Morris “Mojo” Jones
I’m currently a Platform Engineer working on web applications for DreamWorks Animation SKG, with a 25-year history in the business. I have no aptitude for management, and I’m very grateful that my talents are still valued as a designer and coder. Previous companies include Disney Interactive, the Rubicon Project, Fox Audience Network, Geni, Shopzilla, UCLA Healthcare, Virage, Caere, Etak, and MicroPro.
Since 1995 I’ve run my own Linux server, hosting about a dozen domains for friends and relatives. It’s a crazy masochistic hobby to keep a server live and current in the wild on the internet . I recommend finding a good hosting company and sending them the few dollars they ask for.
I’ve also been a “serial hobbyist,” indulging in several typical geeky hobbies. No longer active in most.
I’m an inactive ham radio operator, Amateur Extra class, AA4KB. I was mostly a CW traffic handler and contester. I worked for a summer at headquarters for the American Radio Relay League in 1977.
I have 500 hours as a pilot in single-engine aircraft and gliders, with an instrument rating.
I’m a Life Master in the American Contract Bridge League, a club director, past president of the local bridge unit, and an accredited bridge teacher. I currently teach beginning and intermediate bridge at Pasadena City College.
I was a teacher and site coordinating for the Motorcycle Safety Foundation and California Motorcyclist Safetly Program, and put about 150,000 on several motorcycles, including a Kawasaki Concours, Honda GoldWing, and Yamaha FZ-400.
Most of my hobby time currently is spent doing astronomy and sidewalk astronomy outreach. Jane Houston and I met at Fremont Peak Observatory, doing public outreach programs at the observatory. We’ve since participated in activities with most of the San Francisco Bay Area astronomy clubs. Jane and I were honored with the name of minor planet 22338 Janemojo.
In 2003 Jane and I relocated to Southern California, when she took a position with NASA JPL doing public outreach for the Cassini mission to Saturn. We bought a home in Monrovia, and founded the Old Town Sidewalk Astronomers.
Our interests outside of sidewalk and public astronomy include dark sky observing visually with big dobs, and more recently I’ve been experimenting with astrophotography using a Canon 20D DSLR and an SBIG ST-4K one-shot color camera.