The Official TTF Introduce Yourself Thread -- Who are you?

[NewFun#6]

Hi, guys! Scott here. I see that we are getting lots of new "faces" here on the TTF forum and I suddenly realized that either I can't find the original "Introduce Yourself" thread or we never had one to begin with!! Sooooo, here it is now.

Introduce yourself!!

I'll start -- Hi, I'm Scott H. Gardner.

I'm 43, whiter-than-white, 6' and ruggedly handsome, married for over 16 years now to a beautiful, intelligent woman who, God-only-knows why, tolerates my existence, and am the father to two awesome sons, both budding geeks, Scotty (15. Very, very 15) and Logan Taylor (11, and named after two of my favorite sci-fi franchises, see below).

I have a dog and a cat.

Along with my best pal, Chris Honeywell, I'm one of the co-hosts and co-creators of Two True Freaks!, so you can blame me. I also co-host Back To The Bins! and the Tales of the Justice Society of America with my very good friend Michael Bailey (of Views From The Longbox and From Crisis To Crisis: A Superman Podcast fame). I also host or co-host a number of other podcasts that are either in retirement or semi-retirement at the moment because there are only so many hours in a day.

I collect comic books, now owning around 17,000 of the friggin' things, and unashamedly love super-heroes. I am an avid Star Wars, both of the original films and the prequels. I don't tolerate prequel-haters gladly. I am an old school Trek fan. I LOVE Kirk and don't tolerate TOS-haters gladly. I enjoyed TNG, VOY, and ENT. I sat through DS9, even though it isn't really Star Trek. And I pretty much can't stand NuTrek. Ugh.

I'm also a huge fan of Planet of the Apes (the new series from BOOM! rocks), Logan's Run, the Reeve Superman films, Back To The Future, and just about any other late 70s to mid 80s sci-fi franchise.

I listen almost exclusively to film scores (the music of the movies) and/or Disney parks' music. My favorite composers include, but are not limited to, John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, James Horner, Bruce Broughton, James Newton Howard, and Michael Kamen.

I am originally from upstate New York, lived in the Atlanta area from 1993 to 2010, and recently moved to beautiful Oviedo, Florida (a hop, skip, and a jump from where George Perez lives!) where I now reside.

Professionally, I am a Monorail Pilot at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida (yes, really!).

And I'm just generally awesome.

[janson]

My name is Michael Kormanik and my online handle is Janson. I am a member on several message boards, including Yojoe.com , Popculturenetwork.com , and Megomuseum.com but feel most at home here with fellow like minded comic / sci-fi geeks.

I'm 33 years old, been reading/collecting comics since the late 80s. I'm addicted to TTF podcasts which really helped get me through Jury Duty this past month. Currently looking for a job, ( I should be petitioning all the Comic companies for an editorial job because no one seems to know/care what they are doing anymore) and have been living on Long Island all my life.

Love the USA, Comics, Star Wars, GI JOE, Star Trek, Transformers, POTA, Iron Maiden, 80s Heavy Metal, NY Islanders Hockey, Cowboy Bebop, Horror Movies, and yes ladies I'm single, go figure....

[panpan23]

I'm Tom Panarese, another native Long Islander (Sayville, yo) who hasn't lived on Long Island for a number of years since attending college in Baltimore and living in the Washington, D.C. area before moving down to Charlottesville, Virginia, where I currently teach high school English and proudly serve as a yearbook adviser. I believe I am the only person on my faculty who gets violently angry whenever I see comic sans.

Anyway, I'm 34 (as of last week) and have been collecting comics on a regular basis since 1990 or so, although I spent most of the 1980s (my childhood) immersed in Star Wars, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, Voltron, The Transformers, and G.I. Joe. I also remember a few years where I watched "Aliens" about 1,000 times and was addicted to reruns of Star Trek.

Oh, and Degrassi High. Seriously, I didn't have cable growing up and watched so much Degrassi High that I had a paper published about the show about five years ago. I believe that, along with my grandmother's being a Newfie, has led to my odd fascination with Canadians.

I'd say that much of that has stayed with me since I made the conscious decision to stop my lackluster Little League career around the age of 12 and head to my local comics shop and while I got caught in a few 1990s comics traps (I owned all of Deathmate, yes I did) and tried reading the X-Men until it became both confusing and a drain on my wallet, I have always been loyal to DC, especially the Teen Titans, which I discovered during the Titans Hunt and have stuck with more or less through the years (I took a couple of years off, but now I'm back).

