: About Me

I worked as a professional technical writer in Silicon Valley for over 30 years. Which is equivalent to saying I was a masochist for 30 years. Except I never had the pleasure of being chained, masked, hung from the ceiling by my nipples, spat on and scourged. It was only a question of time.

My co-partners and bosom buddies, the engineers and marketing members of "the technical publication team", could be very mean to anyone who had the trepidation to interrupt their "la de da important" work. Never mind the sorry assed buyers who had to figure out what these geniuses had wrought. The "team's" attitude was, "if users can't figure out how to use it, they shouldn't be using it." You think I'm kidding, don't you? Now you know why your manuals suck.

Writing for Helium is a different matter. Here, I don't have any excuses if my articles bomb. You'll probably see I like to work close to the edge and that I select topics from the culture wars that are usually controversial.

Since satire is a good way to address heated subject matter, I find myself venturing more and more into satire, which is more challenging than technical writing, but come to think of it shares some characteristics. And here I am thinking about the implausible product hype the marketing people always insisted on burdening the users with and the technical specifications the engineers insisted their design would meet. Ha! Satire makes use of implausible elements also.

Tell me how Im doing, OK?. Since I no longer write technical manuals I've gotten over my masochistic tendencies so be kind. My ego bruises easily.

My passion is ...

the culture wars

I know too much about ...

making rational choices in life

My parents always told me ...

Be myself and don't follow the crowd. Make my own decisions.

My childhood ambition ...

To travel the world

My favorite memory ...

Learning I was selected to work overseas in 1964

Why I write ...

Because I have to

What I am reading/watching/listening to ...

Leading atheist authors and their critics, Dr House, CNN

My first job ...

Cleaning lynotypes at my hometown newspaper

My best moment ...

Driving out the gate of USMC, El Toro as a civilian

My inspiration ...

Nature, music, philosophy

Religion & Spirituality > Christianity (Other) Protecting children from controversial books and movies

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Protecting children from controversial books and movies is doomed to fail. That's because protesting a movie only results in free publicity and heightened curiosity, which are counter productive. Book and movie banners never seem to learn. I went to view "The Golden Compass" here in Mexico, and while my experience may not apply to all of Mexico, I can say there was absolutely nothing unusual about the experience. I'm using events surrounding the "The Golden Compass" as a vehicle to discuss our topic because this controversial film just opened this month in Mexico. The film has been vigorou...

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• Helium Charter Member