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Introduce Yourself Challenge

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DocAnderson introduced the idea of an @Introduce_Yourself_Challenge. Okay, it was an idea he had rather than a challenge, but I’m turning it into a challenge.

The idea is simple. For many people here on Virily, we know about some of the other writers only through what they’ve written. Yet, it is an inevitable truth that regardless of what we write about, the one thing that each of us is an expert in is ourselves. It is likely that nobody here knows you better than you know yourself. 

By getting to know each other, there is less chance of negativity and disagreements to enter into the picture. Hence, the introduce yourself challenge. This is a chance to honestly introduce yourself so others can get to know the real “you”.

For me, I was born in southern Oregon and spent the first 12 years of my life living at Crater Lake National Park. That instilled a love of animals and plants, so I’ve been rehabilitating injured animals from the age of 8 and learning what I could about plants. I’ve also rescued many cats and a few dogs.

I’m a gardener now, particularly of tomatoes and flowers, and love growing things. I’m the groundskeeper at our church, which is an Assembly of God church called Church On The Move, here in Montana. I’m ordained, but I’m not a pastor in our church. I’m content to be the groundskeeper and to occasionally run the computer or sing in the choir, though I continue to study the Bible, too.

My wife and I have been married for almost 41 years and our anniversary is September 9. We have two adult children, boy and girl, and several grandkids…no great-grandkids yet.

Professionally, I’ve fought forest fires, worked on a road crew, and spent about 20 years in the restaurant business as a dishwasher, waiter, cook, head cook, and manager. I spent over 20 years in the computer technology field, mostly as a support technician, senior technician, and software technical engineer. Many of these were leadership roles, though I never want to be thought of as a boss. I’ve also been a customer support manager and have co-owned a site similar to Virily.

I sing and play 8 musical instruments. In fact, I met my wife while running a jam session. For most of my life, I’ve sung tenor, but in the last 6-7 years, my voice has gotten deeper and I’m presently learning to sing bass and baritone.

I’m also a writer and have two published books, both science fantasy and neither of them especially good. I need to rewrite both of them.

We’ve always had a lot of pets and currently have fewer than we have for decades; 3 dogs, 6 cats, 3 doves, 2 rabbits, a toad, a turtle, and two chickens. The chickens aren’t pets, but they think they are. Still, they produce 2 eggs a day and we are due to get another two chickens. That doesn’t include our daughter’s pets.

Our 37-year-old daughter lives with us, though she is planning on moving to Guatemala in late September, to be with her husband of 9 years. He was deported almost 7 years ago, though she’s visited him and they talk daily. Understandably, she misses him. Our daughter, Cat, is a licensed CNA (my wife was licensed until it expired) and has a bachelor’s degree in English. She is currently working on her Master’s degree and isn’t far away from getting it. Her college GPA is 3.92, which is higher than mine (Oregon Institute of Technology) was (3.89 GPA).

I love to learn and love to teach and find that I learn by teaching, yet I’m not a formal teacher. I do try to help people when I can, though, which is part of a good teaching philosophy. 

That is the basics of who Rex Trulove is. Who are you?

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Written by Rex Trulove

28 Comments

    • I didn’t do so and wouldn’t expect anyone else to do so, either. If I went into the minutia, it would be a very long and boring post. What I’ve written here are things that many people who know me in person already know about me, though not necessarily all of it as I’ve presented it.

      One thing I’ve noticed through the decades, whether at work, at church, or in social groups, is that people tend to be more positive toward those they know, at least somewhat. The least stressful jobs I’ve ever had have been positions where everyone knows everyone. It makes it easier for people to relate to one another. Virily is a positive place, so this challenge is one way that we can try to keep it that way.

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      • They are two different situations. This is a virtual world and one does not have to open up to have a perfect interaction. If I am writing about a topic those who interact with me should have some interact in what I am posting.

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        • I’ve always been very open with my readers online and have been since I started writing online, before 2003. That has paid me enormous dividends repeatedly and a large number of people have thanked me for being honest, open, and for letting them get to know me. I suspect that it is one of the reasons I have so many reads on Quora and I’m absolutely certain it is the reason I had even more reads at Helium.com when it was the first premium writing site on the Internet. It played heavily in me being selected as the second senior manager and the message board administrator.

          At the same time, I realize that there are some people who are nervous or uncomfortable with doing that. Quite a few people have already said that they’d take this challenge and several have already let me know that they agree with the purpose and premise. However, nobody needs to accept the challenge if they are bothered by it for any reason. That is a personal choice that each person gets to make for themselves.

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          • Nearly all of the information is available online anyway; where people live, all legal transactions, where they went to school, etc. There are several websites that specialize in that sort of information on people.

            Not everyone is going to be honest, even when you meet them in person. However, I’ve actually met quite a few people in person that I initially met online. In each case, since we already knew each other, the meetings went as if we’d known each other for years and were just getting reacquainted.

            Only once did such a meeting go differently, because the person had painted themselves far more negatively than they really were. They are still friends.

            From what I’m getting, you’ve merely had totally opposite experiences than what I’ve had. That’s cool, too. The differences between people keep everything interesting.

          • It’s good to know you were writing for Helium.com and were assigned some roles. I joined helium in 2007 but sadly they had close it. It was one of my best online writing sites.

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          • @introvert Yes, I was with Helium for a number of years. I ran the forums, was a senior manager of 7 channels, ran help desk, was a title seeder, and wrote on the site. I enjoyed it greatly, though I often spent 12 hours a day on the site or more.

        • Thank you for the compliment.

          I suspect that one difference in people who are open to the sharing of information about themselves as compared to being very private may be in the areas that they live in, too. Although the online world and the real world aren’t the same things, it could have a bearing.

          In Montana, people tend to be honest, open, helpful, and friendly. I’ve never lived in a friendlier place. I know our neighbors and often talk to them about their family and lives. They know me and our family as well. We help each other whenever we can. That is true of the whole town and most of the people in it (most, not all). It isn’t uncommon for me to strike up a conversation with someone I meet in the post office, the grocery store, or the hardware store, even if I’ve never seen them before.

          However, I’ve also lived in places where it was common for people to live in a house for years without even knowing the names of their neighbors. A friend that came from Portland, Oregon, had lived in their house for over a decade and had never said more than five words to any of their neighbors. They didn’t want to know their neighbors and didn’t want their neighbors to know them. When he spoke about his neighbors, it was usually to complain about something a neighbor had done or about some kind of ongoing feud.

          I’ve primarily lived in smaller communities where ‘everyone knows everyone’ was the rule, rather than the exception. I tend to extend that to online and it could have a huge bearing on how open or private a person tends to be. That is just a guess, but it could be the case.

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          • Sorry I beg to differ with you. There is a huge difference between the real and virtual world. In the real world I think Indians will even ask questions what one had for breakfast and what the quarelling was all about (lol)

            How sure are you that those in a virtual world behave in the same manner as they would in the real world. Think again. Having said that one is even advised not to give out more information about than necessary to successfully participate at sites such as this.

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  2. I have seen your posts and none have a bearing on you being married, you having kids, you having grand kids and you being interested in gardening

    Your posts cover a wide range of subjects. So in my opinion it hardly matters whether one is married, whether one has kids……………………………….?

    As for me there is tiny write up on my profile from which viriliers will get to know me. Having said that our posts speak for themselves.

    Have a nice day

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      • Your writing is good enough really. I have been on writing sites for years and have never ever wanted to know anyone’s background as the way they write, what they write will or will not glue me to them.

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  3. Nice to meet you, Rex, You have a wonderful life and family and it was good to know more about you. My life is rather complex so it will take me some time to think about this.

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