughter that we’re in the process of adopting from Russia but isn’t here yet.

5. Where do you live? Southern California

6. Favorites:
Food – cheese, raspberries, amazingly delicious chocolate chip cookies
Color – to wear? mostly black or pink or chocolat brown; in general? yellow
Movie – too many to mention: Pretty Woman, When Harry Met Sally, Tombstone, The Godfather, Wall Street, Cinderella Man, Rocky
Book – too many to mention: I love some good chic lit, which is not always good to find. The Shopaholic series are very funny. I also love a good classis: Anna Karenina comes to mind right away
TV show – Sex in the City, Samantha Who, Desperate Housewives, Lost, 24, Gossip Girl
Blog (it’s okay if it’s not us, I love other blogs as well) – Nope, just comment as much as possible on juicy topics
What is your most embarrassing moment? When I was a teen, I was at a waterpark and after existing a slide, I came up and walked around with my top down to my waste. Lots of people got a very good look at my chest.
What’s your pet peeve? Bad drivers, traffic, standing in long lines at the return area

How did you find the bloggernacle, what drew you to blogging?

I STARTED BLOGGING IN EARLY 2003, WHEN I WAS A LAW STUDENT. I HAD NO IDEA THERE WERE LDS BLOGS UNTIL OCTOBER 2003 WHEN I FOUND TIMES AND SEASONS DURING GENERAL CONFERENCE. I HAVE BEEN AN ON-AGAIN-OFF-AGAIN ACTIVE PARTICIPANT IN THE BLOGGERNACLE EVER SINCE, MUCH TO THE DISMAY OF SOME. IT HAS BEEN A FUN HOBBY.

Where were you born, are you LDS, were you raised in the church, how do you characterize yourself?

I WAS BORN IN MESA, AZ. I WAS BORN AND RAISED AS A LATTER-DAY SAINT. I AM ACTIVE IN THE CHURCH AND COMMITTED TO ITS TEACHINGS AS I UNDERSTAND THEM.

Do you have a college degree?

YES, FIVE IN FACT. AAS, BA, MST, MA, JD. IT TOOK ME A WHILE TO MEANDER THROUGH GERMAN TO LINGUISTICS AND END UP IN LAW.

Are you married? Kids?

MARRIED 10.5 YEARS NOW WITH FOUR KIDS- TWO BOYS AND TWO GIRLS. SYMMETRY…

Where do you live?

RICHARDSON, TEXAS- A SUBURB OF DALLAS.

Favorites:
Food HARD TO SAY- USUALLY WHATEVER IS PLACED IN FRONT OF ME AT THE MOMENT
Color VARIES FROM RED TO GREEN TO YELLOW TO BLUE DEPENDING ON THE DAY, MY MOOD, AND WHO IS WEARING IT
Movie I LIKE SO MANY! HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER WAS A FAV FOR YEARS, LORD OF RINGS TRILOGY, THE BOURNE TRILOGY, THE GODFATHER TRILOGY, AND THE NOTEBOOK AS MY SAPPY ROMANTIC FAV WITH EMMA, SENSE AND SENSIBILITY, AND PRIDE AND PREJUDICE IN A CLOSE THREE WAY TIE BEHIND THOSE.
Book PROBABLY THE FAR PAVILIONS OR ALMOST ANY JOHN GRISHAM NOVEL
TV show THE OFFICE!!!
Blog (it’s okay if it’s not us, I love other blogs as well): DEPENDS ON THE AUTHOR AND THE SUBJECT. I PERSONALLY REALLY ENJOY READING HOLLYWOOD’S POSTS ON THE HOLLYWOOD FLAKES- SHE HAS A WAY WITH WORDS!
What is your most embarrassing moment? LATELY, IT WAS WHEN I WAS DRIVING ALONE AND FELT THE SUDDEN URGE TO SCREAM VERY BAD WORDS AT THE TOP OF MY LUNGS FOR NO PARTICULAR REASON (I WAS NOT MAD OR ANYTHING). SO I DID, WITHOUT REALIZING THAT SOMEHOW MY LEG HAD PUSHED UP AGAINST MY POCKET AND APPARENTLY DIALED THE LAST CALLED NUMBER ON MY CELL PHONE- HOME. MY WIFE LISTENED TO EVERY FILTHY WORD THAT CAME OUT OF MY MOUTH. I WAS BUSTED AND IN TROUBLE WHEN I GOT HOME! A CLOSE SECOND IS MY VIRGIN STORY, RECENTLY POSTED AT MY BLOG.
What’s your pet peeve? (Most people say deep stuff like “insensitivity to the dichotomy of iconoclasm) DEPENDS ON MY MOOD. ONE THING THAT REALLY BUGS ME IS INSENSITIVE PEOPLE WHO THINK RULES DON’T APPLY TO THEM.

I meant Nauvoo.

I’d been involved some LDS mailing lists and discussion boards in the past (including one one LDS scouting), but my first exposure to the Bloggernacle was shortly after Kim Clark was called to be the President of BYU-Idaho. I was googling to get some more localized coverage of it and stumbled across some Harvardian navel-gazing on either T&S or BCC, which led me in short order to various other sites (and eventually to this one).

2. Where were you born, are you LDS, were you raised in the church, how do you characterize yourself?

I was born in the Church. My parents are from both from long-time Utah stock, but professionally, my dad was “called to the Ohio”, as it were, so I was born and raised in the Midwest.

Various cousins of mine are fond of citing how many generations of Mormondom apply; I’ve been less interested in “trump-card Mormonism”. However, I have always appreciated the fact that so many of my ancestors have been involved in various aspects of Church history. There is a standing house in Kirtland with an ancestor’s name; an ancestor appears in the D&C, a gggg?uncle appears prominently in the D&C and other parts of Church history, several ancestors crossed the plains in the original group, one was at Carthage (on the good side), but not in the jail, etc. My grandmother was big into the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers.

