Paddy's exhortations to speak up and ID myself have finally hit home.  Here
goes, with apologies to all for wasted electrons.

I'm 38, very happily married with no kids, and a VP in a
growing-out-of-control advertising and PR agency in Portland, Oregon.  I
specialize in public relations for computer hardware and software
manufacturers and we counsel a number of Fortune 500 technology companies.
While this provides a nice living and keeps me in touch with the high tech
industry (one of my passions), it has the negative effect of wearing me out
and consuming lots-o-time I'd rather be spending messing around in my shop.

My shop is a modest basement space in my home (ca 15 x 20), nothing
distinctive, and certainly nothing compared to HBK's neo-Normie palace
(oops, couldn't resist).  Owning a home for the first time (up until 4 yrs
ago we had always lived in places where a shop was out of the question) was
the catalyst for getting into ww in the first place.  My aim is to make
heirloom-quality furniture for family and friends.  If I ever sell any, so
much the better, but that's not what I'm in it for - at least not anytime
soon.

My Dad (now age 70) is an accomplished woodworker and I regret not paying
more attention when I was a kid - but what do they say about youth being
wasted on the young?  He gave me a great gift recently, though, in the form
of his complete (except for one issue) collection of FWW.

I have learned more about ww online than I could ever learn in books and
magazines (although I'm amassing a nice library), first on the Compuserve
WW forum, and then on wreck.ww.  The more I learned, the more attracted I
became to hand tools and the old ways of doing things, and the more
indifferent I became to the "what kind of  should I
buy" threads that seem to completely clog up CIS and now the net.  Oy.

I don't yet have a lot of old tools, but my older bench planes are my
absolute favorites (my babies) and I'm looking forward to acquiring and
using a whole range of tools of the same ilk.  The Leachster probably won't
get rich off me, but I intend to be a regular customer (shameless shill).

I really enjoy the comraderie and the readily-shared knowledge of this
listserv, and I can easily relate to it as someone's back porch.  So if you
all don't mind I'll just sit here quietly, smoke my pipe and whittle a
spell.  Could someone please pass the jug this way?

Ryan Wilson

PS - Oh yeah, I've had the distinct pleasure of meeting some nearby galoots
in person like Steve LaMantia, and hope to meet as many as possible, so if
you're ever out this way, say hey!