Who is Christian Sauvé?
1995-2004, Christian Sauvé
I exist. Really. But where to begin? How to resume a life, a history, a personality into an orderly progression of electrical signals, bits, 1s and 0s, bytes, magnetic orientations, characters, words, sentences, paragraphs? Who am I to describe myself; does one really knows oneself? Am I not attempting to refer to an imperfect image in an imperfect mirror seen by partial eyes? Why should I judge that any of my personal characteristics is important enough to warrant the waste of your time that will eventually require the reading of this text? Wouldn't your time better spent at the beach, or outside playing curling, than cuddled up miserably near this pitiful computer, staring mindlessly at abstractions?
[Pause, as dozens of readers quietly hit the "back" button.]
Anyone still reading this? No? Good!
The oh-so-boring straight facts:
(Now spoofed with identity-theft nonsense!)
Birthdate: September 21st, 197x
Birthplace: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada [Now living in Rockland, Ontario]
Height: 5'10"
Weight: 180 pounds, plus or minus five. (More plus than minus these days)
Hair: Yes... Uh, I mean "Dark Brown, receding, worn short."
Eyes: Brown, formerly myopic.
Beard: Yes, trimmed every month or so.
For the rest of the information, let's go for a Q&A session:
Twenty Totally Useless Facts About Christian Sauvé
1. Are you the Christian Sauvé I'm looking for?
Maybe, maybe not. There are at least four different Christian Sauvés on the web, including a French politician, a Montréal-area designer (a fairly good one, too), an influencial european artist and an executive with an organic tea company. And that's without counting all the nine Christian Sauvés in the Canadian phone book, including not less than !two! Christian Sauvés within fifty kilometers of my hometown.
But this particular Christian Sauvé has been on the web since 1995, has published extensively on science-fiction, has some experience doing technical stuff, commutes between Rockland and Ottawa and has no outstanding arrest warrants against him. Well, not yet anyway.
2. Hey! There's no photo of you anywhere!
You haven't looked hard enough. But use Google, and you'll find a few terribly unflattering portraits of me doing stuff at Science Fiction conventions... (shudder)
3. But how can we recognize you, then?
I don't want you to recognize me. Unless you want to give me a briefcase full of cash. In that particular case, send me an email first, will you?
The usual Christian Sauvé Look [TM] is a blend of unsophisticated but comfortable clothes in hues ranging from dark to black, with occasional deviations in blue or green tones. Glasses were made useless through the wonder of laser surgery in 2005 but may make a comeback soon enough. A short beard is usually on display, given that it works wonders at softening the geekish look with an overwhelming dash of escaped convict. (Well, I wish: My siblings tell me I'm about as threatening as a kitten.)
4. Okay, so... with a name like yours, I guess you're a Québécois?
No. No. Nooo. My mother is from Québec, I have spent most summers of my childhood on my grandparents' farm in rural Quebec and most of my family live on the Québec side of the border, but I was born in Ottawa and have lived in Rockland, Ontario most of my life. I have no plans to move and a strong identification at being not-Québécois.
5. So, what are you doing right now?
At work, I'm a computer specialist somewhere in the labyrinths of the Canadian federal public service.
At home, well, I read, I write, I take care of myself and my house...
6. Tell us more about computers.
I've been around computers since 1983, when my father brought home a brand-new Commodore 64. Since then, I've seen the rise and fall of several platforms, played some thousand-odd computer games, programmed a bit, written a lot, learned much and decided that I was good at this. A Computer Science degree later, you can ask me about computer games, the state of the industry today, desktop publishing, the Internet or techno-sociological issues, and I'll give you an answer. Probably a long and rambling one.
7. You've been around the Internet for a while?
I've been using my main email address since March 1993, and my homepage's been online since March 1995. I know my way around the net, although the young'ones are now teaching me lessons with their newfangled Myspaces and Face-books.
8. When you're not sitting at a computer...?
...then I'm usually reading. Or listening to the news. Or cooking, gardening, walking...
