Welcome to Kevin Daniel's Page!
*(The
links under my photo are based on comments made to me
about my old photo id. I am the opposite of both
stereotypes. I found out that some people didn't get the
joke or were later just not motivated to read the links,
so am explaining it. Also interesting was that getting it
was not a generational thing as age did not seem to matter
in who knew about these stereotypes. Sheesh! Still funny,
though, right? The last few years that I worked I had a
"Get off my lawn" sign on my work laptop lid and it was
interesting to see who did and did not get the joke. At
first, it was just intended to identify folks who share my
sense of humor, but in the end it had the opposite result.
)
The main purpose of this page is to
efficiently introduce myself as I do not use any social
media. After being relatively unchanged for several
years, I am cleaning up some dead links, reformatting
the pages, tweaking colors, backgrounds, etc., and
making the text less/more chatty on this page. Please
let me know if you find any errors!
Biography /
Hobbies / Recommended Sites/
- U.S. Army
veteran. (Enlisted in the Regular Army at age 17 &
served for four years of active duty plus one year of
Active Reserves). New information about Agent
Orange exposure.
- Education stuff
- M.S., Computer Science ,
Illinois State University. Really Applied CS but program
descriptions have changed so much that this is the
closest I could easily find to my degree.
- M.S., Library &
Information Science, University of Illinois,
Urbana-Champaign, IL.
- Other schools attended: Illinois Central College,
Seattle Central
College and University
of Maryland Global Campus.
- It may look as though I LIKE to
go to school, but I eventually learned in my late 30s
that I had to pursue continual professional and personal
development, assiduously, as a way to improve my life,
career (when I had one!) and future. As the result of
three layoffs in my 30s which completely wiped out my
savings and put me back to square one each time, at age
38 I made a long term plan (25 years), with several
short term goals, to get an education (which took five
years), retrain myself, which I later did three times
(two more degrees) to adjust to changing economic
factors, and to find a job that would enable me to
maintain my economic viability and to be able to dine on
the better brands of cat and dog food in retirement. My
roots are blue collar and I worked my way through
every single day of school without incurring any debt.
Every male member of my family, myself
included, has been a member of a labor union (Teamsters,
UAW, Boilermakers, IBEW, Steelworkers) and I still will
not cross a picket line, but to get where I needed to go
at my age, I needed earn college degrees.
- Myers
Briggs INTJ, link1,
link2,
link3.
- I retired several years ago
and worked in various technical fields for most of my 40ish
year "career" (biomedical and aerospace electronics R&D,
computer hardware and software, etc.), spending the
last 20ish years of my work life doing Unix/Linux server
level administration and security, information security and
information security risk management for a Fortune 50
company. I just maintain my technical skills enough, now, to
manage my Linux home computers.
- I dropped all social media
when I retired; FaceBook, LinkedIn, etc.
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- My 140 year old Victorian house.
I have a second house, built in 1939, with many original
features. Photos coming, eventually?
- Motorcycling, Motorcycle Safety
Foundation ex-instructor.
- Genealogy, author of several
books, public speaker on topics including DNA research,
publishing and general genealogy topics. If interested in
engaging my services, contact me at the email link above.
Click the link
to see my genealogy stuff.
- Exercise, yoga, running, jumping
rope, walking, bicycling, hiking,
snowshoeing, etc.
- I have an appreciation for boxing
and other martial arts. I am just an observer these days
but studied several styles over a couple of decades in the
1970s and 1980s. This study was my introduction to the
concept of seeking balance in life, which has had a major
impact on my life in the most positive ways. I had to stop
that type of activity due to various injuries. Styles
formally studied:
- Injuries from my early martial
arts study and other activities led me to start sparing my
body and giving yoga a try since the first yoga studio I
went to had a dojo-like vibe to it, except for the Yoga
moms. I have now been practicing Hatha
and Kundalini
Yoga for over two decades. I like to mix things up
and currently practice Hatha, Kripalu
Vinyasa Flow yoga and Kundalini yoga. I enjoy exploring
the various styles of yoga. I practice every day and have
not missed a practice in 20 years. I occasionally do a Qi
Gong or Tai Chi practice later in the day. It is a great
way to experience fitness, balance and inner peace without
the surgeries and physical therapy. Find a class with a
qualified instructor and give it a try!
- I enjoy well made movies of any
genre.
- Early acoustic Blues, Jazz,
Swing, and Big Band music. Think Mississippi John Hurt,
Son House, Louis Jordan, Django...
- I enjoy classical music,
especially piano and violin concertos and sonatas. Pearl
has a great set of Artur Schnabel performing Beethoven's
sonatas. Mozart, Bach, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven and Chopin
have been playing in my car lately. Glenn Gould's Goldberg
Variations have become a fixture in my Sony BoomBox.
- I spend a modest amount of time
keeping up on current music in several genres and anything
from any period that piques my interest.
- I have a large studio and factory
art glass collection, American, Japanese, Scandinavian,
Italian, Bohemian.
- I am a recovering thrift shop and
Netflix addict. Well..... Yeah, a hard habit to break...
- Art collecting and art history
research, which was a focus of my UIUC degree. I had
thought about becoming an art historian/cataloger after
retiring but eventually decided I did not want to take the
enjoyment out of collecting by turning it into a J-O-B. I
once corresponded with an Australian collector who
described himself as an "art tragic" due to his need to
collect. Guilty. I can stop collecting any time I want to,
though. Well.... Actually, I ran out of wall space years
ago and started stuffing art in closets, etc. I now only
add something to my collection if it needs rescuing.
- My art collection web site.
Over the years, I was contacted by several teachers who
somehow used this as instructional material for their
students. I just gave them permission but did not ask
for details about how they planned to use it. Not sure
if anyone still uses it. I do get a few emails from
folks every year, years after I last made any changes to
the site.
- My lost artists blog.
Another site I no longer keep up, mainly because I am
not collecting much anymore.
- My Japanese Art Glass site.
My collection is much larger than this but I am not very
motivated to create another web juggernaut like my art
collection web site.
- I also have an interest in Japanese
pottery and metalwork.
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Cogitations
- Visit my publisher: Heritage Books
- This is a good FREE site to start
your genealogy research and connect with other
researchers: USGenWeb
Project Homepage
- Another good FREE genealogy
resource, FamilySearch.
Free account gives access many free primary records. Peer
reviewed family trees.
- If you like archaeology
news. No account needed.
- If you like art news. No account
needed.
- Links
for Atheists. Really just Wikipedia-like page with a lot
of relevant links.
- Links
for vegan blogs. No account needed.
- If you care about animals. No
account needed.
- If you like collecting
"stuff". Free Account needed to post items. Anyone can
view posts.
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THATS
ALL
FOLKS!!