Spotlight on Cerberion

[MinnaCaroline]

Cerberion better known as Cerb joined the Islands almost a year ago! He’s done quite a bit in the year he’s been an Islander. He is currently the senior senator in the Co9. He is a very wise yet cynical Islander and I have thoroughly enjoyed spamming with him. Cerb is a great defender and enjoys the status of TITO Knight due to his many many missions. Along with defending he also recruits and is very friendly and kind to new islanders making them feel welcome. He also brought an end to the Great Taco Shortage which is no small feat and has most recently been named Registrar General. It is my honor to interview him today. Without further ado...

(Disclaimer - Please be mindful of your questions and also know that Cerb has the authority to plead the fifth on anything he doesn't feel comfortable answering)

1. How did you come up with the name Cerberion?
2. Why would you ever and I mean EVER want to lose your British accent?
3. What is your favorite weapon of choice when fighting Zombies?

[Cerb]

Wonderful questions, and I'll be happy to address all of them.
I have been known online as "Cerberus" for around 12 years and on attempting to create a nation on NS I found that all of my usual varients were taken.

After some pondering I tried Cerberia and then Cerbia, to no avail. On a final note I tried anything that sounded remotely like the end of a nation and, voila. Cerberion was bourne.

Why would I ever want to lose my "British" accent? Well I'll tell you.
I decline to acknowledge "British" as an accent. I have an "English" accent. Please do not include me with the Scotch, Welsh, or even people from Brimingham (even if the latter can claim an English accent, of sorts).

But why would I want to lose my English accent? I'm not English any more. I'm an American. Do you know how unpleasant it is to hear "Oh my, I just loooove your accent!" every time you talk to someone on the phone? I have therefor adopted a neutral accent with a somewhat reduced vocabulary, as it seems some of my fellow Idahoans have issues with words that contain more than two sylables.

Finally, Zombie killing.
I think one weapon won't do, so I prefer to chunk them up with a chainsaw and then finish 'em off with a woodchipper.

[HumanSanity]

What made you run for public office in XKI?

[Cerb]

I ran for office initially because someone asked me to take part in the election. As you know it can sometimes be hard to get a number of individuals to run and I entered mostly just to make up the numbers.

I was also highly confident that there was no way I would be elected because I thought that people would vote on party lines. As a TOP canidate I felt little hope against a TIP candidate.

Well, in a state of abject shock I won my election.

I enjoy contributing to the islands, so I continue to serve.

[HumanSanity]

Well said. Might just have to borrow that for XIP

[Markanite]

How does it feel to be Registrar General! Its a really important post and you're doing a great job!

[Cerb]

Thanks for the question Mark.

As you may have guessed I'm a great fan of reports so it seemed like a good match. After I started creating the law index however I somewhat baulked at the job of indexing 8 years of past rulings.

Still as fortune would have it, it was not as big a task as I first expected and caused no more than a light repetitive strain injury.

I think my current emotion is mild satisfaction at the job.

[Markanite]

Thats awesome, Thanks for the answer Cerb

[Wordy]

Hey Cerb!
What is your favorite song right now?
If you could meet any 10Ker who would you choose?

[Cerb]

Wow, two incredibly difficult questions.

Of course the irony is that they are difficult for the same reason. How on earth can you pick one out of many that you like?

So, by way of answering, I'll put up a few and plead the excuse of I simply can't pick one.

Music:
Paul Van Dyk Avenue. For when I simply have to let go and feel the sound.
Cat Stevens - Moon shadow, because it's lyrical genius.
Moody Blues - Tuesday Afternoon, for sentimental reasons.
Blue Jays, I dreamed last night. For even bigger sentimental reasons
Conjure One, The Metro (Cover) Beccause it's rad.
Metallica, Whiskey in the Jar, Cover. Because it's better than the original.
There are lots more, but that's a good start.

The XKI'ers? Gosh.
I honestly fear that real life meeting people was well illustrated in "The Guild".
You never know just what to expect after their online personas are removed.

Still, I think it would be interesting to meet:
Markanite, because irishmen are usually a good laugh, except when they are trying to blow up Englishmen, which is a cause for concern.
Takaram, because anyone that is young and likes classic rock has to be an interesting individual.
Minna, because if she's half as looney in RL as she is on here, it would have to be worthwhile.
Of course yourself Wordy, because Crikey, who could resist meeting someone that pretty?
Grub, because anyone as taciturn as himself must be a laugh a minute outside of the game.
Sir Lans, because I think he actually gives a shit about things.
PAI, if only to verify if he's as grumpy as he appears to be
AD, because it's almost impossible to figure out what he'd be like out there. Especially if you forced him to stop watching Anime.
Echo, because maybe he could tell me why the hell anyone would like regular expressions.

Yeah, there are lots of names there, and even more that I haven't included that I've left out.

So, like a true politician, I failed to answer your questions directly.

[Wordy]

Thanks Cerb! I think I would have answered in much the same way
I LOVE all those songs!

