Though I may be a computer science major, I have a split opinion about the uses and value of technology in our lives. I spent several years in my youth living in Palmer Alaska, a small town halfway between Anchorage and Wasilla (the starting point of the Iditarod Race). The place is known only because it hosts the Alaska State Fair every year.
Working in computers, I had every opportunity to pinch and save, as the job market for computer science majors was good. After saving up enough and securing a teleworking contract, I managed to procure a small parcel of land and build a house of my own upon it.
I had procured the land from a farmer looking to retire. Small farms are not profitable anymore, and he didn’t want to sell to some housing developer who would turn the land into  a suburban pile of McMansions, which greatly diminished the people he could sell to.
Thanks to my penny pinching in life, I had the funds to contract the creation of my own vision of a home. Nothing extravagant, mind you, as moving materials around the largest state is expensive. Furthermore, anything big would look oddly out of place in the middle of a field, like some uppity person who felt the need to seperate himself from ‘the locals’ in his own velvet den.
Indeed, the only thing that is odd about the house is the master bedroom. On top of the house, enclosed in curtains is a glass atrium, a glass dome open to the stars. You may have seen pictures on the internet along the lines of “this is what the night sky would look like without light pollution”. Believe me when I say they only exaggerate a little. No feeling describes the utter awe of an Alaskan sky. Purple mountain majesties during the day, and stunning starfields at night. This is to say nothing of meteor showers or the northern lights.
It took some doing to convince my family to move. We had roots where we stayed, but so many people had moved away. The DC area simply became worse and worse as ever more lucrative government contracts brought rich desk  warriors to the area, who in turn drove development of ever more and closer upper-end developments driving the previous residents further into the shadows. Still, my wife can make friends with anyone, and we can see that the kids get as good an education as they would out east, good enough to get into a good college.
The only thing left is a better internet connection. The current configuration will not do, but  the internet providers have been looking to get service up here for the townsfolk anyways. I’m sure I can pull some strings to get the good stuff extended out here…

If I could live anywhere where at any time it would be in Africa, today. I don’t really have one or two big reasons, I just love it there. I went there for work multiple times and I just always had fun. I also like helping and talking to the little children there and seeing the animals on the safaris. I think I might move there sometime in the future. Maybe move into like a condo or something when my son moves out.

I chose this assignment due to the fact that I love history.  In particular I love the history of the 1800 and early 1900’s. This time frame in American history had many colorful characters.  Most were larger than life due to the dime novels of the day. One of the most colorful characters of the time was Judge Roy Bean.  He was pretty much a nut,  but some of the most interesting people usually are. Judge Roy Bean was known as a hanging judge.  The truth of the matter is that he only sentenced two men to hang and one escaped.

Story: Texas 1859 near the Pecos River.

I was working for a cattle Barron that cheated me of my wages for the second time in two months.  We had words so I left his employment.  Being a cow hand I didn’t have much money just a worn out horse named fourty-four and a saddle that had seen better days.

I saddled fourty-four and headed east.  When I reached the town of Vinegaroon, I noticed that some of the Baron’s men were hanging around town.  When I entered toe saloon, I sat at the bar and ordered a drink. The next thing I know my world went black.  I had been pistol whipped and knocked out cold.  When I woke up, I found myself chained to the hitching rail in front of the saloon. On the porch sat non other than Judge Roy Bean.  He told me that court was in session and asked how I pledge to the charge of  horse theft.  I told the Judge Bean that I did not know what he was talking about.

Judge Bean then sentenced me to hanging on the claim that I had stolen my own horse from the cattle Barron. That was the problem with the cattle Barron’s, they believed they owned everything, including the law.  Judge Bean told me to make peace with my maker and that they would hang me in the morning.

That night a heavy storm moved in and it rained hard. Due to the sand in the soil and the excessive water, I was able to pull one end of the hitching post out of the ground and free myself. I found a horse and left town.  It didn’t matter whose horse at this point, i was a condemned man. It turns out that the horse belonged to non other than Judge Roy Bean.