I have bought quite a few toys in the last few months, but that's because my son, who is going to be 4 in a few weeks, REALLY loves Spider-Man and a lot of the "Super-Hero Squad" stuff. Which, to be honest, is really fun and I am sure that we'll have a lot of fun during the next few years when he watches some of the movies I loved as a kid, like the Superman films and the Star Wars films (all six ... though I'm still trying to figure out in which order we will watch them).

Then, of course, he'll rebel and play high school football or some shit.

Anyway, I could go on and on and on (trust me on this ... or ask my wife), but I will say that I stumbled upon TTF through Michael Bailey and From Crisis to Crisis. I think my first TTF podcast was a Back to the Bins and then a comics monthly Monday then ... well, just about everything else.

I don't have a podcast myself -- having the time to do it is a big obstacle, to be honest -- but I do have a blog called "Pop Culture Affidavit." Once a week I take a look at something random and even obscure in popular culture and review it as well as relate my personal experience with it. Subjects have ranged from 1980s action movies to my junior high school yearbook. One of the regular features on the blog is a series of entries called "My Life as a Teen Titan" where I'm chronicling my "history" as a Titans fan starting with New Titans #71 (my first issue) and moving forward, although I jump around a bit. You can find that at

And that's about it ... or at least what I could do in five minutes while being forced to watch "Dinosaur Train."

[Boober9]

My name is Robert Ludwig. I am 37 years old, married with 1 child. My son is getting to be a geek in training. I live in Nevada, IA. This is just about a half hour north of Des Moines.

I started listening to TTF after hearing them on Views from the Longbox podcast. I started listening to that one due to Michael Bailey being on the Spider-man Crawlspace panel. The shows have helped to get me through many long days at work.

I enjoy Spider-man, Highlander, Star Wars, Tron, the Nebraska Cornhuskers, Iron Maiden and a whole bunch of other stuff.

[Dan North]

The name's Dan North. Don't wear it out.

[JonathanCrites]

My name is Jonathan Crites. I am 26 years old, married for 4 years to my high school sweetheart Cristen and we have a 7 month old son named Lincoln. I live in Houston, TX and have since the 7th grade. I was born and raised in Charleston, WV but (like Superman) I have adopted the people of Texas as my own. I went to Texas A&M University where I received a BA in History; I am 2/3 of the way through the evening MBA program at the University of Houston. I currently work as an accountant for a very successful energy company here in Houston (I know, booo evil corporation) and we live downtown. I just helped plant a church in downtown Houston called Neartown Church (), if you are ever in Houston, we would be grateful to have you. I also recently started blogging about my experiences building a fixed gear bicycle and riding around town at . Due to a recent mechanical set back I haven't been riding much but hopefully that will be rectified soon

On to the geekery - I was born in 1984 in Charleston and never went into a comic shop until I moved to Houston in the late 90's. However, we would frequent a flea market held at the local drive-in movie theater and my dad would always get me a few random issues of whatever we saw - mostly Batman and Spider-Man. I only really got into comics in 2006 when I went into a comic shop in Austin and picked up the first two issues of Civil War. This, coupled with discovering CGS, iFanboy and Around Comics on iTunes sent me into the deep end. Since I started grad school I have scaled way back and actually like comics more now than when I was getting lots of monthly issues.
My true geek love has always been Star Wars, followed distantly by Star Trek. I watched the original Star Wars movies at a friends house one weekend and was hooked; I wore out the set of VHS tapes my parents got me and when I was in 5th grade a friend let me borrow the first X-Wing novel by Michael Stackpole and it was on from there. I have read almost every EU novel (missed a few recent ones that I have bought but not read) and a lot of the comics as well. For Star Trek, my parents used to rent all the original cast movies and my uncle took me to see VI in the theater. I also watched TNG from around the initial Borg episodes until the end and then DS9 and Voyager (although I never finished those series). I never watched Enterprise but I really enjoyed the JJ Abrams film.
I found TTF from their sigs on the old CGS boards - the combination of Star Wars and Star Trek was hard to resist. I started with all the Star Wars Monthly Mondays, then Star Trek, now I am working my way through the Tales of the Justice Society of America. This is a great community for a great show and with the announcement that Peter Rios is leaving CGS - I just wanted to say thanks to the Freaks for all your hard work!

ps: How do you make inserted images smaller?

