Cholula

There have been several changes in this Forum over the last few weeks including new moderators and several new posters. To facilitate getting to know each other a little better, we agreed that it may be a good idea to copy an on-going thread from CommunityBuzz titled "Who We All Are".
Specifically, we'd like to hear from both regular and occasional posters in this Forum as well as from those of you who just "lurk" here. Take this opportunity to share anything you'd care to about your personal life, your work, hobbies, whatever. You can tell us your life story or just a few tidbits about yourself. It's your choice....we're all ears. We'll make this thread a "sticky" so everybody is aware of it's presence.

I'll start the ball rolling:

I run my own International Food Marketing company and am currently in the fifth year of an open-ended contract with the largest US importer of food products from Mexico. I manage several of their food brands in North America.
Prior to my current stint, I was in a variety of sales and marketing positions with a Fortune 50 company and based at their Southern CA headquarters. Over the 25+ years I was with this company, I ran many of the popular food brands you see in grocery stores and restaurants nationwide.
Mrs. Cholula is a teacher and guidance counselor in the Los Angeles County school system.
My interest in FlyerTalk developed as a natural extension of my travels. I think you could say I'm a VERY frequent flyer. I have well over six million miles in a variety of airline programs and have at least 3,000 hotel nights under my belt.
My hobbies are international travel, computers, reading, golf (when I get the chance), gourmet cooking and fine dining.
No kids, three cats and our favorite place in the world is Maui. We travel there 3-4 times a year.

That kind of summarizes what I'm all about.

Now it's your turn.......

CameraGuy

I am the National Sales Manager for a manufacturer of electronic security products and have been involved in the commercial security industry for almost twenty years.

I am happily married (10 Years) and have a 3 year old son.

I travel exclusively domestically in the order of 75-100K miles per year.

I discovered FT when I was searching for an alternative to the old EasySabre system and have not looked back.

My hobby is Golf, Golf and more Golf. Our favorite vacation spot is also Maui.

Dovster

By profession I am a journalist although in recent years I have done more satire work than actual reporting.

I am a dual citizen (American and Israeli) and have served in both countries' armies -- in Israel only in the active reserves.

I am very happily divorced and have two children. Like many fathers I have major desires concerning my children, namely that my son will turn out to be exactly like me (I utterly failed in that one) and that my daughter will never, ever, date a man who is anything like me (fortunately, I have succeeded there).

Most of my travel is between Israel and Italy. I find myself attracted to the latter by its rich culture, history, architecture and superb cuisine. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the main reason I go there so often is my UIG (Used Italian Girlfriend).

I spend most of my time on FlyerTalk trying to improve the level of intellectual discourse and hitting on female posters.

(The rest of my time is spent insulting Cholula.)

grouse

I was born and raised in Texas, but I currently live in Cambridge, England.

I miss decent Mexican food.

TSASuper

The name's Ken and I currently live in Alabama. I have been employed with TSA since JUN of 2002. I began with the Mobile Screening Force training the new screeners and assisting with the federalization of our airports. When that mission ended, I returned to my home airport as a supervisor.

Prior to TSA, I was a Medical Specialist with the US Army. I was stationed at Fort Bragg, NC for 5 years before getting out. Being prior Army, I do not have any macho attitudes. I'm a simple man with a simple life.

I am happily married (9 years) with 3 kids (2 girls and 1 boy).

Being that I started with TSA on the front line, my plan is to move up the ladder, eventually becoming an FSD or better. I hope my experience on the front line can assist in making more sound decisions within the TSA when I get there. You never know, I may even become the next Administrator, so carefully how you address me... .

I came across Flyertalk from the TSAscreener website. Some screeners were complaining about the bashing going on, so I decided to check it out. I didn't take offense to it. I thought it would be great conversation. So far, it has been just that.

whirledtraveler

I don't know who I am really. I started my career as a computer programmer and I spend much of my time jetting around the world helping teams that are in trouble. I suppose that makes me a consultant, but when I look at what other people who call themselves consultants do, I don't really see the commonality.

I just finished writing my first book. I'm pretty excited about that. It is a book related to my work, but I'd like to branch out into other writing some time.

I have a wife, two kids, two dogs, two guinea pigs, three fish and not much spare time. But when I have spare time, I enjoy listening to what I call "difficult listening music." It soothes me for some reason. Oh, and I've started sketching the backs of airline seats as a hobby.

My sincerest wish right now is to call Cholula "Chocula" without mortally offending him.

JLM_USAIR

Your the culprit, huh? I thank Cholula for offering the idea of this thread ^ In any case, I am a senior at North Carolina State University, graduating in December. I have backgrounds in both sales and Pharmaceutical web development. I love to play golf, ski, and photograph nature. I began to travel when i was a senior in high school then once I moved away from home i started wandering the country with my spare cash. These days I am up to about 12 leisure trips a year to various places, however, atleast 3 of them are to Vegas (if only to make enough money to finance some more travel) I stumbled a pon FT about 18 months ago when looking for a way to upgrade, I love the community and am now a moderator hopng to improve FT one post at a time.

