My full name is Peter James Barclay Paterson, and I was born on April 30th 1967 in Elgin, Scotland (see above pic) of Scottish parents - so I am 100% pure Scot !!!!
As of May 17th, 1999, I have been a resident of Lexington, Kentucky, USA. Moving here to be with and marry my beautiful wife Arianna . So sorry ladies this handsome hunk of Scotsman is well and truly taken!!!!
As for immediate family, I have 2 brothers and 1 sister, along with my Mum and Dad. Here is a short description of them all:
Dad : George
My Dad is self-employed with a "Felt and Bitumen Roofing Company", G.J.Paterson & Co., and has done very well for himself in it. Today, he owns a big house right in the middle of the city of Elgin, and goes on holidays to Austria, Italy, Bulgaria etc every year.
Mum : Alexandra (Susie)
My Mum is a full time partner in my dad's business, mainly dealing with the office side of things (from home). She is also an excellent dressmaker, and makes clothes for wedding parties etc, as well as alterations for many local shops. She is a complete marvel - she has far more energy and "get up and go" than I seem to have - running a home, a business, and being a FULL time mother and now 4 time Grandmother. She also has internet access and is a wonder at being online, emailing etc.
Brother - William
William is 2 years younger than me (born 5th May 1969), and works for a local DIY store in Elgin named Decora on the delivery van, and helping in the store. He works there 3 days a week, and helps my Mum out with running the home.
Brother - George
My brother George is a total character, and although being 7 years younger than me (born June 20th 1974), is taller, broader and even stronger than I am. He has two beautiful daughters, Ailidh (born December 9th 1995) and Caragh (born June 3rd 1967), who currently live with George's ex-fiance. George followed his girls to Bolton, England, to be close to them and hopefully get visitation rights to see them. That is where he resides right now with his girlfriend Kirsty and her two boys Leigh & Ryan.
When I moved to USA, I gave my AST PC to George, and he now has his own website at: Carail's Homepage . Carail is his online screen name, and is a combination of his daughters names.
Sister - Catriona
My sister Catriona was born on April 19th 1976, and therefore is 9 years younger than me. On August 8th 1997 she married Scott Craib, and lives in a flat (apartment to you Yanks) with him and their two wonderful sons: Alexander (born March 21st 1996) and Nathan (born February 7th 1998)
My working history since coming online : I moved away from Elgin in November 1992 to go and work in Aberdeen (only about 65 miles distance) for an electrical retailing store, Comet. They have 2 branches in Aberdeen, and for my first 4 years there I was the head storeman at one of them. For the next 3 years I was a delivery van driver working for the other branch. I loved that job, since I got to drive around the Scottish countryside (and towns) delivering to peoples homes, and get paid for it. I love driving. One main reason I went for the drivers job, was because I got to take the van home with me every night, and many of my friends, family & workmates have found it really useful (as have I). Before working for Comet. I have worked in many jobs - lets see if I can get them in some kind of order
Paperboy, Trolley Assistant, Timber Framed House Kit Coster/Estimator, Kitchen/Bathroom/Bedroom Salesman, Student, Industrial Cleaner, Felt Bitumen Roofer, Wood Trade Salesman, Warehouse Supervisor. Stock Controller, Delivery Driver.
Wow - looking back - I never knew I had done so much.
After moving to Lexington, Kentucky, USA, in May of 1999, and eventually receiving my employment authorisation document (card), I went looking for work. I found it very soon in the company of God's Pantry, actually starting there the very day after my honeymoon on July 6th 1999.
God's Pantry is a non-profit organisation dedicated to helping the poor and needy in Lexington, Fayette County, and in central, southern and south-east Kentucky by the supply of food. This is done in two ways, by running their own food pantries in the city of Lexington, and running a food bank for various agencies around the state.
My employment there is as storeman/driver and also as 'webmaster' for their website: www.godspantry.org I really love working for God's Pantry and using my skills to help their cause.
