All About Me

It's a long boring story so you would be better off going home

Contents

Where I was Born My Education My Work History    My Family Computer Experience In Memory My Marriage to Tess
The above photo is of my wife and yours truly taken in January of 2005.

So, you decided you wanted to know a little more about me, huh? I thought you'd be curious. B-) There's not much to tell, really. You'll probably find most of it boring. I'm sort of the 'run-of-the-mill' everyday Joe, but I'll try to entertain you somewhat while you're here...

I was born in Central Pennsylvania on December 20, 1954 in a little town called Philipsburg located in Centre County. It's a really small town and most people probably never heard of it. Only about 3500 people, if that. It's located east of Clearfield and west of State College in what is known as the Moshannon Valley. State College is probably a more recognizable name merely for the fact that it's the home of the Penn State Nittany Lions football team. My parents are John Tippett and Eleanor Smith (Tippett, Reams). I was the last born of three. I have an older brother, John Jr., and an older sister, Betty Mae.

Growing up in a small community like Philipsburg was nice. Quiet and peaceful. And at the time had a very low crime rate. Everybody knew everybody. I won't say it was a close knit community like you see in an episode of the Walton's, but it was a much slower pace than it is in a city. They rolled up the sidewalks at 3:00 in the afternoon and the only entertainment was one theater, one bowling alley and one roller-skating rink. Which means there were only 3 types of kids. Cinemaniacs, Bowlers and Skaters. I was a Skater.

We lived about 4 miles out of town towards State College. It was a sort of remote area. Only a few neighbors that were in walking distance. So if you wanted a loaf of bread, you had to travel a few miles to get it. I remember when I was a kid that we only went to town once a week. That was it. No need to go more often than that. Or so my mother used to tell me. Actually, I think she told us that because of that song. You know... Something about keeping them down on the farm after they've seen Paris?

back to top

I attended school at the North Philipsburg Elementary school, the Philipsburg Junior High and one year at the Philipsburg-Osceola Area Senior High. My mother, step-father, step-sister and I moved to Milford, Michigan at the end of my sophomore year in 1971. (my natural father passed away in 1967) I graduated from Milford High School in Highland, Michigan in 1973.

During my years in the Philipsburg schools, I played the trumpet in the marching and concert bands. It was an extremely fun time in my life and holds many fond memories. But when I moved to Michigan, I dropped band. Because of my crippling shyness I didn't want to have to go through the tryouts again with all those strangers around. The only 'special studies' I took during my school years was when I lived in Milford. I attended the Southwest Oakland Vocational Education Center and studied Automotive Mechanics during my senior year. I've always been one to try to figure out what made things tick so naturally that interested me.

back to top

After I graduated, I moved back to Philipsburg in June of 1973 on my only means of transportation. A 175cc Honda motorcycle! So with duffel bag strapped to my sissybar, I headed out on the 400+ mile trip across three states to start a life on my own in my hometown. Scared and unsure of what I was going to do with my life, I soon took an apartment in downtown Philipsburg. I've held many jobs over the next few years. I worked for the Penn State University in State College, Pa. as a janitor, for the General Cigar Co. as a box boy, the Avery Coal Co. as a boney picker and Shortway Products in Clearfield, Pa. as an assembler, to name a few. Of all of those, I enjoyed Shortway the most and stayed the longest. (who wouldn't? I was the only male on the floor out of about 400 employees!)

Shortway Products was a division of Erskine Industries and made components for Sylvania. I started out assembling components for the Eaton Anti-Lock Brake systems for Tractor-trailers early in 1975. That part of the plant was phased out in a very short period of time after I started so I was transferred to the other side of the plant where we made vacuum tubes, mainly for military use. I worked as an assembler for about a year then became the mechanic on the floor, repairing and setting up Tweezer Welders for the production line. I'll never forget the employees whose machinery I repaired. They were a fine bunch of women.

I left Shortway in 1977 and started my mechanical career in the automotive industry by taking a job with Butler Trucking in Woodland, Pa.

Butler Trucking was a short-lived job though, only a matter of a few months. The highest rank I achieved there was lube boy. I had an opportunity for a position as a mechanic at Bob Thomas Dodge, a Dodge Dealership in Houtzdale, Pa. that would break the ice for me in a field that I have dreamed about for years so I grabbed it. Unfortunately that too was a short-lived job, only because of an injury I sustained one night at the skating rink in Philipsburg that laid me up for several months, but it handed me some experience and an entry on a résumé.

