The bastidge was born in Salem, Oregon, mid-1971. After a childhood of pretty crushing poverty (for which he blames poor decisions on the part of his parents) he enlisted in the US Air Force just prior to his 19th birthday. After six years of not really digging his job as a Cryptologic Linguist, Far East, Korean (1ea.), including some time spent at Osan Air Base and the National Security Agency at Ft. Meade, MD, he got out of the military and bummed around Asia for a couple years. Once that became an obvious dead end, he moved back to his native Pacific Northwest, where he eventually rejoined the military and reinvented himself with a career in computers. Currently he works in Internet banking at a small software company in Portland, Oregon, reads as much possible, talks too much, and enjoys the local microbrews. He lives alone with his dog, who happens to be a good listener, but not much of a conversationalist.