Happy New Year, grande351!

I treat genealogy as something of a 3-D jigsaw puzzle. My old handwritten tables had all these lines and arrows and whatnot crisscrossing them, with noted like "continued on chart 300". Thank goodness they came up with genealogy programs, but then I spent the better part of about 2 years just entering data from my tables into the forms. I'm not entirely sure how much it helped me with history, but it was interesting and fun. As for work, I've been disabled since 2000 (word to the wise, if you're having really-really bad headaches regularly, i.e., virtually all the time, get it checked out, and don;t try to just "walk it off"). I finished school with an MA in history, and spent the following 3 years looking for a teaching job (I did get into the LA Community College adjunct pool, but never taught a class so while "entitled" to use the title, I don't). Before I took ill I was in line for a nice government job with Sonoma County, Calif. which would have easily translated into a career, and I'd spent a lot of time debating with myself whether to take the LSATs and go to law school, or use my GRE scores and go to Berkeley Theological College (I'd finally opted on BTU and have my app ready to send off)--the again, I'm living real-world experience now and getting a whole different take on things than I would have had I spent my time in the lecture rooms or just reading the Dhammapada or Thomas or Ecclesiastes (3 of my 4 favourite texts--the other being the Tao Te Ching). I'd like to have gone back to school to take photography courses (I took photo in h.s. and almost lived in the darkroom), which is something that I picked up again after having my brain short circuit like it did, and which has brought me a lot of happiness the past couple years (and got me out of the house--I had a bit of agoraphobia after blacking out, made even more serious when I did go out once and blacked out downtown, and not a single person stopped). But getting back to genealogy, it can be fun, if you don't let it inflate your ego too much (i.e., I'm descended from King Whatshisname, or I'm a 14th cousin six time removed of so-and-so, so there--read those with a toffee-nosed accent, something like Thurston Howell III from Gilligan's Island--just for laughs, of course!). Cheers!

Pretty cool, geneology is very interesting. I think everyone wants to know where they came from. I've always enjoyed history myself. I actually wanted to major in history / social studies in college, but figured that the job prospects weren't too great, so I decided on engineering instead. No mean feat considering my apalling math skills! I think I took calculus 3 times before I could squeak through. I can really sympathize with Danielle! I know when I go back to school, which I hope to next year, I'll have to start from scratch and re-take everything. If you don't mind me asking, what type of work do you do?

Back when I was in school, I started jotting down diagrams of British noble families, looking for reasons why so-and-so had a grudge against some other dude. I came into history after having studied behavioral science & anthropology first, so brought with me techniques and an outlook not entirely suited to "just the facts"--I'm always looking for what's laying just below the surface, hidden motives, biases, prejudices and so on, including in myself. Anyway, what started off confined first to the British upper classes branched out to the rest of Europe and, as the trickle-down effect ran its course (A Princess marries a duke; their daughter marries a lesser noble; their granddaughter marries a knight; their great-granddaughter marries a member of the landed gentry; the younger children there, sons and daughters, go out to seek their own fortune which brings them to colonial America where they founded Brahmin families in Massachusetts, the Southern aristocracy, &c.). Anyway, long story short in and amongst all that chasing down of families to various ends, I found that one ended with James Douglas Morrison, and while I knew a bit about him, being a Doors fan, too, I also found his father and maternal grandfather very interesting, too--one a fairly conservative career naval officer, the other a well-to-do attorney who was a strong supporter of collective bargaining and unions.

Hey Geolarsen! Interesting stuff about Jim Morrison's dad. I'm a HUGE Doors fan! I remember reading something about that in the biography "No One Here Gets Out Alive". I never knew he was a Rear-Admiral though. How do you know all this stuff? You amaze me sometimes. It's a shame you live so far away. We could sure use you on our trivia team!