I found it interesting that when I went to BYU, I was considered “less of a Mormon” because I wasn’t from Utah. That’s the only time I’ve ever pulled out my family history trump card and started naming names. It did the trick at the time, but I’ve always thought one’s last name was a poor excuse for credibility.

As it relates to personal Church history and standing, I am a strict meritocrat. I don’t care how many generations one has in the Church if they aren’t active anymore. I’m leery of people who cite their “Mormon-by-birth” status but who haven’t set forth in a Mormon chapel in 40 years. Are you still Mormon? (That’s an unsettled question, at least for me. Are you still “Mormon” if you’ve been excommunicated for apostasy or have had your name removed? I dunno.)

I came from Utah stock but was raised in the Midwest; my wife came from Midwest stock but was raised in Utah. What a country.

3. Do you have a college degree?

I graduated from BYU with a double major in Computer Science and Spanish. I have an MS in CS, and am “all but dissertation” toward my PhD in CS, from a hyphenated public university in Texas without a football team.

As an undergrad, I took more interesting courses in Spanish than in CS. My CS classes were the basic core. I had some great Spanish classes, including a graduate-level in Mexican Catholic Feminist Literature (”aka – the Collected Works of Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz”), a class in the “Border Spanish” dialect, and a Latin-American history class in which I explored the CIA’s involvement in the Chilean coup. My term paper on Sor Juana explored the relationship with Sor Juana and Church authority.

Regarding my interest in computer science — professionally, I do not write code anymore (I did that just enough to decide I don’t like it). Rather, my interest in CS is at the algorithmic/theoretic/philosphical level. My master’s level dealt with computational linguistic theory. My bosses like citing my almost-PhD status to clients.

4. Are you married? Kids?

Married for 13 years. One daughter and two sons (ages 10, 7, 1) at this writing.

5. Where do you live?

North Texas

6. Favorites:

A. Food – Texmex, barbecue (pork, ribs, brisket, and I prefer a wetrub), italian

B. Color – Red. Although black in some domains (my wife, the artist points out that black is not a color, but an absence of color)

C. Movie – Way too many to count. But one of my favorite “stop-down” movies (by definition, a movie that makes you stop down when you flip by it, no matter where it is in the movie) is The Hunt for Red October. I like all of the Jack Ryan movies that had Ford or Baldwin. And Baldwin was a much better Ryan. I like foreign films. I like action. I like comedies. I don’t like horror.

D. Book – I read a lot of historical stuff. I know my wife has bought me a book on George Washington for Christmas (”among other things”, she says). I loved the recent bio on Hyrum Smith (probably even more than Rough Stone Rolling). I love David Halberstam.

E. TV show – Currently, I tivo NCIS, Boston Legal (shaky now, though), The Unit, Las Vegas, The Big Bang Theory. I stay away from medical/CSI/Bones-type dramas. I’ll watch MNF occasionally, and SNF if someone I like is playing.

F. Blog (it’s okay if it’s not us, I love other blogs as well) – T&S, BCC, MMentality, M*, slashdot, and a few others. I love the Sports Guy. I love MMQB. I love Dr. Z. I have like 25 subscriptions in Google Reader, but a lot are newspapers and online mags.

7. What is your most embarrassing moment?

Wow. Too many to count. But I was at an academic conference a couple of years ago, where the crux of my paper was to “gently” invalidate the research findings of another researcher. (I presented it in terms of “here’s a new algorithm that is vastly improved, using this other guy’s exact data.”) This was my first conference, and I misused a common term all throughout my paper and my presentation (including the slides). I didn’t notice until someone raised their hand and called me on it.

When I was dating my wife, I had been working for BYU catering and made a comment to my future (we were not engaged, though) father-in-law about how much I hated Thousand Island dressing (because when you see it in bulk quantities in the bowels of BYU, it’s kind of disgusting). That’s when I found out how much my future FIL loved Thousand Island dressing.

8. What’s your pet peeve? (Most people say deep stuff like “insensitivity to the dichotomy of iconoclasm”)

I don’t get into 9/11. For me, 9/11 is, and always has been, another country’s unfortunate holiday (with US ties). I met a lot of people who had pain and suffering related to 9/11, long before the US had its own sad experience with it. I don’t participate in 9/11-New York celebrations or recognitions. I don’t wear an American flag lapel pin. I do consider myself patriotic, though, and I’m proud to be a US citizen. But I don’t celebrate 9/11. This is just a personal thing.

I’m a bit contrarian by nature and by nurture (my dad was a professor with an activist streak). I’ll agree with you if you can back it up. I love data. I hate people who agree “just because”. I hate management practices and technical standards “just because that’s the way we’ve always done it.” I often tell my boss that I don’t need to be working on a particular project because it doesn’t merit my touch. So I hate people who go along with someone just because everyone else is. I hate clients who get mad when I invalidate assumptions through research. I hate clients who hire me to fix things, and then won’t let me. I think the phrase and idea of “thinking outside the box” is grounds for termination, since the idea is typically used in contexts where “deeper inside-the-box thinking” would solve the problem faster.

I have a running battle with some family members who steadfastly believe that Utah is the land of milk and honey, and that I’m going to hell for not living there.

9. Explanation of my screen name.

It’s a foreign-language transposition of my childhood nick-initials. I don’t want my real name corresponding to a google search, but I don’t hide my identity. I use my screen name on other blogs and plenty of people know who I am.

10. Misc.

Served a mission in South America. My wife served her mission in SoCal (Spanish-speaking).