About me the person:

• I'm 40 years old, have auburn hair that's starting to get gray on the sides, have blue eyes, and am very highly prone to sunburn. For those that still care, I'm a Libra, and own no large gold medallions proclaiming such. I'm 5'10", have a hairy chest, and at the moment, a goatee. I have a condition called keratoconus, which means my eyes are shaped like cones and I don't see in three dimensions (ask anyone who has driven with me about this one), it's correctible with hard lenses that hurt a lot, so I wander around two-dimensionally most days. My facial hair varies on a six-month schedule, I change it as I grow bored with it. I'm mainly of Scotch descent, though there's some German and English thrown in, depending on how far you want to trace back my line and from which side you wish to pursue it. I'm a borderline perfectionist, forget things a lot, am terrible with names, hate to admit I'm wrong (but will eventually), have a temper that can flare randomly, am excellent at compartmentalization, am a big flirt (especially when I've had a few beers), am opinionated but always open to another well thought out point of view, and, for the most part, intelligent and pleasant to get along with. I'm also the proud Dad of a twelve year old boy, only speak English, am fairly well traveled, and only sleep about 4-5 hours a night.

About my Life:

• I've been working in Information Technology since 1986 (it was Data Processing back then and computers had green screens or black and white monitors, there was no internet (it was still arpanet to those in the field, Gore hadn't had a chance to invent it yet), we used BBS's to communicate (no IRC yet), connected through Compuserve at 9600baud, and had email accounts that were derivations of IP addresses (13245.2345@compuserve.com) - I have many other great parallels, but movies were not a nickel (they were $3) and I did not walk to school in 3' of snow carrying my smaller sister (often). I remember the 200th anniversary of the country, the gas crisis of the 70's, the first shuttle launch, the cold war, and milkmen. I currently own my own consulting company, and am looking for new employees, so if you're good with IT, drop me your resume. I have 169 industry-recognized certifications that I have acquired over that 20+ years (think MCNE, MCP, CCEA, A+, Server+, 3CSE, etc.), and am constantly taking exams to maintain or upgrade my experience. Outside of work, my hobbies include cooking, home repair, computers (yeah, no escaping it really), spending time with my son Ben, religious studies, and general pursuit of overall improvement of my life.

Relationships:

• I'm divorced from my son's mom and we're fairly accepting of our individual lives and choices by this point. I'm bisexual and currently domestically partnered to a rabid cubano piercing artist/refugee I found in my rental car trunk one summer while visiting Key West. He claims his name is Luis. I still would like to have more children, though how I'll eventually work that into my life is of yet unclear. I have a good circle of close friends, and a wide circle of general friends and acquaintances. I'm gregarious, enjoy meeting new people, prefer to be out interacting with people versus spending an evening at home (Though I enjoy evenings at home a lot these days), and overall relatively easy to get along with (from a friends standpoint - relationships with me are a challenge all their own.)

My political views:

• I used to be a pretty staunch pro-American republican. That view has tapered off over the last few years as I've realized we really don't live in a democracy, have no real control of our lives, and, for the most part, learned how the average citizen has absolutely no idea (or awareness of) how much the government controls and monitors our lives. I believe in the American Ideal, and hope that someday before we blow ourselves up someone gets the courage to throw out the current system and start it back to where it's supposed to be. I believe in the bill of rights, equal opportunity and representation for all (NOTE - not better, not special, just equal), that we should stop aiding most foreign countries till we get our own house in order. I believe that we should maintain a military and institute a mandatory service policy, that we should have a flat tax system, eliminate capital punishment but improve prison conditions, invest heavily in education, squash business monopolies with more fervor, and generally work to improve the lives of our fellow citizens. I rarely discuss politics in person as you won't change my views and I doubt I'll change yours, and, frankly, most people can't discuss an alternate viewpoint without getting pissed off or feeling attacked. If you choose to breach the subject, do you homework and present the facts, I'm smart enough to realize that if someone's done the work and has the proof, they probably have enough smarts to hold a discussion without freaking out over small differences in opinion (or large ones).

