Hello, I’m Jamie Schmidt proprietor of this virtually unknown website. I’m a married, middle-aged, stay-at-home father of two. Yeah, I know, gripping. But look at all the hyphens I got to use. I’ve been doing this no job gig since my daughter turned 1 and my wife went back to her job. As I write this in 2018 my daughter just turned 11 and my son is 8. That means I’ve been a bona fide homemaker for 10 years now. I guess that makes this a career.
Before I embarked on being a full-time parent and child corrupter I was a geologist in the oil and natural gas industry (ha…missed me, now stop throwing things). I originally endeavoured to be an environmental hydrogeologist which turned out to be as inspiring as it sounds.
I live in a big city (by Canadian standards) in a wonderful early 70’s vintage neighbourhood in the left half of Canada though I grew up in the right half. I’ve been married for 10 years to a wonderful woman who apparently drew the short straw when Fate decided to allow me the pleasure of coupling and copulating. She’s definitely taking one for the girls and managing to do so with nary a quibble (out loud). My kids are great, usually, and supply me with many chuckles while I return the favour with endless hours of boredom interspersed with steam-out-the-ears freak-outs (hyphens!). We used to have a cat but don’t anymore which is a shame. He would have been great for blog material.
I’ve been writing an old fashioned blog to family and friends for over 20 years though I still call them letters. This is an attempt to take my nonsense to a bigger audience or actual develop an audience. I have no confidence very many people actually read my letters. If that proves fruitless, it’ll at least make me appear entrepreneurial while at home all day rather than the lazy slug I actually am.
I also have or had or suffer from or am in remission from Pulmonary Sarcoidosis. Don’t worry, I never heard of it either and there’s no fancy coloured ribbon-on-your-cereal-box (make me stop!) campaign for it. You can learn more about this ailment and my dealings (more car-jacking than journey) with it in the Sarcoidosis page.
So what is the purpose of my blog? I have no idea. I’ve read all the Complete Idiots for Dummies books on starting and writing a blog and apparently the key to a successful blog is finding a niche. Well, I guess I’m destined to failure what with niches not being my strong suit. Let’s just call this an experiment. Perhaps a suitable niche will present itself as I become better schooled in the world of blogging. Who knows, I may discover some previously unrealized passion for a peculiar, yet oddly in-demand taboo (that won’t shame my family) that I can write about exclusively. Though I suppose with the domain/blog name I’ve chosen it will have to involve pickles. Until then, this is nothing more than an ill-advised documentation of the stuff that goes on in my life and the crap that my brain thinks. Don’t expect this to continue for long….or to end well.