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 Lyle J. Kamenir
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Born
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February 24, 1968 in New Brunswick, NJ
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Parents
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Melvin, Charlotte
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Siblings
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Dara, Amy
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Nieces/
Nephews
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Jake, Nikki
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Education
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University Of Massachusetts at Amherst
BA Finance/Minor Computer Science - 1990
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Favorites
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Color – Blue
Old TV Shows – Honeymooners,
Brady Bunch, Three’s Company, Lost
In Space
New TV Show – Queer As Folk
Music – Pink Floyd,
Beatles, Doors, Elton John
Sports Team – Atlanta Falcons
Season – Fall
City (other than home) – Las Vegas, NV
Activities – Pool,
Snowboarding, Rollerblading
Movies – Dead Poets
Society, Stand By Me, Shawshank Redemption
Food – Italian
Soft Drink – Iced Tea
Hard Drink – Gin n Tonic, Jack
n Ginger Ale
Fruit – Orange
Candy – Reese’s Peanut
Butter Cups
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Lived in New Brunswick, NJ for the first 6 months of my
life and then moved to West Orange, NJ until I went to college. Growing up with two older sisters (Amy and Dara - 7 and 9 years older), I remember getting beaten up
a lot, but I guess being the only boy and the baby I was also a bit
spoiled. I remember having a very
comfortable childhood. We used to own
a summer house at Chadwick beach on the Jersey
shore where most of my childhood summers were spent. We had a few cats growing up and at age 9
we got a blue and gold macaw parrot.
My parents opened a plant store sometime in the mid 1970’s in
the Livingston
Mall which eventually changed into a flower store. My dad was at
work and my mom was at the store so I ended up spending a lot of time with my
sisters and on my own. I was forced to
learn how to cook at an early age.
When I got older there were many nights where cooked dinner for the
family. I have always held on to my
love of cooking and do so as much as I can today.
I went to Mt.
Pleasant elementary
school where I remember being quite the class clown and trouble maker. My parents had numerous teacher conferences
and even a few times where I need to be picked up from school due to worse
than expected behavior. I continued
onto high school (6-12) at Newark Academy. This was a very small prep school of only
450 students. I played a bit of
various sports (lacrosse and tennis) but enjoyed soccer the most. In the 1980’s, we had season tickets to the
New York Cosmos where I got to see soccer greats such as Pelé
and Giorgio Chinaglia play. At 16, I got my first job working at my
parents flower store and helped with deliveries when I got my driver’s
license at 17. I feel very fortunate to
have gone to this school. The high
school in my town was not very good and I think going to a prep school gave
me the motivation and drive to excel in life.
I applied to mostly larger state universities and finally decided on UMASS Amherst. My first two semesters I lived on campus
and enjoyed myself quite a bit.. probably
too much at times. UMASS was rated as
one of the top party school and this didn’t help my grades much. Sophomore year, I joined a fraternity, Sigma Phi Epsilon. My junior year I moved to off campus
housing with some of my fraternity brothers.
Overall I did manage to do pretty well in school and graduate from the
business school with a BBA in Finance and minor in Computer Science.
In my teens and especially at college, I developed most of my music taste
consisting mostly of classic rock. I
would say my top 4 favorites would be Pink
Floyd, The
Doors, The Beatles and Elton John. Today I enjoy a wide variety of music
including Country, Classical, 80’s and Dance.
I also developed some of my interests that I still have today.. Pool, snowboarding, rollerblading, and pretty much
anything that involves the outdoors.
I graduated in May, 1990, and moved into New York City later that summer when an
apartment my sister was living in opened up.
I always knew I didn’t want to be that far from my family (all in New Jersey) but I
didn’t really expect to move right into the city. That fall, I got my first post-college job
as a junior financial analyst with the City of New York.
I thought at first that this was the direction I wanted to move in for
a career, but soon after decided computers was where my skills really
were. My jobs following that were all
with Financial Services companies. In
the late 1990’s I moved into web development and database design and continue
in that profession today.
September
11,2001 is a date I will never
forget. I was working at a job
downtown and saw all the events unfold right in front of my eyes only blocks away. All my life I never had much to worry about
or fear for my well being. That day
forever changed my life and I will always have some anxiety within and worry
about what might come next.
In April 2000, I had a new addition to my family… An African Grey
parrot, Nimbus. Logan, an Eclectus
parrot, soon followed him in June, 2001. I have always loved animals and
would eventually like to get involved in some animal rehabilitation
program. In 2002 I took a real
interest in football and have become a lifetime fan of the Atlanta Falcons.
April 13, 2002 was another day that
changed my life and took me completely by surprise. I met someone that was like no other person
I ever have… someone that made me feel like I never had… someone that could
be my soul mate.. someone I
hope to be with forever.. someone whose name is
Roger Dale. Finally all my dreams seem
possible.
Today I still reside in the same apartment I have since 1990 in
the upper east side of Manhattan.
I look forward to a house somewhere in
the country at some point but always plan to keep the apartment here for
continual visits to the greatest city on the earth.