[Woonsocket]

Cerb, your story makes for a very good read. Why on earth if you were going to settle in the US would you choose Idaho? (Unless you are somewhere near Coeur D'Alene, in which case no answer is needed.)
Do you ever get involved in politics locally or state-wide?
And lastly, what sports do you follow? I'm curious if you stay connected with local teams from your youth, adopted US sports, or don't give a crap for sports at all?

I will add that I am amazed you've only been here a year. You seem an old hand somehow - you have integrated yourself amazingly well here in a very short time.

[Cerb]

Apr 5, 2011 19:18:33 GMT -5 Woonsocket said:

Cerb, your story makes for a very good read. Why on earth if you were going to settle in the US would you choose Idaho? (Unless you are somewhere near Coeur D'Alene, in which case no answer is needed.)

Actually, I'm about 10 hours from Coeur D'Alene, I dislike the place as it still has some white supremacist leanings. It's gotten better but still not so great.

My wife already lived in Boise, so that's where I settles. It's a cool city. More like a big town than a city.

We're two hours away from stunning camping (I'd post a pic but I don't have any small enough, and the board makes it waaaay to big). We've got some of the best fishing, from going after steelhead to trying to hook a 350 pound sturgeon.

We also have a very low crime rate, possibly because we've got a massive concealed carry contingent. Makes for polite people

Apr 5, 2011 19:18:33 GMT -5 Woonsocket said:

Do you ever get involved in politics locally or state-wide?

Other than harassing my local representatives and senators, not much. I'm conservative and so is the state, so we typically see eye to eye. The biggest fight that has my interest is the wolf problem. Our artificially introduced wolves have decimated the Elk and deer population. Some of the wolves are 100+ pounds and have been observed in packs of close to 50. We need to cull them but people opposed to hunting say they are just doing what they are supposed to do.
I'd agree if they weren't 50% larger than the wolves that were here natively.

Apr 5, 2011 19:18:33 GMT -5 Woonsocket said:

And lastly, what sports do you follow? I'm curious if you stay connected with local teams from your youth, adopted US sports, or don't give a crap for sports at all?

Don't really care. I root for the local college football team of course, (Go Broncos!) but since my eyesight has gone from bad to non existent I'm pretty much out of the loop.
I hated soccer growing up but I did have fondness for cricket and rugby union.

My sports interests are now quite limited, though I'm considering taking up archery again (I shot nationally back in college) and I like shooting and fishing.

There's no club here locally for blind archery, so I may have to go it alone.

Apr 5, 2011 19:18:33 GMT -5 Woonsocket said:

I will add that I am amazed you've only been here a year. You seem an old hand somehow - you have integrated yourself amazingly well here in a very short time.

It seems like longer to tell the truth, but I've found that the people here are very welcoming and they made that integration possible.

[Cerb]

Here are a few links to pics.
A cabin in Grand Teton State Park, which is about 8 hours away.
cerbdawg.com/images/cabin.jpg
Here's Boise...
cerbdawg.com/images/Boise.png
A moose at Oxbow...
cerbdawg.com/images/oxbow.jpg

And Redfish lake, which is just a couple of hours drive.
cerbdawg.com/images/redfish.jpg

Those explain why I love living here
All images (c) my wife, blah blah blah.

[Tanzoria]

How did you discover the 10000 Islands?

[Woonsocket]

You've touched on this, Cerb, so I trust it's OK to ask this question. You alluded to your vision difficulties. Your writings here don't seem to suffer. Would you mind sharing how you accomplish that?

[Cerb]

Apr 6, 2011 3:38:14 GMT -5 Tanzoria said:

How did you discover the 10000 Islands?

Well, that's a nice easy one and I'll answer it with first how I doscovered NS.

I was bored and decided to see if there were game resources for blind individuals. After a bit of googling I found a site that listed a variety of games, but the majority were rather lame. I'll never forget the car racing game where the balance would fade as you drifted off the center line.

Well that site listed nation states and I figured I'd try it.

Upon arrival I received a TG from 10Ki, I think it was either from Echo or GPN. I moved in, decided to try setting up my own region, gave up within two days because Ananke was nice and wished me luck when I went to try and form the region.

I figured that there were people here actively intent on building a good community. So, here I am

[Cerb]

Apr 6, 2011 5:56:33 GMT -5 Woonsocket said:

You've touched on this, Cerb, so I trust it's OK to ask this question. You alluded to your vision difficulties. Your writings here don't seem to suffer. Would you mind sharing how you accomplish that?

Oh certainly. I'll start with some background on my vision problems.

I was diagnosed with Retinitus Pigmentosa (RP) when I was about 14. I was informed it was a degenerative disease where I would gradually lose vision. It's something that affects people either with tunnel vision or night blindness. Well, that didn't seem too bad.

As time progressed mine developed more generally though, rather than tunnel vision, my entire focal area degenerated. I had to give up mountain biking, and by the time I was 26 it was a challenge to walk anywhere unaccompanied.

