About David

I was born in Daytona Beach, Florida. Well, that's where the hospital was, we lived in Ormond, and for a while later in Jacksonville where I started school at Fishweir Elementary - I remember walking past Boone Park on my way to school. But mostly I grew up in Lake Jackson, Texas, where we moved when I was about 6 years old.  I went to primary and intermediate schools there, and went to Brazosport High School in Freeport, Texas.  I then attended the University of Houston, where I earned a Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in Psychology.  I had more hours studying Spanish, including, as a senior, a 6-week Graduate course in Spain 🇪🇸 during which I kept a diary.  I lived with a family in Madrid, and the class traveled through many parts of the country.

While attending University of Houston (UH) and after graduating I was an audio engineer and videotape editor for KUHT Television, and later I was Director of Engineering for KUHF FM Radio, both licensed to UH.  Lastly at UH I was a Telecom Analyst in UH Information Technology implementing and managing their 5-campus Compressed Video interconnect used for Distance Education - instructors from one campus teaching interactively to remote campus classrooms using two-way audio and video.  As a broadcast engineer I held an FCC First Class Radiotelephone Permit, and was SBE certified in AM- and FM- Radio and Television.

In my career I miked and mixed sound for programs ranging from talk shows to symphony and jazz, live and taped, for television and radio.  With KUHF I digitally edited a CD release of Shostakovich's 5th symphony from several performances by the Houston Symphony. In addition to my work at UH I freelanced at NASA providing on-location audio pickup and videotape editing services for ABC, CBS, and EBU during the Apollo, Skylab, and Soyuz space missions. I also freelanced installing radio broadcast control rooms in Houston, St. Louis, and Ft. Lauderdale.  I briefly engineered in commercial radio but found that unsatisfying. 

After 32 years at University of Houston I retired in 2003.

My interest in computers began with UH's Univac 1100/80 and the Apple ][, later the first Macintosh in the Houston area through various models to my current iMac.  I have dabbled in programming with BASIC, FORTRAN and the HTML behind  these pages.  I was on computer bulletin boards when 2400 'baud' was considered fast.  I have programmed using Hollereith punched card batches, from a remote TTY terminal, and of course the modern keyboard/mouse/GUI interface.  I began with keyboard-based word processors and VisiCalc and so am very familiar with current word processing, spreadsheet and other programs on Windows and Mac OS.

In 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2019 I went to Romania, 🇷🇴 visiting friends and seeing some of their beautiful country. I got rained on in the mountains, and swam in the Black Sea.  I have visited Sibiu, Alba Iulia, Piatra Neamt, Iaşi, Deva and more.  Pictures can be found on my Facebook page.

I read science fact, fiction and fantasy, biographies and history, in periodicals, e-books and an occasional real book.  I find language(s) fascinating; in addition to English and Spanish, a bit of Latin & Esperanto.  I am also interested in broadcasting, telephony, computing and the internet.  I meditate daily.  Two sable Burmese cats, Softie and Travi (travieso, inglés: mischievous) have allowed me to share their home.

I am connected via email, FB Msg, Skype, SMS, Signal, Telegram, WhatsApp and a mobile.