Who Is Jay Shaffstall?

That's Springfield township, outside of Akron, Ohio. The high school now has a web page, at Springfield High School.

I graduated in the class of '83. So if you're looking for that Jay Shaffstall, you've found him!

Those who knew me way back when, as a painfully shy teen, probably won't believe it. But my living is now getting up in front of students and helping them learn. I currently teach computer programming at Muskingum College, and have taught in the past at Franklin University.

Teaching is a blast! It certainly beats working for a living. And by that I don't mean that teaching is easy, but it's so fulfilling that it doesn't seem like work.

My lens on computer game making for kids is part of an ongoing effort of mine to motivate kids to learn how to solve problems. Computer programming is a great way to develop logical thinking and problem solving skills, and making computer games is a great motivator for kids.

I've also done life coaching in the past, although with the birth of my daughter I dropped that to focus on her. You can still find some of my articles on personal growth and financial responsiblity at Guardian-Tree.com.

Being a Dad is the most unexpected thing that's happened to me, and the absolute best.

My daughter fought her way past all sorts of birth control to get into this world, and is having a ball now that she's here. She's helped us to relax, live more spontaneously, and rediscover pure joy.

She also stars in the intro photo of my lens on Roleplaying with Kids. She still loves those dice!

I've been interested in games all my life, and love playing them. I'm more interested in face to face games than computer games, although I'll play the odd computer game, too.

I have a lens on Murder Mystery Party Ideas. I've been playing these sorts of games for a few years now, and absolutely love them. They're fun to host and fun to play in.

For more in depth reviews of the games I've hosted, see the above link (the reviews are a work in progress, so expect more to be added over time).

I'm also a roleplayer, and a board gamer. Eventually I'll get around to putting review lenses up for board games I like.

Okay, so I can't really take a lot of credit for this one, but my wife is an experimental cook. She modifies recipes, creates new ones, and rarely cooks anything the same way twice, but it all turns out wonderful!

I've managed to get her to write down some of her best recipes, such as her vegetable lasagna and her applesauce cake, and we've put them onto a website dedicated to healthy recipes.

Stop by and let us know what you think!

Okay, I know that's a random odd fact to put into an "about me" page. But that allergy to celery has made me examine closely all the packaged food I buy, and I've found it in most of the packaged food. We even had some all-beef hot dogs that used celery juice.

When I eat anything that has celery, I get terrible migraines. I get migraines at other times, too, but the celery induced ones are pretty bad, and come on almost instantly.

Strange, huh?

The Million Dollar Wiki is a site that sells pages based on keywords. The concept is new enough that pages on the wiki could get a lot of traffic.

I succumbed to temptation and bought a page for the keyword, Make Money Online Free. Stop by it and let me know what you think!

I have a couple of blogs I'm updating regularly these days.

Jay's Life is my personal blog where I post about whatever catches my fancy. Sometimes I rant, sometimes I rave, and sometimes I just think out loud. You'll also find pointers to computer software, games, and whatever else I've found useful or fun.

Online Opportunity is a blog where I talk about ways to make money online. It's both a journal of my own efforts, and a place to capture what I've learned. My goal with the blog is that a newcomer to the idea of making a living online can learn enough to get them started.

The idea of personal responsibility, and owning what happens, has changed my life. My articles over at Guardian-Tree.com were written toward the start of this process in my life.

I've recently started creating a series of lenses on the topic of Responsible Living that will expand on the articles and provide additional insights I've developed over the years.

The lens linked to above is the starting point of the series. Each one will link to the next as it's developed.

Creating lenses on Squidoo is so easy it's addictive. I'm not so prolific as some lensmasters, but I try to put quality into each lens.

I also look at other lenses when I can. I've added some of the ones I like the best to the lensroll at the right (under the More Great Lenses heading).

Visit some of them when you get a chance!

I've been captivated by time travel since an early age. The first science fiction book I ever read was A Wrinkle in Time. In high school I created the rules for a chess variant in which each piece could travel in time in a straightforward manner. The game could be lost due to creating a temporal paradox!

So it was inevitable that I'd create a lens about time travel. The lens isn't finished yet, but there are some links to interesting time travel websites there now.

This lens is, too. I add to it now and then when I have the time, so check back to see who I am today!