PLEASE VOTE! Else you suck--->

My religious views:

• My parents are Protestant and I was raised Lutheran. After high school, I met a group of people who belonged to an independent fundamentalist church and brought me along to a few events. I was amazed that in this community, people actually opened the Bible and read from it, asked questions and had them answered, and generally worked to improve their spiritual lives. After a few months, I joined this church, converted over and attended several years of training at Philadelphia College of the Bible. Being someone who is driven to learn as much as possible about anything I believe passionately in, coupled with a fairly decent intelligence, I started to run into problems with the belief system I was being forced to adhere to. Instead of the 'interpret based upon these guidelines' mantra, I was suddenly faced with "Dallas Theological Seminary says it's this way so that's the way it is." Although I realized that the professors and board of DTS had many more years of experience than I, translation of text and general interpretation was not rocket science, and, frankly, I could not see what made their interpretation of text more valid than my own. When I eventually was faced with retraction of my graduate paper or not being allowed to graduate, I chose to leave that belief system behind and follow my own course, I was summarily excommunicated from the school, my church, and gave up a lot of friends in doing this, but interestingly enough still receive donation requests from both. I recently restarted my studies and am happy to report I've completed my Doctorate in Religious Studies and a second in Divinity. I've also been ordained, so if you wanna get married give me a ring. I have no doubt that there is a single (triune) God, that there is a real Satan, and that for the most part the events and guidance the Bible provides are/is real. I believe that God establishes a personal walk with each of us, and our ultimate place in the universe is decided by how closely we adhere to that walk. I believe in salvation through Christ's death and not by works, so I guess I'm still a fundamentalist Christian for the most part. Currently I spend my free time studying various religious texts for insight into my life and my future. I do believe that someone’s views on religion are their own, so even though I fervently believe what I believe, I do not whip out the Bible and beat people over the head with it, if you want to hear my views, that’s cool - here they are, if not, that's cool too. As for your views, I always enjoy an alternate viewpoint and conversation, but you will not change my beliefs, and please take no offense if I disagree with you. I'm not your judge; you're not mine, so as with political views, let's chat pleasantly or not at all.

Things I enjoy:

• Intelligent conversation, Yeungling lager (or other light Dortmunderish style beers), cukies, Skyy vodka martinis (dirty of course!), good food (both prepared at home and enjoyed out), cukies, traveling, astronomy, back-scratches, cukies, meeting new people, fishing, learning something new, cukies, flirting, grilled meat, sushi, order, pop/light rock/jazz/80's music, good sci-fi novels, shopping, having money in my bank account, coin collecting, and cukies.(mis-spelling intentional due to page hosting restrictions)

Things I dislike:

• Ignorant people (defined by those who cut your kids off at the zoo/aquarium to see for themselves, those who write checks at the supermarket and don't have them pre-made out to the store before they get in line, those who curse in front of kids, etc.), stupid people (defined as someone you show something to multiple times who fails to take notes or actually learn, forcing you to tell them again or do the work yourself), fake/lazy people, people who don't use soap, slow drivers in the fast lane, poor drivers who risk my safety, mooches, sweet alcoholic drinks, people who touch my partners mods without permission, people who judge/assume before finding out all the information for themselves. (Do you see a theme of people here?)

Best line ever from a song:

• "There's a log, on the fire, and it burns, like me for you", also "My love burned like a fire red, now it's turning blue"

My favorite TV shows:

• The Venture Brothers!!! Fullmetal Alchemist! The new Battlestar, American Dad/Family Guy, The Tudors, Futurama, Chowder, (pretty much anything animated except Scooby Doo and Tom and Jerry), varied cooking shows from FoodTV, britcoms (Especially Red Dwarf), The new Dr. Who, Lexx, StarGate SG-1 and Atlantis, Adult Swim, and sadly, the news.

My Mods:

• Piercings
  • 12 Gauge Labret (retired 2002 due to work)
  • 14 Gaugue Gunned left ear (retired 1988)
  • 8 Gauge Scrotal (retired 2003 due to migration)

• Ink (52.5 hours of work done to date)
  • Family Crest on left arm (Originally done 1996, recolored 2004 - about 5 hours of work initially, Brian at Forbidden Art Studios did the original and Jackie Brown from NoKaOi recolored it, 2 hours. A mystery tattooist has now added some UV highlights, 1 hour, and then added the 'Redemptive Hand of God' pattern from Scar in Full Metal Alchemist to my right forearm, also in UV, 6.5 hours.
  • Warriors Mantle; shoulder pieces complete, back outline complete and filled, joints and chieftan's knots outline complete and filled. 29 hours of work to date done by the highly talented Jackie Brown at NoKaOi Tiki Tattoo, 4th and South Streets in Philadelphia.
  • Pink Floyd's 'Wish you were Here' Logo on right arm (Done 1986 - over 6 hours of work, Jerry's Tattoos on Rt13 in Bensalem - (yes that's my arm in his book) Touched up 2003 at NoKaOi Tiki Tattoo by Miss Anna, 3 hours.

• Various scarification up to 6" in length

Planned Mods