My Background

    I was born on February 28, 1967 at around 2:00 AM EST in Bellaire, OH.  This happened to be during probably the biggest snowstorm of that winter.  Unfortunately, I was born with Goldenhar's syndrome which caused a multitude of facial deformities and problems with my ears, eyes, and speech.  It appears to be caused by my mother's exposure to chemicals in the workplace.  I spent my first 2-3 months of my life mostly in hospitals.  However, I was not born premature.

    Luckily, my body, in general, was basically normal, including growth.  However, I did stay in my "terrible two's" until I was about eight years old!  I was so bad when I was little that my mother's coworkers couldn't wait until my mother came to work, so that they can hear all the horror stories about me!

    While I went my first year of school in Crippled Children's School in Elm Grove, WV, I was later transferred to a normal school after a teacher realized that I had more academic potential than a lot of the other kids.  Schools that I attended included Limestone Elementary School in Limestone, WV, Sherrard Junior High School in Sherrard, WV, and John Marshall High School in Glen Dale, WV.  In high school, I majored in computer programming and industrial arts (primarily wood working).  I graduated in 1986.

    Between 1986 and 1990, I didn't work or go to college.  This was due to a multitude of surgeries, which would have necessitated a lot of time off.  However, I worked a lot on home computers and even built a few homemade peripherals for the Commodore 64/128 computers.  Such peripherals included a EKG/EEG interface, audiometer (for testing a person's hearing), low-cost circulation tester, and heart rate monitor.  One or two of these were built before my high school graduation in 1986.  In fact, it was my Commodore 64 based heart rate monitor that got me first place in the Marshall County Science Fair in 1986.

    In 1990, I went to Belmont Technical College in St. Clairsville, OH.  There I majored in medical assisting.  I LOVED working with medical stuff!  I graduated with a 3.72 GPA.  However, I was unable to find suitable work, even after looking in four states!  About 18 months later, I went back to Belmont Tech and started to study to be an LPN (licensed practical nurse).  I went one quarter of the way, and then I had woes galore!  I was betrayed by the college when they told WV Vocational Rehabilitation about some problems that I had, but they did not tell me.  Needless to say, WV Vocational Rehabilitation quit paying my way.  This was in the Fall of 1993.

    The year 1994 proved to be one of the top three worst years of my life so far.  I basically lost all sense of direction.  I was like an outcast!  Things were so bad and traumatizing that it even tried to place division between my mother and me!  I don't ever want to see another year like that again!

    Later on in 1994, though, I did come up with an idea for an invention, which had to do with MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface).  As part of the patent searching process, I went to West Virginia University's patent depository.  A librarian there was utterly amazed of how quickly I caught onto the computer system used for this purpose.  She felt that I was a prime candidate for studying at WVU in either computer science or computer engineering.  However, I still had a lot of trauma, and this took a lot of hard thinking.

    In January of 1996, I started going to WVU.  I first went into computer science, but later went into computer engineering.  Even one of the computer science professors felt that I was "above" computer science and was better suited for computer engineering.  Only after about 3 more years did I realize that I was probably in the "right" program.  I found that computer engineers tend to have more of an active role in design processes.  In addition, computer engineers get more hardware exposure.

    Unfortunately, I was plagued with obstructive sleep apnea throughout at least most of my life.  I first suspected it in 1990 when I went to Belmont Tech (after reading about it).  However, I was unable to drive and was dependent on my mother.  She was not very understanding of the sleep apnea.  However, she was worried sick about me falling asleep in school.  As a result, I "put it under the rug" for years.  In 1998, a professor reported me for sleeping and SNORING in class--to the point that it was disruptive.  I was reported to the disabilities office, and since this was a "disability" that could not be "accommodated" for, this almost got me "suspended" from college until the problem was fixed.  I HAD to tell my mother again, and she was shocked.  However, it was literally beyond my control!  I had several sleep studies, but this turned up "mild sleep apnea" and "periodic limb movement in sleep".  I was placed on different medications, including Ritalin.  While Ritalin worked fairly good, the sleepiness "caught up with me" in the evenings, and I was largely unable to do my homework.  I was also plagued with depression that was caused and aggravated by severe loneliness--the kind of loneliness that can make a man want to put a plastic bag over his head--and tie it around his neck!  There were periods where I was forced to go MONTHS with no company at my house or apartment.  The sleep apnea and depression then accelerated problems with burnout.  In 1999, I had sleep apnea AND depression AND burnout--all at the same time!  As a result, my grades were going down and down and down.  In the Fall of 1999, my semester GPA was a frightening 0.93!

