posted
First of all, the basic biographical stuff. My name is Jeremy, I'm a single male, and I'm 23.
I'm not pretentious enough to call this a landmark post. Landmarks here come with big post numbers, usually thousands. For me, though, reaching 100 posts on any forum is quite an accomplishment. I'll just hedge and call this a long introduction thread.
I won't go through my life story – it's rather boring. I didn't have a rough childhood or anything out of the ordinary. I have a tightly knit family – poor at first, but I never noticed. I will say that I was homeschooled from the third grade all the way until I graduated from high school in 2000. The first years were hard, as I had to leave all of my friends behind and adjust to the new schedules. I made a few new ones, though I never really had more than a handful even in the public school (which happened to be across the street). I'll passionately defend homeschooling in general, though I know for a fact it isn't for everyone. It takes commitment, passion, good motives, motivated children, and yes, some level of training and intelligence.
I am an evangelical Christian, non denominational. Yes, a fundamentalist. To me, my faith is everything. It defines me, more than any one thing. I see the world through the eyes of my faith. I was raised Baptist, but due to some problems with my family church, I started going elsewhere. My current church has no name, no building, no real structure. We are only ten at the most. It's the best teaching and worship I've ever experienced. It's like an advanced study, all of the time. I've grown more there than I have anywhere else. My faith and beliefs became my own, which was quite startling for me. My viewpoints changed, some dramatically. Some people try to classify my fellowship. I've heard Pentecostal, Charismatic, and others (neutral or positive) and also anti-authoritarian, uncreeded, or even cult (negative). I must say, I've faced the most resistance from my family, who all go to a local Independent Baptist Church.
This brings me to the next thing about me – I still live at home. I made the decision to commute to college all 4 years and now the 1 year of graduate school. I have regretted it, and not only for the 2.5hr round trip. Family problems abound. My parents are somewhat controlling... and they do not like independent thought. Of course, I do make things more difficult for myself.
Fortunately, I have just finished my Masters degree, and can begin looking for employment so I can get a place on my own. Both my degrees are in Computer Science. I have somewhat of a math background – I took a number of math courses because I thought they looked fun. I was right! Abstract Algebra was so much fun, in part due to the professor. Anyways, my thesis topic was a combination of databases, language design and compilers, and artificial intelligence. For anyone who is wondering, I worked on marrying a satisfiability solver to a relational database. This didn't work as planned, and so we created a language for specifying satisfiability constraints, specifically in the scheduling domain. It was a blast! I'm submitting a 6 page “extended abstract” with my adviser to the ACM Southeast conference (due 11/22).
Politically, I follow no particular creed, conservative or liberal. I'm somewhat conservative socially – but, I'm not sure that legislating those beliefs is productive. What point is there treating what I see as the symptoms of a society that has turned from God? What we need is revival, so my focus is there. This makes me somewhat of a strange libertarian, I guess. I'm all for assistance to the poor, but I don't feel the government should necessarily force that choice on others. Strangely enough, I do think the government should enforce some environmental controls on people. I guess maybe it's the fact that I personally can (and do) attempt to help the poor, but there's nothing I can do against a corporation flooding the air and water with contamination. Maybe I'm not consistent – well, that makes me human.
I found Hatrack and Ornery in my sophomore year of college, which would be over 4 years ago. We read Enders Game in my Scifi/Fantasy literature class, and I wanted to find out more about the author. Surprisingly, I found Ornery first, and lurked there for a while. I soon came over to Hatrack, and have been reading here and there ever since. I've laughed with you, cried with you, and been angry with and at you. I decided to register eventually, even though I didn't think I'd ever post. I do enjoy it here, and at Ornery. I think I prefer the laid back atmosphere here to the constant combat of Ornery, though.
Well, that's a little about me. I don't know how much I'll post in the future, we'll see.
By the way, my name has nothing to do with Yoda. When I bought my first car (1981 BWM 528i), the previous owner had named it Swamp Fox. Since I was a Star Wars fanboy, I dropped the Fox and added Jedi, to create my handle.
