Interview with SenisterDenister

[Jeff]

Little is known of this mysterious character besides everything he's told us in his 3110 posts, so I figured it was time to lift the veil of mystery and find out if the carpet matches the drapes if you know what I mean. And boy, it's nothing but the finest silk when it comes to this guy believe you me, 2.8 denier at least I would say. Or should I say Dennier ;) Ladies and gentlemen I present to you SenisterDenister in all of his undraped glory.

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Gimp Mask: You seem to be into books and reading and stuff; I guess people read less these days and opt for the instant gratification of VHS and what have you because the Internet has all but pulverized their ability to focus. Filter bubbles and dirty campaigning aside, do you think this could be a contributing factor in the political polarization of the US; people's critical thinking skills are dwindling since they don't actively stimulate the ol' encephalon these days, or am I just talking out of my ass? I'm probably talking out of my ass.

SenisterDenister: I wouldn't necessarily consider myself well read, I'm not as up to date on the classics as some other friends of mine, I have read The Histories by Herodotus but I've never spent a lot of time reading philosophy beyond some theological things here and there. I considered having a theology minor for a while in school but opted for a sociology one, which after being exposed to the kind of people in that field I kind of regretted but hindsight is 20/20 and all.

I grew up reading lots of science fiction and fantasy, and in college I read lots of history books. Lots of standard stuff for a history major, dry expositions and primary source documents. I think the polarization is less about people not reading and more about reading things that aren't properly sourced and are heavily biased. People have a tendency to take things at face value if it fits whatever narrative they believe and are willing to overlook lots of baseless claims and unsourced material.

It's less about people not thinking critically and more about being overwhelmed by misinformation. Between what you see on the news, hear on the radio, see on websites, social media, all of it, it's hard for people not trained in methods of researching information to not be able to properly sift through it and learn more about it themselves. As strange as it seems people are reading more, but they aren't paying attention about where information is coming from.


GM: It would be boring to ask what your favourite books are because nobody cares anyway, so let's ask something different. What sort of style writing do you enjoy, regardless of genre? It's a very nonspecific question I know but that's precisely why I'm interested in your answer and you're free to answer it as you please; you can use book examples if you feel like it, but I haven't read them anyway so some other sort of answer would be preferable. Like, I would answer something like "something that feels like giving yourself a handjob while watching Modern Family S04E08 after a stressful day at the office", and you'd immediately know exactly the type of literary work to which I'm referring.

SD: I like all sorts of different writing styles, and I myself am all over the place in the bad short stories I try to write myself in my spare time. I read a lot of Lovecraft in high school, secondary for you European folk I guess, so being superfluous with word usage was never really an issue when I sit down and read things. Traditionally speaking my favorite iteration of the Bible is the unrevised King James written in the early-modern 17th century English. Can't get enough of it, having researched the English Civil War as one of my college graduation courses reading things like that is always super interesting to me. The propaganda thrown around back then during the war is particularly funny, Adamites were drawn as nudists and Diggers were basically mocked for being proto-communists in their day since they all shared property and lived on agrarian communes.

To get back to the question I like all sorts of different writing styles, and I think it's great that so many good works of literature can all be so different from one another. You have the ramblings of James Joyce, the unreliable narrations of Wolfe in his Book of the New Sun tetralogy, and then you have the terse formats of Cormac McCarthy which I've always been a fan of. One thing I know I need to spend time reading is Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, so that's in my ever expanding backlog. To hearken back to my liking old writing styles I love a book called The Night Land by Hodgson, because it reads like the King James Bible. Lots of "And so's" in it.


GM: Are you a stickler for grammar and spelling and stuff? I mean I know you don't complain about it but does it annoy you?

SD: It probably annoys me as much as it would anyone else, but I've been on the internet to understand that just because someone may have difficulty articulating themselves doesn't mean it invalidates their statements or opinions.


