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Hi, welcome tothe personal web page of JC Hull.
Computer geek, pagan, husband, father, EMT-B, and avid 4 wheeler. I feel that
if a web page is created well enough, it can be done with little graphics at
all, so you're not going to find too many on this site. I've decided that for
those of you that really care what's going on in my life at the moment, you can
continue reading further because I've decided to do a kind of running diary on
this page. This is not, by far, a complete picture, merely some of the
highlights and lowlights of what I'm doing.
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1/22/05 Man it's been a while since I updated this page. I hadn't realized
how long it had been until someone emailed me and pointed out it had been a
while. Anyway, let's see. I'm no longer working for Bank One. After JP Morgan
bought out Bank One in July of 2004 then decided that they didn't need all of us
contractors anymore so they let all but one or two of us go. Of course it
wasn't only us contractors that got the boot, about 1/2 the full time real
employees that worked in the IT field also got the boot. I believe August 15th
was my last day there. After that I collected unemployment for several months
until DSI,
the company I was working through with Bank One, found me another contract with
the City of Dublin.
That's the good news, the bad news is that it's only supposed to be an 8 week
contract. So after the first week of February, I'm unemployed again.
Want some good news? Ok, Marcy, my wife, is pregnant! Yep, we found out at the middle of August 2004 that she was expecting. She's due some time around the first of May. Which is, in itself rather ironic since our anniversary is May 3rd. How's that for an anniversary present? Not really much more going in. Marcy's still working for Koverman and Smith, a law firm in downtown Dayton, Oh, and I'm still looking for a permanent job, working on the contract with the City of Dublin and running with Union Township Life Squad.
7/24/04 Where do I start this time? Since the last time I updated the page I haven't really done all that much. I'm still working with DSI on a contract with Bank One. Although I have no idea who much longer that is going to last. My contract (as well as the rest of the 20 or so contractors there) is going to expire on August 31, 2004 and I have no idea if it's going to be extended, or rolled over into a new contract with JP Morgan Chase or allowed to expire. As of today two of our contractors were notified that their contracts were being allowed to expire. There's been so many rumors running around the office that there's no telling what's true and what's not. Needless to say, I'm not waiting to the end of August to find out if I'm going to have a job or not, I'm actively looking now. It wouldn't be so bad if I could count on Marcy's job to hold us over till I found a new job, however, the law firm Marcy now works for is running into some trouble. They aren't sure if they are going to have enough clients to keep her on as an attorney. Rut roh. We're not too happy about that. Of course the good news is that Marcy is taking the bar exam for Ohio starting next week (it's a three day test) so as long as she passes, she'll be licensed in the State of Ohio. I have no doubts that she'll pass, but she's still worried about it.
Oh yeah, Taji's out here from South Dakota for a few weeks. Right now she's with my parents back in MD but I'll go pick her up next week. I'm still running with the Union Township Life Squad. As a matter of fact, I did my very first run as the primary care EMT the other day. A guy was in a minor MVA (Motor Vehicle Accident) and needed to go to the hospital. The Chief let me take the lead on patient care. Pretty cool. That was actually a good day for me since that very same day I got my first paycheck from the life squad (a whooping $9.23), a free 1.7 Ghz motherboard, and got to see a free movie with Taji. Couldn't have planned it any better.
4/13/04 I'll be damned! I actually did it!! For those of you that don't know, I've been interested in doing some sort of fire / EMS / rescue thing for a couple of years now. It all started a couple of years ago when I was unemployed for 8 months out of the year. I figured I needed something to keep me occupied while I looked for a job. I got this letter from the city that I lived in saying they were looking for volunteers for their fire department and their rescue squad. So I called them, went down to the station and started running with the ambulance. I had a blast and at the same time I felt like I was giving something back to the community. I joined the Laurel Volunteer Rescue Squad and ran with them for a few months. Well, before they could get me enrolled in an EMT-B class I ended up getting a job in Dayton, OH and I had to move. That put a hold on things until I got married, found a place to live and moved in. Once I did, I found the Union Township Life Squad. I'm now a member there and they paid to send me to an EMT-B class at Miami Valley CTC. I ended up doing pretty well there and finished the class with an 83 percent class average. Just passing the class doesn't make you an EMT-B. Once you pass the class, you still have to take the NREMT (National Registry EMT) test. I took that test on April 3rd, 2004 and they said it would be 2 - 3 weeks before I found out whether I passed or not. However, you could check their web site earlier then that to see. Well, I've been checking every single day and today they had it posted that I passed!!
