iTulipers! What do you do?

[shiny!]

One of our resident mathematicians just revealed that he's also a BASKET WEAVER. I never would have guessed! It got me wondering what other hidden talents we have lurking here. I'm curious to know what people at iTulip can do.

Let's start a resource list. Maybe we'll discover shared interests or experts in fields we've always wondered about. I'll get the ball rolling:

Nine years secretary for a property management company. I'm their Radar O'Reilly.

Hobbies: Growing Old Garden Roses. Building computers. Learning the viola. Cooking. Writing. Natural medicine. Studying everything.

Some things I've done for a living:

Owned and operated a retail gift/magic/costume shop
Yarn dyer and skeiner
Designed and glazed tile murals
Bronze sculptures, wax dressing
Online Natural Perfume store
Website development/SEO

Studied Hakomi Therapy.

What do you not see here? Economic education. None whatsoever. Obviously.

See, I've set the bar really low. Your turn!

[Finster]

Re: iTulipers! What do you do?

Finster: Manages hedge fund in Cayman Islands. Commutes from haunted manor in western Pennsylvania. Originally from Finland (where else?). Married to Angelina Jolie.

The guy who writes Finster: Musician ... singer, keyboardist, writer, arranger, composer, recording studio operator & rock band leader. Engineering degree ... worked 22 years for the US government. Two days older than EJ. Actual western Pennsylvanian. Not married to Angelina Jolie.

...

[jiimbergin]

Re: iTulipers! What do you do?

Well, Shiny, since you mentioned my basket weaving, I am also a Master Gardener and love gardening. I am also a baker (especially pies and all kinds of bread). We travel (especially love crusing) a lot. Other than spending a lot of time with our Church Famiy, much of the rest of the time is with our large family, including our 6 married children and 13 grandchildren (2 of whom are married) and 1 great grandchild. In fact we will be with many of them begining tomorrow for a week for a family reunion.

I also love making beer, but am not doing so currently. I am a retired actuary.

[shiny!]

Re: iTulipers! What do you do?

Master Gardener when I lived in NM, too. But tilted heavily towards roses.

[shiny!]

Re: iTulipers! What do you do?

Not married to Angelina Jolie.

Well that's good, actually. All that child support...

[lakedaemonian]

Re: iTulipers! What do you do?

Jobs:

Worked in Semiconductor equipment manufacturing managing the build of wire and wedge bonders for Intel and AMD
Quite early employee of Amazon.com in distribution and logistics and got to play with some big picture IT/marketing projects
Co-owned a pasture based dairy farm for 5 years
Bought a distribution company with rights to 1 well known global brand and 2 speciality brands
Split the 3 brands up and sold off 2
Currently self-employed managing the local presence of a Top 100 global brand(would prefer not to say) where I've got a great team that allows me to step away and have some adventures. Most of my time is spent on developing my managers and marketing.
10+ years and counting in the Army with a couple trips overseas on operations, rescue/recovery for a couple big quakes here, and 1 overseas. Probably the coolest thing I get to do now is to help plan and instruct on a course that gives soldiers the opportunity to learn that most physical limits are mental perceptions. It has been a truly humbling and life defining experience as a candidate and now as an instructor to comprehend the vast divide between perception and potential. Working with positive, motivated, healthy, intelligent young soldiers helps keep me young and I hope to continue leading/teaching them as long as I can continue to keep up with them.

Education:

Poli Sci Undergrad
Wharton Evening School student(the old program before it got revised sometime after the mid 90's when I attended)
Current Remote Medical Practitioner(RMP) course student.
Graduate of heaps of short courses across the spectrum.

Interests:

My kids
reading, learning, and more reading and more learning
endurance sports, long distance running and a bit of adventure racing
mountain climbing, I've done a few easy ones...
skydiving/paragliding...been jumping a fair bit this year up from the last couple of years
hunting...although no venison in the freezer this season too busy
scuba diving...only a couple times this year
motorcycling...ride all the time
travel...all too frequently for work


Just trying to drink from the fire hose of life to learn and experience as much as I can during the short time I'm here and to support my wife and children on their own adventures through life.

[Berkshire]

Re: iTulipers! What do you do?

Finster: What kinds/genres of music are you involved in?

