Mark Mercer's Personal Page
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So who am I and why am I here? (Or at least why is my page here?)
Well, I pay the bills as a Project Leader/Software Engineer for a "great metropolitan
financial services* company." Outside of work, I turn into a husband, dad,
occasional lay liturgical assistant at Episcopal services, science-fiction and
comics fan (obvious from the reference, eh?) and just a bit hard to categorize
- I hope!
* I can't tell you which one, because my company won't let any employees
link from personal sites to their pages. Score another one for the lawyers triumphing over
common sense and free speech. So if you guess who they are, invest with them, and lose money, it's not my fault. Of course, if you make
money with them, send me some as thanks!
I live in the Greater Boston area of Massachusetts, in the quite wonderful
town of Brookline,
with my wife Lisa and our two cats, Willow
and Blackcomb. And I've got two absolutely great kids,
Greg & Kara, who live most of the time in South Florida but really like Boston
too. Here's Greg's home page.
There are more links to my family back at my Family
Home Page.
Until 1995, I thought of myself as a native (or at least naturalized)
New Yorker, since I'd lived and/or worked in Manhattan for most of the past 20 years.
However, thanks to my move (back) to Boston, where I grew up, I now have a really
strange mix of New York attitude and Boston accent: "Yo buddy, ya cahn't pahk ya stinkin' cah heah in my spot!"
Here's a map of
Brookline, centered on Coolidge Corner, from Mapblast!
More Boston-area maps and local information are at Yahoo's Get Local pages
for Boston
and Brookline.
Brookline is a great mix of what I loved about the Upper West Side back in New
York, plus the quietness of tree-lined suburban streets, "urban villages" in walking
distance, and a trolley line right to downtown Boston only a block away.
Here are some links to some of my favorite topics, activities, organizations, artists, and other people's homepages:
Back to my main Family Home Page without frames or
with frame navigation
of our family's entire site.
Or my other pages:
- My
Software Engineering Page.
Has links to Software Development information including methodologies, commentators,
Web Development, Enterprise Systems, Sybase and PowerBuilder information and add-on products.
- My Booklist with some of my favorite reads and
recommendations.
Top of page
Science Fiction Links
Some of my favorite SF authors, and general SF information sites. See recent
favorites at my Booklist.
- Orson Scott Card's "Hatrack River" Community.
Author of
Ender's Game,
Pastwatch, and many other intriguing SF books.
Thanks to my son Greg for turning me onto this author!
- Greg Bear's Official Page Author of
Eon and it's sequels/prequels, among others.
- David Brin's page. Author
of
Earth,
The Postman (I still think it was a great motion picture, even
if it bombed at the box office, but please read the book
even if you didn't see or like the film!),
Sundiver and lots more good stuff.
- The Robert A. Heinlein - Dean of American
Science Fiction Writers site. Links to several pages and newsgroups about
classic SF author Robert A. Heinlein's works and philosophy.
- The Known Space site about
Larry Niven. Good Niven information - but recently moved from an ISP in Australia
(slow for us Yanks) to a "free-page" site at Xoom.com with lots
of banners, required ads, and (horrors!) a Java music applet! Now it's slow
no matter where you are. Good info though, so worth a look.
- Science Fiction Timeline Page.
- The Ultimate Science Fiction Web Guide.
Top of page
Hiking and Camping Links
Top of page
Boston and Brookline Links
- The Brookline Page.
The unofficial, and in many ways, most complete, guide to Brookline.
- Welcome to Brookline (Official Page). Our town's official site.
- Boston Online. The original Boston
web site, unofficial and noncommercial.
- Boston.com a commercial site sponsored by most of the local media. Glitzy but good info available.
You can read the entire Boston Globe online,
but they caught on and took away the descriptions on some stories,
probably so you would still want to buy the paper.
On the other hand, it's the only way to read the Help Wanted
job classified in alphabetical order, since the Globe bizarrely lists
them totally randomly in the print editions.
Also real estate ads, others classifieds online, housing sale prices, and entertainment events.
- The Coolidge Corner Theater Boston's only non-profit independent movie theater. Actually it's in Brookline, another plus for our town!
Top of page
Organizations I support
- Amnesty International Remember...and work for justice.
- Habitat for Humanity Helping people build simple, decent housing of their own.
- The Planetary Society We can't only work on problems on Earth; we need to look "out there" to realize we're all together on this "Pale Blue Dot". Help sponsor the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI),
Mars missions, Planetary exploration. Co-founded by Carl Sagan.
Top of page
Religion and Spirituality
- The Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. The source, and still my real spiritual home. I was privileged and blessed enough to be able
to serve there as an acolyte, chalicer, and Daily Office officiant during the last few years I lived in NYC. A magnificent source of spiritual renewal, community service, arts and music,
ecumenical outreach, and a "house of prayer for all people". Visit it online for a virtual tour, or if you can, visit in person.
- Anglicans Online Main page for the
Anglican Communion's domain. Info about churches in communion with the Church of England,
including the Episcopal Church in the USA and the Anglican Church of Canada.
Links to local dioceses and parish home pages throughout the US and Canada.
- All Saints Parish in Brookline, our local parish.
Top of page
Music Links
- The Nields! A talented, local
Massachusetts alternative band getting some national exposure (and richly
deserving more). They show up at Boston-area venues fairly often, plus they've
been touring all over. Their page includes links to their tour schedule.
- The Kennedys' Home Page! The
Kennedys are Pete & Maura Kennedy. (No, they're not related to those other
Kennedys. Otherwise you'd have heard about them in the tabloids.) Fabulous
guitar, vocal harmonies reminiscent of the Byrds ,great songwriting. First
saw them at Club Passim in Harvard Square a couple of years ago. Their latest
CD includes some well-known guest artists like Roger McGuinn.
- Boston's Rock Alternative WXRV - The River
92.5. My favorite station and a great place to hear new rock artists,
with a lot more variety than most of the Boston stations. Unfortunately not
a really great signal unless you're near the North Shore of Boston.
Top of page
Movies and TV
Here are some favorite TV and movie links. There are more Star Trek and Babylon 5 links at
Greg's Home Page.
Top of page
People
Pages by people I know from the real world or the Net:
- My wife Lisa. And her business
page on Fitness information, opinion, and class schedules..
- My son Greg
- A.Lizard. Libertarian and
crypto stuff, and a generally interesting
perspective. I don't necessarily agree with everything the reptile has to say,
but I've learned to respect his opinions and his information. Lots of cyber-privacy
info, PC info, opinions on the intersection of technology and politics,
and more. By the way, that's the "Adult Content" that he warns
about, for the most part. Don't bother to check him out if you're one of
the "sheeple" - you won't get it. Go watch Friends
instead..
Top of page
|
I have an association with Amazon.com
where I can recommend my favorite books and give you the choice to order
them directly from links on my pages. You will deal directly with Amazon.com
and receive their quality customer service. I buy most of my professional
books and much of my leisure reading from them, and I highly recommend
them. |
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