Every so often, we like to stop and spotlight some of our coolest members on theMET. These are the people who’s been around awhile, who’ve made this site more rich with their comments and contributions. No one has supported us more or been such a fervent fan as the man you see here, Mark Huckabee. As the number one rock star blogger for the past few months, Mark has opened our eyes up to seeing aquariums as art, has made us laugh with his funny photos, and most importantly, he has reminded us to “savor every single minute of every single day.” I asked Mark 10 questions so we could get to know the man behind that warm smile. 1. Tell us a little about yourself. I am 49, married, with two boys. I live in Knoxville Tennessee and travel quite a bit. I work as a senior consultant to the Government primarily on data mining and data visualization related to food safety. I’m a high tech kind of person, very computer and electronics literate. I love anything adventurous, from bungee jumping to whitewater rafting. I’m always up for any kind of crazy idea. 2. What’s it like in your hometown? Knoxville wants to be like the big cities. It has art, opera, festivals, concerts, and a few nice restaurants and clubs. It can’t measure up to larger cities but it’s not bad. It is near the mountains and lakes, and the Tennessee River runs right through it. The area is very pretty. The cost of living is very low here and the traffic is nothing. You can easily drive to Nashville or Atlanta in 3 hours. All-in-all it is a pretty nice place. 3. What do you enjoy about the Met? More than anything it is the sense of community. I’ve been on other sites but never one that made me feel this much at home. I really enjoy the different perspectives of the members. The discussions are always entertaining and the blog posts amazing. There’s no spammer or trolls here and I really hope it stays that way. 4. What kind of inspiration do you draw from this site? I’ve always liked art, architecture, and design but never really explored that part of myself very much. I was trained as an engineer where everything is very logical, step-by-step, follow the book. The Met exposes me to tons of new ideas and gives me an outlet for my creative side. The diverse membership really has opened my eyes to new ideas and other cultures. 5. Who are your favorite artists or photographers? As far as modern artists I really like Shepard Fairey. I knew about him long before he became famous for the Obama Hope poster. His first work, the subversive Obey – Giant stuff, was really groundbreaking. I also love Banksy. His work is funny, thought-provoking, and extremely well crafted. Of course it too is very subversive. I also love Ansel Adam’s photography. I have a first-generation print directly from one of his negatives. 6. What’s your favorite blog post? Wow, that’s really tough. There have been so many great ones by so many people. Of my own posts I would say it’s always the next one. I’m always excited about what I’m going to post next. I guess this one (http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/funniest-photo-ive-seen-all) would be my most recent favorite. 7. What are some of your creative outlets? Definitely theMet. Beyond that I guess it would be it would be our house. My wife and I have beautiful gardens all around it that we are constantly working on and I have wired the house up to be extremely high tech inside. 8. Who inspires you? People who could do it all, true Renaissance men like Galileo. He was an engineer, inventor, artist, and more. Also people who refuse to be stopped by a “disability” like Aimee Mullins (http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/aimee-mullins-has-12-pairs-of). 9. What do you hope to learn from others? To always keep my mind open to new ideas and how to express those ideas eloquently in words, art, architecture, and design. 10. What makes you happy? Awesome people. Being a technical kind of guy I it took me a long time to realize this but it is really true. Surround yourself with awesome people and everything else will be easy. Thanks for taking the time out to answer our questions, Mark. We really appreciate your friendship. Everyone, stop by Mark’s page and say hello! He’s the one in the My Modern Met t-shirt!
