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The early years	Yes, I'm a New Yorker. Born in 1951.
	Brooklyn my first 3 years were spent in Brooklyn. Don't remember much from these days, other than that we used to go to a park with a splendid view of Manhattan across the river. I also remember one day my mom saying to me while we were in the kitchen: "We're moving to Japan."
	Japan the next 5 years were spent in the land of the rising sun. We first lived in a small village called Nigawa, near Nishinomiya, between Kobe and Osaka. All my friends were Japanese so I learned to speak the language rather quickly. I used to play with my friends down by the river, and roam around the woods. Whenever we encountered another roving band of kids, invariably there would be a rock fight. I learned to duck.   After a while, we moved to Kobe, where I attended the Marist Brothers Academy. A Catholic school. A strict Catholic school (is that redundant?). I once got caned for pretending to pee while playing King of the Mountain.
	England for a brief six months. I went to a school where I got in a lot of fights. I was the new kid, and a Yank at that. The food sucked. It was awful. And to make it worse (for me), they tried to make it palatable by pouring hot custard over all of it. The other kids loved it. I thought it looked and tasted like sweet puke. I kept trying to get them to not put the custard on my food. No luck. I even got my mother to write a note. So the next day as I approach the food servers, they nod to each other - "oh, here's the one that doesn't like the food" so to help me out, they put even more custard on!
	Germany for half a year, then back to England. We lived in Darmstadt, near Frankfurt am Main. I went to an Army dependents school for six months. Did not learn any German, but I learned a lot of naughty words... or so my parents say -- I don't remember a fucking thing. I remember my favorite food was Wienersnitzel, wouldn't order anything else.
	England again for 3 years. Went to the Eaton House School on Sloan Square, London. I took Geometry, Algebra, French, & Latin .. all this in 3rd, 4th & 5th grades (actually, they called them "forms" not grades). We lived in Chelsea, just off of Kings Road. My brother and I would ride the public (double-decker) bus to school. Tuppence ha'penny was the fare.
	Back in the US, Back in the US, Back in the USA moved to Ardsley, New York... about a half hour north of Manhattan. Started playing music in a rock n roll band in 8th grade... have been playing in bands off and on ever since. I love music! No, really... I really love it. Had a great time in High School -- lots of great friends & lots of good times. One of my best friends of all time was/is Doug Brooks. We graduated High School -- class of 69. Yes, I went to Woodstock that summer.
Family
	the clan Mom & Dad, Herb and Fay Gouldon, live in Boca Raton, Florida. Sister Tracy lives there too, with Jennifer & Harley. Brother Jay, Sara, Elizabeth and Philip live in Charleston, South Carolina. If you've never been to Charleston you don't know what you're missing -- it's one of the prettiest cities in the world.   Here's me and Jay back in 1955, in Osaka, Japan.
School daze	upstate New York... Syracuse University
	Undergrad Started out as a pre-med major. I quickly discovered that I hated the type of studying required -- lots of rote memorization. Switched majors to psychology. So how'd I get interested in computers???? The first day of my class in Experimental Psych, they took us up to the "calculator room," where we would be spending untold hours assimilating the statistics from all our experiments. The room was a sea of old calculators -- the kind where you punch in the numbers and pull the crank to get your answer. In the corner was a computer. "Why can't we use that?" I asked. "'cause hardly anyone knows how to use it." So I tried to sign up for a class "Computer Programming for the Social Scientist." In those days everyone and their uncle was either a psych major or a sociology major ... the class was closed out. I went to see the head of the Computer Science department to try to talk my way into the class... instead, he talked me into taking a different class -- An Introduction to Computer Science, taught by professor Edward Storm. I had an epiphany. I had found my calling. Here's what i looked like in those days
	Grad school it was too late to change my major, so I finished up my psychology degree while taking as many computer science classes as I could. I got accepted into the PhD program at Syracuse with a Graduate Assistantship -- which meant I had to teach or do research in exchange for free tuition and a [way] moderate stipend to live on. Storm became a close friend. We went to lots of Dead shows together.   After a while I realized that having a PhD would most likely mean being in the University life for ever, I had had enough... I wanted to get out to the real world. So I finished up my masters and set out for New York City to find a job.
Work before SGI	yes there was a life before SGI
	Rapidata landed in New Jersey instead. A timesharing company called Rapidata. This was the days before the IBM PC changed the face of the world. We spent a lot of time convincing people that using a computer in their business was a good idea. Then implementing it for them. Then supporting it. Clients included NJ Bell, and NY Telephone.
	Tymshare After a couple of years moved to an even better company -- Tymshare. A lot like SGI. We worked our butts off but had a LOT of fun. Worked a lot with 4GLs for Decision Support Systems, like Focus and Express for companies like AT&T, Bendix, Fiat Motors, Colgate, Lipton, Singer, Western Union, Sealand, General Mills, Nestle
	Independent's Day I struck out on my own as an independent consultant. Clients included such companies as Firestone Tire, Crystal Brands, (home of Izod LaCoste, Monet, Foot Joy, Ship n Shore ... working there was great for my wardrobe), Philip Morris (I made the big mistake of smoking the wrong brand of cigarettes first time I was there... almost lost the business, no kidding), Hermans, Nabisco, Equitable Life, M&M Mars   After 3 1/2 years of being independent, I got tired of the roller coaster ride -- it was always feast or famine.
	RNW So I joined a small software consulting firm based in Chicago -- Rawlings Nelson Wolf. We had a product called FCRS, for Financial Consolidation and Reporting System (much of this product is now migrated into Oracle's Financial Controller, part of their Express OLAP product line). Clients included: G. D. Searle, Avery, Northern Telecom, Rhone Poulenc
California Dreamin	so how'd I end up in Santa Cruz?
	New Jersey -> Florida -> California so I was living in New Jersey. Was a single parent. Whenever I traveled, my parents would watch Jason for me (it's one thing to find a babysitter you can trust for one night, quite another when you're gonna be gone for a week!). Well they reached retirement age, and it's the law on the east coast: you must move to florida! I realized that as long as I was willing to hop on a plane once in a while, I could live anywhere. So Jason and I moved to Boca Raton.   Met Melanie on Compuserve... in the RockNet SIG -- like a newsgroup where the main topic (but far from only!) was music. We hit it off. The rest is history. She moved to florida for a while, then we moved to Santa Cruz. Best place I've ever lived.
SGI
	Corporate Finance Got so I was traveling 50% of the time. That got old. Joined SGI in November of 89. That quarter end we celebrated our first $100 million quarter. Was hired into the Corporate Planning department to evaluate and bring in a financial planning system. Course that changed right away. Supported Planning & Reporting (wrote the system that is still being used for budget consolidation and upload (it shoulda been replaced long ago!)). We re-orged and formed a Corp Finance I/S department (it was me and Bev). Supported Maxcim. For a loooooooooooooooooooooooooong time.
	the NGS project Spent a year and a half on the ngs team. Worked our asses off and had an unbelievable amount of fun at it.
	IMSD After an experience like that, there was no way I could go back to the same ole same ole back in Corporate Finance. Been There Done That. And so I landed here in IMSD. I love it here... am having a blast.

notes:
painting of the Thames at Westminster by Claude Monet, 1871 from: WebMuseum, Paris
Brooklyn bridge from Brooklyn Union