9. I can feel the energy coursing through your veins.
Hey, I used to say "No job, no girlfriend, no life. Lots of books." Since then, I've managed to get a job, but the latter part of the equation still eludes me. I go to a lot of movies. Have I mentioned that I read a lot?
10. Yes, you did. What's "a lot"?
It's roughly 200 books a year. Most of it is either Science Fiction, thrillers or non-fiction. My personal library has recently broken through the 4,500-book plateau. (as of November 2007)
11. Do you have some authors to recommend?
A partial list: Arthur C. Clarke, David Brin, Neal Stephenson, Tom Clancy, Larry Bond, Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Greg Egan, Walter Jon Williams, Robert J. Sawyer, Charles Pellegrino, Robert B. Parker...
12. How about specific titles?
Head over to my lists of alternate Hugos or 100 good books from the nineties, browse my complete review index for the [Top-10] mentions and keep reading my latest reviews... both for books and movies.
13. Are you as obsessive about movies than you are about books?
I deny it, but friends tell me it's just as bad. Despite myself, I became somewhat of a cinephile during the late nineties. (Hey, stranger things have happened.) Elsewhere on this site, you will find a list of my favourite movies.
14. We've covered books and movies... Music?
Er... I have no taste and no talent in music. Music simply doesn't form an integral part of my life: it's one of the few art forms out there where I'm perfectly happy to remain a fan with no knowledge of how it's put together.
In general, I like techno/electronica (Chemical Brothers, Prodigy), rap/dance (C&C Music Factory, Beastie Boys) "big beat" (Propellerheads, Fatboy Slim) and hard rock (Aerosmith, Rage Against the Machine). Recently, I have discovered the joys of dancehall reggae (Beenie Man, Tony Matterhorn) and soca (Bunji Garlin, Colin Lucas).
I used to listen to top-forty radio, but eventually found less and less to like there. I usually buy used CDs by the pound, rip them to MP3s and then listen to that.
15. What's your favourite food, animal and plant?
What kind of question is this? How 'bout them Apples, Squirrels and Thistles?
16. Do you have any kind of famous role-models?
If you have spare time on your hands, check out biographies of Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Elizabeth I, Marie Curie, Isaac Newton, Galileo, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Edison, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, T.E. Lawrence, Albert Einstein and Richard Feynman...
17. Do you have any political opinions?
Yes.
As a federal public servant, I'm encouraged to be as non-partisan as humanly possible, and that suits me just fine. But that's not a synonym for apathy, and you can bet that I've got opinions on just about everything going on in the news.
This being said, you'd have a tough time classifying my views in anything resembling standard political ideology: I'm a financial conservative and a social liberal, though my own lifestyle is very conservative. (I don't sleep around, do drugs or even drink alcohol.)
I used to be far more conservative during my teenage years, then steadily became more progressive in young adulthood. I expect that my political views will keep evolving as I age.
18. This is the missing question!
Yes. Well spotted.
19. Is there anything you're completely inept at? (and wish to admit publically, that is)
It's not a public admission: It's a lifelong learning plan.
I have already admitted to being a musical idiot, but I'll add that I never learned to play any instrument. I would love to be able to do so, but then again I would love to be able to draw/paint, speak Spanish/Japanese and cook like a master chef, but there are only so many hours in a day.
I walk a lot during the summers (where "a lot" means walking for three hours at least once every week) but that's the only "sport" I can stomach. Incredibly enough, I am also one of the three or four living Canadians who absolutely can't skate.
I'm unsufficiently socialized and react badly (usually by getting out) in any situation where ambient sound is louder that conversational tone. Generally, I could use a lot of social polish... though I'm better at it than before, and expect to become even better with time.
Like any member of my generation, I have serious holes in my classical education (literature, music, theatre, opera, art, history...).
You probably would like me less in person than online. (And that's assuming that you even like me online.)
20. You ARE aware that psychologists could have a field's day analyzing your questions and answers?
Yes. Who cares? It's not like the entire Web's reading this, right?
Right?
Hey, hello GoogleBot.
Oops.
You can go, now. Send me an email if you really can't live longer without knowing more about me.