GM: Looks like my questions so far are pretty much based on the assumption that you read a lot. Do you even fucking read anything other than these forums? The following questions will be about other stuff.

SD: As far as other websites? Most definitely, I've reading and posting on a website called 4chan since before I even joined Duck and Cover. I tried social media but that wasn't my bag, and the thing I like about 4chan is it may be a clusterfuck and a bed of misinformation but it's fun to pick through it and get around the shitposting for actual conversations. The diamonds in the rough there always make up for the trouble.


GM: Weren't you homeless for a bit? How does that work, I live in a fenno-scandic socialist utopia so I have a hard time imagining how that must be because it's such a remote idea. Like did you train hop from town to town and huddle around a dumpster fire with the other drunks and beatniks or was it pretty much business as usual except for a lack of home?

SD: It was nothing that dramatic, but there was a period of a few months where I officially didn't have a residence, and having to pay off some debts and being between work I either lived in my car or stayed at friend's places until I could get back on my feet. It's important to be a good person and to have friends, because you never know when you have to depend on people. The love you take is equal to the love you make. Definitely helps you put things in perspective and understand that material wealth isn't as important as people think it is.


GM: What do you do for a living? I don't know why, but you don't strike me as a working type.

SD: I don't have anything someone would call a career, no, but I do odd jobs here and there to pay bills and see to my hobbies. Right now I'm doing landscaping work in the mountains, so right now that means cutting and moving trees that have fallen over from the wind and snow. I tried office work and it just wasn't my thing. I may go back to school and get a teaching certificate and be a history teacher and finally put that degree to use, I recently turned 30 and I don't think I want to be blue collar for the rest of my life.


GM: You joined in 2007, it feels like it's right around some kind of a weird cut-off point for OG members and the newer members (maybe because the number of new active members kinda dwindled around that time), yet you've been a member for nearly 13 years. Do you feel like you're one of the old-timers now?

SD: Insofar as anyone else would, I guess. It seems to be one of those things you don't think about until somebody newer says you are.


GM: I know I ask everyone this same thing but what got you interested (and kept your interest) in DAC?

SD: So after I heard Bethesda bought the Fallout license and with rumors starting to swirl around in 2006 I started trying to find information about the new Fallout game, I ended up on NMA and after lurking for a month or two before signing up I decided that wasn't my cup of tea and found you guys. You seemed like a fun bunch to hang out with over NMA and I was right. Over the years of just talking and hanging out with people here it gives a sense of community that bigger forums don't really offer. That's one of the biggest problems I have with the codex, outside of specific game threads you'll never recognize anyone unless they have thousands of posts all over the damn place. For a place with names and avatars it can still seem impersonal.


GM: It's pretty hard doing these interviews man, I'm not interested in any of you guys I mainly just like asking stuff.

SD: That makes me feel better because I'm honestly not all that interesting.


GM: Hopefully I'm not mixing you with someone else, but I think you're a firm advocate of the second amendment? I have no real opinion because I come from a completely different cultural background and I'm not fucking Kashluk. Why do you feel it's so important?

SD: Yeah I think it's important for a free and open society, it guarantees every other right we as free human beings have and I think if you live in a state that doesn't respect that right you're not really a free person. This is like the only thing I have a zero-tolerance policy with when it comes to compromises and restrictions. I know that sounds kind of radicalized but no government ever has given rights to people, they are something you innately have as a person and a government can only acknowledge that you have them. Anything the government gives is a privilege which means it can just as easily be taken away, and every government likes to control its people. It's always natural that authority centralizes and part of that is restricting its citizenry or its subjects. I'll stop before I get carried away.


GM: Are you a prepper / survivalist / what have you?

