Life as Jacob

Stacy has posted a great question Who Made You

Here is my response:

1. Although he’s horrible, he was an influence on me from a very early age. Johnny Mulkins. He was introduced to me by my mother a long time ago as her new boyfriend. Then she got knocked up and was stuck with him for years. He is the epitome of all that is wrong with the male gender. He has had a tremendous impact on what I do and who I am, or more specifically who I am not. I have used him as a template for what I should not do, who I should not be, and how I should not act. Even during the process of becoming his opposite he ridiculed me and faulted me for not being more like him. I hate you Johnny, but you’re a big reason why I am me.
2. Nickelodeon is the stuff my subconscious is made of. Not today’s Nickelodeon, but that of yesteryear. I grew up watching Nick-At-Nite and Mr. Wizard. This had reruns of great TV shows like I Love Lucy, I Dream of Jeanie, and Bewitched. Most people don’t think that TV has an effect on them, but that’s untrue. I think my morals are more from TV than from interaction with others. There’s a plot, storyline, and moral all in an hour long show. It’s great teaching even though you have to suffer thru the radiation poisoning from the ‘tube.
3. Photography has a weird place in my heart. It’s found its way into my life in quite a few ways. Television is in fact pictures moving at 29.97 frames per second. Since I have this strange aversion to eye contact, pictures open me up to a whole new world. When you capture a moment in film, it can last forever. This has bad and good connotations. If you were stuffing your face at the time of the “snap”, not so good. But… there are those instances where a true personality is captured. I can stare at the photo and take in all of the goodness and flaws. I can see life but still and silent. I have always found pictures to be fascinating and that’s probably why I’m trying to move into that field as an adult.
4. Being laid off at Darwin threw my life into a spiral. It was a new startup company that I left NPC for. I had been working at a phone rep for NPC for a while and basically threw my hands up in the air and quit. The day I left, Brad ( my boss ) asked me if I was sure I wanted to go. I can almost hear the words in my memory. “This place could go under, wouldn’t be better to be able to come back here if you needed?” I was like, “They’re doing great! They won’t go under!” Man, being young and dumb is hard! Anyway, I left NPC and started working for Darwin Networks. I loved that job! The company was full of young people who were all into computer and spoke my language! It was like I had stepped into another reality or something. Then reality fractured for me when they pulled the company together to tell us we were going to be let go. This was during the dot com bust, so I ended up going to another company that went under too. Those were rough times! It changed me because now I respect my job, but I don’t worship it.
5. David Zinner was a guy who I knew at Darwin. I don’t know if this is an event or a person because of the situation. I was in the car driving him to pick up something from somewhere when, during a conversation, I made up a story and told it to him. Saying story is a nicer way to say LIE. Anyway, I was completely caught. I mean like in a way you would be in a crowd and have your pants fall down. It was bad. It really stuck on me for a while too. I kept going over in my head… “Why did I make that up?” I think it made me change in a good way. Now, I don’t make up stuff. In fact, I’m truthful to a fault. Yes, I still have those white lies that haunt me, but in general I don’t lie anymore. I put it out there for people to like or not.
6. Middle school and High School affect everyone’s life. I’m lumping the entire time period into one big event. For some of you out there, High School was the best thing ever. This might be true if you were on the football team, the cheerleading team, the whatever team. For all the other average people, there’s like a 50/50 of having a great time and having a horrible time. In general, High School sucked for me. I had a few friends who drifted thru the years with me, but the small group of us couldn’t stop the onslaught of negativity from the rest of the school. It made me not like education. It’s a good portion of why I ended up dropping out of college and pursuing a life as a business owner. Guess what, when you’re your own boss you meet the education requirements.
7. The Pillsbury Dough Boy. Ahh, what a good friend he has been to me. Thanks to you and your un-ending production of Chocolate Chip Cookie dough, I’m still here today. You have seen me thru the rough times after I was laid off at Darwin. You got me thru the good times like Christmas and Thanksgiving. You’ve given employment to my mom for a while back in the 90’s when we were broke. You’ve given me so much yet I feel as though we are still strangers. I hope you know how much I admire you and hope you continue to make your products. Maybe, one day, all food can come in some type of tube format which can be heated in a jiffy to crisp and fluffy perfection. I am forever indebted.