I'm 51 (as of last Sunday), and go in spurts where I participate a lot on this forum, and then almost disappear for a few months. Right now I'm mostly invisible, but hopefully that will end in a month or so.

I've written off and on since I was 14 years old; but as it's mostly been "off" I don't have all that much to show: one novel (which I'm almost ready to start pedaling, and several short stories. I recently started a tutoring agency for any of you who need help in any subject and live in or near Greensboro, NC (or if you even know anyone there, let them know: www.a-plustutoring.com).

I've got one wife, one daughter (who's planning to conceptually revamp quantum mechanics) and one son (who loves stories, but isn't planning anything yet). And one cat, who doesn't like fish or chicken but laps up papier mache paste.

It's always fun to see who is still around and who the new folks are. Greetings all!

What a rush! I've never been so scared in my life.

I am Chris Owens and I'm a chicken stromolli-aholic.

You say this is not a chicken stromolli-aholic newsgroup? Is it? Or maybe you just can't admit you have a problem.

I'm 32. Married now for 3.5+ years. 0 children, and I hope it stays that way. Temporally employed as a contractor doing mainly SAS, JCL, sometimes a little COBOL.

Born and lived in Richmond, Virginia all my life except for two years when my job sent us to Baltimore. Now I'm back.

I read mainly SF&F. What really got me started was the Amber series by Roger Zelany. I remember the summer when I was 15 and journeyed with Corwin from Amber to Chaos. After that I discovered Tolkien, Orson Scott Card, ect...

I'm currently devouring the Runelord series. But usually I prefer the fuzzy middleground between fantasy and science fiction. I love stuff that involves alternate realities.

When I was a teen I devoured any layman text I could find on Relativity and Quantum Mechanics. I've forgotten most of it and I really never pursued it any more than that. I learned Basic 2.0, Pascal, 6510 Assembly langauge, C. And that led to a career in computer programming, a line of work that lately keeps me up at night in worry.

When I was a teen I would not be caught dead with a comic book. That was my 'do-not-call-me-a-child' phase. But after seeing the first Spider-man movie, I have no qualms about reading them. I know this may sound sad, but I only wish I did read them as a teen, I could of really have idenitified with Peter Parker. A 'Your-not-the-only-one' thing. Yes it may sound corny, you either understand what I'm saying or you don't...

With music, I love prog-rock (as in Yes, ELP, early Genesis, Gentle Giant, Gilgamesh, Univers Zero, Magma, PFM, Banco, Thinking Plague). I like jazz, mainly fusion and be-hop. I like classical, no opera. I like some good "new age", Jean Michael Jarre, ect. For a few years I could not get enough of the West Side Story soundtrack, the first LOTR soundtrack, Jarre's album Oxygene and a CD of Japanese traditional pieces (such as 'Along the Grand Tone River'). Anything colorful, interesting, complex, emotionally sweeping.

I love food. Mainly Italian, though I do like my share of Chinese, American, Mexican food as well. When my wife's not looking I'll sneak a chicken stromolli.

This year due to the Food network I've tried my hand at cooking to mixed sucesss. I've been able to make my own pizza crust and pasta from stratch.

So far I've only three short stories in first or second draft, and one main WIP, "The Man Without Dreams" in first draft, about 100000 words in 24 chapters. Now I am severely revamping it.

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Sometimes I move the TV out on the deck in the summer to watch movies, but it's not quite the same.

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Yeah, me too. Now when we're watching a movie and I make a move on the wife all I get is a glare, not even a slap. Oh well. Of course, the kids get a chuckle out of it.