I moved to Niagara Falls, NY. during my rehabilitation from ankle surgery in July of 1979. My sister who was living in Niagara Falls at the time, talked me into moving up here since I was out of work. I had thoughts of landing a job in one of the many plants in the area, but as it ended up I worked for several automotive related establishments instead. Over the course of the next 12 years I went from gas stations to Honda (Automotive) Dealerships to GM Dealerships. At one point I've worked for every carline General Motors had a dealership for in Western New York. My last long-term employment in that field was a Buick dealership in Tonawanda, NY. called Skill Buick. I spent a total of 7 years there and attained much knowledge and experience, for which I am truly in debt to the owner, John Skill.

By the time I left the automotive dealerships I had become a UAW member, a licensed New York State Automotive Safety Inspector, GM Master Automotive Mechanic, ASE Certified Master Automotive Mechanic and was recognized as an Automotive Technologist by the State of New York. I've had training and certification in Engine Overhaul and Rebuilding, Anti-Lock Brake Systems, ThrottleBody Fuel Injection, Port Fuel Injection, MultiPort Fuel Injection, Automatic and Standard Transmissions/Transaxles, Distributorless Ignition Systems, Front End Alignment, Differential Overhaul and Rebuilding, Specialized Electronics Training (on-board computers), Air Conditioning... and the list goes on... and on... and on. So many courses over the years from so many different automobile manufacturers that it's difficult to remember them all. I had experience and training in practically every phase of the automotive industry, but my specialties were automatic transmissions/transaxles, air conditioning and computer related drivability problems with the on-board computers systems. It was truly a wide area of interests for me and gave me much pleasure for many years. But all good things must come to an end at some point. By 1992 I had attained about all I cared to achieve. I had every certificate I had ever wanted and felt I had done it all. So after about 13 years in the business, I decided to give it all up and take a job at one of the plants in Niagara Falls where I remained until they closed their doors. A plant called Carbide/Graphite Group, Inc.

Carbide/Graphite, commonly referred to as C/G, was a manufacturer of carbon electrodes for the steel remanufacturing industry. My last position there was that of a Clerk in the Shipping department. My duties were to coordinate the loading of our finished products onto trucks or in Shipping Containers for overseas transport to our customers throughout the world. I was also responsible for the completion of the Bill of Lading that must accompany these shipments. On average, we ship between 7 and 9 million pounds of finished products every month.

C/G went belly-up in 2002 and closed the doors. Shortly afterwards, I attended an Adult Education Facility named  The Career Learning Zone in Buffalo, NY., studying for my MCSA. (Microsoft Certified System Administrator) It was my hope that once I've become certified... that I can find employment in Western New York as either a System Administrator or a System Analyst. I became CompTIA certified in A+ and NET+, have completed the MCP (Microsoft Certified Professional) portion of the course and was well into the last segment of the training which would give me my MCSA when my wife (at the time) decided that she wanted to walk a different path in life than I, and moved out.

Despite the crushing effect of the disintegration of my marriage, as you'll read further down on this page, I continued my studies towards my MCSA... though it was very difficult to concentrate. I had come to the realization that I absolutely had to find some sort of employment before I could complete my certification. My unemployment benefits were running out and I was still months away from taking my certification exams, thanks to my focus being drawn in a different direction than my classes. I spent the entire month of November 2003, searching for work, and left my studies fall behind. For awhile there, it seemed hopeless.

I am truly a very fortunate fella. At the end of November, I was called in for a meeting at the school that I was attending for my training. At first I thought it was because of my attendance, but I was pleasantly surprised. It seems as though they had need for an additional employee... in the position of System Administrator. Even though I hadn't completed my certification, the owner of the school, apparently saw enough ability and talent in me that he offered the position to me. Needless to say, I was ecstatic over the offer and was pleased to accept. So as of December 1, 2003, I started my new career as a System Administrator at the very establishment that was preparing me for that same position.

My duties were not only the maintenance of the network and the equipment, but also conducting the Computer Labs that help the students with 'Hands On' training. It was a fun job and was rewarding in that I have the opportunity to show the students how the computers work, how to diagnose and make repairs as well as installing the Operating Systems and Hardware.

My thanks go out to the staff at The Career Learning Zone for recommending me for the position to the head honcho. I am truly indebted to them.

This was an opportunity of a lifetime, but, unfortunately, the position was short lived. In May of 2004, the Career Learning Zone also went belly up and once again, I was faced with being unemployed. And, once again, luck was on my side. During my course of studies at the CLZ and before actually being hired by the CLZ, I was offered a internship in a Medical Facility in Buffalo. They needed help with some long overdue computer repairs, and I needed a spot on my resume showing some actual work experience in the field. SO, for several months I worked for a few hours a day bulding some on site work experience. When the CLZ decided to close it's doors, once again I was fortunate in the fact that my internship turned into a part-time job. They offered the part-time position to me on the day I left CLZ... and I maintained my PT status with them from May to November of 2004 when my part time position became a full time position... and I'm still employed there today as a Tech Support Specialist.

back to top

He was only a few months old when we moved back to Niagara Falls again. Eleven and a half months after Brad was born, on March 29th, 1982, our second child, Brian, was born.

