It has been a year since my last site update, time to put a little new content here whether I need to or not
Part of what spurred this update is that the nice folks running the Duckon 14 science fiction convention have posted the new web site listing me as their Fan Guest of Honor; they even refer to me as semi-famous. Which beats notorious or infamous all to hell. I highly encourage you and yours to attend the festivities in June 2005; even if I weren't going to be there, it is a lovely time.
"The Mayor of 'There'" title came about originally when I said to a person, "I'm not going there" and she replied, "RJ, you are so the Mayor of There!" Recently, it has been suggested that I add "Leader of the Free World" to my title, but I'm still mulling that one over. Humility being a virtue, and all.
By the way, I'm RJ and I'm still a communication junkie in that I--
"Hi, RJ!"
(When the heck did the Greek Chorus get back from the Olympics?)
I love to talk with people, but I am lousy about talking about myself (the peanut gallery will be so kind as to shut up, thank you). What I mean is that I never know what to say unless asked a question. After that, I'll pontificate for a goodly time.
So a little bit of biodata about me. I'm a tall humanoid that lives on the San Francisco peninsula. I moved here from Chicago, Illinois, USA in June, 2000 to live with one of my sweeties. Yes, you read that right: one of them. I'm polyamorous and if you'd like to learn more about what that means to me, I recommend that you visit the alt.polyamory newsgroup FAQ and check out item number 2. I'm also right fond of the newsgroup and its denizens for the most part. For those of you who are curious about such things, I currently (June 22, 2003) have six [6] sweeties: one I live with, one is local to me on the peninsula, one lives in Portland, Oregon, another in Kenosha, Wisconsin, another is in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and yet another is in London, England.
Thank god for e-mail and IRC.
Let's see... I'm a sports fan who follows the Chicago Cubs for baseball (it's genetic, I got the infection from my mother), the Boston Celtics for basketball, and the Oakland Raiders for football.
Other stuff... I love essayists. My favorite writers are the late Mike Royko, the currently extant Jon Carroll, Molly Ivins, and Roger Ebert (although I prefered Ebert's writings better when Gene Siskel was still alive; the two of them were excellent antagonists).
Also on the essayist front, go check out Christian Ruzich's The Cub Reporter page, dedicated to his opinions on the Chicago Cubs. Very well written and much better than the outgassing one is likely to find on sportstalk radio or Usenet.
On the news front, I strongly urge you to check out the information coming from both TruthOut.org and Air America, new home to Truth Seeker, Mike Malloy. If you are tired of the *cough* news that Fox and Clear Channel foist upon you, they are welcome breath of liberal air.
Every so often I try my own hand at writing. Two things I'm inordinantly fond of are related to the September 11 bombings. The first I wrote the day of the cataclysm; the second I wrote on the one-year anniversay and is titled WWLBS?.
For less weighty stuff original content, please check out the linguistic linguini of The Noodle Factory! Essays on any number of things as they pop into my febrile brain.
The least old noodle is about the World Series and the philosophical underpinnings of baseball. And I really did write it two days before the Arizona Diamondbacks won the World Series . Read The Infinite Game.
What else...? Oh, yeah: free plug for my former employers. If you like spiffy, printed t-shirts, go check out Cotton Expressions. I used to work there as a sales and marketing person and got to chat with all sorts of fascinating people around the world. Buy some of their shirts 'cause they're way cool.
If you are looking for shell access and other cool Internet stuff, I highly recommend a2i communications.
As of April 5, 2005 I am back in the ranks of the employed! I now work for SBC SMART Yellow Pages doing customer service and collections. I am also now a member in good standing of the Intenational Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
During the coming weeks years I will be updating my
web site. Feel free to come back frequently. If you want to drop me a note, please do.
Give me an idea of stuff you'd like to see here.
Here is a picture of how I celebrated paying off my $consumer_electronics_store credit card. This is also my first ever link to a picture.
My second picture link, this one of a sign for a store in Menlo Park, California. Photo is courtesy of one of my sweeties. We both found it amusing and disturbing.
More picture links: at ConJose I decided to get spiffed up for my turn as an art auctioneer. So I got myself a formal rig. Click on the rather smug looking gent below to see more of them. Be warned: the images are kinda big at present. I'll try to reduce them soon.
2003/07/06:Added links to Big Moves and Pamela Z.'s sites. Very interesting dance and music for your edification.
RJ-Bob says check em out.