At 12:08 AM 8/25/99 PST, Alice Campbell wrote:
>The original meaning of the work 'amateur' derives from the Latin
>word for love, and meant, one who works for the love of it.
>The word's meaning has mutated into a disparaging one, more's the
>pity.  In western culture we're not allowed to admit we LIKE what we
>do.  Too wierd.
>
>alice

   Alice, thanks for posting that. I had always thought that "amateur" was a
"ham radio" operator and prior to that, I had always thought that "ham" came
from a pig but, hey, that's just me. Please don't take me seriously ;-)

   I guess I really started when I was two years old. According to my
parents, I had somehow grabbed my dad's keys and stuck it in a light socket.
I have no memory of this but they bought one of those silly mechanical
`buzzers' that you put on so you can shake someone's hand and watch them
jump. So whenever I got near a socket, they slammed that gadget on my tail.
Since then, I've always had an interest in anything electrical. I've been
`zapped' so many times that I'm surprised I still have a mind. I guess I'm
still trying to figure out what `zapped' me ;-)

   While I love this field, I'm not `married' to it. There were times where
I had to go off and do things like logging, construction, commercial
fishing, and a few other things. Even when I was in the woods, I still had
to keep up with the various periodicals and I always come back to hardware
and software design. I don't know how to explain it but I do "love" this
field for it's `challenge' just as other physical activities have challenged
me to go to the `edge' and find `new paths'.

   - Tom


------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tom Handley
New Age Communications
Since '75 before "New Age" and no one around here is waiting for UFOs ;-)