About Me
Self-portrait
I grew up in a small town in Eastern Washington and graduated from high school in 1965. There were nine other students in my graduating class and I had known some of them since the first grade. In 1969 I graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in mathematics. I married my wife Joyce in 1972.
Some of my interests include my old 1972 Chevrolet pickup. I've been working on it for over twenty years. It has over 260,000 miles on the original engine and, although it isn't very attractive, it's in excellent mechanical condition. It reminds me of the Millennium Falcon*. "It may not look like much, but it's got it where it counts." I'm thinking of naming it "Decade Sparrow."
Often when I have time available, I try to add to my family tree. I've been able to trace my ancestors back to the seventeenth century. Although I haven't been able to locate any aristocrats among them, I haven't found any criminals either. Most of my ancestors were farmers or craftsmen.
For more than thirty years, I've been trying to make my money grow by investing it well. I've invested in stocks, mutual funds, commodity futures, and real estate. The results have been fairly good in everything except real estate. That was simply a disaster. I've decided to sell all my real estate and invest in something safe and sane like futures. I think my real estate problems were fascinating and almost unbelievable. Perhaps I'll write about them someday. I've spent a lot of time trying to develop mechanical trading systems. If you're interested in this subject, you can learn more by clicking on the trading tab.
I've been interested in humor all my life. Most people consider humor to be lightweight literature, but I take it very seriously. To me it is one of the great art forms. Click on the links to the left to see some examples I particularly like.
My favorite authors are Mark Twain, Patrick McManus, and especially P.G. Wodehouse. I love classic rock and roll, and rhythm and blues music.
* The Millennium Falcon was the name of Han Solo's spaceship in the movie, Star Wars.