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I am originally from London, Ohio. Currently, I live in the Columbus, Ohio
area. I was born in Columbus and have lived in Columbus, London,
Springfield, Ada, and Swanton, Ohio. I've worked all over the state of
Ohio, mostly in Cable TV. I like to repair and build computers. I am
computer certified as an CompTIA A+ Professional and a Cisco CCNA. I play
guitar, bass, and drums.
I
miss the Ada area. Quite a lot like I missed London once I moved
from there. It makes me wonder if I missed the town or the memories. I had some
pretty good times in Ada. Most of my thirties were spent in the same house on
Pleasant View. My favorite cat, Boy, was with me the whole time. It was so quiet
there. Just my luck they opened a Skyline Chili on
the east side of Lima after I leave. At least I had Tony Packo's Cafe while I
was in Toledo. That more
than made up for it. Now that I am back in Columbus, I eat at Skyline every
Saturday at exactly 11:30 AM...
Pretty Girls
I'm not going to ramble on about movie stars and if one might be cuter
than another. I have my favorites. I'm not really turned on by
skinny woman. I usually find myself more attracted to "healthy" looking
women. I even think Jodie Foster
is attractive, though I wouldn't try to shoot the president over her.
I really don't watch much TV. Seinfeld was my favorite
show. I don't have any favorites now.
Anything I like they take off. There's no reason to get hooked on
anything. I don't have much time for another hobby anyway. Because I am
into music, I really like the Rockstar series and I think American Idol
can be cool. I have a plasma HDTV which makes watching TV more addictive.
I wouldn't watch any show
just for the pretty girl on it either. I think Fran Drescher is very
attractive, but I watched the show The
Nanny once and just couldn't relate.
If someone were to ask me if I had a current favorite "famous" pretty
girl, I would have to say I reallyy don't. Brittany Spears is very sexy in
her music videos, but then she ruins it by talking. All the other young
singers and actresses are too skinny, too dumb, and just not that pretty.
I spend most of my time playing music and with my computers. Keeps me
out of the bars (and out of jail).
"The TV"
As much as I say I don't have time for television, I have always
been in a business related to TV. I started working for Hobart Francis at
Francis Radio and TV in London, Ohio when I was sixteen and worked for him
on and off for about eight years. I then got into cable television and have
pretty much been a cable guy in one form or another except when I worked as
a microwave television broadcast engineer. I used to be this video hardware nut, but my video habit
disappeared. I still enjoy hooking up video systems, but not like I did.
I had this Zenith baseband video/audio system in the mid 1980's that was
pretty cool. It was a line of TV's that Zenith made for a short period called VHT, for
Video High Tech. It had a baseband tuner, a baseband video/stereo
audio /RF switching unit, and
separate RGB monitor. It also had it's own stereo amp and speakers, but the
only use I got out of them were for surround sound. It was all
standard audio component size, so it all really looked like my stereo equipment.
The real amazing part was the wiring. It would take me up to eight hours to rewire it
every time I wanted to change something. There was a VHS hi-fi and a Beta hi-fi VCR. When
stereo TV became available, I bought the matching Zenith stereo adapter, which also had a
stereo amp in it. Later I replaced the Beta with a Super Beta. I guess you should've seen
it from the rear to really understand how different it was. The RF and baseband cables
reminded me of a cable TV headend, or worse. One thing I got from it was a deeper understanding of home entertainment
electronics. Being a cable guy, that's wasn't a bad thing.
This is the "best" photo I have
of the rear of that TV (1993 ?)
Mr. Computer
Some times I am not the life of the party. I don't have much fun with
some people because I don't do the coffee, cigarette, alcohol, overeating,
gambling, religion, and never question authority thing that is seen as the
American ideal for men (and women) these days. I'm no prude, and I
wouldn't deny those things to the countless addicts who depend on them to
avoid withdrawals, hell, and jail time.
I'm not usually even included until someone finds out that I am an
encyclopedia of knowledge on computer systems. I can handle any hardware
or operating system malfunction. The hardware is what I really enjoy the
most. I can also figure out how to make other unfamiliar operating
systems and protocols work, or work better, if you give me a day or two.
There have been many who doubted my abilities only to have me fix the
unfixable or solve the unsolvable. That has made me a hero and a chump,
depending on whether someone felt like they were helped or were being
shown up. I even had a supervisor ask me to quit my job because he was
tired of me showing him up. I thought I was helping him. I guess not.
I'm not just bragging (not just), I really enjoy doing these things. I
don't consider myself a geek either. I just like having the right answer
for people when they ask me. I get off on it. I love troubleshooting. I
get a real pleasure out of the range of emotions that I get through the
process of searching for the way to solve a problem. I always say that I
am the least happy when my computer system works. Once it does work,
most times just I sit in front of it, staring at it, wondering what
there is I can break on it now. I always find something.
The Musician
My other hobby is music. I write and record my
own songs. I have enough recorded material for several albums. Not that I would want
anyone to hear some of my songs. I play guitars mainly, but I play drums and some
keyboards on my recordings. I have a Fender Stratocaster, a Rickenbacker 4001 bass,
a Takamine acoustic guitar, and Ludwig drums. I did it mostly with my 4 track
Yamaha tape deck.
I acquired a Roland Edirol U-8 digital multi-track recorder that hooks up
to a computer to record. It works just fine, but using a stand alone
recorder is much more convenient than even using a sophisticated program
like Cakewalk Pro or others like it. Cakewalk has its uses, but using
computer recording systems are a burden. You continually have to wait for
boot time and any configuration that you have to do. Finding the correct
settings sometimes require you you to dig down deep into Windows
sub-menus, if you can find them at all. I bought a Fostex VF-16
digital multi-track. I am able to do 16 real tracks plus 8 ghost tracks on
it. I can transfer audio to and from to my computer over fiber optic
cables or my 100 Mb LAN. I then can edit with Cakewalk Pro v9 or Sound Forge v5. I can add
effects, remove and add audio, etc, then save it back to the recorder
digitally. I can also use my SCSI Jaz drive's to transport the audio as
the multi-track has a SCSI port. It works very
well.
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This page last updated on
Thursday, September 21, 2006
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