I am a 76-year-old father of four, grandfather of eight and great-grandfather of three-point-five terrific human beings. I'm an avid digital photographer and grumpy old man, and I live in Nanaimo, British Columbia.
I didn't find out I was a Redneck until I was fifty five years old, when I learned that my great granfather John Wesley Miller fought with the 22nd Georgia (Wright's Brigade), and got shot out of a tree during the battle of Gettysburg while spotting for Confederate artillery. He moved from Georgia to Texas after the war ended; he and his long-suffering wife had ten children, one of whom was my maternal grandfather. He raised me during World War II, because mom, like millions of other American women, became Rosie the Riveter and worked 16 hours a day building LSTs.
I was born and raised in the Santa Clara Valley (before they paved it), and moved to Canada in 1967. I am now a dual citizen. (PLEASE don't call it "Silicon Valley," which is an insult to what the valley used to be.)
I joined a Marine Corps Air Delivery Reserve company in 1958, after opting out of the PLC program.
Having been born and raised in San Jose, I am, of course, a life-long sourdough junkie, and, for the past twenty years, an ardent artisan baker. I mill my own Heritage grains and bake killer sourdoughs!
I established the first peer-to-peer network in my community in 1985, using FidoNet technology, then switched to SCO Xenix and created an InterNet-to-Fidonet gateway in 1985. Working with a coding friend, I created a Windows-based peer to peer network to unite west coast salmon farms with their corporate offices and suppliers. The net enjoyed ground-breaking success until late 1987, when the price of salmon hit bottom and the farms disappeared virtually overnight, along with my income. (Losses for two firms alone exceeded $32 mil!)
By 1993 I had grown the InterNet gateway to the point where my Xenix machine supported 6 phone lines and Telebit Trailblazers (remember those puppies?), but had little to do but browse through a few hundred UseNet newsgroups to alleviate boredom. While doing so, I had my first exposure to Holocaust denial, promulgated by disgusting racial supremacists and NAZI wannabees.
The experience was unsettling, and I began confronting the hate-filled morons on a daily basis, eventually building a team of students and professionals to prepare and archive evidence to refute the deniers. In a very short time, this effort led to the creation of Nizkor, a website dedicated to Holocaust education and the refutation of Holocaust denial. (I have my own Wikipedia page - you'll find it here. (Nizkor was gifted to B'nai Brith Canada in 2010.)
I discovered dragon boating in 2006, and was certified as a community coach a few years later. In 2009, in collaboration with a local businessman, I introduced Champion (IDBF) Dragon Boats to Canada - and fought an uphill battle against the acceptance of world-class racing hulls in my community
In the end, however, both BuK and Champion boats were well established with Island dragon boat clubs.
I spend most of my time these days doing what I can to annoy liberals.
(That's me, with a shipment of Champion 912 hulls.)
I should add that Steem and its attendant techi-babble mystify me, but I'll figure it all out one of these days!