Phil moves to Seattle and becomes Pip

The last year or two I was living in Boise, people kept asking me if I was from Seattle. So I decided to check it out. Moving to Seattle felt like moving home. I'd like to live a couple years in New York, and a couple years abroad. But I'd always plan on moving back to Seattle.

Just before leaving, some co-workers nick named me Pip. When I got to Seattle, I introduced myself as Pip. It'll be odd to be called "Phil".

It was in Seattle I met my dearest love: Michelle Molina. When we met, she had Fight Club (the book) sitting next to Ender's Game on her book shelf. That was just over 6 years ago.

Before leaving Boise I did some tech support for HP products. In Seattle I studied Computer Science and History in college before dropping out. I got a job doing tech support for the Seattle University help desk. Left the University to do some tech support for Speakeasy, a local ISP. Then worked a short stint (3 months) as a Microsoft Contractor in the MSN Service Operations Center rebooting hotmail all day long. Left them and landed at my current company Pure Networks.

Pure Networks makes some software you might have heard of, and if you have a D-Link router, you might have called "Network Magic". I started as a Tier 1 support agent, and eventually someone put me in charge. Now I have 5 minions to do my bidding. I have tons of tech support experience and my team is a top notch crew.

Recreationally I drink, play video games, play ping pong, yoyo, contact juggle, I have a strange collection of pets and plants, and read the internet.

As one or two of you may know, I drank mostly vodka in high school. I went through a big whiskey streak, and now mostly drink bourbon. I'm about to embark upon an exploration of tequila.

Beer wise, I most always like Belgians, ambers, and heffs. I'll try most anything. I'm occasionally in the mood for a crisp lager, or a heavy chocolate stout.

Wine I'm all red. I can tell the difference between a $5 bottle and a $50 bottle, but not much more than that.

{video-game-jargon} I play a lot of video games. I still have connected an 8-bit NES, a SNES, a N-64, and a gamecube. I play the SNES almost as much as the 8-bit. 64 and the cube aren't even close. I'll also play any PC RTS I can get my hands on, and I'll try most any turn-based strategy, but I have no interest in MMORPG's or FPS's. {/video-game-jargon}

I might be the best ping pong player in my company (where the ping pong table is) but its up for "debate" (with lots of mandatory shit-talking). On the ladder I'm know as -- Pip "Skullshank" Johnson.

I got a thing for skill-toys; I have a yoyo. You'll see. How I wish I could wow all your kids on Friday at the park, but alas, I'll be attending my cousin's wedding and flying into Boise Saturday morning (as my retarded replied-to-all-when-I-ment-to-reply-spam might have clued you into).

I have a pet Tarantula, 6 hermit crabs, a tank full of sea-monkeys, 1 cat, and my pair of Emperor Scorpions just had babies. I also keep a collection of carnivorous plants.

But more than anything, I read the internet. The best blog in the world is http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/ (or as I still prefer to refer to it as "27bstroke6:). Followed by http://www.boingboing.net.

I watch the snipits of Congressional testimony when I can. I read supreme court decisions that I'm interested in. I follow anything related to DMCA, the CSA, and definitely the Patriot Act.

Holy crap do I love me some science. One of the things I'm looking forward to the most is to find out who from my high school has some super fancy-pants-high-tech job. "Do we have any rocket scientists in the room?" Doing something with NSA or some sick nasty aerospace company? Or with genetics or some other nifty bio-tech? If there are any CHS '97 grads working for Google, I'm going to burn with jealousy. Who ended up a lawyer? Who's a doctor? How many people are actually going to show up? How many people did we graduate with?

I've kept in close contact with the Mikes (Cron, Comstock and Rolig) and Jack Christianson. I see Chris Hoen every time I'm in Boise. But most of the rest of y'all are a mystery.

Last weekend I got drunk and jumped naked into a river. Then sat around a camp fire and sang the National Anthem.

-pip