John1Pa's profile

View all favorite photos

Relationship

Married

Hometown

Broomall, Pennsylvania

Places I've been

Traveled all over and lived for a time in; Neptune, New Jersey; Paris, France

Education

• Marple-Newtown High School - 1968 to 1971
• Penn State University, BA; Philosophy - 1971 to 1974
• Drexel University, MS; Library Science - 1976 to 1977

More about me

I was laid-off from my job in IT and computer networking in September 2011, but I was fortunate enough to be able to declare this an “early retirement”.  I spent much of my career with small high-tech start-ups, although my last gig was working for a major pharmaceutical company. Now I am a perfectly contented house-husband and I spend my time cooking, cleaning and maintaining home and garden. My wife continues to be engaged in many independent projects, as she has for years. These include martial arts instructor, professional harpist, live-theater impresario and AM-radio DJ.

My major hobby is photography, which I have been into since high-school. My personal Flicker page contains selected digital photos that I have taken over time. This represents those images that I am personally most pleased with. Although it is strictly amateur and volunteer, I also do photographic “commissions” for local organizations and events. My pictures can show up in marketing materials and local newspapers that way. As my one expensive vice, I do have a pile of very nice pro-grade camera gear (that has cost me an obscene amount of money).

 

We have about 3-acres of landscaped property and 50-year-old house in semi-rural SE-Pennsylvania, and I spend a lot of time doing flower gardening and outdoor puttering from March through November.

 

  I am also into history, especially the ancient and medieval periods and I do a lot of reading on this. My own ancestors first came to the US in the 1630 “Winthrop Fleet” (the Massachusetts Bay Colony that founded Boston). We can actually find his name in the passenger list. They then moved on to Martha’s Vineyard for a few generations, and then to Vermont and New York state and I was born in Pennsylvania. I am the 12^th generation of my family in this country, but with no children, that’s all folks.

      

Although I write in my Eons blog periodically, after long debate with myself I decided to disable public commentary on my blog posts.  If you have an opinion or observation on anything that you see in my blog, feel free to send me a private message. My PM’s are open to all and I am happy to hear another person’s point of view, but I just don’t want these to be permanently and publicly tacked onto my original blog entry.

 

 

Activities

Photography, Flower Gardening

Favorite Charities

We try to keep it local and for stuff that we “consume” (or might), such as the area’s Fire and Rescue crew and local senior services. The one large-scale group that we like is Medecins San Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders).

Favorite Music

Jazz, Sirius “Chill”

Favorite Movies

K-Pax; Lord of War; The Usual Suspects; Bringing out the Dead; Casablanca

Favorite Books

Actually, it's my Kindle reader. I got this for Christmas 2009, and it is GREAT. Since then I've been doing more reading than I have for years because it is so convenient and inexpensive. Most of what I have bought for it is non-fiction history, by the way.

Favorite Quotes

"Any idiot can make something difficult, but it takes real talent to make something simple." (me) "You'll never know how much is enough, until you know how much is TOO much" (me)

Favorite People

Actually, all of my favorite people are aliens, and you wouldn't know them..

Favorite Places

PARIS; If you have never been there, put it on your Bucket List now.

Favorite Animals

Cats; the highest form of life on the planet (my cat told me so!).

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