' The Electric Eclectic '
About Jim and the 'Whys' of this site
The Electric Eclectic arose as a result of "Bloxword", my '3-D' crossword that may be found in the A to C page which also contains a link to some of my poetry. I have always read voraciously ( I was given special dispensation at the age of eight to use the Adult section of the Whitchurch, Shropshire Library after finishing the Children's section. ) and have always had an interest in words and language, went to the local grammar school, growing up as a "Shropshire Lad" in England with the Times and Manchester Guardian crosswords as daily fodder. Having crossed the Atlantic to live in Canada Blogin the early '60s I now have become more familiar with the non-cryptic New York Times weekend crosswords. A ' 3-D ' crossword is much more demanding in terms of compilation as anyone foolish enough to try will tell you, thus I acquired over the period a motley collection of word related links to assist me in my compilations.
A few years back I suffered two major coronary events followed, some time later, by a small series of strokes that gave me, to quote my neurologist, "A swiss-cheese brain! ". Fortunately I have no major physical disabilities as a result of these events which is just as well - as I was a single dad with two teenage daughters! ( Both Honour Roll students for the past few years: the elder - Laurel - graduated '03 before heading into the outside world and S.F.U. and the younger - Holly - graduated the end of May '04. Laurel left home at the end of May and Holly joined her at the end of July.) Because of both long and short term memory problems I was forced into early retirement - with only one carotid and one partial coronary artery remaining! To keep myself active mentally I decided to make a site from my word related links. Thus my collection of word related sites grew - and still does - finally reaching the point where it only made sense to share it with others.
The initial site was a single page (alpha sorted) collection of links. This grew so rapidly in the early days that the loading time for the single page became a concern. At that point I decided to split the site into the 3 ( Now 5 ! ) sections it presently has: A to C, D to H, I to N, O to S and T to Z. Presently each month there are always more links being added than links that die, thus there may be future sub-divisions of these original groups as they continue to grow. I am an addicted used book store browser and can easily lose myself in such places for hours. I found that searching through the links of the basic alpha groups was a similar kind of browsing, in that it was interesting and stimulating, and ones' attention would be drawn to all kinds of unplanned areas. However when searching for information of a very specific nature, the process could become tedious and ones' enthusiasm for the project at hand might fade away! Thus I decided to categorize the contents so that one was able to search areas of interest from a reasonable number of 'Collected References'Blog. Use the method that best meets your needs or mood! If you find a link in those three alpha sections that you feel should be included in one of the 'Collected References' but isn't, please let me know.
My family were in the catering business and many of our friends were local farmers and producers. I also ran a small restaurant of my own in the town for a couple of years before heading to North America - thus there are more than a few agriculture and food related links in the site! Many music related sites are listed in my collection because of my background - growing up in a brass band world ( being on the Welsh border } and prior to moving to Canada dropped a scholarship to the Royal College of Music to go 'on the road' with the Billy Ternent Orchestra and Frankie Vaughan ( a '50s pop singer ) tours that took me to all corners of the U.K. We also were the band for the B.B.C. Bob Hope Christmas shows, not to mention summer seasons at Blackpool! I carried a union card for almost 40 years here doing the gig scene around the hotels etc. in the greater Vancouver area playing all brass instruments but mostly trumpet ( was 1st trumpet in the U.B.C. Concert Band for a couple of years ) and spent much time writing and arranging for a local big band - so know my way around musical keyboards as well as the computer ones. Thus the interest in vaudeville, theatre, music, etc. and travel all around the country tweaked my interest in dialects, sub-culture slangBlog, regional dialects, etc.,all of which were helpful in my 3-D compilations. ( I lived the decade of the 80's in Jamaica as computer consultant to the Ministry of Finance, the Bank of Jamaica and the Office of the Prime Minister )
Several of the technically biased sites display my 'techie' background ( I also studied the Schillinger System of Musical Composition, a mathematically based course!) After being chosen as part of the team to implement the Bank of Montreal's first computerised banking operation on the west coast in the early '60s (where I ended up as Supervisor of Computer Operations), I went on to become hardware/software support for IBM Canada here in Vancouver for some 16 years - dropping out to become technical manager of Vancouver's first micro-computer store. Yes - I predate both DOS and Windows, and some of the first computer systems I worked on at IBM even had vacuum tubes ! I recall writing some code in Fortran IV for Robert Horton Conway's game of 'LIFE' when it was published in Scientific American ( 1970 ) and beaming with joy at the hardcopy output from an 1130 series system printer. ( Before CRT terminals! ) I was a co-sysop on the first BBS system in Vancouver in the mid-70s and one of the founders of AFPAS (Association For Public Access Systems) in the UK when I returned there briefly in early 1980 and installed one of the first CP/M based dialup BBSs in the UK. Some of my early CP/M code may be seen here. I was also active for many years as a Ham Radio Operator ( Ex G4ICO and VE7AUY ) writing the occasional article for '73 Magazine etc., but have not been active for a number of years now. Still fluent in CW though!
As regular visitors know, the sites that I include do not require any payment or membership, or the like. The basic goal is provide direct links to directly useable information. I try to avoid sites that are heavily commercial knowing how irritating I find them to be. ( I also know the expense involved and how neccessary it is! ) All links are checked at least once a month and failing links are kept in a list for the next 4 - 6 weeks. During this period I attempt to establish, by all means possible, whether the link is gone forever or merely having temporary difficulties. If a site appears to have permanently closed down then I attempt to find the best site, in terms of content, to replace it. If I am unable to find a replacement site then I remove the failed listing. If I find a good or better replacement site then that site is added. My provision of 'The Electric Eclectic' site is a labour of love that is based on minimal resources. I decided against using the 'PayPal' option after having my attention directed to this link. I would appreciate any feedback, comments, suggestions you may have about my site. The picture on the disclaimer link is of me at my new home in North Vancouver last fall. Photos of Laurel, my eldest daughter's graduation, Holly, my younger daughter's graduation and other photos of my daughters of the same, and earlier, vintage may be seen here. Some of my local area webcam views here. The daughters have now moved into their own appartments so I have re-located to a bachelor appartment having delightful views of Stanley Park, downtown Vancouver, and the mountains of Vancouver Island in the distance. Free at last! As of April '05 became officially a 'senior citizen' !!! ( Geezer )
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