Belated Introduction: Having spent a couple of weeks at this forum, this introduction may have lost any real value. As opinionated as I am, I am not a particularly "public" person.

Thinkmanvt

Having spent a couple of weeks at this forum, this introduction may have lost any real value. As opinionated as I am, I am not a particularly "public" person. Therefore, when I clicked on a link that popped up in some sidebar somewhere for this forum, I was satisfying a momentary curiosity and thought I would be a silent lurker. I did not have any previous experience reading politically oriented blogs/chatrooms.

Well, you folks suck me in. But I still was not inclined to take off my mask of anonymity. Let my statements stand for themselves, I thought. In t***h, I still am hesitant. But context often provide as much to meaning as the words spoken/written.

You already know I am verbose. Sorry for the annoyance it inflicts, but writing (mostly letters in longhand) has been a favorite habit of mine since I was a teen in the 1960s. Its greatest peak was in college when I had a tablet of paper I carried all day to write to a girl (from my high school, one year younger) who made the mistake of continuing to answer my letters. I married her 39 years ago but I still do not understand her patience in putting up with me all these decades since. I continued to exchange (slightly less voluminous) letters with college friends after I returned to Vermont, but those correspondences slowed and largely reduced to Christmas cards thirty years ago. Fortunately, our two children came along about that time to fill (many times over) the void left by my abandoned habit.

But now they have both completed college (for now) and are working, paying off their mortgages, and building their own lives and careers. And the internet has enabled me to seek and reconnect with a few old friends. I no longer need to accumulate weeks of ramblings into one envelope to save postage (and follow the polite niceties of "your turn-my turn-your turn-etc" correspondence).

I am 61 and have a MS in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, a field in which I have never held a job (my wife has a PhD). When I realized the impracticality of being a theoretical ecologist (rather than the more employable (but less interesting to me) environmental engineer) in Vermont (where my wife and I lived while I commuted to Philadelphia to attend grad school), I cashed out with the Masters degree and went looking for work to use my proclivity for data modeling and data analysis. Thus I have spent the last 37 years rather generically doing data collection, data modeling, data analysis and database design and programming in government, academia, and as a private consultant in fields as diverse as personnel, athletics, school management, vital statistics, bookkeeping, construction, licensing, and most recently (and for the longest) criminal justice.

I have never belonged to any political party nor union. I have been active in Boy Scouts of America as a youth and as a parent/leader (my son (and older brother) are Eagle scouts; I am not). In professional organizations, I held chairman positions in DECUS (many years ago) and local PC groups.

My favorite authors have been Jonathan Swift, Mark Twain, and Isaac Asimov since I was a young teen. I will read almost any science fiction and most fantasy. But most my reading leans more scientific than political. More historical than current events.

I love puzzle/problem-solving and games. I like rule structures in which there remains huge possibilities for strategy. I was a State chess champion as a teenager. Documents like the U.S. Constitution are pretty much the ultimate rules manual in defining American life (to me). Defining terms is an annoying insistence by me in my work and probably carries into my view of life and its problems to analyze (and seek solutions for).

The first "job" I remember ever wanting (in early grade school) was philanthropist -- it took a while for folks to get me to realize I needed to earned (or at least have) money to do that job. My second career ambition was a stand-up comedian (I had all of Bill Cosby albums when I was 11-13). Numerical analysis was my slightly more practical quest when I finally when to college. I wandered into ecology as a grad school pursuit due to the challenge of system modeling in such a complex (and rather soft) science. But I also discovered I am not all that fond of the outdoors and fieldwork.

My business was called Thinking Man Consultants. The lack of humility in the name never really occurred to me at the time. It was sort of an inside joke, since I was so often accused of over-thinking and arguing multiple sides of an issue. I folded it up after about a dozen years -- I liked the diversity of the problems to work on, but I h**ed salesman aspects of finding new customers.

If you haven't got enough of me yet, I took up writing a weekly blog in which I thought I would try to exercise my sense of humor. You might be amused or you might discover why my career as a standup comedian never was a likelihood. The URL is:

http://thebickerstaffblog.blogspot.com/

Boo_Boo Loc: Jellystone

Thinkmanvt wrote:

Having spent a couple of weeks at this forum, this introduction may have lost any real value. As opinionated as I am, I am not a particularly "public" person. Therefore, when I clicked on a link that popped up in some sidebar somewhere for this forum, I was satisfying a momentary curiosity and thought I would be a silent lurker. I did not have any previous experience reading politically oriented blogs/chatrooms.

