Tim Irvin:  

Life High school was a really awkward time for me. I was rather shy and reserved, not so much because I was a loner but because I didn't really know how to connect with people (and had a deathly fear of rejection). All in all it wasn't a traumatic experience, really, but I wish I had more positive and happy memories from it. I think I was something of a late bloomer. I was pretty much the same as ever throughout my college years, and it was only in my late 20s that things started to turn. I met and married my wife Sue in 1992, who has been my best friend through it all. We bought a house in San Jose in 1997 and then moved to Houston in 2003 in conjunction with a job transfer. I certainly do miss California and the Bay Area in many ways, but the congestion and the high cost of living there aren't among them. I spent most of my career as a techie, first as a mainframe computer programmer, then as a network and database administrator, and then a tech support analyst for Oracle database software utilities. I'm still in the software business, but no longer as a code jockey or as part of the "geek squad"; these days I'm the program manager for my employer's customer satisfaction survey program. Sue is a home-based travel agent. As we love to travel, we enjoy the perks being in that business can provide. In July 2006 we moved to Llano, Texas, a town of 3,500 people in the beautiful...Expand for more