hello (-;

friends keep sayin' i should start a Blog, so, here it is, bert, lol (-;
i reckon i should start with a bit about myself, so's all y'all can decide if ya wanna carry on?
my name is jim, last name starts with E, and i answer to jime right well (-;
i'm a coffee-holic, n much more likely to be found with a bowl or doobie than booze, and prefer books to tv, screw that mindless drivel!
i'm a late mid 40's white male, from deep in the ozarks of southern missouri ( read hillbilly ) , that left home in "72" to work as a carnie, and never really returned.....
i've done a wide variety of things since then, takin' breaks from the " biz " here n yonder to try this n that, like military, marriage, " straight jobs " n such, finally gettin' out of the biz " for good " in sumer of 98....
educationally, i'm a drop-out, last grade i completed in school was 9th, although i have since gotten my GED, an associate of the arts degree in a now defunct field, and acquired a wealth of " real life " knowledge (-;
i'm a very militant lefty, as should be readily apparent by my " backwards " smiley....
politically, i vary from conservative, to liberal in my views, n chances are right good i raise the hackles of staunch members of both major parties, as i'm willin' to rip the asses of any of the " contenders "...
i actually believe the Libertarian party is the best choice for a strong and viable nation, but practice a philosophy of Rational Anarchism....
( for those who don't know that concept, think of it as i'll do for myself, thank you, n pay the consequences of my actions without whinin', snivellin', etc. )
there is a book i highly recommend to all: http://www.mcwilliams.com/books/aint/ , which should be on everyones desktop for daily perusal.......
morally, i'm on the side of good, in that i refuse to rob, pillage, murder gratuituously, or be a predator of women or children... ( although the true criminals, crack dealers, sexual predators, etc. are fair game for whatever may befall them as a result of their chosen path, n don't give me that liberalist bullshit about " it's a disease, they need help, not punishment " )
i'm a firm believer that The Good Lord created adam n eve, not adam n steve, n that He created woman to be eaten, not beaten, and children should be chastised with a few well aimed blows to they asses when needed......
i won't call myself a " christian ", due in large part to the incessant hypocrisy evidenced by such folk, although i do believe in Christ.....
musically, i like folk, blues, classic rock, older country, shaped note singin', and any variation of that sort of sound.... ( currently, listenin' to John Prine doin' " Sam Spade " on real rhapsody n whatever else i happen to have in my play list )
i'm basically an itchy-footed gypsy sorta feller, have travelled the nation extensively, as a hitch hiker, a train rider, a trucker, on a motorcycle, ( folks tend to think i'm a biker, although i refuse that label as well, not into that whole " patch holder cultural scene ", ) or what have you, usually with tattoo gear close to hand........
i first found the internet in early " 98 ", usin' eMail to keep in contact with more sedentary family members in public libraries, then my cousin Brian turned me onto a contraption called Webtv, which was lots cheaper than a computer, n had the advantage of bein' easily transported, which fit right well into life as i was livin' it, lol...
folks, this ole hillbilly was so ignorant back then, i actually thought it was a computer (-;
anyhoo, i got my first web in sep 98, basically for eMail n research, couple months later, started explorin' the features it offered, found this thing called " chat " n found a room that was tolerant of my nonexistent typin' skills n lack of speed ( my thanks to all those in www.talkcity.com 's room that was then known as #genealogy, and is currenty re-incarnated as #flirts--friends ...it wasn't long untill a chat acquaintance sent me an eMail that quite literally blew my mind, as it had colors, sounds & images!!! in it, which was my introduction to html, which for those who don't know, is the basic buildin' blocks for all things internet related (-;
html soon became a passion to me, geez, i even dreamed html for a while, lol.
a year or so later, i became enmeshed in the html culture so prevalent on webtv in those days, became a member and eventually a mod squad member of the once great band of brethren and sistren known as www.expert-html.com ( which, unfortunately, is no longer what it was ) and several other such alliances of kindred spirits...
ahhhh, the friendships made in those days, the knowledge acquired and shared, the bonds created among folks who, for the most part, will never meet eye to eye, the joys and troubles shared......
all y'all puter users will never understand the sense of community we had........
i'm very much a pack rat sorta feller, n folks found if they had a prob, or question, i wasn't shy to help as best i could, so it wasn't long n ppl started askin' me questions bout not only html, javascript, etc., but puter stuff as well.
not bein' the sorta cat that likes to talk out my ass, a puter was becomin' essential, lol
in oct of y2k, i made the plunge: i bought a brand new pc, had 64 megs of RAM, a 7 gig HDD, and a 556 mhz celeron cpu, runnin' win98se, n started figgerin' this contraption out a bit ( that system is still around, albeit the only parts bein' used are the cpu n case, lol )
i have since gotten into internal mods, buildin' systems for fun and profit, and piddlin' with Linux.....
more later (-;