Bruce's Page

Here it is... Bruce's Self-Indulgence Page. As if this whole site wasn't bad enough! On this page you can find lists of my hobbies, likes, dislikes, favorite books, movies, games, etc. You'll find out way more about me than you ever wanted to know. But look on the bright side: No one can make you read this.

Basic Info:

Born: Tulsa, OK

Family Status: Married to my beautiful wife, with two wonderful children.

Education:

Graduated Catoosa High School, 1983

B.S. Electronics Engineering Technology from DeVry Institute of Technology, 1988.

Employment: Bell-Northern Research / Northern Telecom / Nortel Networks: 1988-present

Current Hobbies

	Boomerangs - Making and throwing them
	Reading
	Golf
	Digital Photography including editing/doctoring and trick photography
	Java game programming
	Web Design
	Home Theater and Home Theater PC
	Playing PC and console video games
	Home video and video editing
	Karaoke

Old, Abandoned Hobbies

Computer Graphics

Fractals

Morphing

Stereograms

3D Graphics and Animation

Beer Brewing (1994-1995)

Namegrams (Anagrams from people's names, i.e.. rearranging the letters in "Clint Eastwood" produces "Old West Action".)

Short story writing (1996)

Poetry (1982)

Developing custom game content

"Duke Nukem 3D" levels

"Motocross Madness" custom tracks (The famous Bridgeout, Caddyshack, and Frostbite. These are still findable on various Internet sites.)

"Motocross Madness 2" custom tracks (Bridgeout 2)

"Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2" custom skate parks

"Unreal Tournament" levels

"Viper Racing" paint jobs

"Grand Theft Auto 3" character skins

Foosball (2002)

Tennis

Volleyball

Flag Football

Weight-lifting

Bowling - "The Pinheads" - Dallas City Men's "C" Division Champions 19??

Dance Dance Revolution

(I hope no one notices that my abandoned hobbies were more physically demanding than my current sedentary hobbies. Maybe some of these abandoned hobbies will make a comeback someday. I'd really like to play some tennis.)

A Few of My Favorite Things

Favorite Movies

	The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
	Aliens
	Blade Runner
	Caddy Shack
	Dazed and Confused
	Gladiator
	Legend Of Drunken Master
	Marx Brothers: Monkey Business, Duck Soup, Horse Feathers
	The Matrix
	Memento
	Seven Samurai
	Tombstone
	Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
	Nothing But Trouble
	The Princess Bride
	Pulp Fiction
	Hudson Hawk (seriously)
	Reservoir Dogs
	The Usual Suspects
	Rumble In The Bronx
	Terminator 2
	Toy Story

Favorite Actors

	Bill Paxton, up until about Twister
	Lance Henrickson
	Dan Aykroyd
	Jackie Chan
	Chris Elliott - Our National Treasure
	Sam Elliott
	Michael Ironside
	Edward Norton
	Eric Idle
	Chow Yun-Fat
	Crispin Glover
	Val Kilmer (Shoulda won an Oscar for Tombstone)
	Michael Biehn
	Harry Dean Stanton

Favorite Actresses

	Natalie Portman, if only for Beautiful Girls and Léon.
	Grace Kelly
	Hmmn.... Hard to think of women that make me really want to see a movie just because their acting is so good.

Favorite Books

	A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
	Job: A Comedy of Justice - Robert Heinlein
	Dark Tower Series - Stephen King
	The Talisman - Stephen King and Peter Straub
	Ringworld Series - Larry Niven (well, "Throne" wasn't that great)
	The Bourne Identity Series - Robert Ludlum
	Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Series - Douglas Adams
	Ignatius Rising (The Life of John Kennedy Toole) - René Pol Nevils and Deborah George Hardy

Favorite Beers

	Bruce's Naked Ale - Subtitled "A Strong, Creamy, Nude Brew" which just happens to be an Anagram for "Bruce Dewayne Armstrong"
	Paulaner Salvator - Good in the bottle. Unbelievably fantastic on-tap in Germany.
	Sam Adams Double Bock

Sam Adams Winter Brew

	Sam Adams Octoberfest
	Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale
	Anchor "Our Special Ale" circa 1992
	Sam Smith's Winter Welcome
	Sam Adams Boston Lager
	Foster's Lager - Australian, not Canadian brewed, in Steel, not aluminum cans. (long time ago)
	Foster's Special Bitter

Favorite Musical Artists

	Sting
	The Police
	Barenaked Ladies
	Pop Poppins
	Guster
	Bjork
	The Talking Heads
	The Sundays
	Edie Brickell (with or without New Bohemians)
	Indigo Girls
	The Clash
	Sinéad O'Connor
	Sarah McLachlan
	Beastie Boys

Favorite CDs / Albums

	Nothing Like the Sun - Sting
	Brothers in Arms - Dire Straits
	The Flat Earth - Thomas Dolby
	Bring on the Night - Sting
	Love at First Sting - Scorpions
	Freeze Frame - J. Geils Band
	Gordon - Barenaked Ladies
	Desperado Soundtrack
	Living Under June - Jann Arden
	Lost and Gone Forever - Guster
	Mojazz - Wayman Tisdale
	Fumbling Towards Ecstacy - Sarah McLachlan
	Welcome Home - 'til tuesday
	Magnolia Soundtrack (Aimee Mann's songs)
	Singles Soundtrack
	Neck and Neck - Chet Atkins and Mark Knopfler