10/15/03 Well, 2003 is almost over. You wouldn't believe what I've done. I got married! NO sh*t! On May 3rd, 2003 Marcy and I got married in Defiance, OH. I know what your thinking, 'Defiance, OH? What'd ya go and get married there for?' Well, we'd been thinking about having the wedding up the road from where we were living but I ended up getting a job in Dayton, Oh in March. Yeah, you read that right. I'm not living in Dayton, OH. Well, technically it's not Dayton. It's actually a little town about 15 miles north west of Dayton called Laura, OH. Thriving metropolis of 482. That was before Marcy and I moved here. It's now up to 484, wahoo! There's not a whole lot to the town. Three streets that run north and south and about 6 that run east and west. I'm now working for Bank One. Actually, I work for Diversified Systems, Inc, but I'm on contract to Bank One as a National LAN Administrator. It's not quite as glorified as it sounds.
You see, the reason I moved out here Bank One is in the process of upgrading their entire NetWare 4 system to NetWare 6. What I was hired to do is all the pre deployment stuff like setting up users, printers and applications so that when the deployment actually does happen all the desktop techs need to do is through down an image onto the PC, reboot and log in as the user. It doesn't quite work that way because by the time we actually get to deployment weekend the department / site that's getting upgraded generally changes their mind about 1,000 times regarding who is deploying, what applications need to be loaded, and what printers the user actually needs. But all in all, it's what I've been trying to get back into for a while, and that's working with an exclusive Novell network. As a matter of fact, Bank One has the largest Novell network in the entire country. Fortunately I'm not the only one working on this project. At the moment, we've got 15 contractors that are all doing varies degrees of what I do. The pay is good, about what I was marking back in MD, but the cost of living is a lot cheaper out here. Out here in Ohio Marcy and I can actually live on just my salary alone, which is good because Marcy hasn't had much luck finding a job. She's on a temporary job now but that won't last long. Marcy's taking the Indiana bar exam in February and the Ohio bar exam next July.
Oh yeah, one last thing. Marcy and I are also going to be teaching some pagan classes out here. We weren't really planning on teaching classes but we've had a bunch of people come up to us (her, really) and specifically asked her to teach. So she's going too and I'm going to help her. IF things work out (and that's a big IF) we may end up starting a coven. That's way down the road though. We'll see how things go with classes first. We're going to advertise to the pagan community out here and see what kind of response we get. We're probably not going to start till after the first of 2004.
I know that's a heck of a lot of updates, but it's been an eventful year. So far, a HECK of a lot better then 2002 went. On that happy note I think I'll get back to my lauch.yahoo.com music.
1/2/03 Welcome to 2003! I am so glad that the year 2002
is OVER with!! So far, I'd have to say that 2002 will probably go down in my
personal history book as THE WORST year. I know I shouldn't say that, because it
could get worse, but it was bad. July probably being the worst. Got a lot of
time to read? Good, I've got a lot of updates for you. If you've been reading
along, you'll know that I lost my job in July 2002. I FINALLY found another job
in November. I'm now working as a contractor from Cue Data Services, Inc. The
one single client that I'm working with is Constellation Energy Group up in
lovely (choke, choke) downtown Baltimore City. It's a step down the career scale
for me, but at least it's a job. I'm working the 24 hour IT Help Desk. Mostly
all I do is answer phones and route problems from one person to another. There's
not a whole heck of a lot that I can do on the network. About the only thing I
DON'T have to call someone else for is reseting passwords. The hours stink with
this job too, 6pm to 2am. Yea, you read that right, it's a night job. I am NOT a
night person. The area down here after dark really stinks too. Bums, homeless
people, drug dealers, junkies, and drunks are about the only people that
populate downtown Baltimore City after dark. I had my beautiful Jeep broken into
the first part of December. But hey, at least it's a job and I can pay my own
bills again.
