Caught on Campus: ‘Eye of the Tiger’ gives student confidence to talk to girls
Lance MossSenior, Mechanical Engineering
Utah Statesman: How do you feel about your time at Utah State University so far?
Lance Moss: It’s been a long road, but it’s going good.
US: What’s your favorite thing about the university?
Moss: The location. I like Logan. Besides the cold, it’s great.
US: Where are you going after you graduate?
Moss: I’ve got a job lined up at Hill Air Force Base working as an engineer there and they’re training me and paying for my master’s degree.
US: Is it a military or a civilian job?
Moss: It’s a civilian job.
US: So you won’t get deployed to Iraq?
Moss: Well, actually I’m in the reserves. I just fuel planes for my main job. But we have to stay war-ready, so we have to do training once a month. But my unit hasn’t been called up for years, so we probably won’t go.
US: What brought you here?
Moss: The engineering program, and I had a buddy going up here.
US: What’s the worst thing about the university?
Moss: I don’t even know what it’s called. It’s kind of like when you get a job and you have to go through human resources, and you have to go through a whole bunch of people to get the job. Sometimes, with the registration office and with professors, you have to go through this big long process. The whole process has been frustrating sometimes, but I think that’s the same as it would be almost anywhere else. On the other hand, the people that have helped me have almost always been excellent.
US: If you could choose five words to describe yourself what would they be?
Moss: Organized, single, personable, honest and nerdy.
US: Being single, what’s your take on Valentine’s Day?
Moss: Well, I’m dating someone, but it’s kind of one of those – I hope that by this time next week I’m still dating her. I’m making plans, but they’re tentative. That’s kind of how it’s been going for several years.
US: Where’s the craziest place you’ve ever been?
Moss: Probably parts of Mexico or Venezuela. Just Latin America.
US: Do you speak Spanish?
Moss: Yeah.
US: Does that make it less crazy?
Moss: Yeah, but I’m sure a lot of people would agree that it’s still crazy. The buses … have you ever been to Latin America? They’re probably the craziest place in the world – the buses in foreign countries.
US: If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live?
Moss: For some reason, something’s pulling me toward Germany. I want to live in Germany.
US: Have you ever been there?
Moss: No. I have two sets of aunts and uncles that have lived there and they buy little train passes and go to foreign countries on their weekends. My cousin goes on field trips to Tunisia. I mean, it’s awesome.
US: If you could have any superhero power, what would it be?
Moss: Flying. I fly in my dreams all the time.
US: Can you take control of your dreams all the time?
Moss: Not always, no. I like it when I know it’s a dream, so I know I can pretty much do anything. That sounds bad. I don’t do anything real bad.
US: Have you ever won a trophy? What was it for?
Moss: Playing the drums; and we didn’t win, but our teacher, instructor guy, gave us trophies because he thought we deserved it. It was kind of like a pity thing, but I still have the trophy.
US: If you had only one song to put in your CD player, which one would it be?
Moss: “Eye of the Tiger.” I listen to “Eye of the Tiger” before I call a girl, like every time.
US: Does it help?
Moss: Yeah, it does. I jump around and throw some punches in the mirror and hope that my roommates don’t walk in and then I go call her. I have it burned on all my mixes and stuff.
US: What was the last movie you saw?
Moss: Well, I watched “Hercules” yesterday, but that doesn’t count. I saw “When a Stranger Calls.” I don’t watch scary movies, but this girl liked the old one and so I was like ‘Sure, I’ll go see it.’ Holy crap. I actually let out a couple yells. I didn’t scream, but I yelled in the theater mostly because a girl behind me screamed in my ear five times. That part where he jumps down from the rafters, oh my gosh. The girl I went with didn’t even scream. It was fun, though. I went home and I was sleeping on the couch in my parents’ house and I looked around before I went to sleep just to make sure there was no one there.
US: What is your favorite desert island movie?
Moss: Well, I really like “Groundhog Day.” Some people hate it just because it’s repetitive, but I love it. Bill Murray’s awesome.
US: If you could date any movie star, who would it be?
Moss: Probably Cameron Diaz. She has a nice personality … and she’s cute. No, she’s beautiful.
US: What’s the worst thing you’ve ever eaten?
Moss: One time, when I was first in South America, I had a chicken foot in soup and I actually ate the nasty skin and the stuff around the leg. It was gross. Then [the family] said, ‘We’ve never actually seen an American eat one.’ I thought I was supposed to get into the culture.
US: If you had an unlimited supply of monkeys, what would do with them?
Moss: I’d sell ’em. Everybody wants a monkey. That was always the talk when I was little: ‘Michael Jackson has a monkey named Bubbles.’ Isn’t that awesome? People would buy them all over the place. It’d be one of those pipelines, a long-term source of money. I wouldn’t get rich by it, but I’d have enough to live on.
US: Who is your favorite author?
Moss: I like Robert Ludlum. He’s a good author. I like Dan Brown with “The Da Vinci Code,” but I started reading another of his books and I couldn’t handle another “Da Vinci Code.” Dickens is probably one of the best ever.
US: What was the worst job you’ve ever had?
Moss: Lagoon. I worked in the rat hole called the employees’ kitchen. That’s were they feed the employees, and it was just this grease pit – a dark corner. They didn’t want everyone to see where the employees were eating. I stood there and took their orders and had to clean up the grease at night. And it was sick.
US: How much did you get paid for that job?
Moss: Like six bucks an hour.
US: How much should you have gotten for that job?
Moss: I don’t know. I should have been on salary – $50,000 a year.
-mattgo@cc.usu.edu
