About Me

Andrew Bogan

"I'm constantly reinventing myself..."

I graduated from Narragansett Regional High School in Baldwinville, Massachusetts in 1984. I went on to study at Mount Wachusett Community College (The Mount) in Gardner, Massachusetts for one year. I majored in Public Communications. I was a disk Jockey at WGAW in Gardner, MA for a couple of years. I also worked at WCAT in Athol, MA for a time.

I worked odd jobs here and there for several years afterwards. I was a directory assistance operator for a while. I've driven a bus. I was once a security guard. I even worked in the occasional factory.

In 1993 I graduated from Worcester Technical Institute in Worcester, Massachusetts. I majored in Ophthalmic Dispensing. In layman's terms, that means I became a licensed optician. I learned to make eyeglasses and fit them to people's faces, and to fit people with contact lenses. I absolutely hated it.

That same year, I became a Born Again Christian. It was also around that time I began a new hobby, personal computers. I became rather fascinated with them, building them, upgrading them, learning how they work, playing with MSDOS and Windows 3.1. I discovered the world of Electronic Bulletin Board Systems (BBS). I was a frequent visitor of Crystal Mountain BBS in Athol, MA for a long time. There was a game there called Galactic Empires. Me, and my new online friend "Soose" became masters of the ASCII based online space game. We pissed off everyone. That was before the internet and world wide web became mainstream. We were one of the original datastream cowboys in those days.

After that I decided I should go back to college and study Computer Information Systems and learn to program the machines I loved to play with so much. So I went back to the Mount and became the star of my programming classes. However, after my first year, I got side-tracked by the new love of my life, my second wife.

It was then in 1997 that I went back into the work force and took a job as a Technical Support Representative at Stream International, a company that does outsource technical support for Microsoft. I loved it.

In those days, they treated tech support professionals like kings. We were offered cars as signing bonuses. We had huge cubicles complete with two pc's, a television, and even a mini-fridge. We worked long hours and were paid very well. Very few of us were not addicted to crack cocaine. Thankfully I was not one of them. It was a great time in my life, and I was lucky enough to be at the right place at the right time.

Alas, like all good things, they must come to an end. The company eventually downsized as Microsoft and other big corporations began to outsource their technical support and customer service overseas, namely countries like India and China. The bubble had burst, and I was caught in the middle of it, as I was riding on the very top when it all came crashing down.

After that I went on to work at other smaller companies doing basically the same thing. There were a few internet service providers, and even a satellite television company. The last job I landed was as a loan counsellor at a Student Loan Consolidation Program. I liked it at first because I was making money hand over fist from commissions. Eventually, however the company decided to make it a competition, anyone who wasn't near the top of the list would not be getting any comissions. I was always near the bottom. I don't know why, but competion frightens me and I shut down. I went from being a highly successful loan counsellor to a ten dollar an hour telemarketer overnight. I was devastated.

I eventually burned out on technical support and customer service (cubeworld as I like to call it), and I just never worked again. I seperated from my wife at the time and decided to go live with my dad, go on disability, and immerse myself in online games for a time. I became rather well know in Everquest II (at least my character did). Eventually, even online games didn't blow my hair back anymore.

So I started keeping a journal. I moved out of my dad's house, who died shortly after and went and lived on my own. That's where I am to this very day. I eventually divorced my second wife. I have been quietly keeping my journal, and I have also started cycling long distance in the summer, and walking in the winter to get in shape. I've also been teaching bible study at my local church, as well as running sound, and now I've moved into developing and maintaining our church's website.

So things are going pretty well now, as I have reinvented myself once again. I finished my first short story and have submitted it to a writing contest put on by the Mass Cultural Council, the grand prize is ten thousand dollars. I hope I win. I plan to write more and perhaps publish a book serial electronically.

I've also just recently gotten into photography. My new friend bought me a nice camera and we've been going out and photographing scenery this winter. You can find some of my photographs in the Photographs section of this website. It seems a lot of people like my photos, so I think I will keep doing it.

I like the idea of working at home writing, and traveling about to take photos. I can make my own hours, and I can be my own boss. I can work in my underwear if I so choose to. So, there you have it. This is where I am at today. I've even started dating again. My future is looking brighter and brighter, and I have started to wear shades.