User Profile

I'm Dan, Danny, Daniel, Rodan--depending on whom you ask--though my first name is in fact John. I grew up in the Augusta, GA area, but I've lived in Atlanta since '99. April 2006 officially puts me in my 30s.

The big thing going on with me these days is that I've started a new sci-fi convention business. I now serve as a Senior Director of Play On Con (POC) and the President of its parent company, the League of Fandom and Gaming (LFG). So far, I'm having a great time with it!

What else? Well, I've been doing UNIX administration, programming, and other variegated tech support for about 10 years now. I actually majored in chemical engineering at Georgia Tech years ago, but I eventually decided that the lab rat thing wasn't for me, and I've since gone back to Tech to study computers instead. I've also worked in most areas of hotel management, doing everything from waiting tables & tending bar to breaking down doors & having corpses removed. And lately I've been dabbling with a little real estate investing on the side.

A dear friend has recently piqued my interest in astrology, and I really can't argue with what I've seen of my chart, so I'll defer to it for a quick personality sketch. I'm Aries sun with Gemini moon & Capricorn rising, born in the Year of the Fire Dragon. I'm still not fully sold on astrology, but I can at least say that my own profile speaks well to both strengths and weaknesses.

Most of my LJ friends are from the sci-fi convention world, so I'll finish up by saying a little more about that. I've done at least one con every year since 1992, but I really count Magnum Opus Con 9 (Greenville, SC, 1994) as my proverbial cherry-popper. That's when I was first introduced to fandom as a family, and even though I didn't fully understand it then at age 17, that family is what has kept me coming back. During another MOC a few years later, I went around asking people why they attended, and I eventually got an extremely simple answer from an extremely elaborate fellow (whose name I never learned, of course): "Because at a con no one judges you, and you can just be yourself." And really, that's it. That's what going to a con is all about. It's a family reunion where you get to choose the family; and as someone who's always struggled with excessive introversion, I continue to grow as a person by attending.

So that's it--that's my little bio. If you've read all of this and actually want to know more, you are more than welcome to ask. Given the proper circumstances (I tend to prefer one-on-one talks for the deep stuff), there is very little about me that I won't share.