In 1964, Richard Merk was born in East L.A. to his considerable surprise, so when his parents moved away to the house they would live in for the next twelve years, he (three years old at the time) cleverly stowed away in the trunk of their car.
Brought up in West Los Angeles and educated in Catholic schools, he took to outer space as a starship captain in an attempt to escape this desperate and tragic reality. Inexplicably, he eventually graduated from Servite High School in Anaheim. Then, ignoring angry mobs of protestors, he infiltrated Cal State Fullerton, from which he almost graduated.
Meanwhile, at the age of ten, he found the love of his life when he discovered his first science-fiction book. By the time he was sixteen, he began to write D&D adventures, and by the time he was eighteen, he actually worked up the nerve to submit one. It was almost accepted. In 1982, he discovered the new love of his life when his parents gave him an Apple ][+ computer thinking it would help him do better in school. He promptly began to write computer games. To date, he has started twelve computer game projects, seventeen computer utilities, four literary adventure sagas, two role playing game adventure series, three internet web sites — and one or two of them are almost finished.
As he grows older, he shows no signs of slacking off. He remains as youthful, as lively and as lovable as ever, and grows more ruggedly handsome with each passing year. You can be sure that this is true, since he has written this little resumé himself, and his unwavering devotion to absolute truth is notorious. And for once, he actually finished what he
Beginning in about 1998, I started playing in Star Trek PBeM games. I even tried my hand at running one or two. A lot of the ideas in Banshee Squadron were born in these games. Around the same time, I became interested in making web pages, and as a result, most of the games I played in wound up having their web sites built by me. All these games are long-since ended, but their web sites are still available:
I am not a complete nerd, however. I used to drive a Jeep with giant tires and once voluntarily jumped out of an airplane. I listen to 80's music, take long road trips, and play World of Warcraft. But that last thing probably pushes me back into the nerd category.