    In 2000, I dropped out of WVU for a while until I got these problems straightened out.  The sleep apnea was kind of "demonic", which defied six sleep studies and various treatments.  It was only during the seventh sleep study that the sleep apnea truly confessed itself as the monster that it truly was!  I stopped breathing 70 times an hour during sleep!  My oxygen saturation got down to a frightening 59%!  FINALLY on December 6, 2000, I got a much needed tracheostomy, which works great.  However, "Mr. Sleep Apnea" did want to die that easily, for my trach tube was shot out five nights after the surgery.  It was like Mr. Sleep Apnea's "ghost" coming back and saying "You think you can just get rid of me just like that?"!  As for the burnout, it kind of took care of itself to a certain extent.  However, I was still plagued with severe loneliness.  Even going to several counselors and trying a number of antidepressants proved basically fruitless.  The only things that worked included getting nice company at my house or apartment and therapeutic touch (massage therapy and reiki).  While I lived with my mother (except while going to WVU), things were not too good here, either, due to her addiction to TV and reading (to the point where these took higher priority than family life).  I did manage to go back to WVU in the Fall of 2001 and finished up my last two years.  While I was able to stay awake much better, I was still plagued with severe loneliness.  It was at a Catholic charismatic prayer group that I was saved from further deterioration and suicide.  Moreover, my grades went back up exponentially after joining this prayer group.  Prior to this, I felt unloved and like an outcast in spite of counseling and my best efforts to overcome this.  Going to the prayer group helped me deal with the death of my mother, who died on October 31, 2002.

    In May of 2003, I finally graduated from WVU with a GPA of 2.18.  Unfortunately, I was plagued with continuing depression largely due to loneliness and more loneliness.  I moved back home on May 21, 2003.  I was so ravaged by chronic loneliness that I didn't even feel like unpacking or anything for about two weeks.  Furthermore, I had MAJOR problems with job searching.  I even tried at least 5-6 job search sites online.  Three things that were killing me were disabilities, lots of time gaps (due to disabilities), and lack of work experience (again, due to disabilities).  Furthermore, I seem to be a victim of discrimination.  While I had a nice part-time job at a small radio station in 2001, the owner died and took the whole company to its death.  It seemed that no matter how hard I would try, things would not work out.  I couldn't even get a job at Radio Shack as a temporary job!  It is as if having a disability is like having a mortal sin on your soul!  At least 1-2 people thought of me starting up a home business, but most of these do not address the problem with severe and suicidal loneliness.

    Job prospects and such were also further limited by the fact that I was unable to drive until 2004.  My distance vision is only around 20/60, and this is basically not correctable through normal means (glasses or contact lenses).  However, after I found that I was able to drive to some degree, this opened up many doors, including the idea of doing house calls.  As for house numbers, this is still a major problem for me.  However, Switchboard.com has maps online that allow me to zero in on someone's address.  This aids greatly in finding your house should you need or want me to come to check out your computer(s) there.

    God blessed me with a good brain that houses much creativity and problem-solving skills.  However, today's society is too bent on outward appearance.  I have done a number of "surgeries" on my own computers, including repairs and hardware upgrades.  My most difficult computer repair was bypassing a intermittently broken trace on a motherboard.  This was on a Commodore 128 computer.  As for design, I have built a number of homemade peripherals, particularly in the medical arena.  Examples include a non-invasive circulation tester, heart rate monitor, audiometer, and three different EKG / EEG interfaces.

    Finally, I got the bright idea of starting up my own computer services company.  Here, I would interact with customers by having them come to my house or I would go to their house.  This would help to alleviate loneliness on two different fronts.  First of all, having customers drop off computers or come in for teaching or to be interviewed for web site needs would help out with the loneliness while at my home.  Doing house calls would also get me out more.  I also wanted to work at a capacity closer to that which I was designed for by God.  I was also telling my friend Pat Higginbotham from my Morgantown prayer group about this business idea.  She had the idea of calling it "Knoz'em Computers".  She thought of this because of my last name Nozum.  Here, he "knows'em"!  That is how the name was born!

    I have quite a few different interests.  Besides computers, I also play music and do massage therapy (not licensed, though) and reiki.  I also compose, orchestrate, and record my own music.  Other interests that I have had, but have been suppressed due to loneliness and more loneliness include woodworking, electrical, and electronics.  I also still have some degree of interest in the medical field.  I also find it enjoyable to integrate two or more fields together, such as computers and medical, music and massage therapy, and possibly more.  Yes, I have even integrated computers, electronics, and woodworking all together when I built a couple of joysticks out of WOOD!  Yes, they worked!

    When it comes to music, I can play the piano, organ, pipe organ, keyboard, harmonica, acoustic guitar, accordion, and drums.  However, my main instruments are piano, organ, and keyboard.  As for types of music, I like country (particularly old country), gospel, bluegrass, ragtime, classical, and many ethnic music types.  I hate hard rock, acid rock, and satanic crap.  I am more neutral about jazz and rap.

    I was 40 years old at the time of this update.

    If you want to know more about me and my interests, you can check out www.nozumjam.com .