Meme-oires 01: Introduce Yourself
Sep. 1st, 2010 08:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jamesqHi. My name is James. I was born (in 1967) and raised in Calgary. I'm an INTP according to Myers-Briggs, a Slow Dancer according to OKCupid and a sufferer of Atypical Depression and avoidant personality disorder according to the DSM.
My parents were Gordon (From St. Boniface, Manitoba - a suburb of Winnipeg) and Maxine (Born in Neepawa, Manitoba and raised in Calgary). I have a Sister (Trish, 9-years older) and a Brother (Bill, 7-years older) whom I never really hung around with due to our age differences.
The odds of my being here at all were rather long. My mother's second pregnancy was rather troublesome, and she was told that a third child would likely not come to term. My folks didn't so much decide to buck the odds and try for a third kid so much as they decided not to try to prevent a third pregnancy. I was the result.
At first, they thought I'd be a New Year's Baby (my due date was January 1st, 1968) but I showed up six weeks early. Sufficiently premature that I had to spend several weeks in an incubator back when that was a real risk for six weeks early. Sadly, because I wasn't "ripe", I had a congenital birth defect - They had to operate on me as an infant to close my hernia. I can show you the scar, but only if you know me really well.
Elementary school sucked. I was bullied pretty much non-stop. It was so bad they transferred me to another school for Grade 6 rather then wait for me to go to junior high. I've often said that if you want to emotionally cripple a child, making sure they're picked on constantly, don't have a single friend and their family refuses to believe it is a good way to do so. You don't even have to physically touch them.
Junior high sucked. I was bullied pretty much non-stop. I did get my first friend though, WT. That made it a little more bearable.
High school sucked. I was bullied a lot, but not non-stop. I gained a few other geeky friends. At least one of which -![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
evilscientist - remains one of my closest friends to this day.
University was a miracle - no one bothers you in University. You can focus on your studies, meet people you actually want to hang out with, rather than be forced to hang out with people who hate you.
At first I studied Geology (It's Alberta, and I wanted to be a Paleontologist) but quickly discovered that I was lousy at it. Two years down the drain. Next up was Computer Science - that I actually had an aptitude for.
It might surprise people, but I wasn't really exposed to computers before University. I did a small amount of toy programming in high school but I just couldn't get into something when I didn't have access to the equipment. My first computer was a Mac Plus, back around 1989.
I partially worked my way through university by working at a self-serve gas station for five years. I also found a group of Elfquest fans and ended up making friends with most of them. The fan club is long dead, and I haven't cracked my Elfquest books out of storage in ten years, but a few of those people are still close friends. Others, I'd rather not see ever again. Ostracization, suffered through in school, is easily identified when it happens in adulthood. It's especially jarring when it's undeserved.
About this time I was also getting into SF fandom. It sort of petered out when I decided I didn't really like a lot of people in local SF fandom. As time goes on, I keep meeting former SF fans who came to the same conclusion. Turns out these people are actually pretty cool.
I graduated from University with a Bachelor of Science in 1993. It seems like yesterday, but it was a long long time ago. Sadly the city was going through a minor recession at the time and no one was hiring new grads. Why should they when they had their pick of people with actual job experience. So I got a job at Office Depot selling computers.
This had three positive benefits:
After three years in retail-hell, I got my present job. I now write security software for a company in the oil and gas industry. The pay and benefits are both great, so much so that it keeps me in Calgary. If I thought I could get as good a job in Vancouver, I'd seriously consider moving.
Oh, and I like it too.
Along the way some friends introduced me to archery and the Society for Creative Anachronism. They've been my major hobbies for the last while.
I've traveled to Victoria, Vancouver, Seattle, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Halifax and St. Johns. I've been inside the airports of Montreal, Toronto and San Francisco. I've gone to Cuba, Scotland and England. I want to do a lot more traveling before I'm through.
I enjoy role-playing games, theatre, movies and weird non-fiction books.
OK, so that's a decent start. More to come tomorrow.
My parents were Gordon (From St. Boniface, Manitoba - a suburb of Winnipeg) and Maxine (Born in Neepawa, Manitoba and raised in Calgary). I have a Sister (Trish, 9-years older) and a Brother (Bill, 7-years older) whom I never really hung around with due to our age differences.
