Name: Eric (Husky Dawg - conservative, housebroken, generally well behaved)
Sex: Male (well, hopefully my name gave you a clue)
Occupation: (last several years anyway) Real estate manager
Education: BA from University of Washington (I was a Russian major -- Why, you ask? "I was in a hurry to get my degree")

Reason for joining Free Republic: I am conservative in my life in just about everything I do, so why not? Also, I just like the interactive feature of Free Republic. I've been on the Web for a good while now, and lately I've noticed how bored I am with most websites because they are so "static". Free Republic beckons you to join in. It's a great place to get lots of thoughts and emotions and ideas, on a wide variety of topics, and I want to interact with that scene. (There are also lots of Freepers with outrageously good senses of humor. I kinda' like that! Does anybody remember laughter's the best medicine??) Can we Freepers change the world? Individually, no -- but collectively, there's hope!

Previous life experiences that helped shape me:
U.S. military service (6 years with the U.S. Navy, as an aircrewman, and also ship's company, USS John F. Kennedy. Visited many foreign countries.)
Worked my way through college. I have many memories of college years - many good, some bad. But final verdict: Proud to be a Washington Husky. Go Dawgs!
Spent five years working as an interpreter up in Alaskan waters (Bering Sea) on board Russian factory-trawler ships as part of a U.S.-Soviet joint venture fishing operation (now no longer in existence).
Have managed real estate for several years now, and know first hand that hard work coupled with owning some land and taking care of it is truly the American way.

Other interests:
Skiing - Mt. Baker Washington is my top choice of ski areas (Powder!! WooHoo!! Snowboarding looks intriguing too, just haven't tried it yet)
Walking the beach - any beach will do, but usually I'm pounding the sand somewhere around north of Seattle
Reading - due to my language ability, most serious reading I do is in Russian (nothing political, just whatever looks interesting); I hope from time to time to bring here for discussion purposes some interesting articles (translated, of course) from the Russian side of the world. (They're the same as us, you know. Only different.)
Music - I like most music but I can't stand hip-hop, rap or any of that other weird stuff that you can't hum or dance to (Zydeco is prolly somethin' I can live without, too)
Movies - don't much go to movies any more ever since I learned the shocking news that Hollywood only cranks out cheap faky junk just to grab YOUR money! I was shocked... shocked! to hear this grim news
TV- (see above, under movies)… Once you get 80-plus channels on the tube with basic cable, TV truly becomes a mind numbing experience. I've noticed a direct correlation: The more channels I get, the more I turn to reading or the Internet. (I sure liked Al Bundy, though. Kelly was nice, too...)

Favorite quotes:
Investment advice? "Make some money, spend a little less."
Definition of a gold mine? "A hole in the ground with a liar on top."
Definition of a lawsuit? "A money pit with a lawyer on top."
Litigation? "Better a thin purse than a fat lawsuit."
Weather? "Everbody always talks about the weather, but nobody ever does anything about it."
Minds? "Small minds talk about people, medium minds talk about events, great minds talk about ideas."
Seattle? "People in Seattle don't tan, they rust."
San Francisco? "The coldest winter I ever saw was the summer I spent in San Francisco."
Arkansas? "Exciting place, Arkansas. I spent a week there one night."
Architects? "They build monuments to themselves - with YOUR money."
Ugly? "He's so ugly he could make a train take a dirt road."
Broker? "That's what you'll be after one invests your money for you."
Investing? "How do you make a small fortune in the stock market? Simple: start with a large one."
Opinions? "That's your opinion and you're entitled to it." (However, when said to a feminazi, it goes: That's entitlement, and you're opinionated!)
Rules of grammar? "That's a grammar rule up with which I shall not put!"
Old dawgs? "We like to lie in the shade and lick ourselves. 'Cause we can."