Donald Stark:  

Life "4,000 characters or less," eh? There've been so many, how to do justice? First things first: drop me an e at blink at heyyou dot us. So... after graduating from Northwestern, I hung around Chicago for a few years, taught guitar, managed a bookstore. After seven windy winters, I packed up my Martin, set out for Mendocino, California, and found a $50/month cabin with a view of migrating whales. Out there on the headlands, I opened a beatnik coffeehouse, fell in love, got married, had a daughter. Families beckoned us back east, so the three of us piled into our new home, a '68 VW van, and off we trudged, through the national ice storm and gas price crisis of '74, to visit our folks. After a couple of moms here, brothers there, still bleak midwinter, I packed up my Martin and my family and headed south. I went back to school and got a Masters in education at UNC Chapel Hill with a major in Radio, TV & Motion Pictures, grabbing as many music courses as possible along the way, graduating with a video reel and a fugue. I taught for a few years, stayed married, had a son. In '79, I packed up my Martin, my video, my fugue, and my family, and up to the Big Apple we headed. I shelved my teaching career, went looking for the first soul who'd take a chance on a hungry-looking well-intentioned tyro with a video under his arm. A few worn-out pairs of shoes later, I got a freelance gig designing and producing a multimedia show. For a year I did the same kind of things, for Fortune 500 types, including drug companies, historically New Jersey's main cottage industry. It's now 1980. I saw an ad in the NY Times: "Seeking hungry-looking well-intentioned guy w math teaching experience and multimedia production skills." At the interview, Gray Williams (Dar's dad) said, " You have in-depth knowledge of computers, right?" " Actually, I taught remedial arithmetic to inner city kids." " That's okay. Can you start this week?" He gave me a stack of books: Advanced Basic, Boolea...Expand for more