Both of my parents were born and raised in western North Carolina. My father was a career milatary man, and we moved around a lot. While growing up I spent time in Texas, Mississippi, Illonois, Kansas, Alaska, North Carolina. My father's 27th and final year in the military was spent at Pope Air Force Base, near Fort Bragg. I was in the 9th grade then. In 1967, after my father retired, my parents built a home on a piece of land that my mom had inherited, west of Hickory, NC. I married my first wife in November, 1969. I graduated from Hildebran High School in Hildebran, NC in 1970. My first son was born in June of 1970. I served in the US Army from May, 1970 until May, 1973. After I got out, I attended college at NC State University in Raleigh, NC from September, 1973 until May, 1977. I majored in Mathematics and Physics. I did not graduate. In May 1977 I joined the U. S. Navy. That did not work out so well. I left the Navy in July of 1978.
I worked several different jobs during the next 2 years. While working with the E. P. A. in 1980 I co-authored a technical paper on eshaust emmissions from diesel-powered passenger vehicles (search my name "Rex A. Brittain" on google). In 1981 I left NC and worked in the oil fields in Colorado and Wyoming. In 1982, after oil fell back to $20/barrel, I went back to Raleigh, NC and worked for 6 months as an electrician's apprentice. In October of that year I went to work as a mail processing equipment mechanic for the U. S. Postal Service. After about a year I became an electronics technician for the Postal Service. I was working some wierd schedules, and I let the stress affect my personal life. I divorced my first wife in 1984.
I married my second wife in 1986; she was from Washington state and had moved to Raleigh with her college roommate. I met her when she came to work for the Postal Service late in 1985. Our daughter was born in October of 1988. Early in 1993 I decided to try to transfer to Washington so that my wife could be closer to her family. I transferred to the Tacoma, Washington mail processing centerin August of 1993, and my wife was able to transfer in November.
So --- I lived in North Carolina for 22 of the 27 years between 1966 and 1993, and I regard that state as my home. Most of my relatives live in western North Carolina. My birthday is May 15th, and I am 56 years old.
My second son was born in June of 1995, coincidentally on the same day that my first son had been born on 25 years earlier, June 11th. My children continue to be a source of happiness for me. My first son graduated from NC State University. He is 38 and a writer. He lives with his wife Karen in Northampton, Massachusetts. My daughter is 19 and just finished her first year at Eastern Washington University in Cheney, WA. My second son is 13 and will start 8th grade this fall. He loves basketball and plays year-round except -- he plays football during the fall. He hopes to play basketball for the NBA.
The move from NC to WA has been good for my family, but it has been rough for me. When I moved I lost all of my local senority, and I accepted a very bad schedule. I did not get along with my supervisor. We argued constantly. It got to the point that I did not want to go to work, and I was late often. I was fired in the fall of 1996.
I went into a deep depression in early 1997. My father in NC sent for me, and he helped me to get into the VA Hospital in Oteen, NC in the fall. I spent 13 weeks there and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Life was tough for me. In 2000 my wife asked me to leave. I survived on temporary work and day labor.
In 2002 my application for a non-service connected pension was approved. The income kept me off the street. I lived for 3 years in a homeless shelter in Seattle, WA. While there, I was the network administrator for a small network used by the other residents for building resumes, housing search, and job search. While there I met a retired programmer who is known as
Rudy Toody. He crunches for
TeAm AnandTech.
In August of 2005, my application for Section 8 housing assistance was approved, and I was able to rent a small apartment that is located about a mile from my family near Tacoma, WA. I help my wife with child support, and she allows me to visit my children often.
In May, 2006,
Rudy Toody" bought all the parts, and we built 3 computers based on the AMD Athlon 64 FX-60, one for his brother, one for him, and one for me. Rudy introduced me to BOINC, and I\'ve been crunching for about 2 years now.
I had another computer. It was based on an AMD Athlon XP 2100+. The motherboard went bad in the fall of 2007. In February of 2008,
Smoke sent me an Intel Pentium D 820+ and a matching motherboard. I try to cruch Rosetta@Home as much as I can because
Smoke has a whole team of people who really love that project. I am a member of the
TeAm AnandTech Sentinals (TAS), and we try to focus on a new project each month. This month we're working on uFluids. I have learned a lot from all the different projects.
I also enjoy mathematics, photography, and computer programming.
Rudy Toody is helping me to learn C++. I hope to be a programmer by the time I\'m 60. I doubt that a company will hire someone that old -- I\'ll probably have to work for myself. I am now 56, and life is much is much better than it has been in the not-too-distant past.
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