Biography

From AdamWiki

I was born Adam Richard Dray at 8:00 a.m. on June 29, 1969 in Youngstown, Ohio. That makes me a Cancer, if you follow astrology much. I don't, really, though I remember the coolest and oddest horoscope I ever saw for Cancer: Beware of water involving drainpipe.. This was in the Warren Tribune. I imagine about 8% of the population of Trumbull County was walking around with an eye towards the gutter and roof.

I grew up in Lordstown, Ohio, a quaint but fairly boring village near Warren. Or half way between Cleveland and Pittsburgh, if you don't know the area. There's not much there: General Motors, a couple gas stations, a small grocery store, a Dairy Queen, and a tiny plaza with a variety of shops that come and inevitably go out of business. I think the video rental store is the only place that has survived for any length of time (the next closest video store is 20-30 minutes away). There used to be a pizza joint. Lordstown's post office used to be a booth there. They sold stamps and weighed packages, but didn't actually deliver mail or anything.

Mom is a nurse. She does home care now. She used to be Head Nurse of the Oncology department at Warren General. Dad is semi-retired, as much as he'll ever be. He taught science and math to fifth- and sixth-graders for about 30 years. Now he is teaching summer science programs, doing part time work over at the vocational center, and he is on the town council causing trouble.

I have one brother, Jason, who is two and a half years younger than me. I'm not sure how I ever survived my childhood, frankly, as we fought constantly in a very brotherly way, and he was usually stronger than I was. Still, we always loved each other, and we're close today, though I don't call nearly enough. He's doing paralegal work while working towards his law degree (despite me trying to talk him out of the profession). Jason married Heather, who is every bit his match. They have a son, Owen, born in 2003.

I graduated high school in 1987 with honors, then started a downward slide into mediocrity and worse in college. I started at Case Western Reserve University with a number of grants and scholarships in the Honors Physics program, then I learned how much I really disliked the field outside of watered-down science magazines. A year into the program, I switched my major to "undecided" and floundered a couple years until I decided to take some time off and figure things out.

I did join the CWRU Kappa-Beta chapter of Beta Theta Pi, a fraternity founded on a pioneering spirit (and the first fraternity founded west of the Allegheny River), guided by the principles of friendship, wisdom, and honor. Among the silliness that I suspect every college fraternity perpetuates these days, I found a lot of value. I learned leadership, I of honor and principle, and of tradition and brotherhood. I also made many good friends.

After a short break from school, I transferred to Kent State University and entered their Computer Science program. I did a fair bit better there, but never did graduate. I'm about a year short of a degree. I spent a lot of my time at Kent in the computer labs, tinkering with UNIX and discovering the Internet in all its glory: Usenet, mailing lists, and of course, muds.

I met the woman whom I would later marry on one of those muds, so I have a hard time considering it time poorly spent. I also made contacts that landed me a job that took me from my starter job to a "real" programming job out here in Maryland. Steph eventually moved in with me and we married in 1997 in her home town of Rochester, New York. In December 1999, we moved into our first house, a town home in Owings Mills New Town, where we live happily with our two cats.