Hello, my name is Jeff. I have been doomed to carry a name in common with a famous guitar player of the 60’s and 70’s. I am mostly a lurker on this BBS, having only posted a handful of times since I started visiting back in 1999. I am 33. I have been married for seven years to an amazing woman that is currently in her medical residency after having ditched her former, very successful, career as a TV journalist in Japan. We have a daughter, Sayo, who is two. We reside in Columbia, MD.
I am currently employed in the defense industry writing manuals and creating curricula for the operation of certain weapon systems. I was formerly employed as a public high school English teacher, which I left after five years of toiling against a miserable system that claims to put the welfare of children first (funny that I should end up in the defense industry). I am very bitter about this, considering that I always listed “teacher” as my second career choice. What was my first? Husband/father, which always made my teachers roll their eyes when I had to write those, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” essays from grade school.
I am an avid reader and devour just about any written material I can get my hands on. I collect rare and first edition books, religious and philosophy texts, pulp science fiction novels, and comic books. I love music of all varieties, although I would say my tastes reside more in the “classic” punk and experimental genres. I am also quite passionate about collecting and watching films, following the catalogs of various producers and directors.
I am originally from a small town outside Buffalo, NY called East Aurora. For those of you familiar with the Arts and Crafts movement of the early 20th century this was the location of the famous commune started by Elbert Hubbard called The Roycroft. It is also the birthplace of Fisher Price Toys (the town refers to itself as “Toy Town, USA”). I was raised in a small, extended family by my parents and grandparents (who lived in the carriage house on our property) in the same home my father was raised in. I have one older brother who in many ways is my diametric opposite, although I love him to death. My mother is an immigrant from Germany so we often engaged in traditions and ate food that many of the small town folks I grew up with thought were pretty bizarre.
Now my reason for being here (as on this BBS, not the question of the ages) -
I was a very sickly child growing up and spent a lot of time in bed, which was directly responsible for my love of literature, Sci-fi, and Trek in particular. One of my earliest memories is puking into an old pot that I carried around when I was sick while trying not to miss a minute of The Trouble with Tribbles, which I was viewing for the first time. I was hooked before I even had a chance to protest. While my most of my cohorts at school talked about peewee hockey or football, I was trying to start a conversation about an episode of the Twilight Zone or how Captain Kirk dealt with Kor. You get the picture. It was like being the boy named Sue.
Unfortunately, this was to be the way of my childhood through teenage years – but that’s ok, I’m not bitter at all. Oh no, not at all, “Because I am smart enough, good looking enough, and darn it, people like me . . . “
Now my reason for being here in the Science and Technology area –
I have been interested in science for as long as I can remember, particularly cosmology and evolutionary biology. I think this interest really blossomed when Cosmos was first aired in the late seventies on PBS. From this interest my interests in other areas of science grew as well and, strangely enough, also fed my love of history and comparative religion (it may seem like a weird combination, but it is amazing how it is all connected).
I have enjoyed many of the threads that were up when this area was still a part of the Trek Tech area and I look forward to more lively and stimulating discussions.
Ok, see? This is why I do not post with any frequency. I have a tendency to ramble and be long winded. Sorry.
I found this strangely therapeutic. Many thanks for reading my blurb.