The odds of my being here at all were rather long. My mother's second pregnancy was rather troublesome, and she was told that a third child would likely not come to term. My folks didn't so much decide to buck the odds and try for a third kid so much as they decided not to try to prevent a third pregnancy. I was the result.
At first, they thought I'd be a New Year's Baby (my due date was January 1st, 1968) but I showed up six weeks early. Sufficiently premature that I had to spend several weeks in an incubator back when that was a real risk for six weeks early. Sadly, because I wasn't "ripe", I had a congenital birth defect - They had to operate on me as an infant to close my hernia. I can show you the scar, but only if you know me really well.
Elementary school sucked. I was bullied pretty much non-stop. It was so bad they transferred me to another school for Grade 6 rather then wait for me to go to junior high. I've often said that if you want to emotionally cripple a child, making sure they're picked on constantly, don't have a single friend and their family refuses to believe it is a good way to do so. You don't even have to physically touch them.
Junior high sucked. I was bullied pretty much non-stop. I did get my first friend though, WT. That made it a little more bearable.
High school sucked. I was bullied a lot, but not non-stop. I gained a few other geeky friends. At least one of which -
evilscientist - remains one of my closest friends to this day.University was a miracle - no one bothers you in University. You can focus on your studies, meet people you actually want to hang out with, rather than be forced to hang out with people who hate you.
At first I studied Geology (It's Alberta, and I wanted to be a Paleontologist) but quickly discovered that I was lousy at it. Two years down the drain. Next up was Computer Science - that I actually had an aptitude for.
It might surprise people, but I wasn't really exposed to computers before University. I did a small amount of toy programming in high school but I just couldn't get into something when I didn't have access to the equipment. My first computer was a Mac Plus, back around 1989.
I partially worked my way through university by working at a self-serve gas station for five years. I also found a group of Elfquest fans and ended up making friends with most of them. The fan club is long dead, and I haven't cracked my Elfquest books out of storage in ten years, but a few of those people are still close friends. Others, I'd rather not see ever again. Ostracization, suffered through in school, is easily identified when it happens in adulthood. It's especially jarring when it's undeserved.
About this time I was also getting into SF fandom. It sort of petered out when I decided I didn't really like a lot of people in local SF fandom. As time goes on, I keep meeting former SF fans who came to the same conclusion. Turns out these people are actually pretty cool.
I graduated from University with a Bachelor of Science in 1993. It seems like yesterday, but it was a long long time ago. Sadly the city was going through a minor recession at the time and no one was hiring new grads. Why should they when they had their pick of people with actual job experience. So I got a job at Office Depot selling computers.
This had three positive benefits:
- I learned to interact with people.
- I learned about computer hardware - up until then I only knew software. And not even software that people actually used.
- It allowed me to leave home.
After three years in retail-hell, I got my present job. I now write security software for a company in the oil and gas industry. The pay and benefits are both great, so much so that it keeps me in Calgary. If I thought I could get as good a job in Vancouver, I'd seriously consider moving.
Oh, and I like it too.
Along the way some friends introduced me to archery and the Society for Creative Anachronism. They've been my major hobbies for the last while.
I've traveled to Victoria, Vancouver, Seattle, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Halifax and St. Johns. I've been inside the airports of Montreal, Toronto and San Francisco. I've gone to Cuba, Scotland and England. I want to do a lot more traveling before I'm through.
I enjoy role-playing games, theatre, movies and weird non-fiction books.
OK, so that's a decent start. More to come tomorrow.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-02 05:08 pm (UTC)I miss the treasure hunt... mostly I miss setting up the treasure hunt.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-02 05:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-02 05:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-02 05:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-02 06:15 pm (UTC)I recall one group making an error in interpreting the clue and ending up climbing one of the hills only to find their 3rd clue accidently, then finding their second clue after - so they only had themselves to blame for going up and down more then once... though that could have been a different year that I'm remembering.
Also, it's entirely possible I just didn't bother listening to the critism that much. We were young (and able/uninjured)and it was no bad thing that there was extra exercise for the people in question... though I doubt I could climb that hill now without my knee giving out half way up.
I think I got more flack for hiding one of the clues on the storm run off culvert the one year.
;)
Gee - now I'm all nostalgic for Edworthy park treasure hunts. :P