Naaaa, What's Up Doc?!

First, we must all stand and sing the official anthem (click on the words for a .WAV file if you don't know the tune):

Hail to the Victors Valiant, Hail to the Conquering Heros,
Hail! Hail! to Michigan, the Leaders and Best!

Hail to the Victors Valiant, Hail to the Conquering Heros,
Hail! Hail! to Michigan, The Champions of the West!

You may be seated.

Is Bugs one smart rabbit?!

In case you can't tell, I'm a graduate of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. In particular, I graduated twice from the College of Engineering: Class of '85 with a BSE in Aerospace Engineering, and Class of '89 with another BSE in Mechanical Engineering. (I spent some time goofing around between the two degrees.) I also hold a Masters of Engineering degree from the University of Maryland, College Park. I got that in '03.

Part of that time I spent goofing around, I was doing it in Germany. Also das heisst ich kann deutsch! Wenn Du mir deutsch schreiben willst, darfst Du es ruhig machen. Ich kann auf beide deutsch und englisch antworten.

I was born and raised in Saranac, Michigan, a rural farming village and bedroom community of about 1400 people on the Grand River in Southwest Michigan, just east of Grand Rapids.

I graduated from Saranac High School in 1981. I was fifth in my class (which doesn't say much considering there were only 80 people in my graduating class!). I still call Saranac home and I always enjoy going to my Mom's house, which is the house I grew up in.

If you want a little chuckle, then visit my Michi-FUN Page for jokes and riddles about the Great Lakes State of Michigan!

I now live in Ellicott City, Maryland, which lies west of Baltimore. I live with my cats, whom you met above. If you click on the picture to the left, you'll get a view of our home and the road we live on, Bonnie Branch Road. We really like living there. It's really still in suburbia, but you could never tell by just standing in our yard. Drive a couple miles in any direction however, and then you'll know.

Let me introduce

Loreley.

Melyanna and Loreley are my two little girls. They live with me and keep me company. I just wish they liked each other a little better. Girls will be girls I guess. Two other special friends, Singollo and Morgoth are no longer with me. They both meant a lot to me and I miss them very much, especially Singollo.

Guess what! There are many, many other Ryan Simmons out there on the Web. I didn't think the name was that popular. If any of you guys happen to come across this page and can give me updated info, please do! (This list was updated January 2008.)

• First, we have an account executive with the Chicago Rush Arena Football team, Ryan Allen Simmons. He runs his own podcasting network at sportstalkunderground.com.
• Next, we have a bassoonist with the San Diego Symphony named Ryan Simmons.
• We have Ryan Simmons in the movie business! He appears on IMDB.com.
• Spoofing Star Wars is the hobby of this Ryan Simmons living in Orem, Utah.
• It seems as if there is another Ryan Simmons in Orem who's an assistant professor in English literature. He has two professional pages to choose from. He wrote literature reviews of a couple of books: One book is by Tom Stempel and the other is by Joni Adamson.
• It seems as if there's a Ryan Simmons who played football for the university of Wisconsin. Don't know how long that link will work. In 2002 he was a senior. Maybe he'll turn pro!
• Likewise, we have another athlete, this time at Kent State. This Ryan Simmons was a wrestler. Kent State doesn't seem to have a website with his name on it, but lots of other schools do.
• We have a very young Ryan Simmons in the UK. Seems he's the son of Sheila and Peter Simmons.
• Eastern Kentucky University hired Ryan Simmons as its sports information director back in 2004. And look at the date of that article: April 13... MY birthday! Here's an EKU Update article about his hiring. And still another article from Eastern Progress.
• This Ryan Simmons is a Christian youth pastor in Herndon, Virginia. (I tried to contact him, but never heard anything back. Oh well.)
• There's a Ryan Simmons in Seal Beach, California who's a surfer and skate boarding dude. Seems he's not too bad either. You can find his name all over the place.
• Seems there's a Ryan Simmons who's really Dieter Bohlen of a singing duo called Modern Talking. Seems as if Modern Talking may be trying to make a comback. Stay tuned...
• Here's a Ryan Simmons who graduated from Colgate University, just like his dad!
• And Finally, there's a Ryan Simmons college student majoring in film at a small catholic college in PA. He can be found on MySpace.com, but since he gave himself an R-rated middle name, I won't link to him here.
• For a long list of Ryan Simmons out in the world, here's a list from LinkedIn.com. Unfortunately, I'm not on that list.

If you know of any other Ryan Simmons out there, please let me know and I'll post his (or her!) URL here.

The flags of Michigan and Maryland, the two states I call home.