Second batch...
Jan. 5th, 2003 02:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jay26. My greatest life's work are my three beloved children: James, David and Kevin.
27. Reading scripture and debating theology are fun, as long as everyone agrees to be friends afterward.
28. I was once appointed to my church's Vestry (governing board).
29. I played the clarinet for seven years, from junior high into college.
30. Until I was six, I favored the use of my left hand. Otherwise-well-meaning teachers forced me to switch, resulting in chickenscratch handwiting from either hand.
31. Without evidence, I believe that there is an intangible, spiritual universe underlying the observable, tangible universe. Ideas and concepts live there. I sometimes wonder how computer programs appear.
32. My first, and still favorite programming language is Lisp. Begrudgingly I will use C or even Fortran as necessary.
33. My first Usenet post, to sf-lovers (now the rec.arts.sf.* hierarchy) was in the summer of 1981.
34. I had an MIT AI Lab account for two years because of a space-based automation research project that we did there when I was an undergraduate. Danny Hillis worked on the same project and used to talk to us about his ideas for connectionist architectures.
35. The grad student whose desk was around the corner from mine in the MIT Space Systems Lab was a guy who had been pursuing ideas for space-based solar power satellites, named Eric Drexler. When that didn't pan out for his Ph.D. research, he started talking about his ideas for tiny little machines, and eventually invented the concept of nanotechnology.
36. I much prefer Emacs to vi. With or without mix-ins.
37. RMS once tried (unsuccessfully) to pick up a sweetie (Yvonne) that was watching an LSC movie with Pat and I. During the movie.
38. I was in turn the sports and news editor of my college newspaper, then its publisher. I got to organize its centennial celebration and have dinner with Leslie Stahl and Mike Peters. And do my stand-up schtick at the gala dinner at the Parker House.
39. At fourteen, I was lured into a vacant lot by an older boy in my neighborhood, distracted and then pinned my upper body underneath a piece of junk (a car trunk-lid) after which he molested me. He got complacent after a few minutes and I was able to suddenly throw off the heavy metal plate and run home, pulling up my clothes as I dodged through the brambles.
40. In junior high, I was routinely taunted and towel-whipped when showering after gym, to the point that I would wait to shower and then be late for my next class.
41. I'm a life member of a national service fraternity, Alpha Phi Omega, and organized service projects with the MIT and Georgia Tech chapters.
42. One-fingered typing is all that I know. It got me through my Ph.D. dissertation (with Pat's considerable help) and subsequent papers. Pat finds it painful to watch me peck (at about 5 wpm). I can only manage one or two active chat sessions at a time.
43. At one point, my family wasn't going to attend my wedding to Pat, because she was going to keep her own last name and I refused to intervene. They later relented.
44. I'm a stubborn, persistent, somewhat subversive guy.
45. After two decades, the preponderance of evidence is that most people don't want to be close to me and very few are physically attracted.
46. I have a younger brother and sister, both still living near Atlanta (where my parents still live in my childhood house). My brother teaches alcohol-abuse-prevention and beer-appreciation classes, and my sister is a paramedic and firefighter.
47. I pulled 12 new power circuits and installed new Category 5e and coaxial video into every room of my house. Working on Habitat for Humanity projects taught me most of what I know about home improvements.
48. When stressed, I begin humming or whistling marches. If you hear me whistling Semper Paratus or National Emblem, things are going poorly...
49. Every time you fly out of Atlanta airport, you are leaving an average of four minutes sooner thanks to a project I led in 1994-97, the Surface Movement Advisor. This saves Delta Air Lines alone about $30M/yr in direct operating costs.
50. I'm the lead inventor on the two US Patents (6,161,097 and 6,278,965) that cover the core Surface Movement Advisor concepts. I got a $700 check from NASA.
27. Reading scripture and debating theology are fun, as long as everyone agrees to be friends afterward.
28. I was once appointed to my church's Vestry (governing board).
29. I played the clarinet for seven years, from junior high into college.
30. Until I was six, I favored the use of my left hand. Otherwise-well-meaning teachers forced me to switch, resulting in chickenscratch handwiting from either hand.
31. Without evidence, I believe that there is an intangible, spiritual universe underlying the observable, tangible universe. Ideas and concepts live there. I sometimes wonder how computer programs appear.
32. My first, and still favorite programming language is Lisp. Begrudgingly I will use C or even Fortran as necessary.
33. My first Usenet post, to sf-lovers (now the rec.arts.sf.* hierarchy) was in the summer of 1981.
34. I had an MIT AI Lab account for two years because of a space-based automation research project that we did there when I was an undergraduate. Danny Hillis worked on the same project and used to talk to us about his ideas for connectionist architectures.
35. The grad student whose desk was around the corner from mine in the MIT Space Systems Lab was a guy who had been pursuing ideas for space-based solar power satellites, named Eric Drexler. When that didn't pan out for his Ph.D. research, he started talking about his ideas for tiny little machines, and eventually invented the concept of nanotechnology.
36. I much prefer Emacs to vi. With or without mix-ins.
37. RMS once tried (unsuccessfully) to pick up a sweetie (Yvonne) that was watching an LSC movie with Pat and I. During the movie.
38. I was in turn the sports and news editor of my college newspaper, then its publisher. I got to organize its centennial celebration and have dinner with Leslie Stahl and Mike Peters. And do my stand-up schtick at the gala dinner at the Parker House.
39. At fourteen, I was lured into a vacant lot by an older boy in my neighborhood, distracted and then pinned my upper body underneath a piece of junk (a car trunk-lid) after which he molested me. He got complacent after a few minutes and I was able to suddenly throw off the heavy metal plate and run home, pulling up my clothes as I dodged through the brambles.
40. In junior high, I was routinely taunted and towel-whipped when showering after gym, to the point that I would wait to shower and then be late for my next class.
41. I'm a life member of a national service fraternity, Alpha Phi Omega, and organized service projects with the MIT and Georgia Tech chapters.
42. One-fingered typing is all that I know. It got me through my Ph.D. dissertation (with Pat's considerable help) and subsequent papers. Pat finds it painful to watch me peck (at about 5 wpm). I can only manage one or two active chat sessions at a time.
43. At one point, my family wasn't going to attend my wedding to Pat, because she was going to keep her own last name and I refused to intervene. They later relented.
44. I'm a stubborn, persistent, somewhat subversive guy.
45. After two decades, the preponderance of evidence is that most people don't want to be close to me and very few are physically attracted.
46. I have a younger brother and sister, both still living near Atlanta (where my parents still live in my childhood house). My brother teaches alcohol-abuse-prevention and beer-appreciation classes, and my sister is a paramedic and firefighter.
47. I pulled 12 new power circuits and installed new Category 5e and coaxial video into every room of my house. Working on Habitat for Humanity projects taught me most of what I know about home improvements.
48. When stressed, I begin humming or whistling marches. If you hear me whistling Semper Paratus or National Emblem, things are going poorly...
49. Every time you fly out of Atlanta airport, you are leaving an average of four minutes sooner thanks to a project I led in 1994-97, the Surface Movement Advisor. This saves Delta Air Lines alone about $30M/yr in direct operating costs.
50. I'm the lead inventor on the two US Patents (6,161,097 and 6,278,965) that cover the core Surface Movement Advisor concepts. I got a $700 check from NASA.
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no subject
Date: 2003-01-06 11:16 am (UTC)Re:
Date: 2003-01-06 11:21 am (UTC)