A very quick bio ... Sometimes I think I'm too old for this (over 35, not yet 40). I got interested seriously in punk in about 1978 when I started university. Up until then I was pretty much your average long-haired Led Zepplin/Pink Floyd type. I went to the University of Waterloo (fairly close to Toronto) so I got some exposure to that scene, as well as bands like Teenage Head and the Forgotten Rebels, from Hamilton. The Kichener-Waterloo area didn't have a big scene from what I remember (or maybe I just killed off all those brain cells). From 1983 until about 1988 I wasn't as much into it, being married during that time and having other things going on. Looking back, there didn't seem to be a whole lot interesting going on then anyway. My interest picked up again in about 1988, when I also got more interested in trying to find records from some of the bands I had remembered from earlier years. I still wasn't really into the obscure Killed By Death type stuff, that came later. To make a long story short I eventually got hooked on tracking down just about every obscure punk record from anywhere that was released in the '77 to '82 period.
I finally got around to finishing university in 1992 with a PhD in physics (no, I'm not quite sure why either). I guess I thought smashing particles together to make other particles was interesting or something. A research position at the University of Alberta in Edmonton kept me amused until July 1997. Having gotten tired of physics (or, more accurately, physicists) and the lack of research jobs in the field (teaching never really appealed to me), I decided a career change was in order. So I became a computer geek instead of a physics nerd. Currently I work mostly on a mainframe system (COBOL, JCL, IMS, DB2, things like that). For a while I spent a bunch of time working on the Y2K problem (remember that, the world didn't end, at least not that I've noticed). Among all the Y2K products that were available, the most effective one I found was this one .
What else? I've probably seen most every episode of The Simpsons about 10 times. Besides punk I also like old blues, early Motown, some 60s stuff, Sisters of Mercy, Joy Division (I suppose they were punk), Bauhaus (no, I don't own a lot of black clothes), Jesus & Mary Chain, Kate Bush and even a bunch of new wave stuff every once and a while. Dr. Who (especially the early ones and most of Tom Baker). Red Dwarf. Silly old "horror" movies, the Three Stooges, South Park.