Iwas born in 1961, which means that given life-expectancy tables and whatnot, I've lived more than half my life. It's been an interesting ride...to me, at least. Nothing spectacular, and certainly nothing worthy of note, but interesting nonetheless.

Very little I've done is at all out of the ordinary. While opportunities have presented themselves when I was ready to face the challenge/adventure, it has all been pretty much the same one-foot-in-front-of-the-other sort of progression everyone goes through in their life's journey.

Among my many careers, I worked for several years as a programmer in the space sciences division at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL). There was satellite and shuttle-related stuff, but mostly just grunt work, in a high-tech sort of way (yeah, I was one of those pesky rocket scientists for a while).

As you would naturally assume, that translated to my becoming a sports photographer through most of the 80s. Though I shot pics for several schools, my base was at the University of Maryland where I was one of the women's basketball team's photographers for a couple of years.

Quite unexpectedly to me, I then became a writer (advice: be careful about tagging along with your best friend when he's in pre-production of a short film...career changes can suddenly spring up). I focused on screenwriting for more than a decade, garnering enough attention to keep me writing, but I've recently changed my primary medium to novels. Since, like most writers, I like to keep my bills paid, I've had a few other jobs to keep me out of debtor's prison.

I guess the one job that has had the most profound legacy in my life was when I worked at a local ad-based paper. I started as a computer graphics artist. After about a year, I became manager of the art department (now renamed "production") for two papers...and growing. I still did graphics, but now I also was responsible for laying out the papers, getting them delivered by deadline, and making sure the people in my department (something over a dozen) were getting their work done efficiently. While this is going on I'm also installing and configuring the computers for the new location which will house both papers (at that time, across town from each other) and bring them technologically into the third millennium. Once that was done, and I was exhausted, I quit.

I practiced writing, and did some consulting work, when the papers asked me to return. Soon enough (after a protracted transition), I was managing them again. Though I had even more responsibility and oversight than before, this time it was easier...for the most part. But exhaustion once more set in after a few years and I left. It was timely...not soon after, my father's age caught up to him, and I had to start bringing my managerial experience to bear so as to make his life a bit easier.

But, I did mention that this job (in two parts) gave me a profound legacy. It was during my first stint that I became friends with Mary (not her real name), and met her family.
CJ and some familyI was immediately drawn into this group. Though circumstances intervened for a couple of years, her family and I have happily reconnected. Depending who tells it, either I adopted them into my life, or they adopted me into theirs. Whatever. The fact of the matter is that now, when I can truly enjoy it (i.e. not being a career-hopping young fool), I have a mutually-chosen family in my life, and lots of people with whom to share the love.

My time is spent working on my own writing as well as guiding a few talented young writers. I still play with computers a lot (after well over thirty years playing with them, how can I not), and work on several web sites...not just the handful that I run myself. I like to play guitar, but it sadly gets neglected for months at a time when I get busy. Woodworking is a continued passion, and one I hope to get better at in the coming years.

And I guess that's enough of a summation. I've had interesting careers, great friends, unexpected experiences, and some pretty good times on the road to here. CJ's Mind Garden is a depository for some of the happenings in my life. For the most part, it will seem rather pedestrian, and that's fine with me—I have other sites for more serious matters.