Jason Robard's character in the film The Ballad of Cable Hogue. Or maybe Humphrey Bogart's character in Treasure of the Sierra Madre - Fred C. Dobbs. That's me in a nutshell. I'm a somewhat misanthropic, mid-fiftyish, desert coot. Spent most of my life smack out in the middle of nowhere. I've worked in hardrock mining on and off for 20 plus years, and for 5 years I lived and worked on the Navajo Nation in tribal government.

My interests are, in no particular order, photography, gems and minerals, geology, economic geology, ore deposits, UFOs (isn't everyone?), ghost towns of the American West, western history - especially as it pertains to mining, Native American culture, metal detecting, nugget shooting, small-scale mining, food - especially Mexican food, cooking, RV life, self-sufficiency, beach-combing, Japanese glass floats and seashells, hippie era, music, the folk scene, beatniks, earth shelters, computing, history of computing, early (pre-IBM) personal computers, experimental aircraft, desert ecology, Kerouac and Cassady, R. Crumb, motorcycles, amateur radio, big fan of the 1969 TV series "Then Came Bronson" with Michael Parks in the title role, also really liked the TV series "Twin Peaks" and the BBC series "All Creatures Great and Small", as well as the series "Northern Exposure", the life and literature of Japanese author Yukio Mishima, John Steinbeck and his friendship with Ed Ricketts who was his role model for the character of "Doc" in Cannery Row, Victorian London, Jack the Ripper and Whitechapel, and serial killer pathology.