biography - MR. ERICH D. FLEMMING
I was born in Poughkeepsie, NY in December of 1964.
My parents didn't have any other kids until later. We lived in Poughkeepsie up until 1970, when we (mom, dad, me, and my two siblings) moved to a place out in the country. I lived there until I finished high school, in 1982.
After high school, I spent four years going to college. I graduated in 1986 and took my first job, writing computer programs. A year later I headed for a different job writing programs, living in Florida. That didn't last for more than a month or two. I moved back to my parents' place.
The late 1980s were a transitional period. Promises of a career turned out to be broken, long-term, and I spent some time adjusting to that before becoming a Californian, primarily. My years in California began in 1991.
For about five years, I spent all my time looking for something to do with myself. I went and looked around in Denver and San Francisco and Chicago and Omaha and Philadelphia. In 1995, I moved back from California to New York, and decided to study for another year and a half to finish my MSCS.
I worked for a short amount of time at an internet service provider after finishing my graduate degree. It turns out that in later years one of my proudest achievements (while I'm also very proud of some of the things I've done as a writer) relates to that job, starting a labor union to represent the interests of those who work in that profession.
After the stint at the ISP, I moved back to California and worked at a job where contracts to help different businesses in the Los Angeles area came and went as months passed. That job lasted until early 2001, when a new administration took charge in Washington and I again discovered we're bad about Nazis.
I applied for monthly government benefits when I left the contracting job. That took until 2005 to sort itself out. During that time I took a few part-time jobs, including two different food service jobs in New York for almost a year, and jobs at Starbucks Coffee and the El Capitain Theatre in California up until the middle or late part of the year 2005.
When I started getting my monthly benefits, I proposed marriage to a waitress with a job at a restaurant near the Starbucks where I'd been working. I moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, hoping to get away from the noise and crowds of Los Angeles, and tried to get 'T- F-' to join me there. It only left me with America later admitting they tell bad marriage license jokes. My place was still mine for about six months, and then I blew through L.A. on my way to Nevada.
Las Vegas is a city where vacations are job number one. I've done restaurant work in other cities, but a job in this town has been evading me. I've figured out the reason for that. Women try to make sure I get time off, and noticeably ignore my day-to-day difficulties.
My own freedom doesn't allow me to escape from the way I was raised. They could easily call me "workaholic" or "Type A". The time off that I've had thrust upon me has largely been converted into a sociology research project. I've learned a lot about people. I'm trying to start on an important job these days.