My name is John L. Whiteman, but you can call me Bule (BOO-lei). Bule is an Indonesian slang word for 'white man'. My wife is from Indonesia, and my last name is 'Whiteman', and I am a white guy. Need I say more.
If you want to learn more about Indonesian then click here or there (depending where you are standing I guess)!
I grew up in a small town in Hillsboro, North Dakota. My family owned a bakery and we lived upstairs. I spent much of my childhood years smelling like a donut.
I left town the day after I turned eighteen. With a few hundred bucks in my pocket, I headed to Denver, Colorado with a friend. We were going to be rock stars and make lots of money. Things didn't work out though. I think it had something to do with me smelling like a donut.
I decided that I wanted to be in radio. I had the perfect face for it. I took a nine-month course in broadcasting. I worked a few jobs as a broadcast journalist in western Colorado. I knew that without a college degree and a nice suit, I would never anchor in any major media market. So I took the next logical step and joined the Navy.
Although the Navy had spent seven years and thousands of dollars training me to be a sonar technician, I spent most of my time cleaning toilets and being lectured about the dangers of sexual harassment. If you think war is hell then you should try being a sailor during peace. I was studious though and completed a four-year degree in Asian Studies while stationed in Japan.
I worked a few jobs and enrolled in numerous science and engineering courses here in Oregon since my Navy days. I am currently employed as a Software Quality Assurance Engineer for a local Video-On-Demand hardware company.
I will finish my B.S. in Computer Science on August 14, 2004, at which time I will become a hairdresser.