Facebook

A friend of mine posted a video to his Facebook account and I thought, "What the hell, I'll try it out." I set up my profile and within a couple of hours I had reconnected with a bunch of friends from my college days and also from my time in Winston-Salem. Great stuff.
It also made me realize that I haven't exactly been keeping people that I still care about up to date about what has been happening in my life.

So, a brief recap:

1994:

• Started working in the Prodigy section at SPSS in Gray. The job was okay, the people I worked with were great, the management structure of SPSS was a nightmarish hell-hole bent on sucking out our very soul for little or no recompense.
• Get involved in the Poetry Slam stuff. At first just local, but we quickly jumped up to regional and national competitions. It was tons of fun, I got to meet some incredible (and not so credible) people, and being able to get a room full of people engaged in what I was saying was a hoot.
• In the summer of 1994, during the national slam competition in Asheville, I met Elvis. This was one of the cornerstone events of my life. Just amazing.

1995:

• Finally got that Electronic Engineering Degree.
• Continue to slave away at SPSS. I move up.
• Continue to do poetry competitions, but find out I have a real knack for being the MC. The poetry is still present, but the MC activities come to the fore, I even get invited to several other venues and regional competitions to guest host.

1996:

• I'm still moving up at SPSS, more responsibilities, get put in charge of a big project which is successful. They give me a 23 cent raise. I am seriously despondent.
• Which means better poetry.
• I get asked to guest host a regional competition in Knoxville, which is a hoot. One of the competitors from Winston-Salem approaches me after the finals and offers me a job at Wachovia bank, "But you will need to get a haircut." It is basically a doubling of my salary, so I wait about 10 minutes before saying "YES".
• August move to Winston-Salem. Work at Wachovia and fit in. The poetry community in Winston welcomes me in and I get to join an incredibly vibrant creative environment.
• Winston had great coffee, great people, art, music, personalities, and great coffee. Just fantastic.

1997:

• I am putting silly things in art shows, appearing in cable access television shows, and just enjoying everything.
  
• I join a music group (Urilliasekt) for a single performance. I developed an infrasound generator for a live performance and they invited me to participate in the actual show. That show alone is worth a few thousand words, but suffice it to say it was AWESOME.
• Move up at the bank, they really like me.
• During the summer, my future wife comes from Holland to visit with her childhood friend, one of my roommates. I think she's hot, she likes me well enough, but mostly it's all just friendly.
• I start dabbling in web programming for an artist gallery web site. I find that I'm pretty good at it.

1998:

• Sylvia comes back to America for 6 months to be an au pair for a couple in Greensboro. We get together in April.
• Still doing poetry here, a national competition in Middletown Connecticut and a regional in Greeneville South Carolina.
• Sylvia and I get really serious and decide to marry. Because her visitor visa runs out, she goes back to the Netherlands for 4 months while we wait for INS to get their story together. I visit Holland in October to visit the new soon-to-be inlaws and look around.
• She comes back, we get married on December 31, 1998

1999:

• Married life, good stuff. I knew how to live with a roommate, but I had to learn how to cook WELL. Not just good enough for me.
• Wachovia job is going okay, but is getting a bit boring. Jungle drums are sounding, 'If we make it through the Y2K successfully, we will be targeted for takeover'.
• On a visit to Mark Painter in Atlanta, I look at CareerBuilder.com for shits and giggles. There is a job posting for a web master at Journalistic, Inc. I say, 'What the hell.' and apply. I get the job and we move to Chapel Hill in August/September.
• Wachovia (22,000 employees) to Journalistic (12 employees) was a BIG jump. But I really like the job and the people.
• Sylvia finds out she is pregnant just a few days before our anniversary.

2000:

• Growing as a programmer.
• Finding out why 'Father of the Bride, Part II' was not funny at all. Sylvia had some complications and spent the last 3 months of her pregnancy on enforced bed rest.
• End of August; a Son!!!
• Father-in-law comes for a visit. He is a psychologist and he has developed a new test instrument with a colleague. He just has to figure out how to distribute and market it. "What about the internet?" Do I know anyone who can program a web site? You know I do.
• Attempt to turn in my resignation, but Webb (the owner of Journalistic) offers me a bonus if I will just stick around for another 10 months or so. I say yes.

2001:

• Work work work.
• Baby baby baby.
• Move to the Netherlands on November 7.

I'm going to stop the dialog there. I will talk about what I've been DOING here in the Netherlands later.