Latest revision as of 04:09, 9 November 2009

Jon Griffin, known better as Turtle, is a 32 year old Forumite alumni living in Port Jefferson Station, NY in what was originally called GAMYR House, with Elana, Wendy, and Drew. He does freelance graphic design, sells his own tshirt designs, and manages a customized shoe store. In the past he has also worked in bookstores, for a printer, and at a genetics laboratory. He sees a lot of movies and watches a lot of Tivo with his best friend, Brian. He goes out dancing and parties with his friend Billy. And he grooves on Macintosh, animation, DVDs, and Lost with Karen. He occasionally hangs with Oz, Daniel, Chetan, James, Dave, and random other people. A lot of his close friend have moved away, such as Matthew, Walter and Laurie, Adam, and Kate. He's a little bit addicted to Wikipedia and Lostpedia. He likes science fiction, turtles, biking, bungy jumping, skydiving, metaphysics, I-Con, folk festivals, acting, Burning Man, graphic design, science, swimming, places and people which are non-smoking, contra dancing, stealing hats, and his Macintosh computer. As the creator of the original Forum Omnipedia, and a wikipedia aficionado, he takes particular interest in this wiki (praise be to User:WikiMeister!).

AKA

Born John James Griffin Jr, his existence was already ironic due to being a junior to a father born with a different name (John Sanchez). In High School, due partly to reasons of aesthetics and partly in deference to his Latin teacher's declaration that "H is nothing" he started writing his first name as Jon. His first year in the Forum, there were so many "John"s that each of us developed designations to differentiate us. My association with turtle had become known as so Aakin started calling me Turtle John. Eventually this got shortened to just Turtle. He, Squirrel, and Ferret became known as the "small woodland creatures" for their resemblance to an item on the scavenger hunt. Near the end of college he also came to be known as Jack and Jack Davinci for his stage/writing name - Jack as a nickname for Jon, and Davinci for one of his idols, Leonardo da Vinci. His confirmation name is Michael. Other lesser used nicknames he has had include JJ, JG, JJG, Zhay Zhee, James, Jimmy, Johnny, Johnny Boy, Johnny Bravo, Jonathan, Johnny Rockets, Mr. Jon, Jonathon, Griffin, Mr. Griffin, Griff, the Griffster, Nuke, The Esteemed Professor Griffin, Nukeyduke, and Greensilver. On this wiki his username is User:jackdavinci.

Pre Forum history

Turtle was born on July 18, 1974 in Port Jefferson, NY to John and Deborah Griffin. His parents separated shortly after he was born and he lived with his mother from then on. They lived in many places including Port Jeff, Queens, Florida, Connecticut, Texas, and California. They settled back in Port Jefferson and his mom started dating Lowell in time for school. Turtle stayed in Port Jefferson pretty much until graduation, except for 1984 when the family stayed half a year in Austin, Texas and half a year in Seaside, Oregon with the summer in San Francisco, California.

Forum history

Introduction to the Forum

Turtle attended his first I-Con around 1987 with his best friend at the time Matthew. They both volunteered as gophers and attended volunteer meetings in the Central Hall Forum, popping his technical Forumite cherry. He went to High School with eventual Forumite Tracy Scott, and knew her mother, Mary Scott, a former Forumite herself, as well as Stela of Severed Head in Red fame. Also in High School, he and his friend Kevin Chiu went to some of the Anime Club meetings at the Forum.

1992

In Fall of 1992 Turtle became a commuter student at SUNY Stony Brook and a more official Forumite. He was a bit shy and found the Central Hall Forum to be a bit chilly and so did not spend a lot of time there. He did hang out with Jim and Colleen occasionally, the latter of who he had some classes with and always seemed to know where she was.

1993

In Fall of 1993 Tracy finally graduated High School and attended Stony Brook. Turtle began to hang out with her a lot, and with Skip, both of whom lived in Hendrix and were in Turtle's chemistry class. He went to an LGBA meeting with Skip, where they both met Walter. Turtle and Skip dated for a couple weeks. Turtle got drawn back into the Forum by Tracy and Skip and by virtue of the fact that it had moved to the warmer location. He became especially good friends with Aakin.

Relationships

After Skip, he dated Adam for a while, after which he started dating Skip, leading Turtle to create the Forum relationship chart to diagram the notoriously incestuous nature of the Forum and it's many complex relationship patterns such as the pentangle. Adam introduced Turtle to Tobie, and they started to date. Some time later Jim brought down Alexis and she and Turtle dated. Turtle also had flirtations with Erick the Red, the two Craigs, Oz, and various other Forumites. He had major non requited crushes on Magic John and Brian Libfeld and non-Forumite Ethan. He had things with non-Forumites Jorge and Tony, and a serious cyber-love for Sparrow. He had a fairly serious relationship with technical Forumite Alan.

