Hi. I finally have a scanner and
good photos of myself! For a while, I thought I was cursed so
that no pictures of me would develop! Unfortunately, the scanner
isn't very good. I think it's seeing its last days. Most
scans have lines through them and are low quality. I'll go ahead
and start putting photos on the web, though, and I'll replace them with
better pictures as soon as I have a good photo scanner.
This picture was taken with a $9.44 camera. Actually, for
$9.44, I got a new camera with motorized advance and rewind, a roll
of 400 speed 24 exp film, and batteries at Wal-Mart. So far, every picture
that I have taken has turned out great!
(By the way, my hands are behind my back, not in my pockets.)
I was born at the University of Iowa to Caroline Hope Vander Jagt
(maiden name Fishbeck) and Ronald Jon Vander Jagt on August 21, 1980.
I was born in a university because I'm so smart, or I'm so smart
because I was born in a university. Either one works just fine to
make me feel good. (I am kind of reluctant to admit that I was born
in Iowa. Despite the rumors, "Iowa" and "University" shouldn't be
in the same sentence.)
I lived in Iowa until I was almost three years old. (I remember
my third birthday vividly. Pretty good, eh?) Between the
ages of three and eight, my mom and dad were fighting for custody of
me and my older brothers Joe and Abe. My older brothers had been
coersed to say that they wanted to live with my father. World renowned
psychologist Peter Breggan made that determination. But I didn't
take his word for it. (In fact, I never knew his opinion until a
few months ago.) I had seen it firsthand. One night while
at my father's house, I heard some talking, so I got up and checked to
see what it was. My father asked Joe something and pointed a tape
recorded at him. Joe said, "But I like my mom," to which my father
said "no," stopped the tape, and put his head down.
The honorable Judge Kaywood in Maryland decided to put my brothers
in my father's hands and me in my mother's hands. We had very little
contact after that.
I lived with my mom, grandpa Glenn Howard Fishbeck, and uncle
Thomas Glenn Fishbeck at my grandpa's house in Pasadena, Maryland for
about a year after the trial. I had been home-schooled until this
time, when I was enrolled into High Point Elementary School.
My placement test looked something like this:
1. 5 + 3 2. 9 - 2 3. 3 x 3
etc...
I thought to myself, "This is easy!" Having been homeschooled,
I was many years ahead of the third grade. I hurriedly answered
all the questions. I got every one of them wrong. My answers
were like this:
4.5 0.9
9.9
Of course, you can see I interpreted the question number as part
of the question, but our government school educators just didn't understand.
As I said, I stayed at my grandpa's house for about another year. I
wish I didn't move out. The place is 5,880 square feet with waterfront,
and (my current favorite attraction) a two car garage.
My mom then married Clifford Francis Thies. They had two
kids Daniel and Anna. (I have a half brother and a half sister...does
that make a whole sibling?) My mom and Cliifford got a divorce
in August of 2002 (after an appeal). Yet another honorable judge
showed his government education with his decision that Daniel and Anna
spend one week with their mom and one week with their dad...back and forth.
One night at dinner, my mom had a friend over, and while telling
the update of the ongoing divorce case, I said, "I had two bad fathers,
but that has only brought me closer to my heavenly father." That
evening (from what we calculate, probably at the same exact time), my father
died.
My mom has just bought a house. I'm 22 and I live with my
mom. Well, lemme clarify. I'm 22 and I have moved back in
with my mom. And to all those who are over 18 and still/again live
with your parents, congratulations, you've discovered something that
99% of the US population hasn't figured out: It makes sense for family
to live together! It seems way too common that when someone hits
18 years old, they're booted out, even in close-knit functional families,
and forced to find a job and home in a hurry, meaning they'll almost definitely
get a bad job and pay high rent. If you lived with your family for
an extra year or two after school, you'd have enough to make a down payment
on a house or even buy your own.
I dropped out of high school and was given permission by the school
board to take the GED before the age of 18. I got extremely high
scores on it, granted it is a test for dropouts. (I've taken
two IQ tests recently. The first said 159, and the second said 140.
I think the lower one docked points, because I have taken an IQ test
before and they considered that an unfair advantage. Besides, in
the test with the lower score, they didn't even time me, so I think it
was a poor test.) In fact, my scores were so good I was given a scholarship.
(Lemme think...drop out of school and get an invitation to go back
to school? No thanks, I'm here to work.)
I'm a God-fearing man. I'm a Jew who believes that Jesus
is the saviour we were promised and have accepted his free gift
of forgiveness for wrong things I've done in my life. I have a
computer business (Vander Jagt Computers). I'm also an acoustical
engineer and a little bit of an electronics engineer. I've gotten
pretty good at working on cars, and now I'm learning to become a carpenter,
since I have to almost singlehandedly gut out this house and rebuild it.
I like all music. Actually, I don't really like country
or rap. I especially like Metallica, Prokofiev, Gustav Holst, Jethro
Tull, and that fantastic music from the game Dark Reign 2. If you
find that game for a good price, I recommend it. I have never played
the game, but the music tracks on the CD are awesome! They're not
like anything I've heard before. They're sorta beautiful medieval
techno, environmental classical style, um...hard to explain. Anywayz...
Another game with good music is Rayman.
In the near future, I hope to add more. I also hope to organize
this page so that my abbreviated life story doesn't show up on the main
screen. Feel free to email and ICQ me.
-Ben Vander Jagt
Legal stuff: All of my original creative work (stuff I would
be able to copyright or patent) is public domain. Enjoy. :-)
Want to republish my poem with or without my name attached? Go
ahead! Copyrights and patents are immoral and counterproductive.
Ben
Vander Jagt (No middle name)
Hi. I finally have a scanner and
good photos of myself! For a while, I thought I was cursed so
that no pictures of me would develop! Unfortunately, the scanner
isn't very good. I think it's seeing its last days. Most
scans have lines through them and are low quality. I'll go ahead
and start putting photos on the web, though, and I'll replace them with
better pictures as soon as I have a good photo scanner.