My Background
 
Here are some background basics, interests, hobbies, and
whatnot about me. My name is James, I'm 41 years old, 5'9"
tall with a husky build, and have brown hair & blue eyes. I
live in Chicago on the Northside of the city in the
Edgewater neighborhood.



For a bit of my neighborhood's history, Edgewater is a
community bordering the neighborhoods of Rogers Park
and Uptown. The community was first built in the 1920s as
a summer home for Chicago's elite. With the exception of
pockets acknowleged as historic districts, Edgewater
boasts a skyline of apartment buildings, condominium
complexes, and mid-rise homes. In 1885, Edgewater was
given it's name by builder, John Lewis Cochran. He built
the first residential subdivision in the area. After a few
years, Edgewater was celebrated as a wonder as it
became "the only electric lighted suburb adjacent to
Chicago". Edgewater also gained fame as the
celery-growing capital of America's Midwest. In the early
1900s, Edgewater was regarded as one of Chicago's most
prestigious communities. A prominent symbol of
Edgewater's affluence was the Edgewater Beach Hotel,
which opened in 1916 at 5349 North Sheridan. The famed
pink hotel was demolished in 1968, though the
remaining pink Edgewater Beach Apartment building is
still a landmark at the north tip of Lake Shore Drive.

Returning to my background. I was married, but lost my
loving wife of 12 years, Alice, to Multiple Myeloma. Which
is a cancer of the plasma cell.



I too went through cancer, but my cancer was not as
serious as my wife's was. I had Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma.
Which is a cancer of the lympahtic system.

I love animals. I had a beautiful Himalayan cat named
Jasper, who acted more like a dog than a cat. But due to
dire matters, I sadly had to give him up. But when other
matters are taken care of, I would like to adopt another
kitty from a local area shelter.



I don't smoke, don't do drugs, and I don't really drink. At
least not beer. To me, beer tastes like a bad pee smells.
But I do like the sweet mixed drinks & wine coolers.

I don't care for politics. Nothing but a bunch of crooks
running the government as it is. For me, voting is useless
and doesn't really change anything other than voting for the
lesser of two evils.

I'm not religious. In my view, "god" is nothing more than
a construct of man's imagination held over from the dark
ages.

I have no interest whatsoever in sports like baseball,
basketball, hockey, or football, which bore me to death.
The kinds of sports I do like to watch are futuristic in nature
like Techno Games and Robot Wars.



Other games I enjoy playing are darts, bowling, pool,
foosball, airhockey, and pinball.

When it comes to music, my all-time top favorite genre is
80s Pop and New Wave, or Retro as it's called now. With
bands like Dead Or Alive, Ministry, New Order, Human
League, ABC Band, Information Society, Thompson Twins,
Erasure, Pet Shop Boys, The Cure, Psychedelic Furs,
Culture Club, Depeche Mode, Frankie Goes To Hollywood,
INXS, Duran Duran, and Devo to name a few.



Other styles of music I enjoy are Jazz (heavy on the sax),
New Age, Techno, Disco, and Euro Dance.

The only music I can't stand is Rap and Hip Hop. Old school
Rap (Run DMC, Sugar Hill Gang) or positive Rap like the
kind Will Smith does is fine, but I hate that Gangster Rap
Hip Hop stuff which is nothing but audio garbage.

For movies, I enjoy sci-fi, action, fantasy, adventure,
horror, comedy, and drama.

As for TV, I don't watch TV very much. Namely because TV
has become a vast wasteland of stupid so-called "reality"
shows. Most of the time I'm either on the computer or the
PlayStation. When I do watch TV, I watch the news, nature
& science programs on PBS, and sci-fi shows like
Andromeda, Enterprise, Stargate SG1, and Outer Limits.

For hobbies I enjoy art (drawing), photography, digital
imaging, computer animation, anime (Japanese animation),
and video games. I'm mainly a retro gamer. I love playing the
classic (late 70s to mid 80s) games where the focus is
on good gameplay and not on flashy graphics.



I also enjoy puzzles (logic brain teaser types), collecting
robots and anime figures, papercraft model making, and
reading. Mostly on the subjects of robotics, science, space,
physics, computers, science fiction, manga (Japanese
comics), gaming, and interactive fiction.