Getting Personal

Name, age, town of residence

Virgil, 40, Urbana

 

Profession: Explain in one sentence what it is you do.

I make printing work, along with server administration; and I buy beer, bartend, and drink beer.

 

What time do you typically get up? What do you do the first hour of the morning?

My alarm is set for 7:02, I love multiples of 9. I drink a Diet Mountain Dew, smoke a cigarette and get ready for work.

What did you have for lunch today? Where? With whom?

I skipped lunch (so far) today, yesterday I had bbq chicken quarter (white meat), with mashed potatoes (no gravy), and southwest corn, in the Carle cafeteria, by myself.

Best high school memory.

Getting arrested for illegal consumption of alcohol by a minor. It created the best story to tell, and (to me) bad decisions make the best stories.

Tell me about your favorite pair of shoes.

I have a red suede pair of casket creepers. They have 1 inch soles, and in the middle of the sole, there’s a casket that covers a compartment, where you could put… um… things… mine has a dollar bill in it.

What does a perfect Sunday afternoon include?

I bartend on Sunday afternoon, so, it wouldn’t be too busy, several of my friends, people drinking beer, and me having time to talk to them about beer. Also, the Packers would win a game, and my fantasy football team would score lots of points.

Was there one book you read as a child that you still cherish? Own? Read?

I don’t remember reading much as a child. As a teen, I read a lot of Clive Barker, I still own all those books. More recently I’ve read the Lucifer Principle by Howard Bloom, and Global Brain (also by Bloom), those are good non-fiction works. I also read the Bible, but don’t believe it. Good Omens by Neil Gaiman, and Terry Pratchett is one of my favorite fiction works.

Where on earth are you dying to go? Why?

If I could go anywhere, right now… it’d be Three Floyds Brewery on November 12, for their 15^th anniversary party. There will be some great beers and brewers there.

Tell me about your favorite pet.

Peggy, my mutt dog. The ex-wife picked her up at a shelter. She always ran way, but we always got her back. She seemed to genuinely love me, and I loved her back.

Have you discovered as you matured that you are becoming like one of your parents? Which one and how?

I notice that I’m developing traits of my father. I tend to compartmentalize, and can get angry/frustrated when things don’t go exactly the way I think they should go.

What would you order for your last meal?

A pound of beef tenderloin (rare), risotto with wild mushrooms, asparagus, a balsamic reduction on the beef, a cheese sauce on the asparagus, for desert, crème brulee. To drink, Westvletereen 12 with the asparagus, St. Bernardus dubbel with the meat, Two Brothers Domaine du Page with the rice, and Three Floyds Dark Lord with the desert.

What can you NOT live without?

Music, beer, diet mountain dew.

Who do you have on your iPod?

All the music I own, mostly industrial (Ministry, KMFDM, NIN, PIG), however there’s some other stuff (Cure, Depeche Mode, Chemlab).

What’s the happiest memory of your life?

Probably the first time I saw Ministry. I went down to Louisville, and picked up my brother, and we went to Jillians (they had one there too) and I saw them for the first time. It had been something I wanted to do for many years (dozen? Twenty?) and finally got to do it. I made a gesture to my brother symbolizing “I can die happy now” then the show ended. We drove back to his place, listening to the radio at what we thought was a normal volume, later fell asleep with ears ringing.  When we got into the truck the next morning, the radio was at its highest volume and it scared us, it was so loud when it came on.

Otherwise, I don’t have any kids, and I’m not planning on getting remarried. I have a bottle of beer (yes, Three Floyds) that we picked up at this past years Dark Lord Day. The purchase price was $50. Later that day, other bottles of it were on Ebay for $500 (it is very limited, only done once, in numbered bottles), and me and the girlfriend were wondering when we could drink a $500 (value) bottle of beer? We aren’t going to have kids, and we aren’t going to get married, so when is the appropriate time to drink that… we still haven’t figured it out.

If you could host a dinner party with any three living people in the world, whom would you invite?

If I’m hosting a dinner party, then all my friends are invited; the other 3 people in the world who I would invite would be: Mikkel (a Danish brewer), Al Jourgenson (the man behind Ministry), and Niel Degrasse Tyson (from NOVA, he’s soooo cool and smart).

What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given?

On Duckman (an old cartoon) Duckman once told the kids,  “Remember kids, when you get to prison attach yourself to the biggest, toughest, meanest looking goon you can find. You don't wanna wind up as just anyone's bitch.“

More seriously…

Not sure if it was advice, but the instructor at airborne school once told me to “go! Go! Go!” and so I jumped out of a plane. Go, you might as well do something. When told to jump, don’t waste time asking how high, just do what you are told.

What’s your best piece of advice?

Accept happiness.

What was your first job, and how much did you make an hour?

Newspaper delivery, I think I operated at a loss. Otherwise, lifeguard, minimum wage, whatever that was in ’88.

What was a pivotal decision in your career, and how did you arrive at that decision?

In ’99 I was in the Army, and the army decided to send me to Korea for a year. I was in this rare window, that I would have to re-enlist in order to go, or I could get out of the army. It would have been a year separation from my wife (at the time) and I knew that a year separation, had hurt stronger marriages than I had; so I chose to get out (later the wife was sent to Iraq for a year, and that pretty much ended that marriage, so I was right). I then got a job doing server administration, and the rest is history.

Do you have a bad habit? What is it?

Some would consider smoking to be a bad habit. Some would consider drinking to be a bad habit. Some would consider that I’m an atheist to be a bad habit. Some would consider that I don’t look like I conform (Mohawk, facial hair, tattoos) to be a bad habit. I don’t think I have a bad habit, I just do things that others don’t like.

How do you handle a stressful situation?

I fix the problem. Then it isn’t a problem anymore.