[jk]

Re: iTulipers! What do you do?

education- undergrad math, med school + 1 year of grad work in applied math and neurophysiology.

consistent: 36 years as a psychiatrist post-residency, the last 20 just doing psychopharmacology, the last 16 specializing in bipolar disorder. very part time supervise residents in psychiatry and/or tutor medical students. co-run a small group practice of psychiatrists, specialist nurses and social workers supported by an administrative staff. also helped raise 3 now-adult and self-supporting children.

episodic: designed my house and cut down the trees to clear the site [i hired someone to cut the ones over 100' tall- they scared me]; cut and split about 3 cords of wood a year for the first 8 years i lived in my house- i'm not so ambitious now, nor would my back stand up to this work anymore; wrote some articles on family therapy and then political psychology, wrote a book on the soviet union [published] and much later another on bipolar disorder [unpublished]; played saxophone for 5 years; did a variety of athletic activities 4-5 times/wk year-round, each activity lasting about 5 years - squash, then tennis, then swimming, then squash again and currently; read finance/economics with varying levels of intensity since the late 1970's; hiking [e.g first went to the southwest in '05, i have now been out 14 or 15 times for hiking trips with various others- my wife, my son, various friends]; travel- about 7-9 years ago i decided i would take off 8 weeks/year, so along with my hiking trips i've been the planner for a variety of other trips with wife, wife and kids, or friends. studied metabolism and obesity on the side for a couple of years and attended some conferences on the subject. i'm an occasional cook- french, indian, chinese, nouveau whatever and the last couple of years some slow-smoked barbecue.

[lakedaemonian]

Re: iTulipers! What do you do?

Well, Shiny, since you mentioned my basket weaving, I am also a Master Gardener and love gardening. I am also a baker (especially pies and all kinds of bread). We travel (especially love crusing) a lot. Other than spending a lot of time with our Church Famiy, much of the rest of the time is with our large family, including our 6 married children and 13 grandchildren (2 of whom are married) and 1 great grandchild. In fact we will be with many of them begining tomorrow for a week for a family reunion.

I also love making beer, but am not doing so currently. I am a retired actuary.

Nice.....the closest I've gotten to basket weaving(a bit of an indigenous art form down here) is using flax to make hasty rope and fish/eel traps.

My wife is an excellent baker......and has done a brilliant job on our backyard garden with fruit trees, berry bushes, and veggies.....I do NOT have a green thumb unfortunately.

[wayiwalk]

Re: iTulipers! What do you do?

Some interesting stuff so far, I might have to change my handle to “thriftyandboringinNewJersey” compared to you all.


Education – Mechanical Engineer BS/MS, also near MS in Environmental Technology in order to help a career change, MBA, Professional Engineer


Career – first 8 years, aerospace, both military and non-military concepts/projects. Neat stuff, lots of fun, got to work with the guys who built the Lunar Module long before I joined the company (don’t believe the meme that NASA was the reason we got there, that is just the habit of a fed’l agency rewriting history for its own sake, although it took bigtime fed’l dollars but mostly engineers with a lifetime of experience/knowledge and a company that had a great corporate culture of having a vision to engineer excellence to make these systems work; next 18 years, environmental engineer. I’ve mostly worked for federal clients in my careers.; one rule of thumb I believe should be a requirement for anyone before they work for the fed’l gov’t – minimum of five years spent working in the private sector.


Business Owner – partnered with coworker to start a homehealth care business, primary driver was the awareness we could make it work and the realization that we’d never retire nor pay for our kid’s college without boosting our income. We’ve been successful for the last 8 years but lately the extra hours just to stay employed at my primary work has really cut into the time I have to take off when needed to maintain the business, coupled with a much more challenging business climate. Our business is a very low profit margin, in a very competitive field.

Hobbies/Interests – Cooking, gardening (I have a LOT to learn), growing wine grapes (first vintage will probably be in 2014), I used to love running but the joints seem a little too old these days, Tae Kwon Do (last 4 years and next 15 until my 4 year old reaches his black belt). Spending time with the kids. Married for longer than I can believe, and still in love with my bride.


What really defines me – life long contrarian. Fairness to all is primary to me. I really enjoy people, except those who are obviously all about advancing themselves at the expense of others. Joking with friends, fishing on a quiet Adirondak lake with a glass of wine, telling stories with friends, reminiscing is as close to a perfect time as things could be. Formerly “small r” republican but now solidly “independent”. During a family gathering this weekend, my “mad as hell and not gonna take it anymore moment”, I think I was up on the picnic table, and either shouting, “give me liberty or give me death” or “give me more onion dip or give me death”, I don’t know, it was probably the wine talking…..but it was interesting sitting around the table with a bunch of high tech engineers and marketers, and the realization that we were no longer going to be polite for civilities sake to TPTB and those that support them was a common understanding. Our kid’s future depends on our willingness to speak truth to the power.

