About David
I was born in Daytona Beach, Florida.
Well, that's where the hospital was, we lived in Ormond,
and for a while later in Jacksonville
where I started school at Fishweir
Elementary - I remember walking past Boone
Park on my way to school. But mostly I grew up in Lake
Jackson, Texas, where
we moved when I was about 6 years old. I went to primary and
intermediate schools there, and went to Brazosport
High School in Freeport,
Texas. I then attended the University
of Houston, where I earned a Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in
Psychology. I had more hours studying Spanish,
including, as a senior, a 6-week Graduate course in Spain
πͺπΈ during which I kept a diary.
I lived with a family in Madrid, and the class traveled through many parts of the country.
While attending University of Houston (UH) and after graduating I was an audio engineer and videotape editor for KUHT Television, and later I was Director of Engineering for KUHF FM Radio, both licensed to UH. Lastly at UH I was a Telecom Analyst in UH Information Technology implementing and managing their 5-campus Compressed Video interconnect used for Distance Education - instructors from one campus teaching interactively to remote campus classrooms using two-way audio and video. As a broadcast engineer I held an FCC First Class Radiotelephone Permit, and was SBE certified in AM- and FM- Radio and Television.
In my career I miked and mixed sound for programs ranging from talk shows to symphony and jazz, live and taped, for television and radio. With KUHF I digitally edited a CD release of Shostakovich's 5th symphony from several performances by the Houston Symphony. In addition to my work at UH I freelanced at NASA providing on-location audio pickup and videotape editing services for ABC, CBS, and EBU during the Apollo, Skylab, and Soyuz space missions. I also freelanced installing radio broadcast control rooms in Houston, St. Louis, and Ft. Lauderdale. I briefly engineered in commercial radio but found that unsatisfying.
After 32 years at University of Houston I retired in 2003.
My interest in computers began with UH's Univac 1100/80 and the Apple ][, later the first Macintosh in the Houston area through various models to my current iMac. I have dabbled in programming with BASIC, FORTRAN and the HTML behind these pages. I was on computer bulletin boards when 2400 'baud' was considered fast. I have programmed using Hollereith punched card batches, from a remote TTY terminal, and of course the modern keyboard/mouse/GUI interface. I began with keyboard-based word processors and VisiCalc and so am very familiar with current word processing, spreadsheet and other programs on Windows and Mac OS.
In 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2019 I went to Romania, π·π΄ visiting friends and seeing some of their beautiful country. I got rained on in the mountains, and swam in the Black Sea. I have visited Sibiu, Alba Iulia, Piatra Neamt, IaΕi, Deva and more. Pictures can be found on my Facebook page.
I read science fact, fiction and fantasy, biographies and history, in periodicals, e-books and an occasional real book. I find language(s) fascinating; in addition to English and Spanish, a bit of Latin & Esperanto. I am also interested in broadcasting, telephony, computing and the internet. I meditate daily. Two sable Burmese cats, Softie and Travi (travieso, inglΓ©s: mischievous) have allowed me to share their home.
I am connected via email, FB Msg,
Skype, SMS, Signal, Telegram, WhatsApp and a mobile.