Oh yeah, the other reason why December sucked was because my hot water heater
broke and dumped well over 30 gallons of water onto and through the floor in the
laundry room. I've got an estimator coming out January 6th to take a look at it
and tell me what he thinks. Needless to say, this is an insurance claim.
10/09/02 Long time no news, huh? Well, the least time I reformated and reloaded
my PC, I seem to have lost my copy of Front Page and I really didn't feel like
doing my editing in notepad. I could, I'm capable of it, but it's too much of a
pain in the ass. Ok, latest news. I'm unemployed. Yeah, you got it.
Everything was going along great at the Office of the Federal Public Defender in
Alexandria, and they decided that they didn't like how I was administering the
networks in the Richmond and the Norfolk offices, so they asked me to resign.
Of course this was way back in July. Here it is October and I'm STILL out of a
job. It's not like I'm not qualified for anything, I mean I'm a CNA and an MCP.
Yeah, ok, if I had completed all my tests for both Novell and Microsoft, I'd be
a CNE and an MCSE, but it's way too much work and I'm not thrilled with either
of their tests. So, know anyone hiring? If so, send them to my
resume, here.
Thanks.
5/22/02 Oh
my goodness, I’ve gone and done it. Yep, that’s right. I’ve got
an proposed to a woman. It's ok, sit down, breath.
Yeah, I really do mean what you just read. :) For those of you that don't know
(or I haven't filled in for a while) I've been dating this wonderful woman named
Marcy A. Vonderwell, Esquire (yeah, she's a lawyer)
for the last year. She moved in with me a few months ago and this past weekend
we decided to go to
Next topic. Living arrangements. Guess what? I haven’t told any of you all this yet. Well, not publicly anyway, but privately I’ve told damn near everyone and everyone that knows me, just plain knows. The girl I’ve been dating for a year now has moved in with me. No shit. She certainly has. Can you believe that? She spent most of last summer with my and my daughter and she loves Taji. Hell, of every 7 days in the week, she was at my house for at least 4 of them. So I was thinking, why not, she’s here most of the time anyway.’ Of course, before I actually had a chance to ask her, she actually asked ME what I thought about the idea of her moving in. I said, ‘sounds fine to me.’ Of course this floored her. That was the last thing she EXPECTED me to say. See, I still have a few surprises left in me. And just about everyone that knows her has asked her, ‘so, when ya getting married?’ Hey now, let’s not push it. We’ve only known each other for 4 years and friends and been dating for a year now.
Finally, but certainly not least. Four wheeling. As you know, I took my first off road trip in September of last year. Since then I’ve been a couple of times (and done some damage to my Jeep). All of the damage to my Jeep has been repaired. I also decided that I was going to take the winter off and before I went off roading again, I was going to make a few improvements. Some of them I’ve done, but I’ve kind of decided that my Jeep is going to be a ‘work in progress’ from now on. The most important improvement I has planned on making was upgrading my ‘stock’ tires to 31 inch tires. I did that a few weeks ago. Wow. What a different it makes. The very weekend I upgraded my tires I just HAD to try them out and went out with the Mudbugs. Last time I had gone I bottomed out over a considerable number of bumps, and rocks and things. Not this time. I sailed over everything I crossed. I haven’t gotten a lift kit yet, but that’ll come. In time. I also got a new CB antenna and mount. Haven’t put it on yet though. I have got to find some time to actually drill the holes for the mounting bracket. I’m going to try to get to it this week.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot. House
news. About two months ago, we had some really,
really high winds come through
Think that’s it for this time around. I’ll try to update this a bit more often in the future. But don’t hold your breath on it.
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11/9/01 Ok, it's been a month. It's time for
another update. One of the things at
DelCor
that was a requirement (and in my official offer of employment letter) was that
I be certified within six months of starting work at DelCor.
