About Proper Gander
I’m not sure what I’ll do with this blog just yet, but I suppose I’ll figure something out eventually. In the meantime, I suppose I should write a bit here about myself.
I’ve worked as a computer programmer for Quality Data Service of Waterbury, CT for the past nine years, maintaining and improving one of their flagship software packages for municipal tax assessors and tax collectors. In addition, I also acted as a database administrator and provided technical support to QDS’ clients. Of course, I no longer work there, and am currently looking for a new job.
When not at my day job, I spend most of my evenings working on my writing. I currently have a rough draft of a novel entitled Starbreaker; I am currently revising it. I suppose I could blog about that from time to time.
In addition to my writing, I am also an incorrigible bookworm, a long-haired metalhead, and a loving husband. The name of this blog, “Proper Gander”, was inspired by how I used to mispronounce the word ‘propaganda’ as a child.
I love the origin of your blog name.
I used to work with international organizations, supporting a variety of open society type programs. One country, which will remain unnamed, had some local organizations sending us updates of their work. These reports were in English, but English laced with cultural semantics.
It always induced a chuckle to see how they called PR “propaganda,” and how they called public surveys “interrogations.”
A chuckle, and also, of course, a sad awareness of why those words seemed so normal to them.
I’m glad you like the name. To be honest, I tend to view everything the government tells people as propaganda, and look at almost all news with the same jaundiced eye. I figure that everybody has an angle, and nobody is genuinely unbiased.