I've always wondered what I would do with a web page if I ever had the opportunity to build one. I thought of all sorts of cool stuff I could put here: 100 megs of sounds from movies, television shows, and compact discs, tons of graphics from my rather extensive library of clip art and real art from my former girlfriend. Now that I have my page, though, I must admit that I am truly excited over the publishing and sales of my new book, Legendmaker- The Fantasy Roleplaying System. Yeah, I'm published now. Yippee! So, read on.... The rest of this stuff is going to be yet another egocentric venture into my own personal cyberspace.
I was born 26 June 1965 in the Georgia Baptist Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. When I was about six months old, I was adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Howard I. Scott, Jr. They named me. They also brought me a baby sister almost two years later. Her name is Margaret. She lives in Macon now with her daughter, Sydney Katherine.
Anyway, my father died when I was seven years old. A year later, my mother married William A. Lane. He adopted my sister and me several years later.
School wasn't too difficult for me. I attended Central Junior High and High Schools in Macon, Ga. When I graduated, I had my tour of schools: Auburn University, Andrew College, LaGrange College, six weeks in London at King's College, and some post-graduate work at Georgia Southern University.
From 1989 to 1999, I taught at West Laurens Middle School in Dublin, Laurens County, Georgia, under Mr. Cardon Dalley (1989-90) and Mr. George Knight, Jr. (1990-2000). I cannot leave these ten years out of my history. My time spent at WLMS was phenomenal. Mr. Knight was a wonderful administrator under whom I learned much about the administrative side of the education system. I also made several very good friends: Mr. Roger McAfee, teacher and administrator, whose two sons I taught; Mr. Lawton Kenp, member of the school board and grand supporter, and his wife, whose son and daughter I taught (his son has remained one of my closest friends and is now in the Navy); Mrs. Susan Johnson, whose sons I missed teaching but who both came to me for assistance in writing various Curriculae Vitae, and who, I must add, became the surrogate mother... Mrs. Johnson is a dear person and one to whom I owe much, both as supporter and friend; Mr. Ron Carson; Miss Graham Raymer (who has secretly married, but I won't tell); Brannon and Suzanne Brewer, both former students for whom I care greatly (Brannon spent some time living with me during his senior year of high school... I expect him to accomplish great things someday... Suzanne has moved back to Georgia, but I rarely get to speak to her); Trae Kemp, the son of Lawton Kemp, of whom I expect insanely great things; Derrick Wood, a friend of Brannon's who became a good friend of mine; Darrell, owner of MicroManagement Systems and NetLine America (host to this site), and his wife Connie, whose son I taught; Tony and Danielle, also owners of MMS and NLA, the list grows longer and more endless (if that's possible). Dublin is a part of my life I do not care to forget... many good things happened there, including the creation of my book, Legendmaker: The Fantasy Roleplaying System. Dublin was something I needed.
Now I teach. If all goes well, I am teaching at Miller Magnet School in Macon, GA... a premiere middle school teaching under a curriculum called Core Knowledge, which is absolutely amazing! This is the same school I attended in junior high preceding my high school carreer. Back then, they called it Miller Junior High School (actually, that's a lie. Miller Junior HIgh was in another building down the road. The building now occupied by Miller Magnet used to be Lanier A High School, part of the Central Complex in Bibb County, also a lie.. the old Lanier A has been torn down and the new Miller constructed in the same spot). I have come full circle, then, teaching in the same school I left some 20 years ago. I am amazed!
Oh, one more thing: Syn (pronounced "sin") is my callsign for Red Planet and Battletech at Virtual Worlds everywhere. You can probably find more about Syn in the Cafe Anarchy in "The Lucifer Files."
Penny and I met in 1990. We dated until November 2001.
My computer training began in the eighth grade on an Apple IIe. In high school, I got to use IBM compatibles. I graduated in 1983 and, in the summer of 1984, got to play on a Mac. I hated it. No command line, just a mouse and pictures. Bought an Apple IIc in the fall of '84. Loved it. Continued to work on IBM compatibles through college, wishing that all machines were Apple IIc. Graduated in 1989 with my degree in English with Georgia certification to teach English in grades 7-12. Became yearbook advisor my first year out. In the third year, the chance to computerize the whole layout was offered. I jumped at the chance. My choices of computers, however, were IBM or Macintosh. I remembered my bad experience from 1984, but I also had many hundreds of bad incidents with IBM compatibles both before and since then. I chose the Mac. Smart move.