Concerts Attended

x/xx/85. Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Dallas Fair Park Coliseum

10/30/85. Sting, Reunion Arena

x/xx/85. Stevie Ray Vaughan, Fabulous Thunderbirds, Dallas Fair Park Coliseum

3/15/88. Sting, Reunion Arena

9/03/89. The Who, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Cotton Bowl

4/27/90. Frank Sinatra, Starplex Amphitheatre

5/31/90. Tears for Fears, Starplex Amphitheatre

8/03/90. The B-52s, Starplex Amphitheatre

8/ 23/91. Lollapalooza, Starplex Amphitheatre - Featured Artists: Jane's Addiction, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Living Color, Nine Inch Nails, Fishbone, Violent Femmes, Ice-T/Body Count, Butthole Surfers, Rollins Band

3/26/91. Sting, Reunion Arena. Concrete Blond opened.

4/05/92 - U2, Reunion Arena

10/16/92. U2, Texas Stadium

5/22/93. Sting, Coca-Cola Starplex

7/29/93. Peter Gabriel, Reunion Arena

5/21/94. Elvis Costello, Starplex Amphitheatre

9/24/94. Sarah McLachlan, The Majestic Theater, downtown Dallas

9/06/96. Sting, Coca-Cola Starplex

8/13/98. Dave Matthews Band, Starplex

10/04/00 Barenaked Ladies, Smirnoff Center (formerly Starplex Amphitheatre). The excellent Guster was the opening act.

5/23/01. Mark Knopfler, Bronco Bowl

Shows I can't find ticket stubs for, so I can't put down exact dates:

	1992, Natalie Merchant - Moody Coliseum, SMU
	Edie Brickell and New Bohemians, Club Dada
	Eric Clapton, Reunion Arena
	Sinead O' Connor, Bronco Bowl
	The Sundays, Deep Ellum Live. Frente was the opening act. (Found out this was Feb 11, 1993.)
	Barenaked Ladies, Deep Ellum Live
	Barenaked Ladies, Some Random Deep Ellum Venue
	Barenaked Ladies, Bronco Bowl
	Indigo Girls, Bronco Bowl
	1993 Sarah McLachlan, Caravan of Dreams
	1995 Sarah McLachlan, Caravan of Dreams again
	1996 Jann Arden, Caravan of Dreams (and again at Richardson's Wildflower Festival)
	A couple of EdgeFests and maybe another Lollapalooza

Favorite TV Shows

	Get a Life
	The Adventures of Pete and Pete
	Seinfeld
	King of the Hill
	Dragon Ball Z
	Third Watch
	Arrested Development

Favorite Computer/Video Games of All Time

	Galaga (Arcade)
	Joust (Arcade)
	Time Pilot (Arcade)
	Bosconian (Arcade)
	Biplanes (Intellivision)
	Tetris (PC)
	Commander Keen (PC) (First shareware I ever registered)
	Duke Nukem 1 and 2 (PC)
	The Seventh Guest (PC)
	Doom 1 and 2 (PC)
	Duke Nukem 3D (PC)
	MotoRacer (PC) (not 2 or 3!)
	Interstate 76 (PC)
	Half-Life (PC)
	Motocross Madness 1 and 2
	Quake 3 (PC)
	Unreal Tournament (PC)
	Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 and 3(PC)
	Grand Theft Auto 3 (PC)
	Pokemon Puzzle League (Nindendo 64) (Yes, I'm serious. This game is GREAT!)
	Crazy Taxi (Dreamcast)
	Halo (Xbox)
	Project Gotham Racing 1 and 2 (Xbox)
	Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (Playstation 2 and PC)
	Burnout 3 (Xbox)
	Doom 3 (PC)
	Halo 2 (Xbox)

Original Thoughts

Original thoughts are rare indeed and I suspect there are several people walking among us who have never had one in their lives. I have had 4 or 5, though I can't remember them all right now.

	Joking that a friend's head was so huge, that if we crashed the van on our ski trip, five of us could survive the snowstorm by cutting his head open and crawling inside.

Biggest Regrets in Life

	Not properly proposing to my wife. We were quite young and just kind of assumed we would get married.
	Not joining the road-trip of wackos from Rogers State College to Oklahoma City to see "The Police" at one of their last concerts ever.
	Not going to see Chet Atkins live when I had the chance.
	Getting so freaking FAT. (I originally "let myself go" as an experiment, because I was tired of getting by on my looks. (It makes a good story anyway.))
	Losing all the boomerang scans and the HTML files for the original Digital Boomerang Systems web site on AOL.

Favorite Quotes

Such a relation which relates to itself (that is to say a self), must either have been constituted by itself, or have been constituted by another. - Kierkegaard

Odds and Ends

	Click here, here, and here to see various newgroup postings I've made over the years. Subjects include boomerangs, various computer and networking issues, and a few odds and ends.
	Here are a couple of emails where a few friends and I discuss ideas for a unique style of movie guide.