Fair Warning to Impatient Recruiters and Hiring Managers: I'm a chatty person, face-to-face and in print.

What I'm Doing with My Life: I'm not good at doing nothing, so I have lots of projects underway all the time.
Examples:

• I'm slowly converting my web comic browser bookmarks set, with over 1680 links now and probably over 2000 before I finish, into a huge and growing Comic Linkmarks page, contributing the link buttons I make to the respective web comics' authors.
• I'm dabbling with a test release of a web comic AtCoMMaM of my own.
• A bit on the back burner now, because I haven't yet rebuilt the work environment after replacing my last, failed, laptop, I still do artificial intelligence research in Java in the field of genetic algorithm and memetic algorithm heuristic search optimization techniques for approximately solving computionally intractible problems, with my Traveller software.
• I'm typing in the text of an out of print book my father wrote, God Did It with a goal of putting it online someday.
• I'm a constant presense on Usenet, sometimes just chatting, often ragging at the invincibly ignorant who fill the Net with misery for others, on the one hand, while sometimes patiently tutoring those there seeking to learn new skills in fields where I have expertise, on the other hand.
• I do similar tutorial writing for the email reflector groups for the GIMP for Windows image processing software and the StarLogo programming language.
• I daily beta test open source software such as the SeaMonkey browser and file bug reports regularly.

My Current Circumstances: I've reached the point in life called "semi-retired", where ever working again is fairly optional. However, a "good enough" job will lure me back into the work force. I don't go looking for jobs, but I do consider jobs that come looking for me. As part of that life circumstance attitude shift, though, I'm mostly interested at this time in offers of telecommute jobs, and for snowbelt states, that's all I'll consider. I'd welcome a "relocation paid" move to Austin TX or Seattle WA, would at least consider "relocation paid" moves to other sunbelt locations with favorable state income tax situations and big software engineering job markets, but otherwise I prefer to work henceforth from my comfy couch here in Tempe AZ via my broadband connection.

Currently, and since 2006/02, I'm unemployed and mostly idle, in a mood only to telecommute except for extraordinary jobs, since my housing where I am now is pre-paid by a bequest.
I'm also moderately independently wealthy [with enough money to live poor "forever" without further effort] due to an inheritance plus a small military pension, and am trying to decide whether to retire permanently or continue accepting gainful employment "for the gravy".
Please consider me only for socially redeeming, very well paid, technically interesting work, usually just work that can be done across a high speed internet link.
My most useful current skill is Java applications and graphical interface programming, in scientific or technical areas. Almost everything else, I'd have to relearn at least in part, after a very long break from other programming.

I was most recently (2005/11/14 - 2006/02) working for the Decision Theater of Arizona State University. It was not a well paying job, but it was a technically challenging one, in domains I loved to work within, with splendid "programmer's toys" and, after almost five years unemployed, I was pathetically grateful for the chance to be useful to the world again.
Unfortunately it didn't work out well, as the managers there tried to implement "eXtreme programming" as "change the software specifications twice weekly" (literally), without ever putting into place all the support structures real "rapid application development" models call out, like two person team programming and degrading performance to meet deadlines, so nothing ever got finished or delivered by me, just "close enough for management to redesign it" based on seeing their prior design couldn't work in their real world system.
Sigh.

I was most recently before that (2001/01/03) doing C++ programming at eBay, with the assigned tasks of helping make the existing broken code stop crashing so much, plus replacing the broken build scripts. When I left, these things worked better because of my efforts.

[You'd break your work history into digestible chunks too, after over 45 years of typing software at defenseless computers.]

• My work experience, told several ways.
  Because there are so many of them, most of these resumes are somewhat to severely out of date, and won't be updated again, but they are useful for seeing older work described in various degrees of formality and detail.

  My most current resume, SkinnyResume.txt, is seen here in plain text.

  • 2001.resume.main.formal as an HTML document for printing a pretty hardcopy, or as a plain text document for cut and paste purposes into recruiters' favorite word processing tools.

    This describes the main part of my currently useful software development experience, and should content most folks just fine all by itself. It only goes back to 1992, but with conventional wisdom telling us half of computer programming knowledge is outdated every three years, how pertinent are the older specific skills in today's environment, anyway?

  • My resume at monster.com.

    This clean and comprehensive resume, which covers the later parts of my programming career where I actually got paid for writing software, is a nice service of the Monster.com jobsearch site.

    At long last conceding a round to the wookie, here is an (outdated, a bit) MS-WORD version of a recent copy of the same document, for those who claim they cannot do recruiting in any other format.

  • 2001.resume.main.casual

    Ever wish at least one applicant would lighten up a bit? Some folks find this resume style refreshing after reading the first 200 cookie cutter resumes of the day. Others are horrified. This version is for those with a sense of humor only.

    It does have one sometimes critical feature often requested by recruiters, though. It names every job I've held since age 16, even the non-programming ones.

  • 2001.resume.main.categorized

    If I were the one defining resume style, resumes would look like this, but the world is too far down the wrong path to ever recover, or my taste in typing is too bizarre to be acceptable. Who knows?

    The big win for the reader of this resume is that rather than merely naming my skills, I also rate them into current, usable, and faded type categories.

  • 2001.buzzsheet

    This is specifically tailored for folks who like to feed resumes to buzzword scanners; it is pure buzzwords, going forward in time just to break with resume style. It goes back clear to the punch card days of computing, too.

  • 2001.experience

    Many times, the tool used is not nearly as important as the domain of effort in which it was used. This rather huge "page" explains the context in which my various tool skills and other experience were gained.

• 2006.references

  Five references, one from a 2006 job, one from a 2001 job, three from a 1994 job. Lots of luck contacting them.

• geographic preferences

  Places I'd like to work.

• 2001.generic_cover_letter

  What good this might be to anyone I haven't a clue, but if someone desperately needs a cover letter, this is the shape it would take.

• invention list

  A modestly up-to-date list of my "prior art" inventions, often needed when joining a new employer.