Well, when I started I was already a Novell CNA (Certified NetWare
Administrator) 4.11 and 5.1, so I didn't think it was too big of a deal. Well
when I had my six month review, I was told that the CNA didn't count (I could
probably argue it, but why bother). So I started taking the MS Windows 2000
MCSE (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer) training classes back in July. They
got temporarily suspended due to the events on 9/11 since my class was scheduled
in downtown DC. So in the interim, I decided to go ahead and study and take one
of my 6 tests. So last Monday, October 29th, 2001, I took 70-210, Installation,
Configuration, and Administration of Windows 2000 Professional and PASSED my
test! Which, technically, makes me a MCP (Microsoft
Certified Professional). I'm not sure if that actually satisfies my
contract, but hey, I'm working on the MCSE anyway. Now I've just got to update
my resume. Which, you'll find
here.
10/01/01 Well, I've got a LOT to report this time around. It's amazing how much things can change in only a few weeks. So, do you want the good news, or the bad news first? Ok, I'll give you the good news first. Last weekend, I went muddin' with the Maryland Mudbugs! Oh, what a blast I had! You have got to check out my additional pictures link and also their web site for the pictures from our ride! Never have I had so much fun getting dirty!
Well, that's the good news. The bad news is that while mudding, I managed to short out my alternator and kill my battery. Ouch. It's been a pretty expensive repair. I've come to the conclusion that I've GOT to get better equipment before I got muddin' with anyone. On that note though I did go a head and purchase front tow hooks and had them put on while I was getting my Jeep repaired. I also had purchased side mirror brackets so that I could move my mirrors off of the hard doors and put them on the frame. In the process of attempting to get the factory bolts off, I managed to strip my torx screw. Duh! So I went ahead and had the shop do it. Next on the list of things for the Jeep is a 2 inch (or more) lift kit AND bigger tires. The 30 inch tires are just NOT gonna work.
On the house news, I've almost completely got the place furnished. I bought a new queen sized bed about a month or so ago so that I now have a new bed for me, and a spare bed for when Taji (my daughter) comes down to visit. She was here for a month over the summer and we got her room all put together with my old bed and some furniture and things. This past weekend I purchased a living room sofabed and love seat and that completes my furniture shopping. That'll be delivered in about 3 weeks. I still haven't upgraded the electrical system or renovated the bathroom or the kitchen yet. I'm kind of waiting till I've got some money built up into my savings account to pay for it.
So I had a most interesting holiday week. On the way
back from western Maryland to see my parents and family on Christmas day, my
Sidekick decides it wants to start giving me trouble. Not totally sure what the
trouble was, only that the damn thing was sounding like a lawn mower engine
every time I'd step on the accelerator. So I'd been toying with the idea of
trading it in anyway over the past month or so since I had a hole in the back
window and the electrical system seemed to be going funky (the interior and
dashboard lights would flash whenever I had my turn signal or hazard lights on)
I decided that I should probably start SERIOUSLY looking for a new vehicle. I'd
be debating whether to get a new Vitara or a used
Jeep. I've ALWAYS wanted a Jeep, but knew I couldn't afford a new one. So
after about a week of looking at just about every Jeep and Suzuki dealership I
could find, I finally found a 1997 Jeep Wrangler Sport at Car Max for
14,585.00. Considering it was pretty much loaded and it only had 26,000 miles
on it, I bought it. So, I've now joined that secret club of Jeep Wrangler
owners. You know, the ones that wave at each other
when they pass each other on the road.
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09/28/00 Well, you're not going to believe this,
well, actually, you probably will. The State of MD., DHMH actually decided to
send me to a NetWare 5.1 Administration class September 11th - 15th at
System Source
up north of Baltimore. Not only did I totally understand the class and the
software and everything, but I actually decided that I should take the test
too. So, I signed up for the Novell NetWare 5.1 Administration test and took it
on September 19th, and, I passed!! Out of a possible 800 points, I got 728
points! So, once again, I'm a CNA. So actually, at this point, I'm a CNA 4 and
5.
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05/25/00 IT'S FINISHED!! Wahoo!! Finally! After
well over six months of hell, my kitchen is FINALLY finished. But let me fill
you in on the last few weeks. The new cabinets and counter top were SUPPOSED to
be delivered on May 16th. When Home Depot told me this, I had them contact the
contractor to see if he could come in later that week to do the installation so
I wouldn't have random cabinets sitting in my apartment. He scheduled to come
in on May 18th and actually start the job and he estimated that he would be done
on the 19th. So, I scheduled three days off. The 16th,
18th, and 19th so that I could be there when he did the job and the cabinets
were delivered. Well, on the evening of the 15th, I had a call from the
delivery company that said the cabinets would not be delivered until the 18th.
