And Now, A Few Words About Jim

I figure most of you are just poking around here while waiting for the next Voyager review, but however you got here I'm glad you're here. Below you'll find a brief (for me) history of my life and times, which may put the rest of my site into perspective.

So, without further ado, may I present ... myself.

• I'm the oldest of six children, born 30 March 1964 in southern California.
• My family merits a page of their own.
  
• I graduated from Lakewood High School in 1982, and Long Beach Poly's PACE program.
  
• Where I've Lived:
  • Seoul, Korea, as an LDS missionary;
  • Washington, DC, as an intern for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce;
  • Provo, Utah, where I attended Brigham Young University and worked for WordPerfect and Novell;
  • Columbia, Missouri, where I completed my degree through Thomas Edison State College and worked at Datastorm and Quarterdeck.
  • I'm currently living in the Portland, Oregon area, where I've worked work for Intel and MedicaLogic as a software evaluation engineer. In October 1999, I returned to Intel.
    
• In my spare time, I write, act and perform standup comedy. (After 1995, I mostly write.)
  
• ...when I'm not indulging my lazier interests: travel, reading, watching television, email, and the never-ending web maintenance.
  

Update May 1999: Although I enjoyed the heck out of my comedy and acting days, they are mostly behind me. I do continue to write, however.

You've probably never heard of me. Go ahead, admit it; you won't hurt my feelings. But although I'm just starting out, my acceptance ratio is decent and I have high hopes for the future.

My fiction has appeared in WordPerfect the Magazine, Galaxy, Echoes, and Latter-Day Digest, and I've written numerous technical articles, book chapters and training materials. And I've written enough email to make the Internet Worm look like a slow news day.

I'm currently an associate member of SFWA and HWA, with other acronyms soon to follow.

My biggest claim to writing fame, though, is probably via my collection of Voyager reviews and my monthly columns for the Starfleet Journal and the old Mission Profile magazines.

Click here to read a few examples of what some folks deem publishable, as well as some straight-to-the-web efforts.

I grabbed my first onstage microphone in 1983 at the Comedy Store in Hollywood, CA. I held my second in 1990 at Johnny B's Comedy Club in Provo, Utah. Provo was much friendlier, so I stayed; no matter where else I go, no matter how long I'm gone, I kept coming back to Utah. Even now, Utah is still "home."

Comedy has been good to me. I started because it got me into the clubs for free, and I stayed because I kept getting laughs. (Okay, so there were more laughs some nights than others.) I've even won a few contests, including the Utah edition of The Tonight Show Comedy Challenge in 1992. NBC has also been very good to me; the Tonight Show sent me to Burbank, and Cheers sent me to Boston as the best Norm Peterson lookalike in Utah. (Oh, sure, I was the only Norm entered, but hey--a trip's a trip.)

I don't perform anymore, except "online." But I still look back fondly on those days. If you want to check out my official comedy headshot, click here.

During the brief period I had an agent, I landed exactly one job: as the voice of a skittish groundhog in The Seventh Brother, an animated movie produced by Feature Films for Families. My part lasts about thirty seconds, and unless you have small children, it's too cute to rent except under medical supervision. Trust me; my aunt watched it, and it took an hour for her blood sugar levels to return to normal.

After I dropped my agent, I got a second film credit in 1996. I play "Big Harvey" in the independent film, "One of These Days." Look for it in fashionable art houses near you in coming months. I'm the guy under the sheet. (I played several dead guys in college productions, too; I think it's a hint....)

Last Updated: May 3, 1999