Posts: 1069 | Registered: Feb 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
Wow, first intro thread where I knew who the poster was beforehand.
Well, I didn't really know you, except by name. But I've definitely read my share of your hundred posts.
Do you find that even though your beemer is antiquated people think you're rich? One of my coworkers drives a mid-seventies diesel Mercedes and he constantly gets random comments like, "Maybe one day I'll be making the big money too." From, like, delivery boys and construction workers.
Posts: 5462 | Registered: Apr 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
Gee yeah, I've had people think my '81 was a mid '90s model. It's such a classic beauty, too bad it died on me.
I dive a "less cool" '89 325 now. I miss my baby. I still get the rich remarks on the 3, even though I paid only $2k for it. BMW just makes classic looking cars, I guess.
BMW - The Aes Sedai ageless car.
Posts: 1069 | Registered: Feb 2005
| IP: Logged |
I've had a couple of car experiences like that. I drove my mother's 560 Mercedes, which I think was an '89, and for my sixteenth birthday, I got an '89 Jaguar. It was a great car, but of course, it was just way too expensive to fix all the problems that came up. How are the older bmw's on repairs?
The '81 finally killed me on repairs, so I moved to the '89. That one has run very well, only needing normal things (tires, brakes, etc). I did have some major work done to it recently, but that was due to damage from the tire shop putting the tires on. They put the lift under the car too far, and crushed the gas tank. $450 mistake on a $300 tire job! Fortunately, they paid for it, without me having to do anything but press gently.
Posts: 1069 | Registered: Feb 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
I always love reading your posts on Ornery, FIJC. I thought it was funny that some people couldn't figure out what your name meant. Maybe it's just second nature to me.
I haven't posted on Ornery in a while. I don't feel that my arguments and opinions are sufficently researched and 'documented' to post. All I need is for LR or TD to post something that makes me look stupid! <laughs> I do read, though.
Posts: 1069 | Registered: Feb 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
I guess I have mathematical ability. I'm in the highest math classes at my school. I'm just one of the slow kids in the class.
But congrats on the ability and on the paper. Not entirely sure what it is, but I'd be interested if you could expand on what this six-page bundle of joy outlines.
Posts: 1735 | Registered: Oct 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
I didn't start off doing so well in math. I had to take double remedial math when I started college... and I failed the first few graded assignments. After that, I tried to have fun.
Calc I and II were amazing amounts of fun, perhaps due to my amazing teacher. I just had to have more math!
I'll explain my research in detail, later. I'm going to assume some familiarity with databases and satisfiability problems, though. Posts: 1069 | Registered: Feb 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
I could never hope to post like you, Tante. Wowzers! Thanks for taking the time to read my long intro. Posts: 1069 | Registered: Feb 2005
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Swampjedi: Politically, I follow no particular creed, conservative or liberal. I'm somewhat conservative socially – but, I'm not sure that legislating those beliefs is productive. What point is there treating what I see as the symptoms of a society that has turned from God? What we need is revival, so my focus is there. This makes me somewhat of a strange libertarian, I guess. I'm all for assistance to the poor, but I don't feel the government should necessarily force that choice on others. Strangely enough, I do think the government should enforce some environmental controls on people. I guess maybe it's the fact that I personally can (and do) attempt to help the poor, but there's nothing I can do against a corporation flooding the air and water with contamination. Maybe I'm not consistent – well, that makes me human.
I don't see an inconsistency. Just because certain issues have become linked under one brand name (Democrat/Republican, conservative/liberal) does not necessarily mean that they have anything in common.
Environmental controls are no more about enforcing morality than criminalizing murder, theft, etc. When someone pollutes the air, they're not just polluting the air above the land they own, they're polluting everyone's air.
Posts: 2149 | Registered: Aug 2000
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Wave]](graemlins/wave.gif)
![[Frown]](frown.gif)
![[Blushing]](graemlins/blushing.gif)
All the big names stopping by my humble thread!
