Writing a detailed bio would be boring, and nobody would want to read it anyway. So I'll make it quick -
I'm 48 years old, male, and married. I'm originally from California; my parents moved to Arkansas when I was young. I always wanted to go back "home", but by the time I could, I found my cars, my guns, my politics, and my attitudes weren't particularly welcome in the People's Democratic Republic of California. After some investigation of alternatives I realized Arkansas isn't all that bad compared to some places, and found little incentive to move.
Vocations:
draftsman (back when it was done on paper)
system administrator (SCO/Linux, WANs, and TCP/IP)
programmer (Pascal, Delphi, various proprietary languages)
(database, billing, glue bits to make unfriendly
programs talk to each other, boring stuff)
engine builder (haven't quite made it from hobby to business yet)
Hobbies:
car geek (Ford type, trackie, hot rodder)
motorcyclist (currently a turbocharged Yamaha)
machinist (now I have my own machine shop)
writer (two books, dozen-odd magazine articles)
gunhead (if it goes BANG I probably like it)
history (WWI-WWII)
Humor:
I laugh a lot, but often other people don't seem to see anything funny...
Sayings from Dave:
"Cheap is a quality overcoming many faults."
"If I knew everything, you'd be paying me a *lot* more money."
"When you spin, both feet in... and don't forget to wave!"
"Perfect is the enemy of good enough."
"In today's society there is no responsibility; only liability."
"Stupidity is the only infinite resource."
"Uptime is like air - nobody notices until it's not there."
"Power is cheap - reliability costs money."
Music:
I'll take basic rock and roll, thank you. Styx, Def Leppard, Moody
Blues, Led Zeppelin, Cars, ZZ Top, Blue Oyster Cult, Elton John,
Ozzy Osbourne, Black Sabbath, Yes, Alan Parsons Project, Tom Petty,
The Doors, Eric Clapton, Bad Company, you know, the usual...
Entertainment:
I quit watching TV in 1986. My idea of "quality time" is to grab a book.
Science fiction was my first love - Norton, Heinlein, Laumer, Vance, and
the rest. I've read a big chunk of all the old stuff, but the new
generation of writers mostly leaves me cold, so I branched out into
detective and mystery stories - John Sandford, Dick Francis, and even some
Clive Cussler. In the last couple of years I've had a sudden interest in
history, primarily WWII, but I'll pick up anything that looks interesting.
The first thing I do when I go to a new town is check out all the used book
stores.
I used to spend a lot of time on BBSs, Compuserve, and BIX. Online fora
seem to be out of favor nowadays (netnews is not a suitable replacement) so
I spend my time on a dozen-odd mailing lists, mostly automotive or firearm
related.
Politics:
I think Rush Limbaugh is a commie pinko liberal. The Republicans are a
bunch of wimps and the Democrats only want to steal my money and civil
rights to buy votes from the Welfare Proletariat. You can probably
extrapolate my opinions and viewpoints fairly accurately from there.
Philosophy:
I seem to have some sort of blind spot with regard to "ethics" and "morals."
The kind of people who think they're important seem to be unable to explain
them to me, somehow I'm supposed to "just know." I think they didn't put
enough aluminum foil in their hats last time the Saucer People visited.
Since I apparently missed the day we covered this "morals" stuff in school,
I had to make up some of my own. Boiled down from much thought, the list
resolved down to this:
#1) I don't lie.
#2) I don't take any shit.
#3) I don't give any shit.
#4) I don't steal from my friends.
Only four, and they didn't come from anywhere on stone tablets, golden
plates, or divine inspiration. Hell, I don't always live up to them,
simple as they are - #2 is a problem in Real Life(tm). Most of the ethics,
morals, commandments, and precepts people manage to explain to me seem to
resolve down to #3 in the end.
Net:
I haven't quite been around since the beginning, but I've been online
since long before the Web and into PCs since hard disks were considered
exotic paraphernalia. About my only claim to fame, though, is that I
was the original creator and Keeper of the rec.motorcycles FAQ, back
long ago.
Old .sig files:
I used a Nazareth lyric in my 1992 .sig.
=======================================================================
can you help me...help me get out of this place?...slow sedation...
ain't my style, ain't my pace...giving me a number...NINE, SEVEN, EIGHT
(Nazareth) XJ900 TURBO at 15psi DoD# 978 xKotFAQ
=======================================================================
The .sig got spruced up a bit in 1995...
[email protected]========================DoD#978=======
can you help me...help me get out of this place?...slow sedation...
ain't my style, ain't my pace...giving me a number...NINE, SEVEN, EIGHT
==5.0 RX7 -> Tyrannosaurus RX! == SAE '82 == Denizens of Doom M/C '92==
And this .sig came about in early 1998.
[email protected]======================================
I've got a secret / I've been hiding / under my skin / | Who are you?
my heart is human / my blood is boiling / my brain IBM | who, who?
=================================== http://home1.gte.net/42/index.htm
The lyrics in the .sig file are from "Mr. Roboto"
from Styx' "Kilroy Was Here" and from "Who Are You?"
from The Who's "Who's Next?" albums.
Most people didn't seem to "get" the Who part. I'd get email from people
saying, "I know! I know!"
The current one is:
[email protected] (Dave Williams)==============================
== waiting, anticipating / for someone to save her soul / well, I ==
== ain't no new Messiah / but I'm close enough for rock and roll! ==
============================= http://www.bacomatic.org/~dw/index.htm
Back in the Real Old Days(tm) there was status in having a really
ancient .sig file...