SD: I have basic survival skills having been in Scouts and overall growing up spending a lot of time camping and being outdoors, but no I'm not a prepper. I've studied that if an actual SHTF (Shit Hit the Fan) scenario happens hoarding things just makes you a bigger target. I had a class where a Bosnian refugee from Sarajevo came and we interviewed and asked about his experience for a few hours and basically all you need are guns and ammunition, with that you can get anything else you need. I've also read a few books about it and that's the general consensus. What you want is a capacity of violence, which is the supreme authority from which all other authorities are derived. :starshiptroopers:


GM: Continuing on the topic: if you are, I'm sure you're familiar with Bear Grylls. What if bears had grills? Would it make them more dangerous, or more ridiculous? Also do you think Bear Grylls is ridiculous?

SD: It would make them ridiculously dangerous, and Bear Grylls' show was a fun farce to watch for a while. The pictures and clips online where people can find where he was on some episodes and you can pan the camera over and see highway traffic always cracks me up. I liked the show Survivorman with Les Stroud more since that was more about actual survival situations and how to be and what to do.


GM: Are you lonely?

SD: I have a dog, family and friends. No significant other, though, and with the plague going around it certainly didn't make things any easier. So yeah, I miss that companionship.


GM: What is it like to be a bat?

SD: Everything is very loud.


GM: In Seoul there is a cafe called "After Jerk-Off". What do you make of that?

SD: A whole bar devoted to post-nut clarity? Sounds like an interesting place to pick up a girl since you'd be thinking straight.


GM: This last question is by a member called "Hyacinth": Hey Dennis tell us something embarassing lol

SD: I'm a 30 year old man that still goes to 4chan.

[Jeff]

I think the best thing about Fallout 3 is that a bunch of nice people such as yourself joined DAC. So maybe it was a masterpiece after all. And Survivorman was great yea

[SenisterDenister]

Fallout 3 was a double-edged sword in that it got a lot of people into the fallout community but it wasn't always good people. It also made the series more mainstream which probably wasn't for the better. But we got New Vegas out of it, so there's that at least.

[Hyacinth]

Must be pretty nice to be out in the nature working! You seem quite the scholar, we should have a "Dennis Corner" where you can drop interesting history snippets each Tuesday or something! Short post whatever it's all your freedom to choose but you seem to sit on alot of interesting knowledge. Practice teaching on us or something!


I don't know how I would get a weapon in a SHTF situation, iI tthink I would probably just ducttape a fillet knife on a stick or something.

[SenisterDenister]

Being in Finland you should support your local arms industry and buy a Tikka rifle. It's important to have something in a locally common calibur, so around where I live that would be something like .308, 30-06, or .223. I understand that 8mm mauser is still popular in Europe to hunt with. A friend of mine actually has two Tikka rifles which is why I know about them, one in .308 and .30-06 respectively, and they're great guns to hunt with and shoot. Composite stocks and stainlesss steel ensure longevity and resistance against the elements. The Finns make great firearms, all very durable and reliable.

[Jeff]

I don't have a gun but I'm a dedicated student of the ancient art of aikido, or �気� as I prefer to call it so I'm pretty confident I could just grab someones Tikka and shove it up their butt hole. That's the SHTB or shit hit the barrel situation for you.

Tikka means "woodpecker" in Finnish, maybe you can tell your friend that and score a few gunslinger points or something. Then you can say you learned it on a computer game forum and lose all your points.

Fallout 3 was a double-edged sword in that it got a lot of people into the fallout community but it wasn't always good people.

I would argue that a lot of the original community members probably weren't that great either, but by the time of FO3 the membership of DAC and similar sites had condensed into this group of people who got along well so that was an eliminative process as well, weed out the weak and so on. But I agree that most of the FO3 folks sucked for sure.

You seem quite the scholar, we should have a "Dennis Corner" where you can drop interesting history snippets each Tuesday or something! Short post whatever it's all your freedom to choose but you seem to sit on alot of interesting knowledge. Practice teaching on us or something!

I agree, the interview alone was very insightul!

[Amis]

don't have a gun but I'm a dedicated student of the ancient art of aikido, or �気