I moved to the US and married, and my vision though bad was usable with adjustments to screen resolution and font size. Then by use of a high contrast black screen.

Around 34 I developed cataracts, which is a common side effect of RP, and my vision los became rapid. Went in for cataract surgery, but it did not help, as I then developed a rapid pendulous nystagmus due to the cataracts and RP.

That's a rapid uncontrollable eye movement. They shake rapidly (10 or 20 times a second) from left to right.

That leaves me where I am today. I can see, for example, that there is a monitor in front of me, but I can not make out the text on the screen. I can see some page layout thanks to high contrast, which is a blessing.

So, now on to how I function, after that long winded explanation.

I use software to cope with the vision loss. It's a program called JAWS by Freedom Scientific. It's expensive (about $1K) but worth every penny.

It literally reads every screen element and the text on the screen. By use of the arrow keys, and hot keys, I can navigate web pages nearly as fast as a mouse user. Especially on familiar pages.
For example. I tab to this window and I'll hear "10000 Islands HQ Post Message - Internet Explorer".

I hit "e" on my keyboard and it will jump to the first edit box (in this case subject). Hit E again and I'm in the Attachment edit, then once more and I'm in the message edit box. Pressing space puts me in edit mode. Then I can type to my hearts content. To exit the edit box I can downarrow out of it, or hit escape.

Pressing Alt + S activates the send button. Voila, I have posted a message.

I'm fine with people asking questions about this type of thing because part of my duty, as a blind individual, is to help people understand blindness. There are a lot of employers who would not consider hiring a blind person, without understanding that they can be effective and highly skilled employees.

For myself, I'm a project manager for a software quality assurance company and test printers. I also design test automation scripts for testing websites, which I learned after drastic vision loss.

The limitations of a person, are typically set by the person, not by their infirmity.

[Woonsocket]

Thank you, that's an exceptional reply. I learned a lot this morning.

I really like your last sentence - I'm intending to use it as "quote of the day" in my laboratory. We usually find something on the Quote of the Day website but I've taken to finding quotes from other sources and having the lady that does that put them up for all to see. So today, you will be quoted in a laboratory for all and sundry to see. I will get a kick out of the poster's name. Everybody will think it's a Roman or Greek philosopher. Which you sort of are...

Anyway, thanks again. I am very glad you make the effort to be here. There is no doubt of your contribution to 10KI and tell the truth, to my personal enjoyment of the interactions we all have with each other.

[Markanite]

That quotes awesome Cerb.

Thanks for giving us all that information, I learned a lot too.

[Cerb]

Thank you both for being so kind

I've enjoyed sharing.

[MinnaCaroline]

You are amazing!!! And the way you describe the technology and how you have utilized it is so fantastic. That is really cool Cerb!

Also if you really must know... I really am that looney and MORE in real life!!

Do you play any instruments? (I'm starting a band, Just kidding) But I am curious.

[Cerb]

Heh, no, but I wish I did. My wife has been on at me to learn the guitar or some such for years. I've pointed out on several occasions that I spent an afternoon with a guitar literate friend and after four hours couldn't hit "C".

I'm not tone deaf, I'm just not very dextrous.

I might one day contact my local blind support folks and see if they know anyone who teaches guitar to the blind.

Until that day, I'll continue to sing, rather badly

[Anime Daisuki]

What's your favorite pass time or hobby?

Favorite food? Chinese food? Japanese? Curry? McDonalds?

[Cerb]

Well, pass times and hobbies.
NS is obviously a big part of that.
I also code / own a text based online game called a mud. I've been involved with that for 12 years.
I'm also an avid reader.
I'm thinking of getting back into archery which was a very therapeutic pass time. Good for the mind and focus.

Food. That's a tough one because I've put myself on a very restrictive diet. Of that diet I dearly love a good curry which can be done with relatively decent caloric / fat levels.
I favor indian curry over thai, though I'll eat either at a pinch.
Favorite curries are a jelfrezzi or a dupiaza.

For Chinese I love food from Szechuan province, and had some friends that would make me the 'real' deal. As I don't see them any more I will make do with "American" Chinese, but it's just lame by comparison.

I guess right now though, I'd love to have a big cook breakfast by a campfire in the mountains. Nothing tastes as good as bacon cooked over a wood fire

[Shelter from the Storm]

Have you travelled a lot in the USA? Other (of course) than Idaho, what are your favourite American places to visit?

[Gilda]

Do you ride horses?

[Cerb]

Let's see. Travel in the US. Well to be frank I haven't travelled much. I love the NorthWest of the US. I've very fond of Western Wyoming and Montana. I've been over to the oregon coast and that wasn't too bad. I'll be in Tennessee in a couple of weeks so that will be a whole new experience.

Horses? No. Thanks to my eyesight I find it very hard to stand or walk around as I get perpetually dizzy. I think I'd like to ride horses if I can ever get the vertigo under control. My wife desperately wants to take horse riding lessons so it might be fun to learn.