Since I've moved to a new instance - one I'm running myself - I though I might re-introduce myself.
I'm Jeff Markel (see profile for pronunciation) - he/him. I'm kinda old, kinda not - born on the cusp of Baby Boom I and Baby Boom 2, aka Generation Jones (1955).
I can schmooze, but am basically very shy - f2f, anyway - and very introverted. More than a few hours of f2f interaction are exhausting.
I had one sibling - a sister - who died of pancreatic cancer in 1997, at 45. I lost my dad to bladder cancer in 1991 (age 67), and my mom to breast cancer in 2006 (age 80). So the big-C is ever-looming; my odds aren't so good. But I've lived longer than my sister and my father. Hopefully the string will continue.
My wife and I have been married to each other since 1982. We have 3 "children" (in quotes only because they're long-past childhood), and 4 grandchildren. Two are in NYC and one is in LA. The oldest of the grands is 15 and in full-fledged teenager mode.
I'm Jewish, but also an atheist - if that makes sense. The ethnicity does mean a lot to me. I have always felt a sense of 'other'ness and, although I know that I benefit from white privilege, I no longer really think of myself as "white" because the people for whom that matters most do not - and that's perfectly fine with me.
I get obsessed with things. I bake sourdough. I make cocktails. I walk long distances. I develop websites - using Drupal mostly, though I'm now learning React and a few other Javascript frameworks like Sveltekit and Astro - and of course those all have adjacent, and necessary, technologies that I also want to learn. As I used to say in my Twitter profile, when I was still there, I try to learn something new every day.
I've been a software person since the late 1970's. I started out on mainframes - but that's become a distinction without a difference. I've written code in many languages, from Algol to YAML (I tried to think of one starting with Z but Zend is all I could come up with, but that's a company, not a language ๐คทโโ๏ธ). Still working, but I do plan to "retire" in the next 18 months or so - in quotes because I will certainly need to do something after that besides sleeping in.
#introduction #introductions #drupal #react #svelte #sveltekit #astro #mainframe #baking #sourdough #cocktails #walking #retirement #website #cancer #fuckcancer #generationjones
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