tGC AMA with Sleepy

ancapailldorcha

Sleep is the latest victimvolunteer for an AMA.

I'll get started. That profile pic of yours looks an awful lot like Steve Dillon's rendition of Bill Hicks in Preacher. Am I right?

KrustyUCC

Greatest album ever?

Sleepy

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

I'll get started. That profile pic of yours looks an awful lot like Steve Dillon's rendition of Bill Hicks in Preacher. Am I right?

Got it in one. Actually scanned it from the graphic novel myself about 10 years ago!

KrustyUCC wrote: »

Greatest album ever?

It's hard to defend because even the same band have arguably made more accomplished albums but my desert island disc would have to be The Bends by Radiohead.

For a solo artist, I'd probably go with Carole King's Tapestry.

My favourite album changes year to year but these are the two that would most frequently be my answers.

ancapailldorcha

Sleepy wrote: »

Got it in one. Actually scanned it from the graphic novel myself about 10 years ago!

I'd bought the series for my Kindle last year. I was reading it in a train station in Bristol when it just jumped out at me for some reason.

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

Sleepy

Permabear wrote: »

This post had been deleted.

I'm not sure that I've ever read anything that has had a particularly profound impact on my life tbh.

Douglas Coupland taught me that there are writers out there who have a mastery of prose beyond anything I could ever aspire to. Michael Herr's Despatches knocked any childish notions of the "glory" of war out of me. Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles may have impacted on my understanding of sensuality and made me more open to the concept of bi/homosexuality as something men could find pleasure in even if I couldn't see other men as attractive myself...

The Bible has obviously had a massive impact on my life having grown up in 80's Ireland and been educated in Catholic Schools... Though when I read it out of curiosity in college it simply confirmed my atheism...

Favorite posters & forums on Boards?

Posters: Danniemcq (as we've become good friends IRL), Robbo, Wibbs, Whoops, DeVore, Das Kitty, seamus, Silverfish, minesajackdaniels (though I think she's long since left she was a beautiful writer), I think Sharrow is still knocking around under another handle somewhere?

Forums: Accomodation & Property, S&S, Game of Thrones, DIY and here

You win 100 million in the Euromillions. How does it change your life?

Honestly, I'd give a good chunk 20-30% of it away: none of my close friends of family would have mortgages any more and I'd enjoy being a silent benefactor to a few projects here and there (SSF, a pool for my local community centre etc.)

I'd take a few years off work to focus on the renovations to our house, giving my kids amazing holidays and indulging many hobbies I've an interest in but have never had the budget for (car restoration, take my fishkeeping to a whole new level). If I found myself getting bored I've a particular set of IT skills which would be very useful to a number of charities in Ireland so I'd probably volunteer for a few days a week during term time with them.

I'd lock away around 4/5 million a piece for my kids in trust funds that mature on their 25th birthdays, a million a piece into similar for my nieces and nephews and the rest I'd go see a financial advisor friend of mine about with a view to index linking most of it while keeping some available to bank roll any interesting projects I come across or that my friends bring to me.

Rather different than I imagine you'd do with it! I'd be more interested in what I could do with it than what I could turn it into!

mzungu

What laws would you change in Ireland if you had the power to?

Avatar MIA

Do you long to be a vertically challenged character from early fantasy fiction or did you choose your name for another reason?

Sleepy

mzungu wrote: »

What laws would you change in Ireland if you had the power to?

How long have you got?

I'd completely remove religion from the education system.
I'd remove every reference to gender from our legislation and instruct the judiciary to ignore it in the courtroom (regardless of legal precedence from case law etc.).
Election Candidates for the Dail would have to have passed a (freely available to all citizens) diploma in economics, governance and public sector administration in order to be put on the ballot paper.
I'd make TD / Ministerial pensions payable from the same age as the social welfare one.
I'd legalise most soft drugs and de-criminalise possession of personal usage quantities of hard drugs (i.e. treat addiction as a medical issue rather than a criminal one).
I'd repeal the 8th and legislate for safe, legal abortion.
I'd eliminate a lot of government spending on marketing / marketing research, advertising and management consultancy. A lot of quangos and unnecessary departments would find themselves closed.
Public Sector Unions would be a thing of the past.
I'd stop wasting public money promoting Irish, demote it to an optional subject in secondary school and replace it with a European language at primary level.
Membership of Fianna Fail would be a criminal offence. :P
Globally, I'd like to make corporate taxation levels higher but I think it'd be suicide for a small open economy like ours to make unilateral moves in this regard.

Avatar MIA wrote: »

Do you long to be a vertically challenged character from early fantasy fiction or did you choose your name for another reason?

My username on most forums came from the David Kitt song "Sleep Comes Tomorrow" as I was an insomniac for most of my college days. That was too long for the username limit on boards.ie when I signed up. Members of another forum I was a member of at the time (sin.ie) used to shorten my handle to SCT or Sleepy so I opted for the latter.

ILikeBoats

Sleepy for Taoiseach!

Best gig you were ever at?

Favourite film?

What would your dream marine set up be? What fish would you love to keep?

Sleepy

ILikeBoats wrote: »

Sleepy for Taoiseach!

I doubt a Taoiseach could manage even half of that list in a normal political lifetime tbh!

Best gig you were ever at?

Tough one but if I have to choose, I'd go for Tony Joe White in Whelans about 10 years back. It was just the man himself with a percussionist and the sound they were able to get was amazing.

Favourite film?

Again, I'd really struggle to pin down just one so taking a nod from one of them, I'm gonna go with an "all-time top 5"

Cinema Paradiso
Godfather Part I
Almost Famous
High Fidelity
Before Sunrise

What would your dream marine set up be? What fish would you love to keep?

The dream would be to replace a large section of the wall between our sitting room and the dining area in our kitchen with a circa 5000l live-rock and coral system. With an unlimited budget, I'd like to build and program a 4 seasons LED array that mimicked the sunrise and sunset times of a natural reef location.

I lean towards colours more than exotica in terms of the fish I like to keep and definitely prefer peaceful fish. We currently have a clownfish that's driving me nuts: I can't put my hand near the tank without him biting me which is making maintenance a chore. Stock wise, I'd like to keep a regal tang, a yellow tang and a mandarin fish in it and I'd love to get a breeding pair of pipefish again. One of mine got killed by a gorilla crab that hitch-hiked into my tank on a coral but they used to do the most gorgeous synchronised swimming. It'd be nice to get some real showpiece corals too, most of mine are cheap entry level stuff or small frags of more exotic stuff that I've grown a little in my tank.