Even though there are quite a few people who already know who I am in RL, I'm sure that there's many more who have no idea. Along with the other people that make up the SL Reports Board of Directors, in an attempt to be much more transparent, I plan on letting you know more than you ever wanted to about the guy behind Strange Ranger, Tom Simpson.

I was born in 1969, in a little town called Chicago. I lived in the Northern suburbs of Chicago until I was 14, when my family and I moved out to Loveland, Colorado. I spent most of my teenage years getting in trouble with my parents. Seven months after graduating from LHS in 1987, I made the worst mistake of my life. I ended up divorcing that mistake, five years later.

In 1994, I met the love of my life, and we've been together, ever since. We moved up to Jamestown, ND in 1996 (don't ask why... we still don't know the answer to that).

Throughout my 22 years of working, I've had quite a few different jobs. Everything from oil rigs to selling light bulbs. During the past 11 years, I'd worked at a major electronics store, "answering questions", before moving on to start my own "mildly successful" computer repair and sales business. My business had served the whole Southeast corner of North Dakota. We provided 24 hour, on-site service, mainly to non-business customers, and offered computers and parts, online. In October, 2003, the business had outgrown what I could effectively handle and the profit wasn't worth the time I was investing, so I sold it a friend.

In December, 2003, I started working in the accommodations industry (which is just a fancy way of saying "a hotel"). I've been working as an auditor, since then. I actually enjoy working nights, because it gives me a lot of time to get other projects done, as well. I work at an independently owned, full-service hotel called the Gladstone Inn & Suites . I have been responsible for adding WiFi to the entire place, as well as building the hotel's website and adding the online reservations system. I've also streamlined a lot of the behind-the-scenes communication, scheduling, and reporting.

On November 1, 2006 I joined Second Life, and Strange Ranger was born (not this one ). Since then, I have met a lot of great people. I had built and ran a couple clubs that really didn't go over too well. In January, I decided to get into the residential rental business (another form of the accommodations industry). The rental business was great. I usually stayed about 90% full with 18 3-story houses, near the beach. In mid-July, I saw the writing on the wall, with news of a new mainland continent, and decided to get out and sell the land that I owned, as fast as possible. I ended up selling all of the land, just before the gaming ban, which, looking back, was just in time.

These days, you won't find me "in-game" as much as I was in the past. My main reason for staying involved in Second Life is to attend shareholder meetings, and communicate with friends in various businesses. I do believe that there is a chance for SL to turn into something really great, and I think that a lot of people have already found great uses for the platform. Until I find another calling, though, most of my involvement in SL will be because of SL Reports and JT Financial.

Right now, I'm trying to get back to where I was, about a year ago. During my time in SL, I neglected a lot of things that I used to care about, like my blog, Webfeed Central . I also need to start watching the news and blogs for various items that still interest me. After my time in Second Life, so far, I have even more that interests me, though.

You can contact me, any time using Skype or GTalk, with the username "webfeed". You can also call and leave me a personal message at 1-877-251-4765, and I'll get back to you. Pictures for this article are coming, soon.