[Hair-Metal Hero]

OK, My secret origin...
Hey all, I'm Chris Tyler. I was born a poor black boy.....Wait, that was Navin R. Johnson...I'm a nearly 32 year old Geek that wanted to learn how to read because of Archie and Spider-Man comics that were given to me at a very young age. One of my uncles still calls me Spidey, that's how much I was into that character growing up. I'm a typical 80s kid, and I was weaned on a lot of nerdery because of my dad introducing me to Tolkien in 3rd grade and traumatizing me with Alien when I was way too young. He also was the one who had friends with HBO, so my first copies of Raiders and the Star Wars trilogy didn't start with the 20th century Fox logo, but the Home Box Office logo. My life was, and still is, about comics, movies, sci-fi, air-guitaring and now co-co-hosting The Vault of Startling Monster Horror Tales of Terror with Chris Honeywell and messageboard mainstay Luke Jaconetti. Lets not forget my love for cheesy and epic rock and roll, big hair and screeching guitars(those were the days). I love fast food, big women, Karaoke and annoying others. I am very single, have no kids, and do not pilot a monorail. And remember, If its too loud...yer too OLD!

[JonathanCrites]

[NewFun#6]

Keep these coming, guys! I'm loving the incite into our listeners and, most especially, learning how you all found TTF. This is great! Welcome one and all.

And Happy Belated Birthday to Tom Panarese!

[NewFun#6]

[JonathanCrites]

Yeah, I was trying to put a family pic in my post but is was too large.

[Dave Z]

Greetings, the name is Dave Z!( I don't really want to get my full name out there, paranoia I guess)

I'm 15, from the Philippines and I love comics. I often feel like the odd man out, since all my friends read manga and watch anime, so I turned to the Internet to talk to fellow fans, one of the first sites being the Spider-Man Crawlspace. I listened to their podcast,and Bailey became one of my favorites on the show, so I started listening to his main podcast, Views From the Longbox,and from there, I heard about Two True Freaks, and here I am now.

Edit:Just felt like posting my top 5 favorite heroes, don't really know why-
1.Spider-Man:He will always be my favorite character, because I can relate to him.
2.Superman and Daredevil/Daredevil and Superman: Changes, depending on my mood
3.Blue Beetle(Jaime Reyes version): DC's Spider-Man, how can I not love him?
4.The Flash(Wally West)
5.The Hulk

Mabuhay!

[APLUK]

Hello Lovely People. My name is Andrew Leyland and I am 39 years old.

I am from England. We used to run the world before you did (old Stephen Fry joke). I am married to a quite magnificent lady who buys me comics for my birthday and for Christmas. We have 3 children, 2 boys and a girl and 2 cats.

I discoved TTF via the esteemed Mr Bailey and stuck around after listening to two tester episodes. Why? Becuase they are pretty funny guys. Because of them and their episode "Get Off Your Lazy Ass and make a Podcast" I got off my lazy ass and made a podcast. Except I say Arse.

I like my comics to be fun and my music to be jangly, guitar stuff although I have a huge collection of soundtracks. I also love the APES movies (there were only 5 of them, right?), all six STAR WARS movies and like my STAR TREK to be of the classic vintage. By which I mean I like it to be smart and not an Apple commercial. I also like Dr Who , because I am British and it is the law, and detective fiction. I bow down before the greatness that was Douglas Adams. I have a soft spot for Logan's Run which becomes a hardness when Jenny Agutter comes on screen. I think BACK TO THE FUTURE is a prime example of perfect movie making and think that it would be recognised as such if it wasn't a popcorn movie and prefer Spielberg when he's having fun to when he's serious. I like reading and want world peace. Failing that, I'd like a good STAR TREK movie before I turn 40.

Andy

Hey Kids, Comics The Podcast: http://apleyland.podomatic.com/

Website: http://www.heykidscomics.webspace.virginmedia.com/

email: heykidscomics@virginmedia.com

[NewFun#6]

[APLUK]

[Fanboyimus Prime]

Long ago....my origin was given on an episode of Back to the Bins.

30 year old comic fan from Akron Ohio, grew up on Robotech, Centurions, GiJoe, Spiral Zone, and of course the Transformers.

When I was 13 I got into comics. Marvel Comics. I am a diehard Marvel fan and the only dark patch I nearly got out of comics was when Final Crisis and Secret Invasion were tag teaming me with shitty eventness.