My hobbies include, but are not limited to, the following:
Fantasy Roleplaying: I have created my own system. Check out the Legendmaker website link below! The system is out and ready for sale. Secure ordering through Web MS secure ordering services.
Electronic Survivor Shot: Penny and I built the web page for this, too. It's a crazy little infra-red tag game. A group of us have become fanatics. We are Team Night Force... Macon's own Red Light District. You can check out our ESS site by following the link below.
Creative (non)Fiction: I have written (but not published) two books- one (Hawklok of the Rebuilt Cities) is fantasy fiction; the other is a collection of thoughts and poems (Reflections of a Madman in a World Gone Mad). This is in addition to the roleplaying system mentioned above. Check out some excerpts at the Cafe Anarchy link below.
Desktop Publishing: A friend of mine and I created a publication designed to annoy the hell out of a nearby college's administration. It was nothing more than a gripe sheet... one page, twice, maybe three times a month. Some professors began using it as classroom material. Then Penny dared me to write another publication contrary to it, so I did. The styles were so amazingly different, even the dean's mother thought the dean was writing it.
IRC: You can find me as Valmedrin on several of the fantasy roleplaying channels on any dalnet server. Check the Legendmaker site regularly to see where the Legendmaker IRC sites will be located.
By the way, find and familiarize yourself with the following books: Stranger in a Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein; Illusions- The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah, by Richard Bach; The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy (et. al.), by Douglas Adams; If at All Possible, Involve a Cow: The Book of College Pranks, by Neil Steinberg. The following graphic novels are highly recommended: The Elric Saga, as envisioned by Thomas and Russell; The Watchmen, published by DC Comics; The Death of Captain Marvel, published by Marvel Comics; The collected Lady Death and Evil Ernie by Chaos Comics.
I listen to a lot of music. I love rock and roll, but only some of it. Let me recommend some listening material: Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, Yes, Blind Guardian (German Heavy Metal... very cool), Dishwalla, Chumbawamba, Crash Test Dummies, A Flock of Seagulls, Devo, The Cure, Cheap Trick... I have almost 500 CDs, so making any decision about what to include here is rather moot. I hate most of everything else. I realize that "hate" may seem to be a rather harsh word, but it fits.
I play a lot of music. Not just CDs and tapes (and those circular black things we used to call "records"), but also drum machine and electric bass. Been doing a lot of solo playing in my office at home, but I've recently been in touch with my guitarist from my college band, and we might be getting back together to rerecord some of our old songs and write some new stuff. "Together we are Kick Me Hard!"
I do Halloween. No, no, no.... I mean that I really do Halloween. Here are some of the pictures of my yard form last Halloween. Maybe some digital video, too, if I can get it digitized in QuickTime format.
I'm running for President in 2008. Here is the secret link, since my campaign doesn't really start till after the 2004 elections.
Finally, let me mention my computer system: Apple Macintosh Power Mac 7200/120 (System 8.0 ROCKS!, 112 meg physical RAM, 512 K L2 cache, 3 meg VRAM), 15" Apple multi-sync monitor, Apple PowerTalk microphone, 1.2 gig internal hard drive, Internal 4X CD-ROM, Apple Superdrive internal 3.5 floppy, LaCie Joule 730 meg external drive, Iomega Zip external drive, Iomega Jaz external drive with Iomega fast SCSI II card (two SCSI buses! 12 SCSI devices! YEAH!), Apple LW NTR, USRobotics 56K X2 modem, Mustek MFC-600S flatbed scanner, Juster Multimedia speaker system, and my techno voodoo hexaway doll (Penny made him, comes in quite handy).
I guess that's it. Thanks for listening. This page will probably get updated on an irregular basis rather reminiscent of north England train schedules- "Oh, the train's due any time, but won't get here till tomorrow."
