Links.net Folks

Name:
  John Irving Rose III
Nickname: Jackson Birthdate:
  25 June, 1975

First, tell us about yourself.

I cherish downtime. In my downtime, I ski, bike, listen to music, philosophize and play games. I love games. Card games, board games, computer games, made up games, I don't care - I'll play them all until I puke, and then I'll keep on playing. I think games are a superb instrument to study the human psyche. One would be amazed at how much one can learn about someone else based on how they play a particular game.

I've been trying to find the meaning of life for a little over the past five years. Recently, I feel I'm closer to putting my finger on it than I ever have been. I don't know how or why, but its all starting to come together.

I enjoy life.

What can you learn about someone based on how they play a game?

Simply put, games are won and lost by making decisions, and every game poses its players a unique set of decisions to be made. Play any particular game long enough, and you begin to see how the decisions that are made during the game reflect decisions made every day in real life. By observing how an opponent makes decisions in different situations, you can get a feel for how they approach their personal decisions in general. That is a very vague answer, but its hard to get too specific without writing pages worth.

Have the recent events in New York affected your outlook on life and meaning at all?

To be honest, no, but I do think it has made Americans in realize that life is more of a challenge than we once thought. Feelings of loss, fear, doubt, suspicion, and hate have been felt at a deeper level, and thus frightened us not only of the unkown future, but of ourselves and what we might be capable of. I see this as the latest challenge for not only Americans, or the World, but the collective human soul to work our way through this problem and learn the lessons that await us at the end of this chapter in life.

Where are you from and where do you live now?

Whenever I'm asked where I'm from in passing conversation, I say "South Carolina," just to make things easy. My father's family is from South Carolina, and growing up, we used to return there every summer to visit. It has been the one geographic consistency in my life.

However, in truth, I am from all over the place. Here's a chronological list:

New York City: Age 0 - 18 months
Sao Paolo, Brazil: Age 1-6
London, England: Age 6-9
Los Angeles, CA: Age 9-11
London, England (again): Age 11-17

Although my parents stayed in England for three more years, I moved back to the United States to attend Hampden-Sydney College, in Virginia. For the past four years since college, I have bounced around the United States, pretty much at my whim, and currently reside in San Francisco. I have been here about five months, and I plan on staying for a long time, it reminds me of Europe.

Why did you move around so much growing up?

My father worked for an international bank, and thus was moved to different offices from time to time.

Of all the places you've lived, which one you think you'd settle in?

I didn't list it specifically before, but I spent my first two years out of college in Ketchum, Idaho. I left Rocky Mountains telling myself that I would be back for good one day, and I still say that is a big possibility. However, I also see myself drifting back to Europe in the future. London is hands-down the greatest city in the world (despite the weather) and France has a lot going for it as well (although I never lived there).

Where do you identify with the most?

Again, it's a tough call between London and the mountains. I lived in London through my formative years, and there is no doubt that although I am American, I'm very English in some respects. Then again, there's something about being in the mountains that make me feel pretty good about life.

Where do you work or go to school and what do you do / study?

I am currently an out-of-work temp, although I do have a "real" job with Advent Software starting October 1st. I will be a "Client Services" representative, which is essentially a customer support guy. A lot of people wince when I say that, but I'm looking forward to it, it's a good job.

Why are you looking forward to your customer service job?

Aside from the fact that it's a great job to learn the nuts and bolts of the software I'll be trouble-shooting, I actually enjoy the tutoring aspect of a customer service position. In the past, I've tutored mathematics, taught both sailing and skiing and have loved every minute of it. Teaching someone something new is a very satisfying feeling for me, and although customer support isn't really a teaching job, you are helping people learn by working through their problems, and that's close enough to get me excited about it.

You ever play games for money?

Yes, poker and backgammon.

Do you have a web site? Why/why not?

I do not, because I'm lazy. One day, I will make one, though.

What music do you listen to?

Tough question, because I love my music so much that if I leave someone out, I feel guilty. I'll do it this way, I'll name my favorite band, and list the three CDs that are in my CD player right now.

Favorite Band: Widespread Panic

3 CDs:
Pink Floyd - Meddle
Soundtrack - O Brother Where Art Thou?
Samples - The Last Drag

Read any books ever?

Yes, although its been almost a year since I've read a book that's not telling me how to play a game better. I'm currently reading "The Theory of Poker," by David Sklansky.

Do you cook?

Hell no. If I could satisfy all of my nutritional needs with a pill, I would do it.

What are your favourite games?

Going to have to break this one down into categories:

Card Games:
Poker (Hold 'Em and Omaha Hi/Lo 8), Spades, Hearts, Cribbage, Euchre (on a side note, I've been dying to learn how to play Bridge but can't find anyone to play with)

Board Games:
Chess, Backgammon, Go, Pente, Connect 4. Well, Connect 4 really isn't a board game, but I rule at it.

Video Games:
Hockey, Tecmo-Bowl (you could make the most realistic football game ever made with every bell and whistle imagineable and Tecmo-Bowl would still reign supreme).

Athletic Games:
Volleyball and Basketball. I also love Baseball but I literally grew out of it, at 6'7, my strike zone is a pitcher's wet dream - I haven't been able to hit a baseball since the 8th grade.

Tell us your favourite websites.

You spell "favourite" the English way, I was surprised to see it.

www.google.com - it satisfies all my whimsical fancies.
www.sandbox.com - I'm addicted to fantasy sports (it is a game, after all).
http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/recenteqs/Maps/SF_Bay.html - some people check the weather. I check the earthquakes.
www.pollstar.com - a quick and easy way to check who's playing in town.
www.twoplustwo.com - one of the better poker references on the 'net.
www.yahoo.com - still the best overall content provider on the internet.

How did you find Links.net? Why are you here?

I'm new to links.net, I've only been reading for about 2 months. I was reading an AP news story about a guy from the University of Michigan who was on trial for writing and posting a torture and rape story on a newsgroup. The reason why he was on trial was because he used a female classmate's name in the story - as the torture/rape subject. Well, I just HAD to read this crazy-ass story because I mean if he was on trial, it had to be BAD. I searched faithful google for some samples of wacky Jake's writings and I found some. One of them happened to be on links.net. It didn't take me long to get bored of Jake's fantasies, and I just started clicking around on some of Justin's links. It wasn't long before I realized I had fallen into the seemingly endless rabbit hole that is links.net, and I didn't want to come out.

Thank you Jackson!