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Posted by Lale on 6/3/2002, 13:53:01
It has been suggested to me that maybe we should reserve one posting for participants of this site (regulars, lurkers, one-time posters, new-comers alike) to talk about themselves. Totally on a voluntary basis, i.e. you are still our friend if you choose not to join in. Anything you want to share. In any format. Any time.
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Posted by Lale on 6/3/2002, 13:58:30, in reply to "Who are you?"
When I have to talk about myself, I always try to be original. "Try" is the keyword here. It doesn't always work. Today, I feel particularly uninspired, uncreative. I thought of posting one of the essays they made us write in the French class, but I decided against this idea. They sound interesting in French, but in English they are pretty ordinary.
I have a CD of The Animals with an insert titled "Life-Lines of The Animals - 1964". I am going to try to answer the questions they have asked the members of The Animals. I will put in Eric Burdon's answers along with mine, for comparison ;-) This should be fun, well, maybe not, but here we go:
Eric Burdon's answer: Eric Victor Burdon
My answer: Lale (Erdogan) Eskicioglu
Eric Burdon's answer: May 11, 1941
Eric Burdon's answer: Newcastle-on-Tyne
Eric Burdon's answer: 5 ft. 7 in.; 11 stone; green eyes; dark brown hair
My answer: 163 cm ; 8.5 stone ; brown eyes, dark brown hair
Eric Burdon's answer: Matthew, Irene
Eric Burdon's answer: One sister - Irene
Eric Burdon's answer: Earls Court
My answer: I took piano lessons for two years, so I guess I one-upped Eric Burdon here.
Eric Burdon's answer: Wharrier St. Secondary Modern Newcastle upon Tyne; College of Art and Industrial Design
My answer: Ankara Koleji, grad. `77, and then, Middle East Technical University - Electrical Engineering, grad `81 (both in Ankara, Turkiye)
Eric Burdon's answer: None (own record collection)
My answer: Those two years of piano lessons notwithstanding, I will also have to answer "None (own record and CD collection)".
My answer: Not yet, but it is bound to happen any day now.
Eric Burdon's answer: "Scene At 6:30" ATV Manchester
My answer: In Canada, I was once on national TV demonstrating how to make Turkish Coffee.
Eric Burdon's answer: Chuck Berry Tour
My answer: Biggest break in my engineering/software career came when I found the nerve to call the human resources manager of DEC one early morning and convinced him to grant me an interview right away, because if he didn't do so, I was going to start my new job at Cognos and Digital was going to lose me forever. He arranged for interviews for the same morning. Before noon, I had a contract. From the Digital building I drove to Cognos directly and told them that I was not going to work for them after all.
Own TV or radio series (past or present):
My answer: I don't get the question, so I will have to answer with a hyphen just like Eric Burdon did. I never had my own tv or radio show if that's what they mean. My favourite tv show remains to be Jeopardy which I haven't been able to watch in the last four years.
First important public appearance:
Eric Burdon's answer: City Hall, Newcastle, on swinging Blue Jeans' tour
My answer: Not yet. It'll probably be when I win the Nobel Prize.
Eric Burdon's answer: Ray Charles, Joe Turner
My answer: The biggest influence on my engineering/software career was Ken Olsen (founder of DEC) and PDP-11/23-24 computers running RSX11M software. And then my beloved VAX/VMS. The biggest influence literature-wise would be Suat, my husband who was the only student I knew in university who read fiction, and then discovering French literature.
Eric Burdon's answer: Designer, labourer, postman, draughtsman
My answer: Programming languages teacher, software specialist, system manager, tester, program manager, technical editor ... Then complete break with the high-tech world and designing costume jewellery.
My answer: I can't believe Eric Burdon has no hobbies what so ever. I bet he is regretting that now in his old age. My hobbies are making *things*; makings necklaces; home decoration (currently at its daydreaming stage); collecting several things too numerous to count (including miniature dictionaries); reading, obviously... My biggest (i.e. the most time consuming) hobby currently is maintaining and expanding readliterature.com.
Eric Burdon's answer: Brown-black, beige
My answer: Changes from year to year. This year, I like pink the best.
Eric Burdon's answer: Ray Charles, Etta James
My answer: A singer that is not in a band? Paul Simon, Carole King, Peter Gabriel. There must be hundreds.
Eric Burdon's answer: Eli Wallach, Monty Cliff, late James Dean
My answer: Sean Connery, John Travolta, Robert Redford, Meryl Streep
Eric Burdon's answer: Roast beef, Yorkshire pud
My answer: Bordeaux, Champagne
Eric Burdon's answer: Levis Jeans
My answer: Flowing, flying dresses, high heels, accessories. Also, my PJs.
