About Me

My Aggie experience began at Fish Camp in 1982 where I was well indoctrinated on life as an Aggie. As such, I've often had contrary views to most my friends that didn't attend Fish Camp when it comes to some Aggie traditions. I saw merit in traditions such as Midnight Yell, standing with the 12th Man, saying "Howdy" and Aggie Bonfire. Obviously my views on the latter have changed over the 20 years I have been in Aggieland.

I am what you might call a "professional" student -- I had a bit too much fun as an undergraduate and after failing out and some financial difficulties it took a few years working at "real" jobs in College Station before I realized the importance of completing my undergraduate degree, which I did in in 1996 (I was originally class of '86). At present I am working on my Ph.D. in Computer Science while holding a staff position maintaining a supercomputer (HP V2200) and a number of PCs in the department. Some might call me a "non-traditional" student as well given my present age. However, that shouldn't imply that I haven't supported Aggie traditions in the past.

Although I have never actively participated in Cut or Stack (mostly due to physical limitations), I attended more than a dozen burnings of Aggie Bonfire [sometimes staying well after midnight while sharing beers (before the drinking age went to 21) and conversation with the Pots watching the fire] and feel I have more than a limited bit of experience on the Bonfire tradition given my exposure to it over the past 20 years. As such, given the collapse in 1999, I feel it my duty to this school to speak out against Aggie Bonfire, despite how unpopular that might make me. Please see my links on the previous page for reasons why I won't be there.

Jack (John K.) Perdue '86^H^H96 -- http://parasol.cse.tamu.edu/people/jack/
Fish Camp Halbouty '82

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Last updated January 23rd, 2002