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Who is Norman De Forest?

I was born February 20, 1942 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. I am currently "retired" on a disability pension that I didn't want. I served in the Royal Canadian Air Force (changed to the Canadian Armed Forces when the three Canadian forces were combined) for twelve-and-a-half years as a GCA technician. I worked after that as a radio-TV technician until I had a "nervous breakdown" due to the loss of my job due to the company I worked for going bankrupt and due to hearing one-too-many "Don't call us. We'll call you."s.

I now have a page with a picture of me, a 60843-byte JPG file (in case you think it's worth your time to download). Another page has a 73749-byte picture of Karcyn, a female friend of mine, getting very affectionate with me. Incidentally, she doesn't have any clothes on. (Thanks to another anti-spammer for the better, darker version.) Not had enough yet? If you want to indulge your masochistic tendencies, you can view yet another picture of me (29198 bytes).

My main interests are:

Science Fiction [NEW URL].

My favourite author is C. J. Cherryh and I especially like her "Chanur" series:

  1. "The Pride of Chanur",
  2. "Chanur's Venture",
  3. "The Kif Strike Back",
  4. "Chanur's Homecoming", and
  5. "Chanur's Legacy".

For those unfamiliar with the Chanur series, I have written a short description of the species of the Compact (rather drab and boring but necessary to understand some of the jokes below if you have not read the series).

I also love the works of Terry Pratchett, some of the funniest fantasy on this or any other planet.

A new author to look for is Nick O'Donohoe. As far as I can tell, he has only five books out -- three in the _Crossroads_ series. The first one in the series, "The Magic and the Healing" is about a group of veterinary medical students who go to a semi-mythical world called "Crossroads" to treat the creatures there -- unicorns, griffins, rocs (one road in Crossroads needs a sign: "Watch for falling rocs". -- sorry, I couldn't resist), and even werewolves. It is sort of like reading a combination of Greek mythology and one of James Herriot's books ("All Creatures Great and Small", et al). His next book is a sequel to the first called "Under the Healing Sign". I had mixed feelings about the endings of both books (which I suspect the author intended). The good guys win but at such cost! I can't say more without giving away the plot or the ending. One delicious spot in the second book is where someone takes a carton of cigarettes into Crossroads. It is for someone who is nursing a non-human, carnivorous sick friend (saying who would spoil a surprise in the first book) and the sick friend is asked if he minds delivering them. He replies: "We put up with each other's vices. She smokes, I eviscerate. I'm trying to quit." All of the _Crossroads_ books are published as Ace Fantasy books by Berkley Publishing Group:

Here are a couple of links...

... just to annoy Netscape users who can't follow them (unless the latest version of Netscape has increased the size of the host name usable in URLs):

  1. First you can drop in on the village with the longest place name in Britain,
    Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.
  2. Then see what's on a machine that declares itself to have
    "The Silliest Hostname Ever".

Computers...

... both hardware and programming. I am a member of

Science.

Murder Mysteries.

Recreational Mathematics and Logic Puzzles.

Jokes, especially Tom Swifties and
other types of outrageous puns.

Sometimes the subjects above become intertwined:

Back to My Home Page.

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