Well, you folks suck me in. But I still was not inclined to take off my mask of anonymity. Let my statements stand for themselves, I thought. In t***h, I still am hesitant. But context often provide as much to meaning as the words spoken/written.

You already know I am verbose. Sorry for the annoyance it inflicts, but writing (mostly letters in longhand) has been a favorite habit of mine since I was a teen in the 1960s. Its greatest peak was in college when I had a tablet of paper I carried all day to write to a girl (from my high school, one year younger) who made the mistake of continuing to answer my letters. I married her 39 years ago but I still do not understand her patience in putting up with me all these decades since. I continued to exchange (slightly less voluminous) letters with college friends after I returned to Vermont, but those correspondences slowed and largely reduced to Christmas cards thirty years ago. Fortunately, our two children came along about that time to fill (many times over) the void left by my abandoned habit.

But now they have both completed college (for now) and are working, paying off their mortgages, and building their own lives and careers. And the internet has enabled me to seek and reconnect with a few old friends. I no longer need to accumulate weeks of ramblings into one envelope to save postage (and follow the polite niceties of "your turn-my turn-your turn-etc" correspondence).

I am 61 and have a MS in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, a field in which I have never held a job (my wife has a PhD). When I realized the impracticality of being a theoretical ecologist (rather than the more employable (but less interesting to me) environmental engineer) in Vermont (where my wife and I lived while I commuted to Philadelphia to attend grad school), I cashed out with the Masters degree and went looking for work to use my proclivity for data modeling and data analysis. Thus I have spent the last 37 years rather generically doing data collection, data modeling, data analysis and database design and programming in government, academia, and as a private consultant in fields as diverse as personnel, athletics, school management, vital statistics, bookkeeping, construction, licensing, and most recently (and for the longest) criminal justice.

I have never belonged to any political party nor union. I have been active in Boy Scouts of America as a youth and as a parent/leader (my son (and older brother) are Eagle scouts; I am not). In professional organizations, I held chairman positions in DECUS (many years ago) and local PC groups.

My favorite authors have been Jonathan Swift, Mark Twain, and Isaac Asimov since I was a young teen. I will read almost any science fiction and most fantasy. But most my reading leans more scientific than political. More historical than current events.

I love puzzle/problem-solving and games. I like rule structures in which there remains huge possibilities for strategy. I was a State chess champion as a teenager. Documents like the U.S. Constitution are pretty much the ultimate rules manual in defining American life (to me). Defining terms is an annoying insistence by me in my work and probably carries into my view of life and its problems to analyze (and seek solutions for).

The first "job" I remember ever wanting (in early grade school) was philanthropist -- it took a while for folks to get me to realize I needed to earned (or at least have) money to do that job. My second career ambition was a stand-up comedian (I had all of Bill Cosby albums when I was 11-13). Numerical analysis was my slightly more practical quest when I finally when to college. I wandered into ecology as a grad school pursuit due to the challenge of system modeling in such a complex (and rather soft) science. But I also discovered I am not all that fond of the outdoors and fieldwork.

My business was called Thinking Man Consultants. The lack of humility in the name never really occurred to me at the time. It was sort of an inside joke, since I was so often accused of over-thinking and arguing multiple sides of an issue. I folded it up after about a dozen years -- I liked the diversity of the problems to work on, but I h**ed salesman aspects of finding new customers.

If you haven't got enough of me yet, I took up writing a weekly blog in which I thought I would try to exercise my sense of humor. You might be amused or you might discover why my career as a standup comedian never was a likelihood. The URL is:

http://thebickerstaffblog.blogspot.com/

Having spent a couple of weeks at this forum, this... (show quote)

Welcome aboard, now if you can learn to use the quote reply when responding to people, that would be very helpful.

bmac32 Loc: West Florida

Yes, welcome to a digital world.

ginnyt wrote:

Welcome aboard, now if you can learn to use the quote reply when responding to people, that would be very helpful.

Tasine Loc: Southwest US

Thinkmanvt wrote:

Having spent a couple of weeks at this forum, this introduction may have lost any real value. As opinionated as I am, I am not a particularly "public" person. Therefore, when I clicked on a link that popped up in some sidebar somewhere for this forum, I was satisfying a momentary curiosity and thought I would be a silent lurker. I did not have any previous experience reading politically oriented blogs/chatrooms.

