rec.humor.funny
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Jim Griffith Home Page
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JIM GRIFFITH - MY INTERESTS
There are a few passions which rule my life:
- Music -
I am one of the lucky few people whose work lets him listen to music
non-stop, and I take advantage of that fact every chance I get. One
of the greatest highs for me is churning out code while listening to
Pink Floyd's "One Slip", Genesis' "Squonk", or Bruce Hornsby's
"Rainbow's Cadillac". The only "perfect moment" in my life that I can
remember is driving home from Berkeley at one in the morning when
"Comfortably Numb" came on the radio. My tastes are pretty
conventional - Pink Floyd, Peter Gabriel, Genesis, Bruce Hornsby, and
a few others. I have a reputation at work for being the company's
music lending library, because I keep my entire collection there.
- My work -
In college, I managed to join a student computing group called "The
Experimental Computing Facility" (the XCF), which gave students
computer access provided they work on a group-approved project and
help other students who use one of the nearby terminal rooms. I
spent the last two years of college working with some of the best engineers of
my generation - people who were closely involved in the development
of BSD and more popular Internet software, such as Xtrek and
multi-player Empire. When I graduated, I was hired by a company
which had already hired most of my XCF friends, and I got to spend
another three years learning the correct way to engineer software.
I have a great respect for well-engineered software (which may
explain both my respect for All Things UNIX and my complete disdain
of Lord Gates and anything with the Microsquish trademark). Because
of this, I have a reputation at work for being a Purist and a Code
Cop (I should point out that this isn't necessarily considered to
be a good reputation).
- The Internet and USENET -
I discovered the Internet and USENET my freshman year of college
(shortly after The Great Renaming), and I've been on it ever since.
The initial attraction came from newsgroups such as (then) rec.arts.tv,
rec.arts.movies, and rec.arts.startrek, which told me of news of
upcoming events long before any of my friends or family knew about
them. My family thought I was nuts to rave on and on about "this
Internet thing", until my dad (who lives in Austria) discovered that
he too had Internet access, and he could email me and avoid long-distance phone bills. Shortly before graduating from Berkeley,
people became interested in what was to become
rec.arts.startrek.info.
I'd always had a great respect for
Brad
(rec.humor.funny) Templeton,
Peter (comp.risks) Neumann,
and David
(news.announce.newgroups) Lawrence, plus a great love of All
Things Trek, so the moderator's job appealed to me. Last year, I became
moderator of rec.humor.funny. I view moderated newsgroups as one
of the most positive services that USENET has to offer.
- Driving -
Every year, I drive cross-country as my big vacation. I own a '91
Dodge Stealth, which already has 130,000 miles on it. My first
trip was from home to LA to Galveston TX, to Ames IA, to Chicago,
to Evansville IN, then back home. My second was home to Chicago,
to DC, to Galveston, to LA, then back home. My third was home to
Chicago, to Durham NC, back home. My last road trip was home to
Galveston, back home. I held my very own, private party when the
national speed limit was repealed.
- Lemurs -
Don't *even* ask me to explain this one. I'm not sure I could.
Let's just say that they're cute, they're fuzzy, they're intelligent,
and they're endangered, through no fault of their own. I support
the Duke University Primate Center,
a facility which conducts captive
breeding of lemurs. I also read
alt.fan.lemurs.