Dr. Rat's Home Page

Welcome To Dr. Rat's Maze

The Shy, Quiet One

My Favorite Links:

One for All Backgammon League

My Info:

Married, 3 Children, Old, Located at the Crossroads of America, Farther Right Than Rush, Neal, and Sean Combined

The Story of the Rat:

     Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, a young hippie in Illinois ran rats through mazes at Eastern Illinois University. He endeavored to determine if overcrowding was detrimimental to learning. This, of course had great social relelvance during those times. It was then that he was named Dr. Rat.

     He expanded this pursuit to obtaining a Ph.D. in Human Factors Engineering (HFE) at the University of South Dakota. (HFE is of course the study of the man-machine interface.) Naturally his motivation for this higher degree was a simple fear of venturing into the real world. While in graduate school, he studied the effects of smoking and smoking deprivation on various psychomotor tasks under a research assistanship. He also taught all of his major advisor's psychology classes under a teaching assistanship.

     Late one evening while peparing for my Doctoral prelims, with a fellow grad student, and a bottle of Jack Daniels, the chap asked what I was going to do when I grew up. He was a Lt. Cmdr. in the Navy destined for assignment in California. Since I had no clue what I was going to do, he suggested I come and work for him. "Jack" and the Lt. Cmdr. convinced me and we headed to the "Land of Granola" (take away the flakes and all you have left are fruits and nuts).

     Somewhere along this journey I was married to the woman who dragged me to South Dakota. A few years later my son was born. I must admit I was very fearful since no one we met was a native Californian. I laid awake at night fearing that he would be put in a basket and shoved out into the ocean, like

January Rambles:

    This is my first of many rambles that will be posted for your pleasure. However, it is likely I will be the only one reading them, but I suppose there is a certain cathartic value in that too.

     It's New Years Eve, 2006 for the next few hours. We have an exciting evening planned with a visit to the brother-in-laws house with the kids and a few friends. On the agenda is a vigorous game of Taboo. Alas, as we grow older the simple options seem the best on amateur night.

     The first week of the month I embark on a 3 day trip to Washington D.C. to prepare for our company's oral presentation on a $300 Mil contract we are bidding on. The proposal preparation for this effort was quite an adventure, including me pulling my first "all-niter" in over 30 years. I don't recall the after effects being quite so painful.

     Also on the calendar for the month is a birthday for the old rat. I've tried to adopt the Jack Benny approach but, alas, 39 passed many many years ago. Now I simply accept that I was born two years before God.......

     Well, I've started the new year with a bang......literally. I banged my toe getting the dogs in this morning and broke it. Speaking of dogs, since we only have two right now, my daughter is getting a puppy the end of the month. Obviously, we are canine deprived.....