I was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan but always felt that I was spirited away from my true home town of Chicago to a heretofore barren couple as their first child. After a relatively uneventful childhood, I entered the United States Air Force (the most civilzed of the armed forces) and traveled to such exotic places as San Antonio, Texas and Omaha, Nebraska!

Upon returning to Grand Rapids, I dedicated myself to world peace, but had to settle for making automobile parts in an aluminum extrusion factory (now closed) and selling consumer audio/video electronics and computers at a couple of defunct dealerships (see a pattern here?)

My life as you know it began in April of 1985, when I moved to Chicago. I told my parents that Western Michigan was a great place to raise kids, retire and die! Since I was not ready to do any of those things yet, I was moving to Chicago.  My parents then said "But it's a big city! Loaded with crime! It's noisy and dirty! To which I replied "True, but in Chicago, if you are not doing anything, it's because you don't WANT to. In Western Michigan, if you're not doing anything, it's because there is NOTHING to do!" So I left to seek my fortune in the Windy City.

I worked for a short period of time at yet another audio/video retailer, and then went to work for one of the ORIGINAL 10 Apple Computer (now just Apple Inc.) dealerships in the country, known as Video Etc. We later changed our name to Alliance Computers to better reflect the fact that we didn't sell video stuff any more. I moved up the ranks from salesperson to retail operations manager and then became an Apple-certified bench technician. Having been selling and supporting Apple's since 1982 and Macintosh computers since 1984, there are very few Macintosh computers I have not been inside of!

Since then, I've worked in the corporate world, doing Macintosh support for various marketing and design firms in Chicago. I have now returned to the fold, as a Mac Genius at one of the Apple Stores in the Chicago region. What goes around, comes around!

I have always been interested in audio/video and computers for as far back as I can remember.  My first real job was an on-air announcer for a Grand Rapids radio station while in my senior year of high school.  I also took nuclear chemistry and computer programming for college credit during that year, but that's another story for another time!  I also have done cross-country motorcycle riding, covering most of the United States in some six years of touring. Seeing this great land of ours from behind the faring of a full-dress GoldWing is something that cannot be described, only experienced. To that end, I admit to being a HUGE American Chopper fan!

Science Fiction (both reading and television/movies) has been a life-long interest. Yes, I am a Trekkie. I remember watching the very first Star Trek episode on September 8th, 1966 and was hooked. I also enjoy Babylon 5, Stargate SG-1 and of course Star Wars. My interest in video and music has turned into a LARGE collection of CD's and movies (both tape and video disc/DVD). Out of all of the music I have collected over the years, I would have to say my favorite artists include Steely Dan and Chicago in the jazz/rock category all the way to Clannad, Enya and Moya Brennan (please note that the gaelic spelling of her first name is Máire, but she changed cause most people kept mispronoucing it.) in the Celtic category.

Of course my biggest and most important interest is one Angela Barker (the former Angela Schweikert!)