My name is Michael Scott Shappe. The surname should be pronounced to rhyme with 'slap', not 'shop', not 'happy'. Not that anybody ever really gets it right, regardless. When my great-grandfather came to this country, they Anglicized his name (badly) as 'Shapitzky'. At some point, the family decided that the name was just a little bit too ethnic, and so shortened it. I kinda wish they'd just gone and picked a completely different name, to be honest, and have been vaguely considering just going back to 'Shapitzky', which is arguably easier for people to spell right when heard and pronounce right when seen.
I was born on 14 August 1969, which means I've never lived in a world where the moon was not a valid (if expensive) travel destination :-). I don't remember Viet Nam, but I do remember Watergate -- just barely. I remember gasoline shortages, stagflation, and the hostages in Iran moderately well. I remember Reagan all too clearly. I was old enough to vote against George H.W. Bush twice, Bob Dole once, and George W. Bush once (so far).
My parents, Peter and Marilyn, are still alive, well, and, strangely enough in this day and age, still married after 34 years. I also have a sister, Ami (yes, that's right, Ami, not Amy, but pronounced the same way; the name is an acronym for my father's stepfather, Arthur Morris Itzkowitz [he should rest in peace]). None of them have webs of their own yet; give them time :-)
I'm married, since 1 April 1993, to Jennifer L. "Pixel" Getty, who counts amongst her goals in life to be the last living human being without a web page of her own. She also doesn't like most photographs of herself, so don't bother scouring my pages to see what she looks like, because I have yet to scan a photo of her that she likes. I know what she looks like, and that's enough :-)
Within the Society for Creative Anachronism (also known as the Silly Costume Association, or Scandalous Cheesecake Adventures :-), I'm known as Maol Mhichil mac Gille Pheadair of the Clan Dobharchu, courtier and herald at the court of James IV of Scotland; and as Yehudah ben Yitzhak, a 9th century Jew residing in Khazaria.
The shortest way to describe me is "propeller head". I used to describe myself as a "geek", but decided that the original meaning of that word had just too much ugly baggage (like the whole chasing-the-chicken-around-and-biting-its-head-off thing), so now, I prefer "propeller head".
This isn't to say that my only interests in the world are science fiction, fantasy and computers. But even the other things I'm interested in I tend to get interested in to the point of near-obsession. I tend not to be vaguely interested in anything. Either I'm extremely interested, or not at all.
These days, I'm in Minnesota, where every third person you meet is named "Anders(o|e)n" or "Johns(o|e)n", where every restaurant, no matter what the cuisine, has walleye on the menu somewhere, and where the mosquitos carry off children. Most people don't actually talk as funny as I'm told the folks in the movie Fargo do, but every now and then, there's one or two who scare the willies out of me. Truth is, though, that I actually kinda like it here. :-)
I work in the City of Saint Paul, twenty-four stories up a tower, which is actually pretty funky. Do you have any idea, for example, how awesome a summer storm looks from twenty-four stories up?
I live in the City of Richfield, where my wife and I now own our own home. We've been there for two and a half years, and I'm still not really sure what I think of Richfield, yet. It's pretty much a bedroom community, and a fairly nice one, but the city council has all sorts of bizarre ideas that I just can't wrap my head around. At least they plow their streets properly, which is more than I can say for Saint Paul!
Before I got dragged out here to the Mild Midwest, I spent eight years in Ithaca, New York. I attended, and then worked for, Cornell University. I love Ithaca to pieces, really, and return there to visit as often as I can.
I grew up in Rockaway Township, New Jersey, which isn't really all that special in and of itself. But it was home, and it was a pretty good home, at that, right on the extreme edge of the New York Metropolitan Area.
I was born in Brooklyn, New York City, New York. I'm not really all that fond of New York City -- there are far too many people in far too small a space -- but there are some things that the City does right that no one else quite manages. The further away you get from Brooklyn, for example, the harder it is to find good bagels, or a good diner, for that matter. The New York definition of "pizza" is the only true pizza to me. Chicago-style is tasty enough, but it's not really "pizza". The Metropolitan Museum of Art is simply awesome, and Lincoln Center needs to be experienced.
In SCA terms, I reside in the Barony of Nordskogen, which is
part of the Principality of
Northshield, which in turn is part of the Middle Kingdom.
I enjoy random correspondence with interesting people, and, for that
matter, interesting correspondence with random people, so feel free to drop
me a line at
<Mikey@Hundred-Acre-Wood.com>.
DISCLAIMER: This web page is not in any way an official service offering of Public Communiations, Inc. Similarly, the author is not an official representative of the management of Nx Networks, Inc. I am the Mikey. I speak for myself.
This page is a production of Michael Scott Shappe, who is
solely responsible for its content.