My life from then on was pretty much the norm. I worked everyday, came home every night, tried my best to be a good husband and father... and I believe I succeeded. I never struck it rich, but I was always there. We did okay, I guess. I never could afford to buy a house, but I did what I could to make up for it in other ways. We didn't have much, but I always felt that we had a roof over our heads and we never went hungry... and I always had that comfortable feeling that comes with contentment in a marriage. I loved my wife and my kids and would do just about anything for any of them. It was enough for me, but apparently it's not always as it seems. I was content but there was unrest amongst the troops.

Despite the love I always had for my wife, on August 24th, 2003, Chatter decided she no longer wanted to live with me and moved out. She says she just no longer loved me, hasn't been happy for years and wanted out. The truth of the matter was, I had found out that she had a male friend in Florida that was up in Niagara Falls on business a year or so before she walked out on me. I further found out that they had several 'meetings' and were engaged in lucid 'chats' in AOL Messenger. Finding this out and discovering that she purposely kept this guy a secret from me, was sneaking around behind my back to meet up with him, shattered all trust I had in her. I won't go into details on the conversations she had with him so that I might spare her the embarrassment that details like that would obviously cause, but it totally destroyed our marriage. She couldn't deal with the thought that maybe I would be watching her every move, and I had a hard time dealing with the fact that she did that sort of thing to me in the first place and that she just might do it again. Once the trust was broken, it was only a matter of time.

It was very difficult for me to understand that after 30 years together, and 23 years of marriage she could just walk away like she did... but... she did. I must admit, I had a very difficult time after she left. I missed her very much. But Carol Bin Laden is now a part of my past. She has left scars so deep that they will probably never heal. She had destroyed my ambition to succeed in life and my self-esteem not to mention the 'family' atmosphere what I felt with my kids for so many years. My kids haven't been the same either. I understand their pain and any resentment they may be experiencing, but there's not much I can do to ease it for them. It's something that only time can weaken.

Chatter and I still have the kids to consider and will forever be bound through them, so there's no point in being hostile towards each other, but I can't help but feel a certain degree of hatred for her now for leaving. As far as I'm concerned, she no longer exists. She quit her job at the Ponderosa and has moved on. She filed for a Divorce in July of 2004 and it was finalized in November 2004.

Her influence has had more of an affect on me and who I am, (and dare I say: the condition I'm in) than any other single person I've ever known... so I guess I owe her that much. But most of all, I owe her for my two boys, Brad and Brian. They have become my rock... my only piece of solid ground I have left to stand on. So to them, I'm also very grateful.

F.Y.C.A. - E.S.A.D.

These Are My Two Boys (photos are a little out of date, but I'll post new ones later)
Brad - Graduation - 1999 Brad worked for several years as a computer network support technician for Adelphia Communications  in Buffalo, NY.	Brian - Family Reunion - July 17, 1999 After graduation from High School, Brian left for Fort Knox, KY. on July 6, 2000 for Basic Training in the Army National Guard. Here's the first pictures we received of him. In October 2004 he headed off to training to prepare him for a trip to Iraq. He spent the next year in Iraq returning home in October of 2005.  Here are a few pictures of him while he was serving in Baghdad.

But after every storm full of dark clouds... the sun shall once again Shine...

Once again Lady Luck sprinkled me with 'la poussière de la grande fortune' and I met a young lady from the Philippines, named Tess. We met online through a website named 'Senior Friend Finders' in November of 2003. At first I was only looking for someone to talk to... a pen pal of sorts, someone to take my mind off my misery of dealing with a separation from my wife. I ask this young lady if she would care if we would write to each other, sharing thoughts, ideas and discussing the cultural differences between the two of us. I have always been fascinated with the Philippines and it's people for some weird unknown reason, yet never knew anyone from there nor much of the country. I know my father was stationed there during WWII in the 'southern philippines', which later I found out was somewhere in Mindanao. When I got a reply to the first message I sent her, I was intrigued.

I figured this would be a safe friendship because she was far enough away that this could never amount to anything more than just a friendship. She lived just outside Manila in Makati, halfway around the world from me. She was working for the Philippine Government and there was never any thought of anything other than just pen pals. We started out with just email. Then, after awhile of that, we started live chats through Yahoo Instant Messenger. We must have cliqued, cause we would sometime chat for 3 or 4 hours at a clip and soon became very close friends... but it still wasn't anything more than that. We looked forward to our daily conversations and could talk about anything... and did, but there was never any talk or thoughts of any sort of relationship. Until...