Favourite bands/instrumentalists:
Eric Burdon's answer: Charlie Mingus
My answer: The Animals, Beatles, Rolling Stones. Dozens more.
Eric Burdon's answer: Ray Charles, Chuck Berry, Elmer Bernstein
My answer: Bethooven, Mozart, Vivaldi, Karl Orff. Dozens more.
Eric Burdon's answer: Ford Thunderbird
My answer: I don't have one now (I use the metro) but the two cars I owned in the past were Suzuki Swift and Ford Taurus (and I am a Taurus).
Eric Burdon's answer: Hip people (girls)
My answer: Hip people (men) ;-) I like smart, interesting people. I enjoy creativity in anything, in art. Sitting in a café and observing people, listening to French language.
Eric Burdon's answer: Un-hip people, bigots
My answer: Bigots, most definitely. Phone ringing, mushrooms, noise, too hot weather, house work, appointments.
Eric Burdon's answer: Johnny Steel (it should be mentioned here that Johnny Steel has picked Bill Davidson as his choice of a best friend -- Lale's note)
My answer: If I only have to name one, then that would be Suat. But there are quite a few of course, and you know who you are.
Eric Burdon's answer: Working with Chuck Berry, Carl Perkins and R.S.G.; Meeting John Lee Hooker
My answer: Most thrilling experience was to have a baby. On a less dramatic note, I am thrilled each and everyday when I receive emails from all over the world.
Eric Burdon's answer: Blues, R & B, jump jazz
My answer: It is easier to count what I find distasteful: I simply cannot be there when techno or rap is playing. If I enter a store and they are playing some noisy, non-musical something, i can't even find the name for it, I leave without making a purchase.
My answer: The apple of my eye, my cat, my Pamuk, my Pamsickle.
Eric Burdon's answer: Tour States by car and meet U.S. Blues men on their own ground
My answer: To gather all of world's readers in readliterature.com. To have meetings with participants of this site, seminars, conferences in cities like St. Petersburg or Budapest or Vienna.
Eric Burdon's answer: Tour States by car and meet U.S. Blues men on their own ground
My answer: Don't have one. Don't have a profession any more. Well, the Nobel Prize would be nice.
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Posted by Anna van Gelderen on 6/3/2002, 15:21:22, in reply to "Who are you?"
I am taking the easy way out: just have a look at www.xs4all.nl/~avangeld/Engels/Background.htm.
Anybody who wants to know more, just send me an e-mail - but of course I do not guarantee full and exhaustive replies to all questions ;-).
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Posted by Len Fehskens on 6/3/2002, 19:55:26, in reply to "Who are you?"
I will try to follow Lale's guide in a bit more compact format.
You already know my real name, and when I was born. I was born in Brooklyn, New York, but my family moved to Glenbrook Connecticut (a suburb of Stamford) when I was 8 years old. Connecticut was a revelation -- the predominance of trees and grass over buildings and concrete affected me forever. I will never again live in a city.
I am 5'6", brown eyes, brown (greying) hair, my weight waxes and wanes (currently waning).
I have four sisters, all younger. We keep in touch via phone and email and see one another at least once a year; three live in the Pittsburgh area, and one in Florida. My Dad (stepdad, but he adopted us when we were so young that he is the only father I remember) died about 6 years ago; my Mom lives in Florida, and I see her several times a year. I currently live in Massachusetts, west of Boston.
I majored initially in aeronautics and astronautics at MIT, but changed my major to computer science, with a minor in neuropsychology. It was at MIT that I taught myself how to play rock'n'roll drums, and playing in a succession of bar bands provided disposable income during my undergraduate years. I still play, and have a large acoustic kit in storage and an electronic kit in my living room. I live with 7 cats. I broke up with my "steady girlfriend" (she declined three proposals) of twenty years about five years ago.
In addition to countless "public appearances" as part of my bands, I have spoken professionally (customer visits, conferences, etc.) many many times.
I have always been a "software guy" professionally. Now I am an architectural methodologist with Compaq Professional Services. I have five patents. It was through Digital that I met Lale sometime around 1995. Lale says that she owes her living in Paris to me, through her cat.
Classical music is for me what literature is for Lale, and it was a question she emailed me about music that started our friendship. I finally met Lale (and her husband, daughter and cat) last year during a business trip to France. It was like meeting an old friend after a long separation.
My other interests include photography (I have over forty thousand pictures in my archives), model rocketry (I build and fly small rockets using commercially available rocket motors). I have a large classical, jazz and rock CD collection, and a large library. I have travelled a great deal, both on business and for pleasure. My favorite places are Hawaii and the Caribbean. I enjoy cooking and eating. I collect a variety of odd things.
My favorite composers are Brahms, Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Mahler, .... My favorite poet is e.e.cummings.