[lektrode]

Re: iTulipers! What do you do?

ThriftyandBoringinHawaii here
hs grad but a voctechie, with a masters from the school of hard knox
10years in manufacturing (mostly maint type, but a variety of jobs in rubber, steel, radar, semicon test eqpt, cheeze products, along with a brief stint with an airline)
most of the past 30years self empl'd fix it guy, boats for most of that, some hotel/resort exp
alternative energy practitioner, refrigeration specialist

former skibum (tho with night jobs), windsurfer, bicyclist(100mi/week level, but both of these now formers)
master road-tripper
avid consumer of biz/politix news, itulip junkie
rocky mountain/wild wild west enthusiast
likes camping out 'neath the stars
former resident of new england, went to florida for some windsurfing and 'never went back' (cept for vacay/biz trips)
present hobby: keeping up with the house(s) (1 of mine, 2 of hers)

would say that i'm a former small-r type, but altho i dont think that ever goes away, am now FIRMLY independent
political philosophy: if We The People _dont_ uncover the truth and start getting mad, 'they' will take it all away from The Rest of Us

80degrees and sunshine is nice, but what really bangs my gong is a foot of fresh and a bluebird morning,
any place that has 2500+ vertical feet and detachable quad chairlifts... base villages optional ;)

at the end of the day:
i like a nice sunset with my honey, some jazz or blues, a couple cold ones and a good steak-baked-and-salad dinner
(and not even bill gates or warren buffet gets to have much more than that)

[Finster]

Re: iTulipers! What do you do?

Finster: What kinds/genres of music are you involved in?

Just about everything from Bach, Tchaikovsky & Chopin to ragtime, big band, jazz, bluegrass, and classic rock to stuff that hasn't been released yet. I’m working on some originals that would be more representative, but it will probably be at least several more months before they’re available. Meanwhile, there are some arrangements I did for my band back in 2009 where as an exercise I tried to emulate the original closely, and there are mp3 files you can hear now. All the instruments and vocals were done by me in my studio.

Finster does Blue Oyster Cult

• Don't Fear The Reaper

Finster does Supertramp

• The Logical Song

Finster does Earth Wind & Fire

• Can't Let Go

Finster does Josh Turner

• Would You Go With Me

[Berkshire]

Re: iTulipers! What do you do?

Great, brilliant, Finster! Superbus Maximus!

[lakedaemonian]

Re: iTulipers! What do you do?

Just about everything from Bach, Tchaikovsky & Chopin to ragtime, big band, jazz, bluegrass, and classic rock to stuff that hasn't been released yet. I’m working on some originals that would be more representative, but it will probably be at least several more months before they’re available. Meanwhile, there are some arrangements I did for my band back in 2009 where as an exercise I tried to emulate the original closely, and there are mp3 files you can hear now. All the instruments and vocals were done by me in my studio.

Finster does Blue Oyster Cult

• Don't Fear The Reaper

Finster does Supertramp

• The Logical Song

Finster does Earth Wind & Fire

• Can't Let Go

Finster does Josh Turner

• Would You Go With Me

Good stuff Finster!

I'm a big fan of BOC......did you get any real cowbell in there?

My wife bought me a 2nd hand Fender Tele in Sunburst like Andy Summers(except less beat up) as an aspirational bit of motivation. Once I can make the time and when my body slows down a bit I'm keen to learn a few Police songs, some Flock of Seagulls, The Cure, and The Cult....just to see if I can do it.

[thriftyandboringinohio]

Re: iTulipers! What do you do?

I'm a mechanical engineer, also a musician.
Took my first year of college in a conservatory of music, jazz performance, major instrument was the bass.
After dropping music as a full-time thing I lost the ability to play Jaco Pastorius tunes, switched to 6 string, gig out a couple times a month locally as a 2-piece with the wife, she sings beautifully, light rock, R&B, unusual covers. Also play bass for a 1970s rock band playing out 4 or 5 times a year, sit in with friends at clubs once in a while.
Not yet 54 years old.

Working in heavy industry as a project manager, large electrical generation. Done most things in mechanical design and light manufacturing, and quite a few things in formal research, large projects. Owned and operated a small engineering design firm, had a piece of a small manufacturing firm, ran the mfg dept then the engineering dept.

Wife and I are dual professionals doing better than we deserve, kids nearly out of the nest. Trying to learn fine woodworking, and keep a big saltwater aquarium.