GraniteGrok

I was raised in Brockton, MA. Graduating from Brockton High in 1974, I went to BU and got a BA in in Biology in 1978 figuring on going to Med School afterwards. However, having started with a DEC PDP-8e while at BHS and moving on to an IBM 360 / 370 / 3033 while at BU, I ditched the idea of becoming an MD and and heeded the siren call of computers.  So, I pursued an MS in Computer Science (BU, 1984) and in so doing, disappointed Mom who wanted a doctor for a son. I've worked for a number of former computer giants (Honeywell Information Systems, Wang Laboratories, Digital Equipment Corp) that no longer exist, as well as a handful of smaller companies that died as well (isn't technology change wonderful?). A strange journey indeed. Even owned a small business with my wife for a while. I've programmed, consulted, done pre-sales, taught, and done tech support. Currently, I am a technical analyst for a software company headquarted in California.

Met my wife-to-be during my first (and only full time) year as a graduate student - we've been married for 26 years. Two sons, now grown, leaving time for newer hobbies.

For most of my life, I was apolitical like most engineers - wrapped up in work, family, and for me, church (I am an Evangelical Christian attending an Independent [but conservative] Baptist church). I was in my own little bubble - the typical engineer - I just wanted to be left alone to code and live my life. However, I learned in my late 20's that there were things other than coding that were important, especially those folks called politicians that could make drastic decisions about and my family without my input. Listening to this guy by the name of Rush Limbaugh and reading business magazines, things started to click (ok, slowly - but they clicked!), "stuff" percolated. Always thinking that I was a middle of the road person, I learned I really was a Conservative, Finally, fired up over a Letter to the Editor by a real liberal person besmirching the US, I wrote my first Rebuttal Letter to the Editor. Found out that I liked to factually refute silliness passing as opinion in addition to getting some nice comments on what I wrote, I continued on.....

Wrote a few more, and one was noticed by a local conservative radio host and was asked to come in for what I thought was one time shot, but turned out to be more.  The natural outcome of this was this blog, so I hope you enjoy it!

Doug and I also migrated to our own show (along with Pat Hynes of AnkleBitingPundits) called Meet The New Press - a two hour show on WEMJ 1490AM here in NH (and live streamed to the Web)

Who'da thunk it?

I appreciate you visiting us! Feel free to drop me a line or add a comment to any of the postings - join us!

-Skip