So I called them back and said they had better deliver them the MORNING of the
18th since the contractor was going to be starting the job on that day. They
said no problem. So, the contractor showed up on the morning of the 18th, as
scheduled (for a change) and he proceeded to rip out the old cabinets. Well, we
waited for the new ones to be delivered. After about 1 pm and still not
cabinets, he had another job he needed to go to. So we scheduled for him to
come back first thing Friday morning. So at 4:30 pm, the cabinets finally
showed up. So I called Gary, the contractor, and told him the cabinets were
here, I'd see him on Friday morning. Well, Friday rolled around, and no Gary.
Friday afternoon rolled around. No Gary. After several
messages on all of his phone numbers, no Gary. He FINALLY called back
about
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04/28/00 Well, the cabinets have now been ordered
and Home Depot is trying to coordinate when they will compete the renovations.
That's the good news. The bad news is that the cabinets won't be delivered
until May 16, 2000 and they will be delivered to my place, not Home Depot.
Which means a couple of things. One, I'm going to
have to take at least a 1/2 day off to be there so I can let them in to deliver
the cabinets. The other thing it means is that I will have cabinets sitting in
my apartment until the contractor is available to come in and actually do the
renovations. With the way the general contractor has treated this whole damn
project, who knows when that will be. I had originally told him months and
months ago that while I wasn't in a hurry to have this completed, I did at least
want it done by the Spring of 2000. Well, here it
is, half way through spring and it's STILL not done. At least we are moving
forward though and that's always a plus.
BTW, the washer and dryer were installed, I've got a
'water sock vent' (or whatever) and it works great! Although I must admit, with
as much as I really LOVE not having to go to the Laundromat anymore, it's going
to be awful hot in my apartment come July and August when I'm doing laundry.
Yeah, I know, quite complaining right? I'm the one who wanted the washer and
dryer in the first place.
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03/30/00 Well now. I had called the contractor that
Home Depot had come out and look at the kitchen to have him start the ball
rolling on ordering the cabinets and things for my new kitchen last Friday,
March 24th. After three business days and him NOT calling me back, I called
Kevin, the guy I've been coordinating this with at Home Depot and told him I was
ready for the next phase of the renovations. He said I had to come in and order
all the cabinets and things. So, I'll be doing that tomorrow. Then I'll have
the contractor schedule a time to come in and do the actual installation. You
know, now that I've gotten all the electrical work done, things seem to be
rolling along quite well now. Let's just hope they stay that way.
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03/22/00 It's now Wednesday and as of
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03/08/00 Well, as of last Friday, March 3rd, 2000, I've FINALLY got all the
electrical hookups required for my washer and dryer to be installed in the
kitchen. The electricians showed up first thing in the morning from Milton
Electric (one of Baltimore Gas and Electric's home contractors) and by early
afternoon, I had a 220 V outlet and a 110 V outlet installed in my kitchen. The
110 V outlet is actually for an over the stove
microwave that I'm planning on having installed as part of the kitchen
renovation. The total cost was $520.00 and I've been told it was a bit pricey
and probably could have gotten it installed a bit cheaper, but the question is
how long would I have had to wait? The electrical contractor that Home Depot
had recommended to do the job STILL hasn't called me back after me paging him
and / or leaving him a message at least three times a week. Basically I
accomplished through BGE in two weeks what I couldn't get done in two MONTHS
from this other jerk. So, the first phase is complete!! FINALLY!! Now I need
to get with the plumber and schedule a time for him to come in and install the
actual washer and dryer. I've already got a call in to him and he has already
called me back. Now it's just a matter of getting our two schedules
synchronized. You know, I also need to contact our Board of Directors to see if
they have approved me venting the dryer through the roof like I had planned on.
If not, I'll have to use one of these 'sock vents' that you are supposed to put
in a bucket of water or something like that. Not thrilled with that idea, but
if that's what it takes to vent it, then I guess I'll
have too.