In February of 2004 I jokingly mentioned that I wished she would be able to someday make a trip to the US and that maybe we could meet. (Maybe it was only wishful thinking, I don't know, but I didn't think anything serious about it at the time) I told her that I would be happy to show her around Niagara Falls. She said she hoped so too.... that she held a Multiple Entry Visa to the US, so someday it might be possible. Somehow we started making plans that maybe in April she could come here on vacation for about a month. As the time drew near, it was more apparent that maybe she could. Plans were made, money was saved and still to this day I'm not sure how we pulled it off, but in late April of 2004, she landed at the Buffalo Airport after a 20+ hour flight... all alone. She came on a tourist visa and was planning on a one month stay. She was given 6 months by immigration when she landed in the US, and as the end of her month drew near, neither of us wanted her to go home. So we rescheduled her return flight and continued her vacation. Days turned into weeks and weeks into months and we were soon faced with her 6 month stay here in the U.S. expiring. We filed papers to extend her stay for another 6 months. She truly wanted to witness a real Western New York winter, why I had no idea, 'cause most of us want to escape the cold winter, but she had never really seen snow before and wanted to see it. Much to our surprise, she was granted another 6 months.

On December 29th, I had yet another rather large surprise, my divorce papers came in the mail. As I mentioned before, Chatter had filed for a Divorce in July... but kinda sat on it for awhile. I really wasn't expecting them quite yet cause Chatter had told me that she didn't have the money to finalize the divorce. I, quite honestly, didn't expect it to happen until maybe April of 2005... maybe after she got her income tax return. But it came... and at that point I ask Tess to marry me. She said yes... we went to the City Hall the very next day and got our Marriage License. We were married in the home of the Deputy Town Clerk in Cheektowaga, NY. on New Years Eve 2004. What a way to usher in the 2005 New Year. In hindsight I now wish we would have been able to plan a bigger wedding and invite friends and family to join us in our big day, but it was such a impromptu decision to get married that we didn't have time to plan anything large. It's my hope that someday soon, we'll do it again and make it a family affair.

During the actual ceremony	Tess and I with Vana and George Dillen, our best friends, who witnessed.

Tess and I celebrated our anniversary New Years Eve and we're still very much in love, despite all the hurdles we've had to jump along the way. I never thought that an old fart like myself could ever fall in love again, but I must admit, I did... and what they say about love being better the second time around is definitately true.

You can view more wedding pictures here, if you care to see them.

back to top

My first experience with a computer was with a Texas Instruments 99/4a home computer I bought from a friend for $20 back in 1988. This friend was none other than Vana Dillen, the same Vana that witnessed my marriage to Tess and is displayed above. I was tickled with it. It was like no other toy I had ever played with. To think that I could actually learn to program a computer to do what *I* wanted it to do was thrilling to me. I enjoyed it a lot and taught myself to program in Basic. I soon started writing my own software and within a year or so I had signed a contract with Asgard Software out of Rockville, Md. to market my software. I had several good sellers, but by far the best was Mail Room. It was an address book type program that maintained your mailing list but it did something else that most programs of that time period didn't do. It dialed an entered record's phone number for you using your computer's modem and the database could be accessed by my other Business Software Package, 'Invoice Management'. Both simple programs by today's standards. And it did it in much less than the computers maximum of 32k of memory. Imagine.... 32k!!! That's all that little machine had. Again... simple by today's standards. I have a calculator now with more memory than that!!

I used that computer for a good number of years. I enjoyed it very much and it has been and always will be my first love with computers. But I came to a point that it just wasn't enough anymore. I needed something faster. My first IBM compatible was a Insight 486 SX 25mhz with 4 megs of RAM, a 210 meg hard drive, a 5¼ and a 3½ floppy and a double speed CD-ROM. With it, and a little help from my employer at the time, Carbide/Graphite, I learned the basics of programming in "C" and Microsoft's Visual Basic. Now I haven't pursued programming on the PC quite to the degree I did with the TI, but I enjoyed learning the techniques nonetheless.

A lot has changed over the years since I purchased my first PC. I now have a total of 7 full time networked machines (with another 4 laying around doing not much of anything) and a cable modem providing my Internet Connection. The three I use most often consist of an 800 MHz, a 1GHz and a 2.4GHz. The 1GHz machine is my server and provides about 120 GB of storage and the 2.4GHz is my latest and greatest machine. It has 1GB ram and about 80 GB of storage. I build all my machines myself now. At least that way I get what I want in a machine.

I particularly enjoy working with databases, as well as graphic programs that utilize my digital cameras and transferring my old VHS home videos to Digital format ready for archiving on DVDs. But that's another story best left for a future web page.

F.Y.C.A.

back to top

Return to the home page.