Hobbies

A Man With Many Talents

Starting in 1987 with a Leading Edge Model D 8088 computer and a 14.4 baud dialup modem, began with Community Bulletin Board Systems (BBS).With the birth of the Internet, along came AOL and put the BBS community out to pasture. Needless to say, the BBS owners upgraded their systems and joined the ranks running servers for Internet Relay Chat (IRC). I ran 2 chatrooms on Undernet and 2 bots that maintained the channels. Met my Ex online, and we joined forces and created a botnet with about 14 bots linked together from various other chatrooms. Rather neat concept and a lot of fun. I was singled out by a friend and was granted IRC Operator status on another IRC Network and ran an IRC server. I made lots of frineds around the world and strenthend my knowledge of UNIX. A few of those friends I still keep in constant contact with to this day on Facebook. With the new computer language of HTML, I quickly learned that and started what would be now the career path I choose. One of the first “gigs” I got was helping out a friend from IRC as his backup webmaster. GeoCities kept losing his files which didn’t set well, considering the nature of the website. Steve Schalchlin created a diary website on GeoCities as a communication tool between his doctors and family. He was diagnosed with AIDS with a short time to live. Steve’s online diary was quickly discovered, and word traveled fast. People from all around the world reading and emailing Steve with words of encouragement. With GeoCities burping all the time, I told Steve we’re moving to your own server. And we did. It pissed GeoCities off bigtime, as they used Steve’s story as their marketing tool. We registered www.bonusround.com The power of the Internet was starting to unfold. With encouragement worldwide, Steve remained compelled to maintain his diary. He had a newly discovered fanbase. He is now credited as the oldest and maintained diary on the Internet. It was through Steve’s diary that Dr. Bruce Dorsey found him in 1997, who was the Dr. who invented Crixivan and wanted Steve to be one of the first recipients. Steve was in the final stages of life. This wonder drug saved him. He got well, wonders never cease, and still continues writing songs which is/was his therapy. He is the songwriter for the numerously awarded Broadway Play, “The Last Session” with the autobiographical songs he wrote during his recovery period. Yes, guess who stepped in and registered www.thelastsession.com on the night before Thanksgiving so the website team had it up on the server by Monday. The first Broadway show with a website. Words and music by Steve Schalchlin (YouTube: SteveShack). Tshirt by yours truly.

Working with Steve inspired me to continue serving the community thru the power of the Internet. I was given a gift, and I use it to help others. I had an idea and set out with GayVeterans.com, GayNYC.Net and GayNJ.Net, resource websites for the community. it was a success. One afternoon, I got a call from none other than Jon Galluccio who the past few days was all over the national news about his historic case involving the right for same sex couples having the right to jointly adopt childern, kicking off the gay adoption tidal wave. He said I was higly recommended by several, and he said the media frenzy was drving him crazy. So I told him to relax, breathe, and email me what he wanted released and a a few pictures. We chatted an by the time we were done, I had his website online and gave him the address, he was like OMG!, which I hosted on GayNJ.Net. I assmed a new role, webmaster for the Galluccios which went on for several years. They are a powerhouse family.

Felipe Rose (the Indian of the Village People) was my neighbor a block down in Jersey City. We became friends and hung out, and omg was he fun!. I got his interest, wanted to know how he could harness the power of this thing called the world wide web, we chatted, and I got feliperose.com and tomahawkrecords.com (his recording company) registered for him. He was on cloud nine.

People are people. They all have their status and want the same things in life. Treat them as people, respect their status, and get to know the person for who they are, not what.

Burnout of NYC, a relationship bites the dust, and I moved back home to DC. Landed a job with the American Psychological Association where I maintained thier Journals Program website an their InPress Server for 13 years. Did my research and launched GayDC.Net using the same concept with GayNYC.Net and GayNJ.Net. The DC Metropolitan Police Dept. launched a new concept, a Gay and Lesbian Liason Unit (GLLU) and I met with the Sgt. in charge. We discussed my MP community outreach background, and my website concept, and we agreed he had full permission to bring his message to the people in the manner how they wanted (rainbow flags and community pictues, etc), not bound by DC Government/MPD restrictions. We got the website online, and within a week the DC Metro Area LGBTQ community knew where to go to contact GLLU, not buried deep within the MPD Gov’t website.I was granted permission to join the GLLU as a commmunity liaison, working with them doing community outreach. There were only a few granted this status. Both Chief Ramsey and the Mayor gave their blanket of approval. Within a month or two, it became nationally known to the law enforcement community on just how to handle hate crimes, and the problems associated with the LGBTQ community. It got as far as London, who modeled their own GLLU after DC’s. They extended an invitaiton to join them in their upcoming gay pride festivals. Several members went and were even hosted by London GLLU members.

You can find me now on Facebook, where I enjoy sharing meme’s. Having a bad day, sit back and watch, I’m bound to make you laugh, or try to anyways. I’m also on IMVU.com for the past 12 years running 3D chatrooms and showcasing my talents as a Tier 9 (out of 10) content developer.

Update!

Just as I was gearing up for retirement, inspiration struck. Why not create a portal for the LGBTQ Veterans community? With that idea, I went into high gear and launched GayVeterans.us. I’m adept at designing websites, but I’m not up-to-date with the current WordPress standards. It’s been over a decade since I was in the development field, and technology has certainly progressed. I’ve brought on a new developer for the backend work; his name is Danyal, and he’s based in China. He’s really great! Should you appreciate his work, feel free to contact me, and I would be happy to connect you with him.

Now I'm Going To Embarrass Myself

Enter the world of hidden talents

I remember on my 13th birthday, on the family vacation to Nashville, TN, we went and saw the Grand Ole Opry. The opry cloggers came on and did their thing right after intermission. I told my dad that’s something I wanna get into! Years past, and I found the Old Dominion Cloggers. Was a fun bunch but they were limited on what it was they did. I wanted more. So I looked up the Foggy Bottom Cloggers who practiced every Friday night in Camp Springs, MD, around the beltway from where I was on the outskirts of Andrews AFB. And I was hooked. A young adult team with a lot of stamina and energy. We did the competition circuit which included Chesapeake VA competition hosted by Flatland Cloggers, and the West Virginia State Regatta and Clogging Competion. Both had live bands playing the entire time and WVa was considered the “superbowl” of the competions circuit. Teams from all up and down the East Coast came. It started at 8:00am with a 1 hour break for dinner, and ended around 11:00pm after all the awards were given out. 2 years in a row we placed first, beating the reigning team from Hickory Flat, NC by a narrow margin, so close they had to do recounts.