SherpaDave's Cornertime With Kismet<Camera's focus in on Kismet as she opens the door into the punishment area. A brief glimpse around reveals a fairly slow day in here. Kismet is looking off to the left and following her gaze we see SherpaDave standing with his nose in the corner. The camera gives a very slow pan downwards, pausing a tad longer than normal on his behind. Kismet smiles and mutters, "Finally something for the female viewers." She then turns and faces the camera.>
We're back in Timeout ladies and gentlemen. Today's penitent is none other than SherpaDave. Sherpa is a recent addition to our community. He has impressed many people with his style and wit. He has also become a counselor of sorts to the patrons of our bar. Now is the time to get to know him a little better.
<Kismet reaches up and taps Sherpa on the shoulder. He turns around and they shake hands. His timer reads 1:25:30>
Thank you for the interview SherpaDave. It's time to report your crime and tell us who brought you in.
Honestly, I've been expecting GT to bring me up on charges for my antics in the bar for some time now or to have the entire board send me in for the crime that was "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window," so I was surprised to find that my accuser was JV. He claims that I've been "horning in" on his action. I don't know what he means by that, and I'm starting to suspect GT secretly likes my bar antics.
I think you might be right. How did you find our little community?What made you stick around?
I actually don't remember which Survivor site had a link that I followed, but I was looking for a good spoiler site during S2, and the spoilers here were just far more on-topic and intelligent than the ones I found anyplace else.
As far as why I stayed beyond the end of the season... initially, Shakesvivor pulled me in. I lost interest in that for a little bit, but found that the rest of the stuff on Off-Topic was a lot of fun. I used to be pretty heavily involved in online gaming communities, and I didn't realize how much I'd missed that kind of interaction. I like the community here a helluva lot better, though: the average age and maturity (and the gender balance) is much more to my liking here.
So you started on the Spoiler board. Are there any theories you would like to bragging rights for?
Nah. I mostly grazed on other people's theories and my son was born right toward the end of the season, so that took my mind completely off the show for a bit. I will say that I was the only person who cast votes for Tina in the voting threads. 
Ok, now for the toughie. Who are your favorite posters and why?
As with just about everyone, the list of posters I don't particularly like would be much shorter. Have you noticed that almost everyone who's answered this question has listed far more members of the opposite sex? I'll buck that trend. Monkeyboy is probably my favorite among the men on the boards; he's so remarkably friendly and playful. I really appreciate AyaK, both as a spoiler and what he does for this community. I'm originally a Chicago boy, so I've known a few Shakes over the years and enjoyed hanging with them; the clown fills a social role that nobody in polite Seattle does. IceCat and sleeeve are both great spoilers and easy to get along with. I appreciate how much effort dabo puts into responding to people's posts. Rhino had me brought in here and he's unbelievably testosterone-laden, which I usually don't like, but I really enjoy his company in the bar. Svist is a great kid, and Pepe is another positive Monkeyboy type. Supes, for reasons that are becoming pretty obvious to anyone who reads the boards.
Finally, this is gonna come across as severe brown-nosing, but I really admire the way you and Pendragon interact. You're both very clearly your own people, but also desperately in love with one another. I know how hard marriage is, so I really respect what you two have.
You answered that so sincerely that I don't have the heart to call you a brown-noser. Before we get syrup thrown at us lets move on. Several viewers have asked about your nickname. In my mind I keep seeing a Sherpa as that old Dog Sig pic that GT used forever. I know that's not the case. So what the hell is a Sherpa and why did you choose it as a nickname?
A sherpa is a Tibetan mountain guide. The most famous, Tenzing Norgay, helped Sir Edmund Hillary ascend Everest (and I'm thinking of suggesting to Supes a pen name of Tenzing Kent). I originally started using the handle to answer coding questions on Askme.com during a slow time at my last job, which was at one of the dot-bombs. Before the dot-bomb bought us, the name of the company was Digital Sherpas. I always thought that was a really cool name, and I've always really dug Tibet, so... even after we went under and I started a really boring job, SherpaDave continued to seem like a good name.
Well what about Slurpee? Where did that come from?
Where else? Mr. Nickname hung that on me, and it initially fit nicely with the cannibal persona I was developing in applying for Shakesvivor. Later, it really matched up well with what people have come to expect in the bar.
<SherpaDave licks his eyebrows. Kismet sighs and rolls her eyes.>
You are a world(or at least SB) renown flirt. Who do you enjoy flirting with most in the Bar?
Again, I think the list of people I don't flirt with is probably shorter. 
I don't flirt with Roni; I really enjoy her company, but have a lot of respect for her morals. I don't flirt with GT anymore; we've become stoner buddies and communicate better sans hormones. I don't know why I've never really flirted with Dalton. I also don't flirt with Vamps, but that's because she never sits still long enough. Every other woman is pretty much fair game, unless they make it clear they don't welcome it. I'm fairly respectful of a "No." Lately, I've been thinking it might be fun to flirt with Leif, just to see how he'd react. I will say that for pure entertainment value, some of the funniest sessions have been with VolMel. I miss her and hope everything turns out okay with her mom.
