May 12, 2012
(Updated 9/21/2016)
What can you say on an About page when you seek to shine the light on the work and not on the author? And yet, I am aware of the desire by some to know of the life and experiences of an author they read. I will, therefore, provide some details and reasoning for the site.
My name is Michael George. My grandchildren say I'm old. Sometimes I feel old. One of my favorite pastimes is backpacking up Aravaipa Canyon north-east of Tucson, AZ so I must not be that old. Aravaipa is a very beautiful and spiritual place I enjoy very much. The canyon is only about 12 miles long so an up and back can easily be done in a couple of days and the east entrance connects to some very nice 4-wheeling.
I spent my childhood in West Los Angeles and Torrance, CA in the 50s and 60s. I began clarinet lessons in my 7th year and participated in school band programs through college and enjoyed a 4-year tour with the U.S. Air Force Band. Upon my honorable discharge I continued my schooling and met the love of my life to whom I continue to be married after 41 years. Our children all are or have been married and have children of their own. My experiences as a husband, father, and grandfather have been the most dichotomic I could imagine, providing both the most difficult and most rewarding experiences of my life. Dwarfing any business or academic endeavor, the experiences gained through my family have taught the greatest lessons and I am grateful more than words can say for the patience of my sweetheart. She continues to teach me still.
Although I continue to dabble in music, it became more of an advanced hobby as the children were born. I started my first business with a friend in 1978 building wood frames and headboards for waterbeds. After two years my partner bought my half of the business and I decided I needed more education. No school could teach what I desired to learn so I involved myself with the telephone business. After nearly a decade, I was selling and engineering large PBX telephone systems for a major Japanese manufacturer.
My path then took me through the library industry to the Internet. Since I had been in sales and marketing for many years, learning the Internet from a Unix command line was daunting. I travelled through the minefields of early Windows and was overwhelmed when Mark Andreessen added graphics to the work of Tim Berners-Lee and the modern web browser was born. That was, of course, Netscape. By 1992-1993 I was very involved with bringing the Internet to the library industry. Unfortunately, my employer was not particularly interested in expanding the company to the extent I desired so I left and was the 8th person Sky Dayton hired at Earthlink.
Within a year I left Earthlink to start my own Internet service provider (ISP) company exclusively for business customers. Two years later I reorganized the company with a new financial partner and in 1999 we sold the company and I became an independent web application developer. How a sales and marketing guy morphed into a programmer and graphics guru is beyond the scope of this page to fully develop. Perhaps someday I'll write a book. For now, this blog will have to do. I was initially inspired by the Mango Blog engine written in the Coldfusion programming language. It is an excellent blog engine but did not suit my creative needs. I have created my own engine which is used here. I created my own page structure and developed it's skin providing a fairly unique experience. It was a blast to code! But I digress...
About 6 months prior to selling the ISP, we built an ecommerce website for a fellow who had a product from a German manufacturer, previously unknown in the United States. Within a short time I assumed fulfillment duties along with web operations and after a few years when the fellow who brought it to me retired, I took over. We currently import the products and sell them to resellers across the United States. I wear a number of hats in the company and enjoy the challenges each one provides. My sweetheart runs the sales department being the true expert in relationship building.
I was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at 8 years of age. I grew up learning all the doctrines of the Church and believed it contained the truth. It was not, however, until life's testing that I came to a knowledge that God exists and that, in fact, He has restored His Gospel on the earth. Throughout my life I have known a feeling of protection and companionship that I could not explain with words. One of the purposes of this blog is to give me a platform to record some of the lessons I've learned. I desire my family and friends to know these things and I am grateful to have this tool to that end. If others find interest here, I am flattered and offer welcome.
My course will take both spiritual and political directions. I'm not sure it's possible to completely separate the two. Considering the amount of political doctrine in the Book of Mormon my thoughts often turn to that arena. I am, for the most part, a Libertarian for reasons that my posts will make clear. The links you'll see will be a combination of my favorite spiritual, political, and business sites. I offer them only because they are favorites of mine--I make no income from the links other than my own company's. I'll let you ascertain which one. Since we do not sell to retail customers, your interest will mainly benefit my resellers.
Suffice it to say that my principle interests are the Gospel of Jesus Christ, cultural/political/ societal influences and modifications over time, music (jazz, fusion jazz, blues, classical), 4-wheel off-road driving (we have a built '96 Toyota Landcruiser), backpacking and camping, reading (I'll provide an occasional look at my current reading list and, perhaps, a review or two), and, of course, being a dad and grandfather.
