About
I am a lifelong learner and have always been curious with many interests. I enjoy reading, researching, and writing. Personal finance such as my Saving Money and Making Money pages are things that I work on a lot, frugality and making money last longer. I like to share ideas but don't want to preach at people on how to live their live. Praise be the Duplex :)
I was born and have lived in the Cedar Rapids Iowa Metro Area all of my life.
I am a member of the Landlords of Iowa and owner occupy my rental duplex.
I promote literacy and learning by volunteering my time at several area libraries and my work with Little Free Libraries
I am a Freemason 501c10. See my page about that
I am or have been a member of other groups, such as: Telephone Collectors International, Jaycees, Toastmasters, Mindbridge Foundation, Elks, Moose Stamps club Czech Heritage Foundation National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library and the Calyx Institute American Philosophical Practitioners Association National Farm Toy Museum
I have lifetime memberships at
Indian Creek Nature Center, Tranquility Lodge No.2000 Mercy Auxiliary Genealogy Society, the friends of the library in a few towns. sportsman club a number of Member-owner cooperatives from food oil etc...
I like to use a lot of different tech and tools...
I grew up on Dell Latitude and 90%+ of my PC's have been Dells, I only buy Laptops used most I have bought at Midwest Computer Brokers in Walford Iowa I did buy one from Free Geek They are a nonprofit that come with Linux installed. I always buy used PC's but its hard to get a cheap Windows 11 PC so that is another reason I went with Linux. https://lukesmith.xyz/articles/only-use-old-computers/
I have been playing around with Linux options and really like Linux Mint I feel like using less commercial products would be better See may page on non commercial values. I also bought an official USB drive of SLAX Linux to support them and I like it as a portable OS.
I read a lot of books most I get from the public library and have a bunch that they were going to discard I am not a BIG fan of eBay or Amazon but I use those more than I would like a better alterative is https://www.betterworldbooks.com/ I have a whole page about shopping
Quick facts & You Soup something I found from https://www.samkillermann.com/work/you-soup/
CJ
White Male
Born: 1991
Astrological Sign: Taurus
Parents: They were married over 40 years. My mom passed away 2023 :(
Siblings: Only child
Status: Single
Children: ChildFree
Straight Edge Booze and drugs: I am not interested in either and don't use them. I have not had any booze since 2019.
Religion: I have setup a page for my Credo Statement philosophy on life etc... I spent/d a lot of time at Prairie Woods Franciscan Spirituality Center https://prairiewoods.org/
Additional info
Education:
Formal
high school grad,
I graduated with an associate degree in marketing and management from Kirkwood Community College I was able to graduate and it cost me less than $11k to get my AAS. I have taken a few computer classes such as CompTIA Network+ and have over 80 credit hours there. I have tried to go to University of Iowa a number of times but It has not worked out. I have gone to the Iowa summer writing festival both in person and online over the years.
Autodidactic self-taught on the Job etc.
Technologies, telecommunications, web design. All that stuff were either taught on the job to me or else self-taught. I have used a number of web design software over the years I did not take formal classes. I read a lot of books about history, philosophy, religion, politics.
Class:
Grew up Upper Middle Class Rich Kid. Live Lower Middle Class life now more for the freedom less overhead status etc. I have a roof over my head and rent from my duplex rental unit next door it keeps my taxes and my cost of living low its not a flashy place but its near a park, a library, some stores and restaurants, bus routes, etc.
Digital Expertise: Computer networking/ troubleshooting, telecommunications and Point of Sale systems, Page about that Web design etc...
Day job/Career: technical support & small business owner *
Hobbies: reading, libraries, genealogy, history, Freemasonry
Video Games: The Sims mostly Sims 2 and Urbz on GBA GTA mostly 3D Era games like Vice City and San Andreas
*My main job I have worked in call centers page since I was a teenager mostly for tech support and at telecommunications companies here is a link about those jobs. small business owner / Additional revenue streams real estate investing multimedia content creator such as websites and YouTube channels etc... I also like doing side hustles like flipping things at consignment shops I have been on a number of focus groups too I really enjoy those.