A short biography of Owen Smigelski


I grew up the town of Windsor, NY, near Binghamton, NY.  That's about 4 hours northeast of New York City, and is in the middle of New York State. The Binghamton area is home to Rod Serling (Twilight Zone creator) and spiedies (marinated chicken BBQed as shishkabobs- the best marinate is from Salamida, and the meat should marinate at least 24 hours.) I graduated from Windsor High School in 1992. I've been messing with computers since 1981, and am proud to be a computer geek.

 
I was an Rotary exchange student in Lille, France, for a year. Yes, I speak French fluently, including technical and legal terms (I also speak decent Spanish and can survive using German and know a smattering of Mandarin.) I attended SUNY Geneseo, near Rochester, NY. I received my degree in Political Science, with minors in French and Economics. After college, I spent a year working for a computer helpdesk in Albany, NY.  I decided that wasn't for me, so I picked up and moved to San Diego in 1998 to attend the University of San Diego School of Law. I graduated in May 2001.  I took (and passed) the California bar exam in July 2001.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Currently, I'm Director, Contractual Compliance at ICANN. Previously I worked in-house as a trademark attorney, and was with several litigation and IP law firms. I've been facinated with computers since the age of 7 (when my family got an IBM 5150), and have been a server admin since 1993 when I was my college's Gopher admin (and still run the server that powers smigelski.org).

 

 
 

Useless random facts about Owen:

 Favorite band:  The Beatles

 Current music interests:  European house, trance, techno, and reggae

 How I listen to European house, trance and techno:  Radio FG / Underground FG

 Favorite video game:  Grand Theft Auto Vice City

 Favorite country to visit:  Iceland

Favorite city to visit:  Amsterdam

 Shoe size:  14  (I'm almost 6' 6")

 Favorite beer: Old Rasputin (formerly Kriek Lambic from Belgium)

 Favorite sports team:  New York Yankees (I bleed pinstripe blue and white)

 Favorite sport event: The World Cup

 Favorite comedian: David Cross

Websites I frequent the most: Google, Fark, Slashdot, and The Register

 Favorite TV show: Lost

 Favorite Lost character: Hurley

 Burning secret desire (#1): To finish a screenplay idea about Viking warriors

 Burning secret desire (#2): To enter a recipe and win first place at the Gilroy Garlic Fesival

 My "secret" online identity: lothar97, lothar97, and lothar97 (see a pattern?)

 


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