About Me ...

char·ac·ter
noun
1.
the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual.
"running away was not in keeping with her character"

2.
a person in a novel, play, or movie.
"the characters develop throughout the play"


25 things about me:
  1. I was recruited to college (Div III) to play basketball and run track. It was *the* most important goal of mine through grade school and high school. We were too poor to pay for college, and I wasn't nearly a good enough student to win any scholarships, so it was sports or nothing to earn the chance to procure a college education.

  2. I did the Decathlon in college and Pole Vaulted, earning All State honors 3 years in a row while in college. Neither of these events I took up until my *sophomore* year in college.

  3. I've earned 4 degrees (2 undergraduate [BA,BS] and 2 graduate [MS, MBA]), and paid for them completely by myself, with not so much as a penny from my family. I graduated with Honors from graduate school.

  4. I was an Adjunct Professor at DePaul University in Chicago for 8 years and received the "Adjunct teacher of the year award" during my tenure there.

  5. I started my own business "Versaggi Information Systems, Inc.", have been a successful entrepreneur since 1993, and have never worked for anyone but myself since then.

  6. I had no money to pay for graduate school, no job, no place to stay, just the fact that DePaul University had admitted me when I came to Chicago. I had just $1000 in my pocket and the mantra of "Come back with your shield or on it." I still have my shield.

  7. At age 43, and 220 lbs, I decided to get back in shape and compete in Track and Field again in the "Masters Division" of the USAT&F Association. Two years later I took 3rd at the Midwest Regional's, and 3rd at the Nationals in the High Jump, after loosing 30 lbs. And I'm still competing to this day.

  8. I've live in Holland for 6 years in a very old and wonderful city called Maastricht, as an X-Pat. We lived 30 minutes from Germany on one side and 5 minutes on bike from Belgium on the other side. So we're surrounded by great beer makers!

  9. I have a big Rickshaw (bicycle taxicab) I use to bike the boys to school every day to the tune of 11 miles a day up N down the hills of the Dutch Alps here in Maastricht! We've been in the local news paper 3 times because of our unusual bike, the last time because we volunteered to the elderly home to take their patrons for free rides around the city. I logged just over 22,000 miles on that bike while living in the Netherlands.

  10. I went to Tahiti for our Honeymoon and swam with the stingray's in the French Polynesia.

  11. I've snorkeled in the Cayman Islands and gotten stung by jellyfish and raked by coral there.

  12. I worked on a pig farm through 7th and 8th grade. I'd get up at 5:30am, work until 7:00am shoveling pig dung. I made $80 a week back then (the 1970's).

  13. To make money in High school, I worked on a garbage truck that would leave at 12 Midnight and get back at 10am in the morning. We'd go from NJ to Philadelphia into neighborhoods that people like me dared not to venture unescorted. We had to carry weapons and very nearly used them a few times. I was under 18 at the time.

  14. We vacationed in Tuscany Italy and had to drive through both the German and Italian sides of Switzerland. There are no words to describe the beauty there.

  15. I married a wonderful Serbian Wife, and have been blessed 3 boys, identical twin boys as well as their older brother. We are used to hearing many foreign languages, different cultures, varying foods, and traditions. It's a wonderfully rich environment for us to enjoy and our brood to grow up in. They effectively grew up in Europe as well.

  16. I was interviewed on Fox News for some eBusiness academic issue and all of my friends but I saw the airing of the news article in Chicago.

  17. I earned a yellow belt in Kung Fu.

  18. I bought my first car at the age of 32, and was in school until age 29.

  19. I was a telescope geek at the Adler Planetarium as a volunteer for years. I own a 10 inch Schmidt / Newtonian telescope that looks like a rocket launcher, but the astronomical views are just grand!

  20. Around my 40th birthday I benched 250lbs, and when I was 43 I high jumped 5 feel, 8 and 1/2 inches.

  21. I'm an armature Philosopher. I love discussions of philosophy, religion, and politics. Questions of the origin of the universe, why we are here, and the meaning of live excite me.

  22. I'm BIG into natural healing, supplements, enzyme therapy, and the like. I've done a lot of studying of those issues and take more than my share of supplements. Conversely I have a healthy aversion to the big pharmas, the FDA, and the medical associations.

  23. I was a camp counselor (life guard on Lake Newfound) in New Hampshire my sophomore year in college. I hitch hiked to Boston and back in a day with a counselor buddy of mine. That was one of the best summers in memory.

  24. I watched my father pass on to the next life. I was there when the doctors told him that "Today he was going to meet God", when they unplugged his life support, and when he took his last breath. I don't regret any of those experiences, not for a moment. Sometimes I can still feel his presence guiding me.

  25. I was there when ALL of my boys were born. I thought that I had seen it all when our first boy entered this world, but not until I witnessed our twins being born that I realized that I had just witnessed something truly special.