Interview with Tuffy the Dump Truck

Conducted by Lupus (I won't do any more, I promise)

[img]http://www.chuckpalahniuk.net/community/image.php?u=2458&dateline=1092249386[/img]
[URL=http://www.chuckpalahniuk.net/community/member.php?userid=2458]Tuffy the Dump Truck's Profile[/URL]

Lupus: Hi, Tuffy the Dump Truck.

Tuffy the Dump Truck: Hi.

L: You are one of the oldest guys in here. How old are you?

T: Ouch.
I will be 81 in July...
...of 2049. That makes me 36 for the mathematically challenged.

L: The average age in the forums is much less than that. How do you find interacting with people 20 years younger?
And how (if at all) does it influence the way you post?

T: How do I find it? Most of the individuals who come here are able to interact on an adult level. Clearly not all. Many lack real-world experience, but are able to discuss multiple subjects with sincerity and an openness that might not be found in an offline situation or even on other messageboards. There's also lots of _non-serious_ chat, which can be fun to engage in, as well.
As to how it affects how I post, I'd say it doesn't. This is me. This is the way I talk to and interact with people on a daily, in-person basis. If anything, due to the casualness and familiarity here, I'm more natural. On any other forum, message board, or what have you, I've been less inclined to speak my mind, a little more _stilted_ in my way of expressing myself.

L: Alright. Continuing with the 'getting to know you' questions... Location, occupation, family status?

T: I live in a 4 story, 5 bedroom Victorian in Bloomfield, Pittsburgh's Little Italy. I own a dance studio slash art gallery. I also manage the Records Management department at a major law firm (i.e., I oversee the file-clerks) Monday through Friday. This allows me an obscene amount of free time to be online. I also take occasional gigs as a DJ at local dance-clubs, though I no longer do it regularly.
I'm married and have a 21 month-old daughter.

L: This is a site not only for readers, but for writers as well. We seem to get plenty of them, especially with the Writers' and Chuck's workshops. There is some good stuff of yours in the Emperor Thread. Do you write?

T: When I have the inclination and the time. Time being the scarce commodity for me right now.

L: Any current projects?

T: I'm desperately rewriting my second screenplay right now. I may take a few weeks off from work and the Cult in the near future to spend some quality time with it.

L: Good luck with that. Tell me, Tuffy, what does the Cult do for you, and what do you do for the Cult?

T: Lately, I've not been getting so much out of it. The Cult goes in cycles. It seems at the low-end right now.

L: This begs for two questions: what are you getting out of it when it is at a high-end and could you elaborate a bit on the 'low-end" part?

T: What I'm getting out of it at the high-end is social interaction that due to my long hours I wasn't getting elsewhere. As to what I do for the Cult, I like to think that I have contributed in my own way, added my biological and technological distinctiveness to the Cult.... or something.

L: "Biological and technological distinctiveness"?

T: Nothing. Kidding.

L: You are also a Moderator of the Super variety. How is that working for you?

T: Heh.
Well... As I said, I like to think that I have contributed in my own way. I think that _also_ is at perigee right now. I've become a janitor, cleaning up after kids who want to post screen-filling images and whatnot. I hear "free speech at all costs" and "It's just a message board", but this Free Speech doesn't seem to apply to the Administrators, nor to the people who sweat daily over the forum trying to keep it running smoothly. I'd also like to add "They're just guidelines."

L: So your view about all that fuss lately would be....?

T: Much ado about nothing. This will pass.

L: Since you stated that the Cult works in circles, am I to assume that you are optimistic about Good Times coming again?

T: Sure. Or the Cult is not really at a low-point and I've simply out-grown the need for it. When you're no longer having fun, it's time to move-on.

L: You do not only post under the "Tuffy" username. How many secret identities do you have? Alternative usernames, rather.

T: I don't know. Several. I haven't logged onto any of them in quite a long while.

L: Can you tell us what one or two of them are and why you created them?

T: That would be telling, now wouldn't it?

L: Yes.

T: It's no secret that I was Decalogue, but that wasn't an alternate ID.

L: Yes. I would like you to tell me why you changed your name last May.

T: It's all right there in the Who Else Changed They're [sic] Name? thread. If Legally Tyler Durden can change is name to Legally Tyler Durden, then it seemed that I could legally change _my_ name to Little People® Tuffy the Dump Truck™ by Fisher Price. It was a gag and I ran with it.

L: Right. Okay... time for some tabloid journalism. You have said elsewhere you've done some 'mild prostitution'. What was that about?

T: Oy... Did I use the term 'mild'?

L: Oy... Yes.

T: I was a male escort in my early 20's...

L: For men or women?

T: Women. That was actually fun. Didn't have to sleep with anyone I wouldn't have wanted to anyway, plus they gave me 'things'. Often, but not always, this was cash.

L: What's your price, babe?

T: I'm not exactly in mint condition anymore. Oh, to be young and pretty again....

L:

T: Later, when I was homeless, I would sometimes end up with someone because I needed a place to sleep, or food. If I didn't like them, I would rob them afterwards, usually their medicine cabinet (yeah, Chuck stole that from me ).
I was a very different person in years past.

L: So it seems...

T: I'm not proud of it or anything.

L: Given the opportunity to go back in time, what would you change?

T: In my own life?

L: Yeah.

T: Nothing.
I am who I am and what I am as a direct result of my life experiences. To change even the slightest thing, I would conceivably be a drasticly different person.

L: Are you content with the way things have turned out?

T: I'm never content with anything. There's always room to improve, but that improvement always lies in the future. I simply wouldn't change the past because that might negate the awareness that improvent is desireable or even that it is possible.

L: I see. A last "compare and contrast" question and we'll be done.
The Cult Versus Real Life.

T: I view the Cult as being as real as any conversation. Conversations, of course, do not equal action except insofar that they may incite action. Too many here think that they are accomplishing something by saying what they type. Conversely, too many say things that they would never say in real life - the Cult provides a shield for them. That's cowardice.

L: "Too many here think that they are accomplishing something by saying what they type" Clarification, please?

T: Sitting and posting on a forum isn't actually _doing_ anything. No matter how profound your words are, they're only words. Now, if in the Politics and Current Affairs forum you convince someone to vote for the first time in their life, that may be an accomplishment. Listing your Top Five Favorite Movies (bands/tv shows/icecream flavors/etc.) isn't. A lot of what goes on here is masturbatory. And while there's absolutely nothing at all wrong with masturbation (literal or figurative), it becomes too much an end unto itself sometimes.

L: I hope you enjoyed this mutual masturbation session, then, because it's over. Thank you for answering my questions. It's been a *ahem* pleasure.

T: Quite.