As an aside, Cholula, SXJ, ChrisLacey, and myself have a difficult job ahead of us with this recently unmoderated forum. So dont take anything we say or do personally, we are simply trying to help everybody gain more knowledge and have a better experience when they are perusing the site. If you guys have any suggestions or concerns please feel free to contact anyone of us directly.

Cheers!

Cholula

whirledtraveler....I'd have absolutely no problem with that! In fact, I've been called worse as recently as this morning!
Here's a secret that I don't want you telling anybody on this Forum. "Cholula" really isn't my name although everybody on FT calls me that. When looking for a FlyerTalk handle on what I thought would be one post and that's the end of FlyerTalk ( HA!), I just adopted the name of one of my company's more popular products.....
Here I go sidetracking another thread.
Who'll be next to introduce themselves??

TSASuper

I thought I remember the name Cholula. That's my favorite hot sauce. That stuf goes great on everything!

Japhydog

I'm a non-practicing attorney living with my dog in San Francisco. I travel mostly for pleasure at the moment, although I am working on a few new business ideas that require business travel. Until the middle of July, I was running two businesses, but am now taking a break from any heavy involvement (although I have a few ideas percolating, as I said).

I am passionate about civil liberties. I do sometimes heavily criticize the TSA on this forum, but I try never to make it personal. The vast majority of the time I think the problems are with TSA management, not front-line screeners. And I welcome TSA input on the board and hope to continue to see those TSA posters continue to do so.

I also want to thank the moderators for their involvement and appreciate if you have to intervene sometimes -- I know it's not personal.

geekfactory

I run a Public Relations firm in NYC, and the majority of my clients are NOT in NYC. They're in London and Paris and Tokyo and Hong Kong and Los Angeles and San Francisco and Milan and Bangkok and other fun places that require my getting on a plane more times than I'd like to ever admit.

I have two cats who hate me because I'm rarely home, and live in an overpriced apartment in Manhattan with great views that I rarely see.

I'm also a marathon runner who tends to get lost way too much running in foreign cities, even with his handy dandy GPS watch.

So that's me.

Mats

I've travelled to 69 different airports aboard 36 airlines to five continents.

I live with my dog in Columbus, Ohio, USA, but I'm still a New Yorker at heart.

I used to work at Kennedy Airport and I also used to fly at least weekly. Now I fly a lot but only for pleasure; it's much nicer this way. My family is spread out, from Paris to Honolulu to Rio de Janeiro (yes, I got the raw end of the deal.)

After working at JFK, I realized that I cared more about the health of passengers and employees than about the planes they flew on. So I went back to school to earn degrees in epidemiology and public health and nursing. I now work as an epidemiologist and a nurse practitioner.

After a couple of bad experiences with the TSA, I started reading about what other have to say.

My career goal is to have some of the TSA brass as patients. I'm going to write "SSSS" on their charts and conduct detailed prostate exams and colonoscopies. "Here for a sore throat? I'll need you to lean over this table and drop your shorts. Need your teeth cleaned? Go ahead and lean over on your side..." (I swear I'm not sadistic with my real patients; I'm saving the sandpaper-coated gloves strictly for TSA policymakers.)

I just spilled coffee on my scrubs, so I'd best get back to work.

kanderson321

I'm the wife of a former TSA-er. My last job involved a lot of travel (unfortunately, the vast majority of it just before I left -- job went from 10% travel to 100% travel when I wasn't looking!), but now, I mostly travel for pleasure (and family emergencies).

I live near the wonder that is T.F. Green, in beautiful Warwick. I invite friends to come over and sit on the deck, and watch the planes take off.

Abuse of power gets my dander up. I appreciate a job well-done, however, and having lived through my husband's tenure at the TSA, appreciate the professionalism that most TSA agents bring to their jobs.

Mats, I'm heading back to school to be a doctor, of all things. Should I run now, or just learn to sit in corners of darkened rooms, and whimper quietly?

AdamK

Good evening!

My name is Adam and I am a student at Lewis and Clark college in Portland, Oregon.

I have been reading Flyertalk for a few years now, and have not posted too much before (time to rid myself of those lurking habits ).

I have always found aviation safety fascinating. I guess I can trace that to when I was quite young, I started collecting airline safety cards (with the airlines' permission of course).

From my reading of this forum over the past few years, the myriad debates have been interesting--and I hope to get involved!

Anyway, I look forward to exchanging thoughts and ideas with you.
Thanks!
Adam

wahooflyer

I'm a 22-year-old graduate student living in the beautiful Blue Ridge foothills of Virginia.

I fly on average once a week, usually out of IAD, to visit friends and/or explore new places, as well as to feed my addiction to FF miles and upgrades.

First started reading this board when I kept seeing the strange "SSSS" letters on my boarding passes last spring. I flew on a lot of one-way tickets and on several LCCs, a behavior I quickly stopped to avoid harassment at security.

Now I'm committed to figuring out which shoes we all can wear through the checkpoints without being sent to secondary.