If I had a nickel for every time someone pointed out that “his name is my name too” I’d be living in a cabana in the tropics. My first name is from my maternal grandmother’s brother who, sadly died in a car accident on his way home after WWII. My last name comes from my father, as is tradition. My online name is johnnyapple.

I was born and raised in a small town in central Minnesota best known for 70’s high school basketball and the pungent smell of turkey shit during the spring thaw. Other than a few months in Augusta, GA and Mountain View, CA I’ve spent my adult life in Minneapolis, MN. Bitter cold winters and scorching hot summers are apparently my thing. At least it doesn’t smell like turkey shit.

I live in downtown Minneapolis in a loft which was converted from an old underwear factory. I don’t have a car and have no desire to own one. That said, I wish Minneapolis had better mass transit. You can count on me writing about that in the near future. At least we’ve started switching out the old buses with diesel hybrids.

By far my favorite pass time is camping. I mean real camping, in a tent, with a canoe. I can hike or canoe for hours and not tire. I also enjoy a weekend at a thrill park. The higher and faster the thrill ride, the better. I don’t watch much TV but when I do, it’s the History Channel, Discovery Channel or National Geographic. When I want to turn my brain off and have a few laughs I tune into South Park or Family Guy.

I attended but did not graduate from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. At various points in my life I’ve been a bus boy, carpenter’s apprentice, Kinkoid and now a programmer. I work in the printing industry programming large production laser printers to output variable, one to one marketing pieces. Among the goals of variable print is to analyze the data to identify individuals who are most likely to respond. That means that instead of blanket mailing 100,000 pieces to a given market we’re able to identify perhaps 10% who are most likely to respond and only mail to that sub-group. This, hopefully, cuts down on a lot of waste.