Q. Is your name Will Sherwood Truman?
A. No.
Q. Where did you get the name?
A. They’re family names.
Q. Why do you go under the moniker “trumwill”?
A. Though you have probably figured it out, trumwill is the first four letters of my last name and then the first four of my first name. The nickname comes from my login at an old employer. Usernames are often a first initial followed by a last name or vice-versa, but one had the format used for “trumwill”. My coworkers and I would actually call each other by our usernames because the employer was the exact kind of cold, corporate employer where our birth names were irrelevent.
Q. Where does the name “Hit Coffee” come from?
A. Hit Coffee was originally the name of an obscure comic book character from an obscure comic book line. Hit was the mastermind behind a criminal organization but was drawn into being a superhero for a short period of time.
Q. So why did you name your blog after him?
A. I didn’t and this site has no more to do with the character than it does Will Truman of Will & Grace fame. I liked the way it flowed off the tongue and decided, in a drunken stupor, that the next blog I would write would go under that name. It was supposed to be temporary, but my wife really liked it. Since she was my only reader I decided that I had to play to my audience. The two other finalists were “Patterns in Static” and “Thousand Yard Stare”. I had a list of ten names that I ran by my wife. The only one she liked was Hit Coffee.
Q. Colosse? Dixona? Deseret? WTF?
A. Due to the peculiarities of a couple of the places that I’ve been, I’ve had to obscure my location to the point that I couldn’t even really use the state(s) that I was in. I used to blog a whole lot about work and it was rather sensitive material that would justifiably get me fired. I didn’t want to put my employers in an awkward position and I didn’t want to get kicked by them in any awkward positions, either. As such I cover my tracks with pseudonymmic cities.
Q. Will you tell me where these places are?
A. It depends. If I know who you are and you want to know I most likely don’t have a problem telling you. But there has to be some level of trust, so if you’re a lurker you need to start commenting. If you’re a regular commenter, shoot me an email.
Q. Can I guess where these places are?
A. You’re always free to. Sometimes I am incredibly straightforward. Sometimes I’m hopelessly vague. Sometimes I’m deliberately misleading.
Q. So you’re making this all up?
A. No. Paradoxically, I’m fictionalizing so much of the background so that I can be more honest about my thoughts and feelings without having to worry about hurting anyone’s feelings or reputation. The basic story is true, though the context is marked up and aspects are changed for simplification, readability, or comedic effect.
Q. Do you hate the Mormon Church?
A. No. I have my issues with the religion and while I was living out in the Mormon west I became very frustrated with being a cultural outcast even among the people that I otherwise had a lot in common with. But I have also tried to make a point of noting the admirable things about their faith.
Q. Are you a Democrat? A Republican? A Libertarian? A Moderate/Independent?
A. This site is not political in nature so I’d prefer not get into it at this point. I will just say that I am more politically active than most people in my demographic, I am a member of a political party, and my views over the years have shifted.
Q. What religion are you?
A. I am a non-active Episcopalian. Kind of redundant, I know, but there ya go.