My name is Mark J., aka Faja to my millennial daughter, Boops. I’m a 59 year old Gen X-er who is retired now. I live in the Houston, TX area with my wonderful wife and our menagerie of pets. I have two grown children, a boy who passed away some years ago and a girl who lives in upstate New York. I’ve been told that I have an opinion about everything, and, I know quite a bit of trivia. Two things that have never made me a single cent. I figured, why not just shove those two things into the public space and see if I can have some fun.

My parents were both academics, so I was able to attend a small private university for free and NO, IT WAS NOT VANDERBILT, …in case you’re wondering! LOL! My father was a “redneck” from rural GA and my mother was a proper “Yorkshire lass” from the industrial northeast of England. Needless to say, my siblings and I had a weird childhood! I’m the youngest of six and the sister, (right above me in age) and I believe that our parents had simply had enough with kids by the time we came along. It was said many times that she and I were “mistakes”, so  consequently and in true Gen-X fashion, they left our raisin’ to us and our English maternal grandmother (who came in a package deal when my parents were married in 1952).

We grew up in South Mississippi on a pig and cattle farm and I’m fairly certain we were the only kids in the area who had to come in from doing chores for afternoon tea. Ha!