Write a letter to your 100-year-old self.

Don’t know that I write myself a letter my leaving myself a a flash drive with a song playlist that would remind me my youth.

Where would you go on a shopping spree?

I am torn between a really good book store and a high end home appliance retailer. ‘Can I do both?’

What is your middle name? Does it carry any special meaning/significance?

My middle name has absolutely not significants and no interesting story behind it. My sons middle name is Jazz and when I am asked why that is his middle name I say because souvenir is why to hard to spell🤣. My son was a souvenir from the 2004 New Orleans Heritage Jazz Fest that we did not plan on bringing back. He was the product of a lot of wine and seeing Lenny Kravitz concert.

What is the last thing you learned?

“I feel like someone is watching me” is a classic horror film trope, but the idea also taps into a biological fact: Humans are good at sensing when someone is looking at them. While some label this gut feeling a kind of sixth sense, it’s really a biological phenomenon known as gaze detection, caused by a complex neural network in our brain. This detection system rests largely in our peripheral vision; the sense dissipates quickly when someone turns only a few degrees away from us. Because some 10 regions of the brain are involved with human vision, and little is known about gaze detection generally, scientists haven’t pinpointed what’s controlling this seemingly uncanny ability — although researchers have detected a dedicated group of gaze-detecting neurons in macaque monkeys.

Gaze detection is particularly interesting in humans because our eyes are unlike any other in the animal kingdom. The area around the pupil, known as the sclera, is very prominent and white, which makes it easier to discern in what direction someone is looking. The overall theory as to why humans are so good at gaze detection boils down to the evolutionary advantage of cooperation. Simply put, humans are social creatures, and the detection of subtle eye movements helps us work with others while also helping us avoid potential threats. But because of the evolutionary importance of knowing when someone is looking at you, our brains tend to oversignal that someone is staring at us, when they’re really not. So if you’re ever feeling a bit paranoid, blame your brain.

What is one question you hate to be asked? Explain.

Being the child of a military father and also serving in the Army I have had the opportunity to live in multiple countries and have lived in or at least been to every state in the union… I am frequently asked “ what’s your favorite place?” That question frustrates me because it generally comes from a person who has never been out of their own backyard. The honest answer to that question is every place has its ups and downs, it just more fun to see every place with open arms and no preconceived notions to taint the experience.

How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success?

I’ve always thought there is no failure an opportunity to learn a lesson. If you don’t learn, then it is a failure.

You’re writing your autobiography. What’s your opening sentence?

Herman Melville opened ‘Moby Dick’ with “They can me Ishmael”. My story would be just as short a sentence, “ They call me perplexed and disillusioned.” That would start a few hundred pages of my long twisted history.

What are three objects you couldn’t live without?

Can’t live without Heart-Lungs-Brain… but those are organs not objects. Can’t think of any objects that I can’t live without.

What experiences in life helped you grow the most?

Every experience is like stacking blocks and I can’t specifically nail down the event the impact my development most . I can assure you that the most impactful moments were physically and/or emotionally painful and most likely very expensive because those are the lessons that most of us are unlikely to repeat. Although those moments were not enjoyable the event taught a valuable lesson, just another block in the stack that is what lives are made of.)

Do you believe in fate/destiny?

I absolutely do not believe that there is fate or destiny. Our lives and outcomes are not predetermined by some omnipotent, omnipresent entity. We are sentient beings with free will and are sadly responsible for happiness or strife we experience.