Who Are You?
Hello All:
Mom asked the newbies to introduce ourselves here... so here I am.
As I said in my first post to this forum, I came here to read the research that virtualgirl posted in the John Titor thread. I followed a link from anomalies. I'm not an active participant at anomalies, but I've read quite a bit there after reading many of the other JT sites and boards. I still lurk there and other places. I suppose I'm quietly putting things together in my own mind... and hadn't found a friendly forum to post my thoughts until now.
I am interested in time travel to the extent that I am interested in the science that is being kicked around in the discussions. Although I have serious doubts about the feasibility of being able to time travel, I kind of hope it is possible.
I was first introduced to the JT saga by my officemate when I worked for an internet distributed computing company. (We bundled super-computing power and sold it to commercial entities as well as donated the power to cancer research, drug discovery, and even the Human Genome Project.)
My officemate was a UNIX/LINUX guru and I was the resident Windows guru (I suppose) and we had a tendency to talk with whiteboards and furiously scribble ideas and such all over the walls. He came across the earlier postings from Art Bell and he and I argued the possibility of time travel through many, many whiteboard discussions.
We followed the JT discussions for a bit... but other projects took us both away from it. I hadn't revisited the story for a long time.
Not too long ago, another co-worker from that company emailed me and said 'this is the strangest thing I have read in a long time' and sure enough, he sent me a link to johntitor.com...
He's a computational biologist and a bright guy... and he likes to discuss things to no end... so, he and I started batting around the concepts again. So, I caught up to speed with what everyone was saying lately and what discussions have brought us to the present day.
I ended my official 'lurker' status by posting in virtualgirl's thread because of what I considered to be an often-repeated cycle of new discovery -> kill new idea. I was happy to find that this community does not follow that standard! However, I felt compelled to put in my two cents on the matter.
I am mostly a lurker still because I'm trying to hone in on just what 'I really think'. It is a complex puzzle and I do enjoy it.
A major part of my interest (science, aside) is in the psychological aspects of this story... especially if it is a hoax. (I admit that I cannot say one way or another... I just don't have enough data points to tell yet.)
I followed the story and was 'taken' by Pamela's emotion and sometimes seemingly 'distressed' tone in regard to the situation. If this is a hoax and she is not a central player, then the damage to her psyche is tragic in my book.
Specific background info on me:
Age: 33
Gender: Male
Born and raised in the mountains of Maryland. Moved to Waco, Texas when I was entering my senior year of high school. (Yes, I was there during the standoff... but that needs its own thread.)
I attended the University of Texas in Austin where I first got my law degree with a minor in political science. I scrapped the idea of being a lawyer in order to not spend eternity in flames...
I returned to UT (and my real passions) and got my electrical engineering degree with a focus on microprocessor architecture and design and alternate energy generation. (That was a while back, and I think they have changed how those foci are classified.)
My first real work in the field was with a small electronics firm in Waco, Texas that was a sub-contractor with military work at Fort Hood, Texas. Since then, my career has been mixed with all kinds of military, DoD, intelligence-type projects.
I moved to NJ at some point and worked for a computer company there... then, revisited a promise to myself to run my own company before age 25. Since I only had a few months to go, I quit and started Hunt Technical Services, Inc.
I got lured away during the dot-com boom to the above mentioned distributed computing company and thoroughly enjoyed the ride and the science that we worked on. I eventually became the Directory of Information Technology at the company. (The company is still alive and doing some very cool things... I still consult.)
I eventually decided to come back to the mountains of Maryland for a more comfortable existence and to breathe life back into my company and I have been running it again for the last few years. (I basically put my company into a dormant mode while exploring the distributed computing thing.)
My company caters to small to mid-sized companies and I integrate technology solutions for them... mostly in the Windows networking world. I also still do government work here and there. I was considered at one point a 'deployable contractor' because of some of the projects... but luckily, I am further from that life now.
It is here that I met my girlfriend and the love of my life. She has a degree in Biology and was a high school teacher of biology, chemistry, and physics until she pursued her own passion... bellydancing! She now runs a successful belly dance supply company online and I help her a bit with the technical aspects of doing that...
My interests in the psychology behind this phenomenon comes from observations that I made while enduring a previous relationship that went south very fast. It was during this time that I was introduced to what 'Bible-based cults' can do to a person and how simple ideas can maintain a life of their own and how they are communicated and propagated from person-to-person and how group dynamics really work on the 'individual'.
I am a Christian, though not a Bible-thumping one... and believe me, I questioned my beliefs every step of the way.
It is interesting to me to see the same 'patterns' of thought and discussion between the believers and the debunkers in the JT story and the two sides of the cult arguments. The apologists and the anti-cult folks trade much the same semantic arguments... some of which are strictly academic and some of which are specifically arranged to further propagate their own belief systems.
Again, it is the 'individual' in both realms that I am most concerned with... and what happens to them when they believe and then are met with resistance from the debunkers... or when they discount the story and are met with strong opposition from the believers.
This is one of the root causes of my 'sensitivity' to covering up the truth or from dissuading a person from uncovering hidden facts about a situation... and why after reading Darby's post, I felt the need for a rebuttal.
So, I could go on and on with much more that would put you all to sleep... so I won't do that to you...
I suppose I just did a quick brain-dump so you can get to 'know' me a bit and know how to read my tone in things... Thank you all for being very kind and warm... it is a welcomed change from what I usually find 'out there'.
< >