Hey there grande351, I just realized you'd answered the Calif/Nevada post a long while ago and I'd missed it. Lo siento (Sorry). I left Calif back in 11/03 and have been living here in NV ever since. Tahoe is amazingly beautiful. The water is so pure that the colour is actually a reflection of the sky--blue for blue skies, gray for clouds, &c. The water level's down though; its fed by snow melt or rain. The Truckee River emanates from Tahoe, but just runs through Reno and empties into Pyramid Lake where it evaporates slowly (that's another weird lake that "turns over" once or twice a day from what I understand). I'm well south of the Truckee River (about 7 miles) in what are called the South Meadows area. It is a beautiful place right here and up at Tahoe (Mount Rose, which is the largest peak in the area, not that there are a lot to choose from, looms up on my SW). I'm lucky enough to live enough outside of the older parts of Reno so I have a park close by that is part wild (lots of sage brush, rabbits, the occasional raccoon, and a source of tumbleweed every fall!); on the down side, the city council hasn't seen fit to actually cement sidewalks everywhere in the neighborhood, even though they have saved the space by putting in the curbs, gutters and so on. As far as nature goes, its pretty good, but as far as competent local government goes, it leaves something to be desired, although having said that, it has been getting better since I moved here. Now, as far as Petaluma goes, last time I was there (2003), the main street where they did a lot of filming is pretty close to the way it was in the 70s, and if you ever get there, and if you're in the mind for it, you have to go to Old Chicago pizza for the best deep dish I've ever had! Its right there off the main drag on the 2nd floor of what was, once upon a time, a brothel that still has something of that "olde west" feel to it (i.e., creaky floors, squeaky doors and so on). Cheers

Actually I live in NV now. CA got way to expensive! A few months before moving to NV, my rent went from about $800 a month to a bit over $1000 a month, whereas my rent here in NV has not changed in 2 years. Likewise, my utilities in CA (though Pacific Gas & Electric) ran over $200 a month for a 2 bed 1 bath, while here, through Sierra Pacific, my utilities cost around $150 (depending on whether I use A/C or the furnace) for a 2 bed 2 bath. Big, big differences. But I do miss though is the rain & the more moderate winters of Nor Cal. Oh, and I didn't mean to imply I worked at a video store, it was just the one in my neighborhood that I shopped & rented from that happened to be used in Scream. Heck, that whole area is in some ways one big movie set--the downtown scenes from American Graffiti were filmed in Petaluma which was about 30 minutes south of me (Hereos with Harrison Ford, Henry Winkler & Sally Field was also filmed there, as was Peggy Sue Got Married & I think Scream 2, too). The Birds was filmed about 35 minutes SW of where I lived in Bodega Bay, and the original Bates House is inland from the Bay in Bodega town. Oh, and about a hour& a half's drive NW up HWY 1 you come to Fort Bragg where, if I remember right, they filmed the fishing boat scene from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Reno was used in at least 1 movie I can think of, though: Charlie Varrick with Walter Matthau & Joe Don Baker. Thar was long before I moved to the area though, and the lake house scenes from The Godfather were filmed up at Lake Tahoe, I just don't remember which side, the Calif. side or Nevada side (I think near Stateline). Its funny, but when I was a kid and living in CO, I got to see a TV mini-series being made--Centennial, which was filmed in & around Kersey. I forget if I was in Den 1 or 4 of Pack 207 at the time, but we got to go watch filming which was pretty cool, and then every summer we would also go up to Estes Park where the Stanley Hotel is--that's where some of The Shining (Kubrick's version) was filmed and where Stephen King wrote part of the novel. Gorgeous hotel, BTW--when I die, after I've watched over the younger members of my family, I hope to retire there and do some messing with ghost hunters (LOL). Cheers!

Wow, that does sound cool! Living in Nor Cal would definitely give you more opportunities for brushes with celebrities!
Us "right-coasters" don't get that too often. You probably know a bunch about movies, working at a video store. I don't watch too many myself. Too short an attention span!

I used to live in N. Calif. 40 minutes south of me was the Skywalker Ranch, 45 minutes or so to the east was the Coppola Winery, and my high school was the high school used in Peggy Sue Got Married, but the closest encounter I had came during the filming of Scream when I walked across the street weaving through some very large trailers to pick up my Chinese takeout and found that the trailers were the makeup & actors trailers for cast members--they were filming at my video store, Bradley Video in Sta Rosa! That was wicked cool.

Hey geolarson2! You mentioned the Munsters. Fred Gwynne, when he passed away, was living less than 15 miles from me. My sister is a nurse and had him as a patient at one time. Very few people realized that we had a real celebrity living in our county! besides the Munsters, he was also great as the judge in "My Cousin Vinny"..."What's a ute????"