Well, you folks suck me in. But I still was not inclined to take off my mask of anonymity. Let my statements stand for themselves, I thought. In t***h, I still am hesitant. But context often provide as much to meaning as the words spoken/written.

You already know I am verbose. Sorry for the annoyance it inflicts, but writing (mostly letters in longhand) has been a favorite habit of mine since I was a teen in the 1960s. Its greatest peak was in college when I had a tablet of paper I carried all day to write to a girl (from my high school, one year younger) who made the mistake of continuing to answer my letters. I married her 39 years ago but I still do not understand her patience in putting up with me all these decades since. I continued to exchange (slightly less voluminous) letters with college friends after I returned to Vermont, but those correspondences slowed and largely reduced to Christmas cards thirty years ago. Fortunately, our two children came along about that time to fill (many times over) the void left by my abandoned habit.

But now they have both completed college (for now) and are working, paying off their mortgages, and building their own lives and careers. And the internet has enabled me to seek and reconnect with a few old friends. I no longer need to accumulate weeks of ramblings into one envelope to save postage (and follow the polite niceties of "your turn-my turn-your turn-etc" correspondence).

I am 61 and have a MS in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, a field in which I have never held a job (my wife has a PhD). When I realized the impracticality of being a theoretical ecologist (rather than the more employable (but less interesting to me) environmental engineer) in Vermont (where my wife and I lived while I commuted to Philadelphia to attend grad school), I cashed out with the Masters degree and went looking for work to use my proclivity for data modeling and data analysis. Thus I have spent the last 37 years rather generically doing data collection, data modeling, data analysis and database design and programming in government, academia, and as a private consultant in fields as diverse as personnel, athletics, school management, vital statistics, bookkeeping, construction, licensing, and most recently (and for the longest) criminal justice.

I have never belonged to any political party nor union. I have been active in Boy Scouts of America as a youth and as a parent/leader (my son (and older brother) are Eagle scouts; I am not). In professional organizations, I held chairman positions in DECUS (many years ago) and local PC groups.

My favorite authors have been Jonathan Swift, Mark Twain, and Isaac Asimov since I was a young teen. I will read almost any science fiction and most fantasy. But most my reading leans more scientific than political. More historical than current events.

I love puzzle/problem-solving and games. I like rule structures in which there remains huge possibilities for strategy. I was a State chess champion as a teenager. Documents like the U.S. Constitution are pretty much the ultimate rules manual in defining American life (to me). Defining terms is an annoying insistence by me in my work and probably carries into my view of life and its problems to analyze (and seek solutions for).

The first "job" I remember ever wanting (in early grade school) was philanthropist -- it took a while for folks to get me to realize I needed to earned (or at least have) money to do that job. My second career ambition was a stand-up comedian (I had all of Bill Cosby albums when I was 11-13). Numerical analysis was my slightly more practical quest when I finally when to college. I wandered into ecology as a grad school pursuit due to the challenge of system modeling in such a complex (and rather soft) science. But I also discovered I am not all that fond of the outdoors and fieldwork.

My business was called Thinking Man Consultants. The lack of humility in the name never really occurred to me at the time. It was sort of an inside joke, since I was so often accused of over-thinking and arguing multiple sides of an issue. I folded it up after about a dozen years -- I liked the diversity of the problems to work on, but I h**ed salesman aspects of finding new customers.

If you haven't got enough of me yet, I took up writing a weekly blog in which I thought I would try to exercise my sense of humor. You might be amused or you might discover why my career as a standup comedian never was a likelihood. The URL is:

http://thebickerstaffblog.blogspot.com/

Having spent a couple of weeks at this forum, this... (show quote)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A belated welcome to you, sir! You are, indeed, a writer and, though I've not yet visited your blog site, I do intend to. I believe you and I have had some "back and forth" here on 1PP, and I enjoyed it. You think YOU are opinionated?! Well, that's O.K. if you understand why you are such and if you understand the ramifications of your opinions. I believe all people are opinionated whether or not they voice those opinions. Personally, I can accept opinions as facts IF actual facts and actions can substantiate those opinions.

If you are apolitical, you are either blessed on this site OR you will probably be handed a bit of sarcasm. Let nothing said by others upset you because in many instances, those things are said deliberately to rattle you. Politics can be viewed from many different angles - my primary view is how much freedom will Americans lose with this (generic) person in office?

Again, welcome!
Again, welcome!...

Geno36 Loc: Texas

Welcome. I really like your blog.