You seem to be very literarily gifted. Do you have a background in editing/writing?
Boy. I've been writing fiction off and on since I was about ten, when I wrote a children's book. I don't have it anymore, and that really bums me out. I was blessed/cursed with a lot of my father's mathematical genes, and somehow got all of the creative genes from his mother as well (for any of you crafters out there, she and my grandfather founded Crafts 'N' Things and Pack O' Fun magazines). Writing has always been a good outlet to exercise the side of my brain that hasn't necessarily gotten fed by what the world deems more marketable skills.
Your writing is very dark. Why? Has it always been that way?
Actually, I've written a lot of very light stuff, too, but it always sounds contrived to me when I reread it. For some reason, the dark stuff has always just seemed much truer to me. A lot of it probably has to do with the authors I've really enjoyed over the course of my life. Vonnegut early, Kerouac and Kesey later on, Haruki Murakami and David James Duncan lately. Duncan's stuff is really spiritual in its way and the births of my sons have probably pushed me in more spiritual directions, so I'll be interested to see how that starts to color my writing. All of the stuff I've posted here is about five years old. The BV summary I posted was the first creative writing I'd done in years, so I'm gonna have to shake out some serious rust for the Supes/Sherps project.
Ok sudden death time. Who do you believe to be the best writer on this board, after you of course?
Shakes definitely has his moments, but I don't think he's quite as good as he thinks he is. I obviously enjoy Supes' writing a lot. Pendragon is probably the most marketable writer on the board. When all is said and done, though, Samiam rocks my world with her writing.
Have you ever published you writings?
In my first couple years living in Seattle, I wrote occasionally for a couple of local theatre rags, "Intermission" and "Northwest On Stage," mostly theatre reviews and opinion pieces. A friend of mine and I co-wrote and produced a play called "Almost Home." I also produced "Speakeasy," which I posted here. I think those are all the gigs I got paid for. Recently, I've had offers to write for a couple baseball sites, but I haven't been able to get off my ass to do it. Oh yeah, I made a little bit of money from poetry slams. Really, most of the money I've made in creative fields was from acting.
So acting is one of your talents as well. Tell us more about your theatrical background.
I was actually trained as an actor at Northwestern University. NU's theatre program is probably the best undergraduate program in the country (Yale has the best graduate program). For a while in the mid-90's, it seemed like every time I went to a movie, I saw one of my class-mates, either in the film itself or in one of the previews. Probably the highlight of my studies was taking an improv show to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. That show was directed by Dan Patterson, who later went on to create "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" for BBC and later, ABC. When I graduated, I moved out to Seattle with seven classmates and started up a company called Northwest Passage Theater. That lasted for almost three years. We got good press, were packing our houses, and had money in the bank, but we all just got burnt out and went our own ways. After that, I did a lot of professional non-union stuff, mostly murder mystery dinner theatre. I didn't enjoy that as much as the more artistic stuff, but it paid the bills. To satisfy the more artistic side, I did occasional forays into fringe stuff and wrote and performed some of my own work. I haven't really acted in about three years now. Once my first son was born, I couldn't imagine being out of the house as much as rehearsals would require. Once the kids get old enough to be doing their own extracurricular stuff, I'll probably get back into it.
Speaking of your kids. I want to give you an open forum to brag about them.
They're great kids. The older is definitely in his terrible twos, but I'm crazy about him. The younger is just over two months now, and I'm amazed at how expressive he is already. I can't say I care for his taste in music, though. He especially loves it when I sing, "Lovin' you is easy 'cause you're beautiful." I probably ought to learn the rest of the words, because he just beams when I sing that to him. His older brother has better taste in music; I sing "Summertime" from "Porgy and Bess" to him, and he loves to dance to Lenny Kravitz. They're both a lot of fun in very different ways. The older is a very physical kid; the younger already seems to have a very cerebral side. They pretty much define what's important to me in the world now.
Does your wife read the boards? Does she even know about them?
No, she doesn't read them (although I have them bookmarked at home, so it wouldn't be out of the question for her to start). Yes, she knows about them. We watch the show together and she'd always ask about the latest spoilers. We bet every week on who's going to get booted. She also knows I'm a flirt and it doesn't seem to bother her.
Is there anything else you want us to know about you?
Hmm... no, can't think of anything. But the guys out there might be interested to know that the reflection off one of the light frames up on the grid gives a clear view down your shirt. It's a very nice view.
<Kismet glances up at the lights.>
I know.
<Kismet gives Sherpa a wink and an innocent grin.>
Thank you for the interview. I believe you are the first person to not have time added for misbehavior.
<Kismet makes a 'turn around' motion with her hands, and Sherpa turns back to the corner. The Camera gets one last slow frame of his behind before focusing on Kismet once again.>
Thank you again SB Community. Stay tuned for up next is Lady Trish.
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You actually were able to make my really dry answers into an interesting interview.
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