I mentioned being a student. In May 1986 I went to my local college (Moray College of Further Education, Elgin, Scotland) to sit a 2 year Higher National Diploma computing course. At the end of the course I made a decision just to keep computing as a hobby, and looking back I still respect that decision since I am happy with the way my life has turned out. Computing is still a big hobby to me, and I spend a lot of my spare time on my computers - yes, there is a `s` there!!! I currently own 2 computers, but have owned many through the years. You name them, I have probably either owned one or used it.
Computers:
Here is the list of computers I have owned since coming online in February 1997 :
Amiga 1200
I have owned my 1200 since Summer 1993, and in that time have expanded it to a 68030 50mhz processor, 8 meg fast ram, and a 850 meg HD, inside a Eyetech massive tower.
I use it for everything, except for accessing the Net with (still looking into that). there are still many things that I can use my Amiga for that I have yet to find easier to use on my PC. In fact I have these two machines parallel networked together - with the Amiga being the MASTER!! he he This is great for file transfers, and also allows me full use of the PC's storage devices (esp the 24xCD-Rom) to my Amiga.
Since moving to Lexington, Kentucky, USA, I have seached out an Amiga Users Group, and found an excellent one in Louisville, Kentucky. It is about an 80 mile drive there, but I love going there for their monthly Saturday meeting, the 4th in the month, to meet with them and talk about all things AMIGA!!!!
I had to buy this PC in Feb '97, because at that time I was appying to go on an Open University (studying at home part-time) course, and that required me to own a PC. So I went into Comet , and bought this AST for 20% discount (staff). It has the following spec - 120 Pentium, 16 meg RAM, 8x CD-Rom, 1.2G HD, 33.6 Fax Modem. Since buying this PC, I realised that I did not have the time or the money for this course, and therefore I canceled my place on the course. I decided to keep the PC however, since it was my means of communicating with so many of my new friends that I met since joining the Net.
On June 5th 1998 I fitted an extra 64Mb of RAM into that PC - giving me 80Mb of RAM onboard !!!! That machine then whizzed along !!!! Seriously - if you are finding that your machine is slowing down everytime you upgrade your software (with me it was IE4 + Components) - try increasing your memory - it worked GREAT for me!!
As I said before, when I moved to USA, I gave this PC to my brother George, and he still currently uses it.
Commodore CDTV
The full CDTV system (unit, keyboard, floppy drive, and remote control) was bought from Comet about 1995 for the small sum of 70 pounds!!!!! (It was over 400 pounds when it first came out.) It may not be the best or fastest computer in the world, but does have a built in CD player/ROM and I used it as part of my Hifi set-up, and also as a CD-Rom for my A1200. As a normal CD player - it gives an EXCELLENT sound.
My brother George was also given this computer when I moved to USA, and as far as I know he still uses it as a CD player, along with the Hifi I gave him.
Enterprise 128
An 8 bit computer that I bought when I was about 20. It was the last real 8 bit out, but also one of the best. It came with 128k (WOW!!!) of RAM and at the time fantastic sound quality, graphics & a wonderful fully structured ANSI BASIC I still own this machine, but it now sits dormant in my parents garage in Elgin, Scotland.
Gateway PC
The Gateway PC is really Arianna's, as it is the PC she owned and used to communicate with me while she was in Kentucky and I was in Scotland.
When I came to move to be with her, I took my Amiga 1200 with me, but saw no need to take my own AST PC. What I did do though was take my Zip drive and various Zip disks of programs and data I had collected over the years.
Arianna bought this PC in September 1997, and was fully paid off in September 1999
The Gateway has the following spec : 166 MMX Pentium, 48 meg RAM, 24xCD-Rom, 2G HD, 56K Fax Modem. We both realise this spec is getting really dated, and we would love to buy a 'modern' machine, but currently our finances do not stretch that far. Until then we will be content with what we have.
Visit Peters Website at http://odin.prohosting.com/sfspider
