We'll See...

We'll see where this goes.

Background:
I'm a former-geek/nerd. Or something. I've always straddled the lines of almost everything, never fitting in to anything... not even being an outsider. If you look at my resume, you might think I'm a classic nerd... but it's not quite the whole story.

I was/am(?), according to others:

• Hella-Smart (at least, according to my non-geek-friends)... 
• "The next Bill Gates" according to my family, as I brought them into the computer-era.
• A Nerd(?) in college. I was really good at what I was good at, if not one of the best. But pretty bad, and getting increasingly worse at the others, including those that were *significantly related* to the things I was good at. (Digital Electronics: top-notch. Analog Electronics: bleh.)
• "Socialite/Bad-boy, bordering on danger and insanity" amongst my nerd-friends.
• "Loner, nerd trying to recover, bordering on sociopath, possibly unibomber material if we don't set him straight" amongst my social friends.
• Worldly/Experienced compared to most, been everywhere, tried everything, though most don't bother to ask about it. If you're interested, please ask! (See Below).
• "Cliff" (From Cheers, though I'd prefer to think of myself as and aspire to be Norm) amongst my bar-fly friends
• Looking, desperately, for my soul-mate (the characteristics of whom I cannot even begin to describe here)... or at least someone who knows how to not let me go before we even get started.
• ...

Conversation Starters/Asking Points:

Here are some topics... Past experiences that define me. (Again, always straddling lines, so expect my experiences below to be somewhat outside your expectations).

• sailboat live-aboard
• sharing shots with iguanas (Mexico... oh oh Mexico.)
• backpacking Europe
• homelessness, living in a tunnel
• San Francisco
• Buddhism vs. Lutheranism vs. Agnosticism vs. FuckedUptism
• Vegetarianism, my long-past (and yet still evolving) experience
• Living in a small village, cut off from society (No TV, phone, radio, internet)
• An avid non-smoker who's now smoking a pack a day.
• 420-friendly, but 420 doesn't consider me a friend.
• Fetishes -- yep, I've got 'em, and I don't *want to* share with just anyone. If you've somehow found out, feel free to *ask me about them.* But, until we've talked please just forget it, and don't share with my friends!
• Artistic endeavors
• ...

I'll leave it at that, for now. 

Geek Resume (justifying this blog):

• 6-10y/o: Took *everything* apart, and saved all the pieces. Built a train from a block of wood, lantern batteries, and a car light. Exit-sign. Spotlight with a speaker-switch... got-zapped in the rain. Was convinced all it took to make a wired remote-control car wireless is to cut the cord and tie all the wires together in an antenna-shape... and was sad to find out the truth. Built "EPOL" (Eric's Power Outage Light) using a relay, wall-wart, and a flashlight for family/friends. Built a remote-control for my favorite car which leaked battery-acid. Built a "robot" whose head spun and eyes lit-up from VCR parts and a bucket. Favorite store: Cascade Electronics, favorite item: LED display grab-bag. Dreamt about finding Blue(!!!) LEDs at Cascade for $60 apiece, and felt like I'd won the lottery. Took apart a laser-contraption with my best friend Rickey.
• Pre-teens: head computer assistant, set up all my school's computers, network, and lab: Mac (OS 7), ethernet, Apple IIe, DEC Alpha (NT3.5.1), more. Got my first computer, a Mac 68k with a 486 daughter-card. Got my second-computer a 486SX25, loaded Slackware linux from a book of distributions. Got my third computer, an 8088 IBM/AT (was my favorite for some time). Found and repaired a 486/DX2-66 at the recycle-plant. Wasn't smart enough to figure out the mini-fridge-sized Unix-server a friend gave me (with no password, no documentation, and no monitor!)... so took it apart. Got a few surplus items from a friend at HP, including a couple pen-plotters. Watching that thing draw was amazingly inspirational.
• Early-Teens: built PCs and did tech-support/training for my family, their co-workers, friends... introduced countless people (including my 80+y/o great-grandmother) to computers. Every dollar I made went to keeping up with computers... Cyrix 5x86-133
• Teens: worked for the school district IT department, "Student Technician" with "Network Analyst" privs; Active Directory, Networking, Windows2k, deployments, Ghost, scripting, everything. Ran Linux almost exclusively at home, and multiple computers, a personal webserver/site... Bought a surplus DUAL(!!!) Pentium-60 (size of a mini-fridge) and learned NT4 and to love EISA. Also claimed replacement on the processors due to FPU bug.... Developed a graphical LCD controller using TTL chips for timing, an 8051, and an SRAM chip from my old 486
• Late teens: Shifted focus back to electronics: Microcontroller coding 
• .... (Getting tired)
• College: Interned at an established 7-person business designing embedded stuff, Interned at a Fortune-500 corporation designing a radar system, Worked for an artist designing custom electronics/code, Worked in a research lab, Worked on a fast-paced robotics team, came up with an absurd mechanical design which was built but never tested. Worked for a start-up. Started a business with a friend doing military-funded research. Got promptly burnt-out on designing things for killing-purposes... and, unfortunately, can't see now how anything electronic isn't ultimately a detriment to society.

Shit, I've done a lot. Again, that's the "Geek Resume." I had *plenty* going on during that time, including multiple trips to Europe, Mexico, and Hawaii, Moving from my mom's to my Dad's, Moving Numerous times, living on a sailboat, living in a tiny village... this is just the tip of the iceburg... and the point isn't that I moved a lot, because I've lived here since I was ten. But that I have a LOT of experiences...

I have an online-presence, mostly in the past... Maybe I'll allow that to merge with this... But, for now, this blog was intended to document some of my recent attempts at Geekery, and how they fit in with my limitations, and experience.