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My name is JC Hull. What can I say about myself? Well, I'm
a computer geek, I'm a pagan, I like 4 wheeling and off roading in general.
This page has basically become a 'running diary' of sorts to let people that
know me, keep up with me. I'm actually going to start deleting some of the
oldest of the diary information because who really cares what I did 5 years ago?
I was born and raised in Hagerstown,
Maryland, which is located up in the western panhandle of the state. I attended
Fountaindale Elementary school before moving on the
North Potomac Middle School.
One of my all time favorite virus software programs is Commandcom's Anti-Virus software, formerly known as F-Prot. You can buy it from command software, or you can do what I normally do and get the freeware / shareware version first before actually buying it. There are a multitude of Virus protection software out on the market including McAfee and Norton's Anti-Virus but F-Prot has always been my personal favorite. I like the user interface so much better then the others.
When I first started messing around with computers, about the only thing I ever did was play MUDs. In case you don't know what MUDs are, here is a link to one. This is nannymud. It's the one I started on and I still go there every now and then. I have a picture on this site somewhere. Don't remember exactly where though. If you do ever make it there, look for a character named 'shintu.' That's me. It is also only one of a few nicknames that I go by on the net.
Now that I have been working and playing with computers for several years now, I've got a decent home network going here at home. My 'primary' computer is a PII/366 running windows 98 and my 'secondary' machine is a P/200 running windows NT workstation. I'm actually not too thrilled with Windows 98, I much prefer 95 but it came preinstalled with 98 and I just haven't gotten around to reformatting and reloading it with 95. I've been so lazy lately that I might just keep 98 on it. I've got them networked using CompUSA's network in a box. It's two 100 MBS NICs with a 5 port 100 MBS hub. I bought the kit for $120.00. Not too bad for a complete network in a box. OK, the -real- reason why I wanted to network them together is so I could play games like Heretic, Doom, Duke Nukem 3D, and best of all, Quake across the network. Quake rocks playing on the Internet, but it REALLY rocks playing it across a local area network.
My favorite artist is Olivia de Berardini. She has done artwork for multiple issues of Heavy Metal and multiple calendars. There is a wonderful site that has some of her artwork here. Of course, they also have just about every other artist that you could possibly imagine from Boris Vallejo, to Hajime Sorayama, to Luis Royo. Plain and simple, of you like fantasy / sci-fi / erotica art, chances are you will find it. These artists also have some incredible virtual email cards too.
Spring is one of my favorite times of the year and that is because of the "Free Spirit Festival." The Free Spirit Alliance puts it on. They are a non-profit organization that basically promotes peace, love, and harmony in nature. Yes, they are also very strong supporters of Pagan groups in the Mid-Atlantic region of the US. You can link to FSA here if you want to go check them out. A couple of years ago, I also went to FSA's Fall Mysteries Retreat in October and in May (2000) I attended FSA's Beltaine celebration. It was a kickin' little festival. Although pretty small. And you know something? I think next year I think I'm going to skip the festivals in the Baltimore / DC area and head down to Texas for CMA's Beltaine celebration. Never been to a festival outside of this area and I'm really looking forward to seeing how pagans in other parts of the country celebrate.
Ok, in case you haven't figured out by now from looking at the various pieces and parts of my web site, let me clue you in on something. I'm a pagan. I follow a Wiccan path specifically and I've been very involved in the pagan community now for a couple of years. A few years ago a friend of mine came to the coven that I was in with this crazy idea of 'building pagan community within the Mid-Atlantic area. Well, this crazy idea has actually taken off and grown considerably over the past few years. It called the Mystic District Planning Coalition and it was originally designed to cover mostly the Washington, DC area. A few of us figured we could expand it northwards and began doing the Baltimore Pagan Night Out. It worked well for several years until some of us moved out of the area. MDPC's DC PNO program has now been taken over be the Open Hearth Foundation and they are doing a pretty good job of it.
If there isn't a link on this page that you might be interested in, check out here for just about every link I have. If you want, or need to contact me for anything, below are several ways of doing so. If you have any suggestions on what you might like to see here or any problems you encounter while wandering through my area please let me know about that too. Or, you could check out the rest of my pages.