Chuck Kollars`
Personal Home Page

My first and major career was as a professional in computer high tech centering on data communications and emphasizing troubleshooting. About the time I turned fifty, I left high tech (or it left me:-) and attempted to embark on a second career in bookkeeping/accounting. When an opportunity to live frugally and pay all the bills without holding a permanent job arose in 2004, as employment had been such a big problem for me for so long, I grabbed it. I'm now semi-retired from the labor force, occasionally volunteering to do a little bit of computer software or data analysis or bookkeeping.

Of course having been a computer type, I can't avoid being attracted to the world wide web. Hence the pages on this site -which is now twenty years old- were created manually, without even any sort of HTML editor (no FrontPage nor DreamWeaver nor even HotDog nor HoTMetaL/XMetaL) and with only simplistic image editors (no PhotoShop). (As consistent maintenance grew to be a significant chore, I did though implement my own system of shared common include files, using only simplistic automation tools [BATch files, the *nix tool sed, and especially the *nix tool ex which is an automation-friendly version of the old *nix text editor vi].)

That past life as a techie stuck with me for a long time. I got involved in things like helping to administer computers at the local school and continuing to fiddle with computers at home (including creating and distributing a freeware program to create images of email addresses, networking XP Home, codifying steps to good troubleshooting, and diagnosing and fixing delays in web indexing). And of course having been a computer type, my humor tends toward computing jokes. Later, the web made it easy to resurrect my interest in fixing things.

My life so far falls into relatively separate phases:

• Childhood and Teenager
• College
• Single Young Adult
• Middle Age
  • Middle Age Integrating Family
  • Middle Age Split Family
• Retired
  • Semi-Retired
  • Retired

Movies and animation interest me a great deal. I grew up in the time when movies were the preeminent cultural expression, and that absorbed interest in seeing movies is still there. But finding the opportunity to see foreign, uncommon, old, and arty movies has been a bit of a problem. Boston and environs present quite a few opportunities to see something other than blockbusters, but traveling into town is too far and too difficult for me. So I've found other ways to see unusual movies and have become familiar with the intricate details of operation of my Blu-ray player.

Besides watching movies, my favorite pastime is sitting with a cup of tea and a good book in my rocking chair.

I'm intrigued by the intersection of the public sphere and the private sphere.

I'm attracted to the idea that America became successful because of a good social contract with all its citizens. That social contract has been greatly strained recently. To me it's important to address our widening inequality. I want leaders that recognize "we're all in this together," so for example I once supported the candidacy of Robert Reich for governor of Massachusetts, and I once supported the candidacy of Dennis Kucinich for the Democratic contender for president. (I no longer vote for Republicrats at all no matter what — the USA badly needs to escape the two party system trap.) Here are the three simple planks of the USA's social contract:

1. as companies do better their workers should as well
2. everyone participates in our social insurance against being impoverished through illness or bad luck
3. everyone should be given an opportunity for a good education

I try to think and act very locally where I have some sense of control over what happens. Even so, I have opinions on a wide range of social, political, and policy issues, including particular ideas for improving our government to make it even better. Of course having opinions leads to having discussions.

I wonder if our government fell for a conspiracy theory. Laurie Mylroie in her books hypothesizes a single mastermind behind both the earlier and the final attacks on the World Trade Center, the Anthrax attacks, and more. And according to her hypotheses that mastermind was Saddam Hussein. Although it's easy to dismiss her ideas as the ravings of a crackpot, many in our government apparently fully subscribed to and even acted on them. The context of this unsubstantiated fringe theory makes things like Vice President Cheney's long disappearance to an "undisclosed location", the quick and easy conflation of 9/11 with Iraq, and the very strong reaction to the Anthrax attacks easier to understand.

I'm amused by the same sorts of jokes that amuse a lot of computer types.

Daughter Jennie.

Son Caleb.

Back when they lived in Ipswich, they attended Ipswich public schools, and my concerns included both school funding (informed by for example contributions by the Feoffees to Ipswich Public Schools) and the emphasis on high stakes testing (evidenced at the state level by the MCAS graduation requirement and at the federal level by the No Child Left Behind program).

Their mom Kaye is a professor of psychology at Gordon College in Wenham MA.

Although it seems I've moved a long way away from the Seattle area, I'm still connected to my family of origin and sometimes peruse the family photos. Also I'm aware of some of my ancestors' history, via documents such as this Kollars family tree and Great-grandma Dover's Autobiography.

I lived in the very small town of Ipswich Massachusetts most of my middle-age (the parenting and launching eras and longer), My ex-wife still lives there. My adult children have so many connections in Ipswich they seem honorary residents. Ipswich is my town and I maintain my mailing address there even though I no longer live there. Ipswich is the town where Crane Beach is, north of Boston. As a "townie" I got almost-free access to the beach. I could cut around the lines at the entrance booth and go to our own parking area. A recent issue in the Town of Ipswich was how to prevent further damaging flooding in the downtown area.

Ipswich is far enough from Boston to to have its own identity rather than just being a suburb or a bedroom community. One wag recently commented Ipswich is a bit like Mayberry RFD. The Town of Ipswich has an official website that contains a lot of information related to town government. I lived on the main street of downtown, over Ye Olde Barber Shop, across from the historic fire station. My kids grew up in the same house I used to live in little over a mile away.

A visit to Ipswich may be expedited by these detailed driving directions to Ipswich. (If you want to visit with me personally, you may wish to explore electronic contacts such as email.)