THE OLD CROWD – INTRO

[dorbandb]

***Name:
Brian Dorband

***Nicknames/IDs:
None currently - I'm too self conscious to nick myself.

***Age:
46

***Family:
Married 20 GLORIOUS years to a beautiful woman of whom I am entirely
unworthy.
A 13 year old son who is a good boy despite his lack of interest in HP
(or anything else not associated with electronic gaming for that
matter...sheesh - where have I gone wrong?!?!?).  

***Home:
The rolling hills of Southeast Wisconsin

***Birthday, Place of Birth:
March 17, 1959  I've always been rather small, so I was called a
"little leprechaun" on my birthday for years - always hated it.  In
later years tried to forget the moniker by consuming mass quantities
of green beer for the occasion.  Mostly successful at forgetting -
everything...

***Education/Job/Role in Life etc:
BS from University of Wisconsin - Oshkosh (affectionately know as
UW-Zero).  Majored in Library Science and Communication.  *Not* a
Librarian - not nearly smart enough for that and not even very good at
communication.  But I'm gainfully employed - I buy library books (true
- cool, huh?) and, on a good day,  I can string together several words
consecutively that are not always monosyllabic.  i du good i tink.

***Other things we might want to know about you:
I can't imagine...

***First contact with Harry Potter:
About 2 weeks prior to the release of PoA, I began to read SS and CoS,
which had been given to my son the previous Christmas (no, he didn't
read them - not then, nor since...where have I gone wrong?!?!?!).  

***Favourite Potter things (books, characters, ships, fics, objets
d'Art, general enthusing):
-The thrill of ripping through a freshly minted release of the latest
title as if it's a reading race.
-The clever creativity of JKR
-Hermione
-The mind boggling genious of folks from HP4GU (the old_crowd, anyway ;-)
-PoU


***Extent of Potter obsession:
Moderate within the context of the general population, but miniscule
in the context of this group.  As much as I *like* it, I'm not
*obsessed* by it...that much...really...anymore...mostly...I haven't
even seen all the movies.  I saw the first couple, but the imagery
wasn't powerful enough to supplant that which was already in my mind
from reading the books.  I've never heard the tapes either - no
kidding.  Really, I just like reading the books.  I'm not very good at
keeping up with all the theories with acronyms and whatnot (although I
think the ones I've read are *brilliant*!!!). I'm just not obsessed at
that level...can I still join, or have I pretty much talked my way out
of here?!?!?

***Other interests/activities:
bird watching, camping, photography, erotica <blush> (Really, erotica
has come a *long* way since the day...some even qualifies as good, not
great, literature - imo).

***Current/recent reading:
Camulod Chronicles (Historical fiction w/ Merlin, et al.), LoR, lots
of lesser know stuff that I run across in the library.  It's good to
work in a library!  :-)

***Current/recent listening:
Grew up on Classic Rock and Roll radio stuff, but in the last few
years I've switched over to the likes of Loreena McKennitt, Alson
Krauss, Bic Runga - any beautiful female vocals.  Something that
probably falls under the category of ***Other things we might want to
know about you: I've actually had the pleasure/priviledge of
communicating with (though we've never met face to face), then
collaborating with a wonderful woman in New Zealand on several songs -
I wrote lyrics, she wrote music and sang them.  Dream come true for
me.  Nothing that will ever be heard on the charts 'round the world,
mind you, but they don't suck at all, either (JMO).  Quite special for
me.  

***Current/recent viewing:
Don't watch a lot of tv, and not very many movies, but I'm a huge
Green Bay Packer fan and rarely miss the game during the season.  

I think that about covers things for now.  I really appreciate the
invite to come and join you (again).  I sincerely apologize for my
ill-advised posting of several years ago (re: Abanes).  We don't need
to open that can of worms, I hope, but I do want everyone who might
remember to know that I was supremely emabarrased by my conduct and
that's why I chose to go into a self-imposed exile of sorts. I'll try
to add something to the discussion, but I readily admit that I'm in
entirely over my head with this group.  I'm humbled to be among you
all.  Thanks.  See ya on the message board.

Brian