Which probably explains why I have fanfiction on the internet of me rewriting Secret Invasion into something more to my tastes.

In 2007 I dove into the DC pool. And found it fun for the most part.

I love Star Trek dearly, and it was one of the great loves of my life. Though I find the Borg "origin" in Star Trek Destiny to be a complete and utter mess. Seriously did we need their origin to be a temporal cluster fuck even the 29th Century time cops would get a headache trying to sort out?

I enjoy Star Wars as well. My favorite Star Wars character is HK-47. Which reminds me...what do the Two True Freaks think of the KoTOR games?

I also love anime as I have stated many times.

Doctor Who is something else I also enjoy. Though Death's Head is admittedly my favorite character who was involved in that. Seriously Scott read the Incomplete Death's Head LS. It reprints nearly everything of Death's Head other then his Transformers guest appearances, a Marvel Comics Presents Story, and his appearance in the Simonson Fantastic Four.

Though given my love of Death's Head, my also liking HK-47 isn't a shock.

I also enjoy repainting GiJoe action figures and taking pictures of them with a digital camera.

[NewFun#6]

[janson]

[panpan23]

[ljacone]

My name is Luke Jaconetti, and I am an alcoholic.

Okay, not really, but I do have an addictive personality which causes me to obsess over and research certain things once I become a fan of them.

I'm 31 years old, married to a lovely and eternally patient wife who puts up with all of my... let's call them "eccentricities." I have two sons, one 2 and one just about 3 months. I also have two cats, Callie, the fraidiest cat on the planet, and Lily, who lives her life in a sort of extended kittenhood. I was born and raised in NY, but met my wife at Clemson University in SC and have never looked back.

I have a Master's degree in Electrical Engineering and work as an Instrumentation and Control Systems Engineer at the largest EPC firm in the world. You guys can figure that one out on your own if you so desire. I recently passed the Fundamentals of Engineering exam and am preparing to take my Professional Engineer's license exam.

What is an Instrumentation and Control Systems Engineer, you might ask? Well let's consider a basic control loop -- the thermostat in your house. You set the temperature, and then when the temperature is out of range, the stat sends a signal to the AC to start blowing. The thermostat itself is made up of a temperature element, and a temperature transmitter, along with some simple circuits which contain the setpoint temperature and the mode information. Now consider that instead of controlling ambient air temperature, we're controlling the temperature of a chemical. Or the level of a tank, or the pressure of a gas in a tank. Whenever the measured variable is out of range, we send a signal (at its most basic a 4-20 mA electrical signal) to a device which can effect a change in the variable -- like turning on the AC to lower the temperature. And instead of just controlling the blower on the HVAC, we could be controlling a valve, a pump, a fan, or any other number of devices. I&C engineers specify, calibrate, and otherwise work with instruments (such as the aforementioned temperature element and transmitter) and then write the code and program the software to make the other stuff react to the measurements the instruments make. Ultimately this allows the plants and facilities we design to run their processes from a central control room. Simple, right?

My biggest fandom is Japanese giant monsters, or daikaiju, and it has been since I was 4 years old. I host the Earth Destruction Directive podcast dedicated to my love of daikaiju. I was once quoted as a expert source on Godzilla in a research paper. I have tons of movies, toys, models, books, and other monster stuff in my house. Which is amazing since my wife reeeaaally dislikes them. Even my boys each have a plush kaiju -- one has Godzilla and the other Rodan.

Another fandom is horror movies, and as the Hero said I am the cohost of The Vault of Startling Monster Horror Tales of Terror. I own more horror movies than any other genre of film, to the point where even I am not sure all the time what I own and what I don't at this point.

My favorite film is Phantom of the Paradise, a 70s rock retelling of Phantom of the Opera directed by Bria DePalma.

I'm also a big comic fan, GI Joe fan, Transfan, wrestling fan, heavy metal fan, sports fan, Star Trek fan, Star Wars fan, racing fan, Western fan, cartoon fan, tokusatsu fan, Disney fan, theme park fan, Black Hole fan, black hole fan, police procedural fan, Charles Bronson fan, wargamer, modeler, roleplayer, former MUSHer, breakfast cereal enthusiast... the list goes on.

One of my friends once described me as saying that once something catches my interest my enthusiasm goes off the charts. I think that is apt. My very dear friend Bob (published author, professional wrestling champion, and stand up comedian) once described me as a loud excitable guy who likes to tell you stuff. That's pretty accurate as well.