Illustration of Derek Powazek by Adam Ellis

NaBloPoMo Q&A 10: Lightning Round

At the beginning of this month, I invited questions from you to help me through NaBloPoMo. We’ve covered the mundane, digital identities, politics, the web biz, my cat, chopping blocks, academia, and storytelling. But before the month is out, I wanted to do a quick lightning round to answer as many of the remaining questions as possible. Here goes!

Phil asked, So do you hate pants, or what?
Some of my best friends are pants.

Julie asked, What were you like as a kid?
Like this.

Jasmeet asked, What goes thorugh your mind when you are composing photographs?
Nothing – that’s why it’s so much fun. To get totally lost in the moment.

Paul asked, How do you find time to juggle your many many interests?
Insomnia helps.

Jack asked, Any tattoos or piercings?
Left ear pierced on my 16th birthday. At the time, this felt incredibly rebellious. Now? Meh. No tattoos yet, yet but I’ve been designing something for my right arm for the last decade or so.

Heather asked, Did you or did you not switch out the batteries on my CD player?
I did not, but I’m glad that when you accuse me of something, it’s of doing something nice for you.

Beerzie asked, Boxers or briefs?
There are some things in life that should hang loose, and some things that shouldn’t. In other words, briefs.

Tom asked, What do you miss most about the web as it was in 1997?
Not a thing. Really. There’s still so much to look forward to.

Harold asked, Is it hot in here?
Nope.

Dawn asked, When you are photographing people do you let them know you’re photographing them?
Nope. That’s why I love the Lomo LC-A for street shooting. I can set the focal distance, put it in the palm of my hand, and just walk and shoot. I love getting to linger over photos of moments that you’re not allowed to stare at in real life.

Simone asked, Do you play videogames?
I asked the dusty Wii in our living room, and it said, sadly, no.

Taylor asked, Where do babys come from?
Ask your mother.

Telita asked, I want to write a book.
Writing a book is easy: All you have to do is sit at the keyboard and concentrate until blood drips out of your ears. Or you could try this.

Baudouin asked, Weren’t you involved in some kind of “push” Flash gizmos in 99?
Yup. The company was called BitMagic and they brought me out to Amsterdam to work for six months in 1999. Amsterdam was awesome. The job was, well, Amsterdam was awesome.

Jeremy asked, So where are your feeds?
Auto-discoverable.

Ricky asked, Are you going to be able to get designforcommunity.com back?
I doubt it. I stupidly let it expire and it was snatched up immediately. It’s out of print now, anyway, and if I do write another book, it’ll be under a different name. Such is life.

Thanks for playing, y’all!


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Hi, I’m Derek. I used to make websites. Now I grow flowers and know things. I’m mostly harmless. More.