Images by John 'K'
Life as seen through my lens…
Category Archives: About Me
Why “JohnK”?
Posted by on May 14, 2005
So, why "JohnK" and not "John"?
There are two reasons for this. In my first ‘proper’ job after school, I worked as a member of an 8 person team, and we had 4 Johns in the team. As a result, the first John (the manager) was just called John, and to differentiate between the remaining 3 johns, the first letter from the surname got tagged on. That also became my e-mail id (this is the second reason), and I was able to carry that ID into all of my subsequent jobs, so the name JohnK stuck.
In fact it’s stuck to a point where if I use my real name in a work conversation with someone I’ve just been introduced to but who I’ve exchanged e-mail with, I typically get the response "John who?" or a puzzled look, and then after a second or two, I get the follow-on comment "Oh… JohnK. So you’re JohnK!" and then they launch into a load of stuff that is usually too embarrassing to repeat (and usually but not always for good reasons)!
So I’ve become JohnK, or occasionally JK to everyone except my family (who only has one John to deal with – luckily for them)
Found it….
Posted by on May 13, 2005
I just found my daughter’s space on MSN, and seems she’s really not done much to it yet (which doesn’t really surprise me as she can be a bit lazy at times)…. Perhaps the fact that she can now see that her dad has done more on his space than she has on hers will encourage her to put some more content up!
Anyway – she’s at http://spaces.msn.com/members/Devils-world
The name for her space comes from the fact that she calls herself ‘Devils Daughter’ on a number of on-line games and it’s also her MSN nickname….. there was I doing my best to keep the horns hidden and she lets the cat out of the bag. <sigh> 
Some background…..
Posted by on May 12, 2005
I think it’s difficult relating to random ongoing blog entries without some context and background, so here’s some for me!
I’m 41. I’m happily married to Jan, who I first met when I was 16. We celebrated 20 years of married life 2 years ago. I have 4 daughters; Paula (14), Sarah (15), Gemma (17), and Maria (24). Maria is married to Mark, and they have 3 sons (Anthony, Dylan, and Ben).
I’ve been working for over 22 years in the IT industry, and for the past 6 years have worked for Network Appliance, initially in the UK (where I lived until December), but now in the US.
My family are all currently in the UK, but most of it will be joining me in California in August (once this current school year finishes). At that stage, I’ll be in California with my wife and 2 youngest daughters, and my 2 eldest (and associated families) will remain in the UK.
Life for me is currently very work focussed (to stop me feeling lonely), but I expect that to change significantly as of July when things start happening in the run-up to Jan, Sarah and Paula moving over to join me.
As a result of all of this, I’m getting a lot more familiar than I would like with the whole immigration/relocation thing.
Photos – My Family (and other animals)
Posted by on May 12, 2005
To give people some idea of my family, I’ve put a few photos together.
To set some of the names in context, I’m John, my wife is Jan. We have 4 lovely daughters who are… Paula, Sarah, Gemma, and Maria. Maria is married to Mark, and they have 3 sons, who are Anthony, Dylan, and Ben. Gemma is dating Luke. Sasha was our family dog until she died in 2004 (and is much missed).
The cat (Ulysses) in the photos isn’t a family pet, but belongs to the guy I’m currently renting a room from until I move into a house with my family. He’s a great cat and very affectionate, but does have his moments! 
Images by John 'K' 