I find that for some reason I end up with a lot of odd questions come my way that have rather long explanations attached to them. Thus, I have created this F.A.Q. so that I can keep the lengthy answer around without having to remember it off the cuff. There is one thing you may note about this though; most of the answers here are rather vague or simply factual. There is a reason behind this. One of the reasons these questions get asked a lot is because I like to talk about them, so if you find a question here that you find interesting, I would much rather hear from you directly than for you to simply take the answer given here at face value. In other words, the questions on this F.A.Q. are questions I do like to answer frequently, rather than questions that I don't like to be bothered with.

The Three Faces of GreeneThorne "The Plaid Mentat" WolfFang
One may notice that in the things quoted to me, I use three different pseudonyms. Each of these pseudonyms represent a slightly different facet of my overall personality and each serves its purpose.

The first facet, GreeneThorne WolfFang, is a character from the renaissance. He is a hermit and self-styled philosopher who prefers solitude in lieu of the constant bustle of society. He resurfaces occasionally to discuss things with his peers, but keeps his time short so as not to become too much of a bother.

The second facet, The Plaid Mentat, is a modern man. He is a mathematician, a computer scientist, and is a self-styled mentat. He has a wry sense of wit and often uses his games of logic to poke fun (often with odd puns) at various things math and programming related.

Lastly, is The PlaidScape Traveler. He is a down to Earth and pragmatic person with an outlook reflecting the slightest bit of cynicism. While never someone to be far from his home, he travels the myriad paths of his own mind rather than the beaten roads of the Earth; always looking for insight into himself and the people around him.

What is a Mentat? And why plaid?
The term Mentat comes from Frank Herbert's Dune Chronicles. Within the universe of Dune, there are no computers (or any machines that are not purely mechanical in nature); they were banned following an event called The Butlerian Jihad (or sometimes The Great Revolt) in which all so-called "thinking machines" were destroyed so that humankind would again be free of their influence.

About 1000 years later, a man named Gilbertus Albans created a program that would train the human mind to have the logic and computation skills of a computer. The graduates of this program were to be called Mentats. They were experts in all areas of logic and were able to make inferences of very high accuracy with very little information.

Now, the plaid part comes from a couple of things apropos to my character. First, I often wear a plaid flannel - regardless of the time of year (summer through winter). Second, it has been noted by my peers that I am a bit on the odd side; "plaid" if you will.

Hence, given that I am the mathematical/logical/computer type, am slightly odd, and often wear a plaid flannel, I gained the title "The Plaid Mentat".

Why is your favorite anime character Gendo Ikari?
I find that Gendo Ikari has many subtle qualities that make him a very respectable character. First and foremost, though, I like his pragmatism. Throughout the series he keeps all things at a perfectly practical level: he has a goal and he means to accomplish that goal. This pragmatism brings about the second thing I like about Gendo Ikari - his moral strength. While I disagree with certain principles that he carries, I respect that he held to his morality even when it was not convenient, popular, or even nice. Throughout he had to know that what he was doing was right, and have absolute faith in himself; something that takes a lot of inner strength. Lastly, though I liked Gendo for his subtlety. He was able to move in and out of the committee's principles and do it in such a way as to not get caught. And when the time came to play his trump card, he played it with such finesse, that there was truly nothing anyone could do... ...Well, almost no one...