The Man, The Myth, The Legend in his own mind

Stuff About MegaZone You Probably Didn't Need To Know

Well, you clicked on the link to get here, so it was your choice. This is where I get to ramble on about myself for a bit, hit a few of the things I like, and generally waste your time. If you wanted a short, dry version of who I am, there is always my resume. I was born on December 26, 1970 - if you want to know how old I am you can work out the math. I'm six feet, six inches tall and weigh somewhere around 300 pounds. I'm a slight bit over-weight and I know it, but mostly I'm just plain old big. I like to say I have the skeleton of a '65 Buick, you can see for yourself if you'd like. All through high school I had the wrestling coach trying to recruit me (it didn't help to have cousins the next school district over who were wrestling legends) and all through college people kept asking me if I was on the football team.

No, the truth is I don't much care for any sports. Partially it is from having asthma and terrible allergies growing up, which kept me ill quite a bit, partially from having to wear leg braces constantly until I was five years old (crooked legs at birth), and partially because I'm mostly a loner - *that* reason has a whole heap of sub-reasons. Maybe someday I'll make a page about it, but I doubt anyone would bother reading it. So I'd rather find a shady place, or the recliner, and sit down with a book. Yes, a book, you know, those paper things people read before the nets were created. Anyway, I enjoy reading a hell of a lot more than watching any form of sports, except maybe aerobatics, but that's a rather rare and unusual sport.

It isn't just reading, I'm a media collector. I have mountains of books, but I also have hundreds and hundreds of CDs, cassettes, video tapes, and laser discs. I love all kinds of music, well, except country, and that is what I spend a great deal of my earnings on. I'm always craving more music, new sounds, new concepts and ideas. My favorite group is Pink Floyd, though my favorite musician is Ani DiFranco. Ani touched me so much that I went out and started a mailing list and a web area for her fans to get together and get more information on her and her music. And now Righteous Babe Records has their own domain, and I am running it. New mailing lists and a web site soon to appear.

Next to music the thing I collect most is anime (Japanese animation), and, more and more, animation in general. I have a fairly large collection of imported anime, and some of the fan circulated stuff from back before there were any companies (like AnimEigo, Manga Video, AD Vision, etc) subtitling or dubbing anime for the US market. Each year I also work for Anime Expo, the largest animation convention in the United States. It is held each July 4th weekend in California, currently I am Security Chief for the convention. To compliment my anime habit, I also collect the manga (Japanese comics) that is translated for the US.

I am currently single, though not by choice. Being a loner and rather shy at heart can make it hard to meet people. Add to that the fact that the most commonly used adjective for describing me has been "intimidating", and you have a bit of a task. Once you get past the "looming factor" I'm really quite a laid-back person, very open and honest, maybe a bit too direct at times. I have a tendency to speak my mind. But I'm the sort who holds open doors or stops on the highway to help out strangers in trouble. That latter one will probably get me killed one of these days, but so far so good. Since I don't enjoy loud, garish clubs full of people, most of whom are looking for nothing more than a bed-warmer for the evening, and I hate the idea of picking up a total stranger in a bar and then trying to make something meaning full of it, I've sort of limited my options for meeting people. Ok, so I'm a romantic at heart, I'm sorry, I should know better. I make up for it bit being entirely cynical and sarcastic most of the time.

I dabble a bit in poetry when I'm so inspired. I'm not very good, prose is what I do best. But sometimes a poem just fits the idea better. I don't consider myself a poet, I don't really take what I do that seriously (most of the time), but I appreciate comments and criticism.

I'm a founding member of GweepCo, which runs the GweepCo Cooperative Network in Worcester, MA. GweepCo started in the spring of 1990 at WPI as a group of intensive network users, or gweeps who just sort of congregated together. Over the years we went from playing around and just generally experimenting to seriously exploring the networks and learning more about the computers and systems we use. Now most of the original GweepCo members are out of school and working in various computer related fields.

I grew up in upstate New York, in the Schenectady, Albany, Troy Tri-Cities area. I lived there until I left for college in 1989, and then a couple more summers. Gradually I shifted to living is Worcester, MA full time. I lived there until August, 1995 when I up and moved to Berkeley, CA to take a new job. I lived in Berkeley for two and a half years, and I generally liked it. I fit in rather well in Berkeley, maybe better than anywhere else I've lived. And the people I worked with were extremely cool.

Mid-1996 my best friend, ex-roommate, and co-author, Gryphon, followed me out to CA and to Livingston. That certainly helped keep our writing going, I'm not so good about getting myself out of a rut - and I was in one. He's also gotten me hooked on target shooting, and I now own a Glock Model 21 - a .45 automatic pistol, and a Ruger MkI - a .22 automatic pistol. It is a good way to relieve some stress, and being a technophile I admire good machines.

But aside from Gryph I didn't really hang with many people out in CA. I made friends, but then they'd get jobs somewhere like Seattle and that would be that. In August of 1997 Gryphon and Livingston parted ways and he returned to MA, landing at UltraNet Communications. Actually a fair number of my old friends work there.

So, with my best friend again on the other coast, most of the friends I made in CA scattered to other locales, and my old friends in MA all asking me when I'd be back - I decided to head back. In August of 1997 I started actively looking for a new job in MA to help facilitate my return, and in January of 1998 I accepted an offer from GTEI/BBN. And so, on February 18th, 1998 I boarded a red eye from SFO and I arrived once more in MA very early on February 19th, 1998.

Gryphon and I soon found a large house in Waltham, MA - dubbed the Shamrock House due to its coloring. It appears to be the same shade as a McDonald's Shamrock Shake. At the time of this writing I've been at my new job just shy of two months (yow, time flies) and we're largely moved into the new house. Some more furniture to acquire, and some things to get out of storage, but it is livable now.