Max
Co-Creator of IrateWeirdos.com
Jericho tells me that we need to but up biographies of ourselves. So here we go.
I was born on August 30, 1971. I grew up in a family that Oprah would probably describe as "dysfunctional". In reality, it was pretty typical. We were a group of people thrown together by fate who would never have elected to live with each other had they been given a choice. I am grateful that we are all out on our own, because now I am able to appreciate my parents and siblings as people, rather than being forced to deal with them as people with whom I must share a bathroom.
I was schooled in typical institutions of mind control. I was thrown out of grade school once and high school twice because I didn't fit in with their cookie-cutter style of pedagogy. About the only decent thing to come out of my schooling was Jericho. We met in high school. I thought he was fairly interesting. He thought I was an annoying dumbass. But, through determination and regular stalking, I was able to win him over.
After high school, I spent a year or so drifting. I had a series of low pay, low stress jobs that I managed to stress out over. I had some incredibly fun, not to mention incredibly stupid, adventures. But in the end, I needed to find something to latch onto. That something was college.
I loved college. Damn me, but I loved it. I shudder to think of what I might have become where it not for college. I went in an arrogant know-it-all, ready to school some ivory tower academics. Thanks to some dedicated professors who were only to happy to show me how little I knew, I came out humbled, with a just a vague sense of just how vast the expanse of human knowledge is, not to mention how much more has yet to be known, and how much I have yet to learn.
Once I was out of college, I was again adrift. I made one brief, short lived attempt to recapture my college days. Learning that time only goes forward is a harsh lesson.
I knew what I ultimately wanted from life. I wanted, still want, to make my living as a writer and/or musician. I just needed to find something to pay the bills in the meantime.
I grew up around computers. My mother actually used to be a programmer way back before she had kids and she maintained an interest in computers long after she quit the game. For most of my life, they were little more than toys to play games on. Eventually, though, I came to see what potential they had. If nothing else, they held the potential for me to pay my bills.
So, I spent a few years in the tech biz. I did my time in tech support, where I came to the conclusion that no one is qualified to use a computer, especially not me. I eventually worked my way up to a security admin gig, where I had my first big lesson in office politics. I though competence and a willingness to work were all one needed to be successful. In the end, it was my inability to suck up to the right people in just the right way to led to the first of two periods of unemployment I enjoyed in 2002. The two jobs that I spent most of last year working are not worth mentioning. Despite that, I managed to mention them quite a bit around here.
Eventually, I managed to con my way into something of a dream job. I now work at Guitar Center, an obscenely huge national purveyor of musical instruments. It lacks the charm of working for a local Mom and Pop store, but at least the pay is shitty. Truth be told, this is the only job I have ever had that I have enjoyed. It's the closest I have come to being a professional musician. That, of course, means that I can't keep it. Unless I manage to move way more gear than I have, I am not going to make enough cash to get by. I have sent my res in for a couple of tech jobs and might look at some other music stores. We'll just have to see.
When it comes down to it, regardless of how I make my living, I am a computer geek, a music geek and a writing geek. All are part of what makes my life worth living. If I happen to also make a living at it, that is cool too.
Now, the vast multitude of female fans we have will no doubt be saddened to learn that I am married. In fact, I have been blissfully ensnarled since April of 1999 (for those planning on getting us an anniversary gift, I am fairly certain that the fourth anniversary is the Deluxe P-Bass Special Anniversary). In many ways, Laura has been as important to me as college. When she came into my life, I finally found a reason to start trying to grow up and become responsible. I'm still working on it. We both are. There have been some hard times. None harder than the death of our daughter, Robin. But, we have each other and that makes it, if not easier, then at least more worthwhile.