User:DigitalSciGuy

DigitalSciGuy studied Information Technology and Psychology with a minor in Communications at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He is president and co-founder of the transit advocacy group TransitMatters.

<!-- == Childhood ==

Born on 3 August 1987 in Flushing, Queens, New York, DigitalSciGuy was exposed to trains, now one of his largest obsessions, in his early childhood.

Most every morning for the first three years of his life, his father would tote him along on the New York City Subway on his father's way to work at the French embassy on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. They would take the IRT Flushing Line to Queensboro Plaza from Main Street and switch to the N to the Lexington Avenue station, where they would wait for DigitalSciGuy's mother to return from her night shift at the Hospital for Joint Diseases. Upon her arrival, DigitalSciGuy's father would continue on his journey to work and DigitalSciGuy's mother and he would return to the family abode.

The Long Island Rail Road Port Washington Branch ran behind the apartment building at 41st Avenue and Parsons Boulevard, in which his family lived for the first seven years of his life. Also a major factor in DigitalSciGuy's obsession with trains was Thomas the Tank Engine and associated show Shining Time Station, which aired on PBS, a television channel to which young DigitalSciGuy was exposed for his developmental years.

Public Television Influences
Among the television shows often watched and enjoyed by young DigitalSciGuy on PBS flagship station WNET were Shining Time Station, Barney & Friends, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, Square One Television, The Magic School Bus, Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?, Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego?, and Sesame Street.

Shining Time Station
This television program became DigitalSciGuy's favourite and remains his most missed television program from his childhood. His intrigue in the anthropomorphic British steam engines spawned his greater obsession with trains. At one point, he possessed most of the die-cast Ertl replicas of the model trains shown in the series. Unfortunately, his appreciation for the replicas only went so far as seeing them as toys and subsequently peeled paint off of several of the replicas, forcing his parents to acquire two replica of Henry the Green Engine. His first VHS tape was a video of a compilation of Thomas the Tank Engine stories. The influence of Thomas the Tank Engine from Shining Time Station led to his eventual preference and greater appreciation for heritage British steam locomotives.

Barney & Friends
The first season of the television program proved to be pivotal in his cultural development. The first season's cast included the character Min, played by Pia Manalo, the first Filipino DigitalSciGuy could clearly identify on television.

His appreciation for the television program also proved to be a characteristic that set him apart from his classmates at PS 184. Public knowledge of his fanaticism of the show made him subject to occasional bullying and taunting on the school bus by older students.

College
2.86 GPA

College
-->