Hello! I’m Lael Wageneck. I am currently the Public Information Officer for the Santa Barbara County Public Works Department. I have a couple masters degrees (Visual and Media Arts – Emerson College, Public Administration – CSU Northridge) and a couple licenses (FAA drone license) and accreditations (Accreditation in Public Relations). In my spare time I dig writing, music, soccer, and good food.

I started this site many years ago with the intention of maintaining a blog and frequently posting my work. Now it’s more like a storage shed that I occasionally clean up. If I have something to say, I’ll write a post and hide it by category in the sidebar on the right. If I have a piece of work I want to share, I’ll occasionally add it to one of the sections listed in the menu above. Other than that, enjoy my Proust questionnaire below (which I’ll also update in case any of my answers change).

Vanity Fair Proust Questionnaire

1. What is your idea of perfect happiness? Nothing to do, nowhere to be, and access to a lot of books, music, and projects.

2. What is your greatest fear? Something bad happening to my family.

3. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? There’s nothing I deplore, just some things to improve. Sometimes if I’m walking along, deep in thought, and pass people I know, I’ll forget to say hi or acknowledge them. I need to do less of that.

4. What is the trait you most deplore in others? Being fake. Reputation management without the intent of building mutually beneficial relationships. Or in plain language, vanity.

5. Which living person do you most admire? My wife and Michelle Obama.

6. What is your greatest extravagance? Food. I’m willing to pay more for a good experience than I am willing to own a thing.

7. What is your current state of mind? This answer needs a roulette wheel, but I rarely get too high or too low.

8. What do you consider the most overrated virtue? Based the Cardinal Virtues, I’m going with temperance. A gluttonous experience can be a good thing if you’re grateful for it.

9. On what occasion do you lie? To speed up someone else’s story if I’m short on time or focused on something else. While that isn’t a trait I deplore in myself, I’ve gotten much better at admitting when I haven’t seen a movie or a tv show (when I used to lie and say I’d seen them just to speed a story up).

10. What do you most dislike about your appearance? There’s a couple things, but I’m fine with what I got. Maybe go back in time and get braces?

11. Which living person do you most despise? I try not to despise people, but anyone who is intentionally cruel or seeks power for its own sake.

12. What is the quality you most like in a man? Courage, respectful, honest, kind.

13. What is the quality you most like in a woman? See #12. (I’ve always thought this question was inappropriate. Why would you want different qualities in one gender but not another?)

14. Which words or phrases do you most overuse? Yeah. Rad. So. Awesome. Cool. Sweet.

15. What or who is the greatest love of your life? My wife.

16. When and where were you happiest? Probably when I was five at Christmas, but I’m way more content now. But I’m also happiest whenever my wife makes me laugh.

17. Which talent would you most like to have? Freddie Mercury’s voice, Prince’s guitar skills, and John Bonham’s drumming.

18. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? I just want to be a better me. (In 2020 I said I wanted to be better at time management and I was only going to check my email twice a day. I failed horribly.)

19. What do you consider your greatest achievement? Continuing to become a better person.

20. If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be? I’m ok with not coming back, but I’m a big zebra fan, so maybe a zebra.

21. Where would you most like to live? Anywhere quiet, more cold than hot, with water, sun, and trees but no large bugs or reptiles.

22. What is your most treasured possession? My bracelet that I’ve worn since second grade.

23. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery? Unexpected loss of a loved one.

24. What is your favorite occupation? Anything that satisfies my curiosity, gives me a chance to solve a problem, and I get to explain something or tell a story. What I do now.

25. What is your most marked characteristic? Curious. Creative. Good listener.

26. What do you most value in your friends? Grace. A sense of humor. Similar interests and values.

27. Who are your favorite writers? Dostoevsky. John Le Carre. Jon Ronson. George Saunders.

28. Who is your hero of fiction? Winston from 1984. Alyosha Karamazov.

29. Which historical figure do you most identify with? I don’t think I’m anything like him, but I’m empathetic towards Georges Danton. He’s a fascinating character with a lot of contradictions. He led the overthrow of the French Monarchy and was executed for telling Robespierre to dial it back a bit.

30. Who are your heroes in real life? Michelle Obama. Anyone who goes through a struggle with strength, grace, and humility.

31. What are your favorite names? Mortimer. I like that it is derived from the French for “dead sea.” I also think Mallory is funny because it means unlucky.

32. What is it that you most dislike? I don’t like it when people use the ends to justify the means, especially when the means are cruel and destructive. It bothers me to see people lose their soul for ephemeral gains.

33. What is your greatest regret? I try not to regret anything. Usually it’s momentary stuff and I try to learn from it.

34. How would you like to die? Old and immediately without warning.

35. What is your motto? Don’t be offensive and don’t get offended.