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 Roger D. Newcomb
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Born
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May 28, 1970 in Springfield, TN
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Parents
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George, Louise
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Siblings
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Teresa, Donnie, Janice
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Nieces/
Nephews
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Chris, Tabby, Brandy, April, Joe, Heather, Derek, Brannon,
Blake, Brittany, Brookelyn, Cassidy, Tyler,
Justin, Justin, Trevor, Peyton
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Education
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Austin Peay
State University
BS Computer Science/History - 1993
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Favorites
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Color – Red
Actors – Stephen Schnetzer, Morgan Freeman, Adam Sandler
Actresses – Anne Sayre,
Drew Barrymore, Reese Witherspoon
All-Time TV Shows –
Another World, Brady Bunch, All in the Family
Current TV Shows –
Jack & Bobby, Lost, Scrubs, Desperate Housewives, Degrassi, American
Idol
Singers – Patty
Loveless, Keith Whitley, Loretta Lynn
Bands – REO Speedwagon, Go Go’s, The
Mamas & The Papas
Sport to Play –
Tennis
Sport to Watch –
Football
Team – Atlanta Falcons
Number – 10
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I was born the fourth child of George and Louise. I lived in the
same house in Greenbrier, TN, from time I was born until the
time I went to college (and my mama still lives there). By the time I was
ten, my oldest sister and brother were married and out of the house so I grew
up mostly with my sister, Janice. At age 10, I already had four nieces and
nephews, so tended to get lumped in with the kids long after I grew up. I was
a shy, introverted kid and liked to read. I loved sports from an early age
and it has been a lifelong passion. I was always the skinniest kid in my
class and kind of short. When I was fifteen I started a growth spurt that
didn't stop until I was 25. Now I'm up to 6' 5" and way taller than all
my friends and family. My family was lower middle class but I always had
everything I wanted. I definitely got spoiled and had more advantages than my
siblings. No one in our family had gone to college and I was determined to do
so and become successful. I became fixated with New York fairly early and thought I'd end
up living there someday. My dad died when I was 16 which was a hard time for
my family, but my Mama is the strongest person I know and worked hard to
survive. I wanted to be everything growing up from a geologist to detective
to lawyer growing up and then settled on becoming a history teacher by the
time I finished Greenbrier High School in 1988.
I entered Austin Peay State University in the fall of 1988 as a
history major. My first (of many) college roommate was Ronnie who has been a
close friend to ever since. A month after I started college, my nephew, Joe,
was born. I felt close to him from the first second and he’s always been my
little protégé. After two years, I decided to double major in computer
science (and I'm glad I did). It took me a while to adjust to being away from
home. I was pretty much a mama's boy my whole life (some things never change)
and tended to go home quite a lot that first year. By the second year I was
going home less, and by year three stayed at school most of the time. My
third year was probably my best when I met two of my best friends, Rico and Bubba. That year was a turning point
for me. It was probably the happiest year of my life and I was surrounded by
tons of friends that are still in my life today. Maybe it was getting older
or maybe the great friendships, but my self-confidence grew to an all-time
high and has been pretty high ever since. My
communication skills also improved tremendously and I really grew up. My
college buds and I teamed up and made a home movie - "A Rage in Harvill" (as in Harvill
Hall) that we still watch today. The last two years of college were filled
with lots of computer classes and lots of thoughts about what life after
school would be. By the time I graduated in May 1993, I was prepared for
adulthood and ready to take on the world.
I worked at Laidlaw
Environmental Services for several months after college before I
landed my first REAL job and moved to Nashville.
My sisters worked there and Teresa brought me breakfast every morning and
really helped with my transition into adulthood. I started at Cigna Healthcare
in February 1994 as a Fee Schedule Consultant and quicky
moved on to Technical Analyst. I really enjoyed that job and all the people,
especially Steve, who is one of my best friends. By 1995, I was thinking
about leaving Tennessee.
I had always planned on moving to New
York and begain seriously
thinking about the move. For various reasons, I ended up choosing the
California Bay Area, and began preparing to move. The first few months of
1996 were filled with preparations and planning. By May, I had finished my
job at Cigna and on the 17th left Nashville
for California
with nothing but what would fit in my Mazda Protege.
I took an apartment in Sunnyvale,
CA for about six weeks and then
moved into the worst place I've ever lived - an apartment/room in Milpitas. It took a few
months to find a job in Silicon Valley and
my savings dwindled fast (my mama really helped me out during this time). In
November, I landed a job at Sun Microsystems and things started to really turn
around for me. I moved to El Cerrito
in 1997 with a fellow Tennessean, Rob, and my transition was pretty much
complete. Rico came to visit for three weeks in July 1997 and after that I
began to feel at home finally - having a job and home life that were
enjoyable. In February of 1998, I moved into a house in Oakland with John. I bought my first
satellite dish so that I could watch all the Falcons
games and totally loved it. The Falcons had their best season ever and went
to the Super Bowl. The next few years I moved to Union City, Oakland (again) and San Jose (with Kevin), where I lived until
summer 2002. Met some great people in
California
(Bev, Susan, Evelyn, Kathleen) that I hope to be in
contact with forever.
Over the past few years I have met some really great friends (Patty, Kayla, Liz, Anne)
through one of my interests, As The World Turns. I have created a message board
where we all post and talk about the show and life. I really use the internet
to follow my favorite things - the Falcons, ATWT, and Patty Loveless. I moved
to New York
last summer to fulfill my lifelong dream. Living on the Upper
East side with Lyle has been the best experience of my life. My
boss agreed to let me keep by job at Sun and work from home in New York so I will be
eternally grateful. We love life here with our two birds, Nimbus and Logan. I hope to spend
a lot more time in Tennessee
with year visiting my family (16 nieces and nephews now!) and friends. My mom
has married a great guy, Earl, and life is good. I can honestly say I've
never been happier.
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