I am the second of four kids. I have an older sister, then me, then two younger brothers. My mother, sister and youngest brother live here in Tacoma and my middle brother lives in California near San Jose. My father lives in West Virginia.

On my father's side we come from somewhere near Northumberland.
Maybe the family lived in a house something like this? At some point between eleven and nine generations ago one James Arnold Felton moved his family to Bremerton, England. There the sixth James Arnold Felton the father put food on the table as a street musican. The seventh James Arnold Felton moved from steam ships to steam locatives and moved his growing family to Rahway, New Jersey. He and his wife eventually had nine girls and boys. My father was the youngest of nine. He met my mother at the Ringling Art School in Sarasota, Florida.

My mother, for balance, was found on a door step and was raised by two loving parents in Wellsville, N.Y. before coming to the art school. After a divorce, she raised the four of us on her own.

I started young challenged by inacessible user interface, but rose to the challenge.











A second husband later provided me with some welcome support and ethical model. We moved up to Washington in my junior high years. I went to Baker, here in Tacoma.

Then we moved to Cathlamet in Wahkiakum County, southern Washington, along the Columbia.
My brothers and I ranged all over the back woods of Wahkiakum County. From there I going the Nvy and Flew cargo planes through the south Pacific, and Southeast Asia. Talking to the almost infinite variety of people in the many cultures of the Pacific rim stirred the beginnings of a idea that I would not be able to let alone when I returned to civilian life and to college.

During the job driving people to the hospital I met a person who later asked me to help her explain her computer needs to DSHS so she could get a computer for her college work. The senior network administrator they brought in to design a shopping list - for an accessible computer for a person with cerbral palsey and speech asphasia who would be a computer programmer - was at a loss from the start, and freely admitted it. He knew the heck out of networks not adaptive computing. They asked me if I knew this stuff and would I be willing to help design the best combination. Yes I did and yes I'd be glad to help. Of course, they said, this is under DSHS contract, we're going to have to pay you. "Oh," say I.

And so began my work with HumanCom Consulting, building solutions and providing training for people with disabilities who were determined to use computers to make school, and careers, and just plain communication with other people possible.
A key is to be willing to not limit yourself to what can be found on the shelves of the standard retail outlet.
Further you have to be able to think from the other person's perspective. Can you see the computer interface from the limits of their particular abilities and be able to adapt the training, as well as the computer input and output devices to suit this individuals abilities, not twist them to fit the plain vanilla box, keyboard and mouse?

Other than the Pacific Ancient Voyagers work, and well...er, more intimate moments...it was the most satisfying thing I had ever done. It was also incredible hard work and a pure strain on the brain, to think outside of the box and than bring that idea into a reality. I'd do more of that work in a flat minute.

Then the bottom felt out of the state economy and I moved up to Tacoma as my saving ran out. I took a job that grew into the head of maintenance for three properties (600 people in two trailer courts in Lakewood and the historical 1924 Merlino Arts Center in downtown Tacoma).

Early in that period I met and became engaged, for too short a time, to a beautiful, intelligent woman and her three great kids. I miss them very much, and always hope they are happy and safe. I learned alot about the cost to the man who comes next when a man spends 15 years abusing his wife. I hope I helped her another step toward finding her own self esteem, independance, and peace of mind.

About a year ago I was laid off as, ... I can only guess, most of the major projects had been resolved. We had repaired the septic tank sewer systems in both parks, upgraded the water system, reworked much of the electric in the parks, rebuilt an exist garage into an clean and dry storage facility and office space. We had troubelshot and repaired the 'wet-back' boiler and forced air heating system in the Merlino Art Center, refurbished some of the floors, installed new lighting and in general spiffed and polished and made nice.

Well, I wouldn't immediately volunteer for another stint at repairing sewer systems, so I have to find a job that uses my talents differently.I'm hoping the job-search I am in now and the education I will receive in the next two years will help me acheive these things.

Here are five things I'd like to accomplish in my life.

I'd like to see the Pacific Ancient Voyagers
four dimensional interactive maps of history get published.
I'd like to see the program get used to explore those parts of history that are yet invisible.

I'd like to own a comfortable house with space for thousands of books, and room for processing my research graphics, and a big floor to dance on.

I'd like to help
develop a more
universal interface
for our computer use.

I'd like to enjoy the company of an intelligent female partner who is up to something of her own. I'd like the two of us to be surrounded by an active group of intelligent and life affirming friends.

[Hum, I can't imagine what that image might look like?...]

I'd like to have a well paying job that allows me to work with people, create things, and to know I'm making a difference in people's lives.

You can contact me by email: