some interview questions

I have a backlog of these, so here goes:

From ratgrl:

1. If you could backtrack and start your education over again would you choose the same path? If not, what path would you choose instead?
   
   
   This one is kind of tough. I could well have become an engineer, or a biologist or something. I think that perhaps I could have taken more math, and gone directly to statistics without the many-years detour into psychology. (I actually almost went right to stats in 1992, when I'd just entered a psychology doctoral program. Long story there...)
   
   
2. What's something surprising that most people don't know about you?
   
   
   I was the Cavy and Rabbit Queen of California in 1981. (I bred cavies -- guinea pigs -- when I was in high school, and was very involved in showing. My club sponsored me in the California contest, where I pissed off a bunch of 4-H rabbit-breeder kids by beating them all at their own game. That is, I had to judge and demonstrate my knowledge of both rabbits and cavies, and cavy-people, according to these kids, were supposedly a bunch of dopes. They were too busy competing with each other to notice me.) I was also the Cavy Queen for the whole US that year, but that was much less competition and not so interesting.
   
   
3. How did you become involved with rats and what endeared you to them?
   
   
   I was a psych major. And I had charge of 10 lab rats for an experiment, and both of my lab partners were terrified of the rats, but I wasn't. I liked them. They were smart, curious, and didn't bite without extreme provocation. They were more interactive with me than the guinea pigs had been.
   
   
4. If you could change a single act of history what would you change and why?
   
   
   Hm. anything I could think of to change would have had other, equally bad outcomes if it hadn't happened. E.g. the Holocaust, the rise of early Christianity/Catholicism, Europeans discovering the US and wiping out the native inhabitants (mostly by accident).
   
   I do wish, however, that things in the Middle East were such that the rest of the region recognized Israel's right to exist as a peaceful neighbor.
   
   
5. If you hit MegaMillions and won $100M, what would you (honestly) do with it?
   
   
   I would take 10% and invest it in some way, so as not to have to worry about financial stuff. I'd share some with relatives and friends. Whatever was left over, I'd donate to various good causes (e.g. family planning/abortion information, HIV prevention, Jewish museums and schools, etc.)

more questions:

From someone who'll I'll not name, for now:
I remember having pet rats as a child fondly. My girlfriend is really freaked out by them. Do you think that her opinion of rats might change? Do you have suggestions on ways to cause it to?

It *could* change if she wasn't too traumatized by whatever caused her to fear them. If she was willing to approach them, I'd start by giving her some of these to hold:



From whuffle:
If you could do any sort of craft project, even one which you do not currently have the skills to do, and knew ahead of time that it would come out exactly as you envisioned it, what would you want to make and why would you enjoy the process?

Under those circumstances, I probably wouldn't enjoy it that much, because I like the process of seeing the end product take shape without knowing exactly what I'll get at the end. But if I had to choose something, I'd say a quilt with perfect mating of fabric, pattern, and quilting.

From lyonesse:
what qualities are you hoping for in the rats you breed?

I'd like them to be healthier. That is the most important, and it's the hardest. They need to be sweet (and most of mine already are), and consistently pretty (again, rarely a problem). (The health issue is on my mind because one of my lines seems to have one-year expiration date; of the ones I have kept track of, all but 2 have either died or gone into a severe decline just before their first birthdays. It's very sad, because they are really quite wonderful otherwise.)