Forum participation

He was known for wearing sandals, some times year round. Sometimes he would retire them on Sherman Raftenberg day, sacrificing them to the steam vents. He designed a lot of posters for Forum events as well as his own take on the Forum rocket and sun logo, which Skip animated for this wiki. He went biking with Walter, and when Walter and Laurie moved to Pittsfield, Massachusetts, he spent his 21st summer with them there. They also introduced him to the Clearwater and Falconridge Folk Festivals to which he's also gone with Alexis, Ken, Colleen, and Jim. He helped start the Forum relationship charts. He went on a few excursions to the hospital roof including the famous incident where we got held for questioning. He went on one trip through the steam tunnels. Went on a few mind expanding journeys with Jim and company including adventures around campus to the bamboo forest, the physics bubble, the physics labyrinth, and the echo spot. He was secretary for a semester.He created the first Omnipedia of which this wiki is the next generation. Tracy and he took some Forumites contra dancing. He participated in most of the Forumite extreme sports outings including skydiving, paragliding, rock climbing, and white water rafting. He went on the NYC 5 borough bike ride.

Friends and Faculty

Other Forumites Turtle has had close friendships with include Tracy, Skip, Jim, Sammy and Phil, Walter and Laurie, Alexis, Tobie, Adam, Connie, Wendy, Drew, Elana, Aakin, Laura and Garick, Kate and John LaSala, JC, Craig, Ducky, Karen, and Oz. And of course honorary Forumite, his turtle Bubbles. In the faculty he was close with Professor David Saltz and his wife Lizzie Saltz, and enjoyed the antics of the women's studies professor Helen LeMay and Professor Lauher of chemistry bondage fame.

Academics

He started out as a biology major but stopped pursuing that after organic chemistry at 8am. He took an FLC seminar in human reproduction and took all of the LTA classes learning to use technology in the arts - theater, music, and the visual arts. He became a TA for the courses and lab administrator. As a deep thinker, he also took many philosophy courses. His last semester, he took his transcript to his advisor and asked him what his major should be. Ended up with a B.A. in Multidisciplinary Studies with concentrations in Philosophy, Human Reproduction, and Technology in the Arts. Although he finished all his classes and went to graduation, he did not receive his degree due to a technicality and hasn't bothered to go back and fix it.

Other clubs

Turtle has been involved in I-Con since 1997. He did the design for the Public Sphere. He was the PA for BeckettSpace. He acted in "Little Murders" and "Changing the Sheets". He was peripherally involved with the Press. He worked on the literary magazine. He was a member of the LGBA. He helped start POWER. He was a member of the Regatta for a time, and has been designing their tshirts for many years.

Post Forum history

After graduating, in Spring of 1997 he got a job doing graphic design for a printer in Mineola and moved into the GAMYR House vacancy left by Gerry. He socialized a lot with his housemates, who over the years included Elana, Ryan, Yvonne, Mark, Alexis, Jim, James, Wendy, and Drew. After a few years he left to do graphic design freelance. In 1998 he went to Burning Man. Around 1999 he started working at a genetics lab at the on campus incubator. He also met Brian, his current best friend, and with whom he's done bungy jumping and indoor skydiving. He's also good friends with Billy, his wild friend from Ecuador. He was friends with Connie for a few years and she taught him to drive but they became estranged. He also briefly dated and then became friends with Oz. A few years later he left the lab to do freelance graphics again full time. In December 2006 he became manager of a customized shoe store in Port Jefferson. Although he's had a few relationships since college, particularly with Ryan and Josh, he is currently single. Although he no longer hangs out at the Forum, he has stayed in touch with many of his Forumite friends, attended Sherman Raftenberg Day and I-Con, been a part of GAMYR House, and participated in other ways, as well as hanging out with Forumites at folk festivals, Drawing the Circle, etc.

Cherries

Turtle's Forum cherry was popped by his High School best friend Matthew Gray when he was brought to some I-Con gopher meetings in 1987. Turtle has popped the Forum cherries of Bubbles, Kevin Chiu and Brian Bland. Turtle made technical forumites out of his brother Sean and Sean's friend Keiran during I-Con 2007 on Saturday.

Quotes

Mottos

"Turtles are forever."
"Never write a controversial story about a girl named Sphinna."

Quotes by

"You can't get kicked out of the outside."
"There's always time for bodily functions."
"I only do blowjobs for sandals." - 6/21/2000 9:00pm
"Yes, my grandmother has lossy compression" - 4/1/2004 8:00pm
"Drinking cow juice prevents you from falling under the control of the master vegan." - 8/1120/04
(to Karen) "I'm not drunk you are just culturally irrelevant!" - 12/1/2005 11:22pm
"You cant be previous to a future alternative." - 2005
"I cast spells using alphabet soup." - 12/06/2005 4:57pm
"Scared the bebuddha out of her." - 6/28/2003
"Will you put out my invisible fires?" - 8/6/2006
"There were no sub-titular moments." - 8/6/2006
"As my best friend it is your duty to comment on every lj entry and do the toast at my wedding reception." - 3/16/2006 5:50pm
"It's like some kind of homosexual velcro." 10/4/2006 4:40pm
"No, China has more gravity. That's why they eat cats." 10/25/2006
"Yay indeed. Verily it is yay." - 2/4/2007 11:58pm
"A sequipedalian sciolistic parisology and charientism, et hoc genus omne, written during an afflatus, for my kinsfolks’ nosopoetic mundungus."

