Introduction : hobbies : photos

Introduction

My real name is Jim Murphy. I live in Troy, NY, USA, or on the internet, depending on how you look at it. The picture above was drawn by my friend moonhare.

Did you notice the fox theme? I have this thing about foxes. When I was very young, my parents tell me, I wanted to grow up to be a fox. I guess I still do.

Pronounciation guide

<den´·eb>

I usually go by "Jim" in person. It's easy to mispronounce "deneb" beyond my ability to parse it.

Stuff that I do

I'm a drill sergeant at Fort Leonard Wood, where I train reservists before they deploy into combat. I also have the occasional pleasure to work at Fort Jackson, SC, training recruits in the infamous basic combat training. I'm also an electrical engineering student, when the needs of the Army do not take precedence. When I'm not doing any of those things, however, this is what I like to do:

Music

This is my number one thing! I love music of any sort. I constantly have a tune in my head. In fact, I compose and play my own tunes as well, and you can check them out on my music page.

I like to listen to:

the Art of Noise

the B-52's

the Cars

Depeche Mode

Missy Elliot

Peter Gabriel

Genesis

Kiss

Dave Matthews

the Police

Prince and the Revolution (Not the NPG!)

Rush

Yes

Amateur Radio

My callsign is KE4FPB. You will probably only hear me on the local repeaters wherever I happen to be (see the link below for a list), but you might possibly catch me on 40m or 80m, working CW. My dad is KB2JWD, and you've got a very good chance of finding him on 40m CW, in the QRP window (7.025 MHz to 7.03 MHz).

See more about my amateur radio exploits here.

Computers

I have a big collection of computers. I don't know for sure if it's because I like computers, or maybe because I'm such a packrat, but I know a little bit about the things. Sometimes I like them, and other times, uh, well, they're okay, I guess. I wrote a game for MSDOS a few years back. You can download it here.

The Outdoors

I also enjoy camping, hiking, picnics, outdoorsy things, you know. I like to ride and repair motorcycles, and play sports, including golf, croquet, table tennis, orienteering, and soccer.

I also like skiing, and this winter I'm still trying to learn how to snowboard. That isn't going so well, but one thing I have learned is respect for those who can do it!

A friend of mine, a skiier, once commented that he hated snowboarders "because they are always sitting on their asses in the middle of the trail." Having attempted the sport myself, I am now able to offer this insight: At least some of them are probably too exhausted to stand up or get out of the way.

Other Stuff

Other occurrences of the word "deneb" in the universe

It's a surprisingly uncommon name. Here are the places I've heard it used.

α cygni, the tail of the swan (cygnus) or top of the northern cross. Geddy Lee refers to it in the song Cygnus X-1.

There is a wolf at Wolf Park by the name of Deneb.

There is an asteroid called Deneb in the computer game Stellar 7.

Another game features a character, a witch, called Deneb. Help me out if you remember the name.

At least two users on the major IRC networks use the nick Deneb. I think I seriously disturbed one of them in a conversation once. Sorry about that.

Oddly, most people seem to think Deneb is a feminine name. I don't consider that to be the case. I think it's a phonetically corrupted Arabic word meaning "tail."

Photos

Now you can see what I look like. Click to view pictures without the aid of a microscope.

This is me balancing a whole bunch of parrots on my head and shoulders. These are actual parrots; those big piratey-looking birds are actually known by another name (a name which eludes me at the moment).

Here I am spending your tax dollars. As you can see I am focused on some intense military training operations, whatever they were. I was a tank mechanic in the 3rd squadron, 7th US Armored Cavalry at Fort Stewart, GA. This photo was taken at Ft. Benning.

This is me with my bike, a Kawasaki KZ550C, after an in-ranks inspection. Both the bike and I, by the way, scored excellent marks. I no longer own this particular machine; I went through a brief destructive phase with motorcycles and this one now belongs to a friend of mine. I am also selling this one if you're interested. Drop me a line.

This is the closest that Philo, Protius, and I have ever gotten to an actual ski trip since high school. Despite the fact that this picture was taken at the resort, you really can't see any evidence that it's winter. More snow wouldn't have made much of a difference anyway; we showed up about half an hour before the place opened and left immediately, because about ten thousand other people got there before we did.

After things didn't work out at the ski place, we went up the road a bit to the Cascades. Note that there was no snow here, either. It was a pretty lousy year for snow. Each year now, we have a tradition of not going skiing somewhere. Most years we never get past the conceptual stage. About two years ago we even forgot to plan it.

Me and philo, long before we joined the army. This is from my long-haired sandal-wearing hippie freak period. The photo was taken somewhere on the AT in SW Virginia.

The dungeon of castle Protius. From left to right, if my memory serves me well, myself, Arielana, LocoBunny, philo, and protius. Protius had this basement mostly to himself since high school. This lack of proper supervision probably wasn't a really good idea but as you can imagine, his house was our coolest hangout.

^[:wq

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