I am an only child, adopted at my first month of birth by Everett and Loretta West. I’m a little auspicious as my birthday is the same day as Richard M Nixon, while the day I was adopted was the day the Tet Offensive started in the Vietnam war.
I grew up in Omaha, Nebraska in the Millard Public School system. This turned out to be a great thing, as Millard has always scored as one of the highest educated school districts in the country. Through school, I was known as a nerd and geek. Though I was socially ostracized, I eventually discovered role playing in 4th grade with a little game called Dungeons and Dragons. Through the rest of elementary, through high school, the game was my outlet.
Also in 4th grade, I participated in the Scholastic Presidential Poll. I was the only person in my class to choose Ford, everyone else chose Carter. Look how that ended up. My love of politics, and my conservatism started at that young of age. Now, I have three political blogs, depending on the issue, I maintain in some form. Plus, I help the Douglas County Republican party when I can, and have been getting more and more involved with political blogging along with real journalism and editorial writing.
In high school, I was given first an Apple //c and then a //gs. This encouraged my love of computers. I started doing a lot of writing, usually based on my role playing gaming, but it helped me become better organized. I had graduated to superhero games like Marvel Superheroes and Champions by then, so I created databases to store my information.
When I graduated high school, I thought I would end up in accounting. Well, after two years of what University of Nebraska at Lincoln considered accounting, I was bored to tears. So much so, my grades suffered for it. I never went to class, it was too boring. Today, I would have been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder.
After a year of working for my father in road construction, I rejoined college at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Again, I chose the wrong major as I was thinking of a Finance degree. Dr Leah Pietron, however, had me for a computer class and bluntly asked me why I did not go into computers. I switched majors to Management Information Systems, and eventually graduated. I took a long time to graduate because I held a job at the university which required me to stay in school. I finagled my way through things, dropping a lot of classes because, once again, I was bored.
During this time, I co-wrote two books for Hero Games called Dark Champions Murderers Row and Hero System Almanac 2. It was quite the experience, and exposed me to writing on a grander scale than I had done previously.
After graduating, and a stint as a computer installer contractor, I went to work for Immigration and Naturalization. I was second shift network supervisor at their Lincoln processing center. The short time I was there, I was exposed to all of the bureaucratic mess of the system which is much worse now. Leaving there, I did Y2k for Leo Daly and Associates. After being let go, due to a dispute with my future career path, I ended up working for the Douglas County Information Services.
I was a computer technician with DCIS up until an old administrator hacked our web system days before the mayoral primary in 2001. I, being the only person with web knowledge, undid the hack and became a web administrator. Another was hired as my boss, who I had disputes with due to my medical conditions and due to his taking credit for my work. He eventually left, then I was placed under a succession of managers as DCIS was merged with the city of Omaha IT department into the Douglas Omaha Technology Commission, or DOT.Comm for short. I have remained dealing with the web servers, though I do little with the web site programming any longer.
I have tried my hand a few times in politics, first with the DontGo/NewsPlatoon attempt, and recently with CainRoots. In addition, I am one of the thirty original Tea Party founders, and started the Tea Party in Omaha. I still am involved in politics, and I would like to get a real job in the political arena someday, either as a writer/pundit or else actually working for the government in an ambassadorial role. I’m honestly not kidding about being an ambassador someday. Back in high school, I participated multiple times in Model United Nations. I’ve researched foreign policy heavily on my own time. I believe I could be an asset to any good conservative President in that realm.