Growing up in rural Ohio, I knew my way around a double-wide pretty well.

I feel like I was hit by all of geek culture at once while I was growing up in the '70s and '80s. Saturday morning cartoons like 'Star Blazers' and 'Robotech.' Live action Japanese shows like 'Ultraman' and 'The Space Giants.'

Star Wars' was the mythology of my youth. I longed for adventure.

I was always obsessed with the 'Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai,' this weird little cult movie. There was this promised sequel before the end credits - 'Buckaroo Banzai Against the World Crime League' - and I knew instinctively they were never going to make that movie, because the first one had made, like, $8 at the box office.

I've always viewed politics the following way: if you do a good job at the job you're doing, you'll have opportunities to do other things in the future. Maybe things you never envisioned.

We are angry about paying the highest income taxes and property taxes in the nation and getting less and less for it. We are angry about our incompetent, dysfunctional government that pays no attention to the desires of the people. We are angry about the cesspool of corruption and conflicts of interests and self-dealing that is Albany.

I decided I ought to pick a project that would not be controversial, that would not really cost the government a lot of money.

A robust democracy requires active participation.