Q: What qualifies you to take the sacred name of "Red Mage"
A: I can read three dead languages (not including modern English), own several grimoire, know four martial arts, and own real copies of all the classic NES and SNES FF games. I am also a min/maxing, rules lawyering, power gamer who normally builds a gish who specializes in being good at as many things as I can as to maximize my tactical options.
Q: Who are you?
A: I have gone by many names in my time, some know me as Mr. Cooper, some as Red Mage, and some as Daemon.
Q: Can I use/repost/publish/produce something you have written?
A: Contact me first and we can work something out. If you are just using me for educational purposes or to show to a friend privately than give me the proper citation, but contact me for any other purpose.
Q: You got a degree in Folklore, what are you going to do with that?
A: Ah, the question that keeps popping up in professional interviews being given by fools. First off, it was a degree in English specializing in Folklore, Mythology and literature, and a minor in Medieval English Literature. And to answer the question, I'll do whatever I darn well please with it. Basically I learned how to tell, construct, and deconstruct stories. This also gave me a deep insight into what people think, want, and say about themselves and others. I had hoped to use this for the good of all mankind in working for the gaming industries, but alas they value engineers over writers.
Q: Was this named to rhyme with the song "My Sharona?"
A: By asking this question you should be old enough to know better. But if you really want to know read this and become educated.
Q: I found an error/misspelling/inaccuracy, now let me tell you all about it and how since I can use spell check and Google that I am smarter than you.
A: First, not a question, second I don't intend everything I write to be 100% accurate (as sometimes that adds to the story i.e. the size of the fish), and third I am mildly dyslexic. Part of the reason I got a degree in English was to prove to myself that I could. That does not make spelling or reading any easier for me and I still struggle with basic words, so if you find an error, good for you, you get an invisible sticker, now lay off.
Q: Where did you teach?
A: Northern VA
Q: VA, so are you like a farm hick?
A: No.
Q: I don't like you, your opinions, or the way you write!
A: 1. That's not a question, and 2. No one is forcing you to read them, so find something else to do with your time.
Q: You say that you're a gamer, what games do you play?
A: Time to get out the yardstick eh, I have played and owned games on every console made by Nintendo, Sega, Atari, Microsoft, and Sony. My current fixation is for computer and SNES games. PC wise I have nearly 400 games on steam and this only scratches the surface of how many games I own or have owned.
Q: What is your favorite game?
A: Without a doubt Chrono Trigger for the SNES. I find the story both fascinating and endearing, and enjoy the combination of open and railroaded story that it employs. The way that it allows the player to control and change large and small aspects to adjust the end sequence was a stroke of genius.
Q: What do you think about current events and politics?
A: I care little for either beyond their intrinsic historic value and how they fit into the narrative of time, otherwise I feel that unless I am writing them that they matter little to me.
Q: I heard that you hate stupid people, any other prejudices I should know about?
A: I do hate stupid people, but only when they remain stupid out of the choice to willfully reject knowledge. I try to hate all people equally, and in that I mean that I do not hold reservations against people for what they follow or how they are born or even what they feel, but what they do. All people are capable of doing good and doing ill.
Q: Your last post was in 2009, what have you been doing since then?
A: Believe it or not, to be considered one of the best teachers at a school takes a lot of work. But I was also writing. In that time I wrote a novel and outlined several other stories, all of which keep getting rejected by agents. Someday I will be published... Someday...