Quotes about

"I've never been with you and found myself thinking 'oh my god get me out of here I'm so bored I wanna stab myself just cuz watching myself bleed would be more fun than this.'" - Oz
"You have a practical business life, an active involvement in you personal relationships, and you still make time for your hobbies. If anything I would say you give nothing but your level best to everything you commit to. Also, I would point out that your extra-curricular interests are varied as well. You have some tied to health and some tied to the arts. I get the feeling that Burning Man is a bit spiritual without being preachy. Perhaps your title should highlight the fact that you can probably converse with anyone about anything in basic terms and take it from there." - Dreamtree
"You're like a crappy santa claus." - Brian Asciutto 8/13/2004 2:00pm
" I discovered that there are few things in the world (excluding pygmy marmosettes) which are cuter than watching a baby turtle eat lettuce." - Kait O'Sullivan 2005
“On your turtle star ship in the federation of turtle planets you're in violation of the turtle prime directive” - Brian 3/21/2007 2:05am
“You're turtle enough for me” - Brian 4/7/2007 12:40am

Super powers and vulnerabilities

Super powers

(1992 only) prescient ability to know where Colleen and what she was doing
Appear silently and without warning next to or behind people
Read Brian's mind (except around water)
Existence is inherently anathema to yes or no questions
Can, without balancing his checkbook, intuitively get bank account close to zero (under 25 cents) but not below
versatile man, champion of a world with blurred lines and multiple perspectives
Irresistible to young foreign born Hispanic guys

Vulnerabilities

Has trouble finding holes
Leaky
Incapable of resisting young foreign born Hispanic guys
Irresistibleness to young foreign born Hispanic guys ends after two weeks
Causes all time pieces to destruct in interesting new ways, can only chronologically pinpoint a few events, the rest have all merged into a non linear timeframe

Skills

Macintosh proficient
Graphic design, photoshop, illustrator, indesign, quarkxpress, contexfree, wikicode
Can wiggle both ears and eyebrows all independently, hang upside down
Drive stick
English, some Spanish, mostly forgotten Latin and Drac
Color pencils, watercolors, pencil, acrylic, pen and ink
Body painting, henna
Professional slacking (don't try this at home folks)

Favorites

TBA

Care and feeding

Although Turtle is not a strict vegetarian, he loves well made vegan or vegetarian or raw food and blended fruit drinks. He thrives on a dynamic mixture of professional slacking and sleep, and adventurous travel and extreme sports. He loves the color green. He likes soak in the water and then bask in the sun with his fellow Testudines.

Codes

Turtle doesn't know his geek code or other codes yet.

Stats

Age: 32
Birth: July 18, 1974 7:17pm (Port Jefferson NY)
Height: 6'2"
Hair: (current) dirty blonde, receding (former) golden, blonde, side part, middle part, no part, various lengths from shaved to shoulder length, blue, faded to green in time for St. Patrick's, copper, black, mohawk, cornrows / braids, spiked (future) dreads?
Weight: ~175 lb
Tattoos: 1, honu yin yang ancient Hawaiian turtle petroglyph on left wrist (May '07)
Piercings: 2 in each ear, belly (closed)

Attire

General attire

Tends to shun formal wear, especially ties, altho he's been said to clean up well. Tends to comfort wear, the color green, and things with turtles on them. Also known for wide assortment of hats, many 'borrowed' from other Forumites. Might dress up slightly cluby when going out dancing.

Halloween

Shrubbery
Samurai futon
El Muerto
Fallen angel
Space cowboy
The night rainbow
Turtle-controlled android

Icon

Shiny shirt
Turtle gear (TMNT tshirt, backpack, and hat)

Spiritual

Turtle was brought up by a Catholic and New Age mother and agnostic step father. He underwent Catholic baptism, communion, and confirmation. Ultimatly, he chose to reject religious (any any for that matter) dogma. He has dabbled in or been associated with wiccans, having been a member of POWER, Solitaries of the SIlver Broom , and Drawing the Circle Productions with other Forumites. He has taken yoga and Tai Chi and meditates. He has had a lot of Jewish friends and attended Jewish weddings (Orthodox and otherwise), Bar Mitzvahs, and Seder/Passover. He also finds interesting buddhism, taoism, Quakers, shamanism, enthogenic spirituality, modern primitives, transhumanism, and singularitarianism. He has sometimes attended and has considered joining the Unitarian Universalist church. He believes that everything exists (therefore also God), that it is just a matter of what form things take that is in question. He most closely identifies with integral thought, agnosticism, and holism.

Links

Homepage (not yet transferred from old domain) [1]
Turtle's Tshirt designs for sale including one with the SF4M logo I designed [2]
Some of Turtle's poetry and writing [3]
Pictures of Turtle in body paint at Burning Man. [4] and (warning:nudity) [5]
Pictures of Turtle with a mohawk [6]
Pictures of Turtle in santa hat December 2006 [7]
Shoes from Turtle's shoe store [8] Rooftop Studio [9]
Turtle's livejournal [10]

Contact

Web email jackdavinci at gmail dot com
AOL IM taodavinci
Email or IM for phone

John James Griffin, Jr.: Difference between revisions