Recently an acquaintance of mine was remarking on my book, and they said, “I especially love the joke bio. Are any of those things actually true?”

“They are all true,” I said. They were quite surprised.

Anyway, I reflected on this discussion and wondered if others did not believe, or moreover, how widespread is it for people to just make stuff up? Is it more than half the time? Is it 99% of the time? There is no way to answer this question, but it is interesting speculation.

So here is my bio. And yes, everything in it is true. I am happy to answer any questions about this for believers and dis-believers alike.

My Bio

James Bigtwin grew up on a grain and livestock farm in Indiana; 6-time champion 4-H livestock showman for sheep and swine; HS class salutatorian and 4-year varsity athlete in basketball and track; earned a degree in Economics at Stanford University; Editor of the Stanford Chaparral and also Business Manager; floated a 35 ft. sheep balloon over the 1985 Stanford-Berkeley football game; one of three who freed Oskie from the Berkeley union; desktop publishing and 3D graphics pioneer; painter of mixed media dog and ufo Dukey paintings; founded the TechnoRomantics group and parties in NYC; co-founder of Disorient parties; drawn thousands of mandala designs on self-coded software; performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival with Virtual Reality founder Jaron Lanier, made virtual sets for ABC, Discovery Channel, TLC, and ESPN, winning a 1999 Broadcast Design Gold for SportsCentury;  has gotten 3 different songs on Dr. Demento;  created the website for Dr. John C. Lilly and presented with him at ICERC conferences in Tokyo and Paris; coded dolphin whistle recognition software and other programs for underwater touchscreen with Dr. Ken Marten; created Japan’s first VRML website for Digital Garage; designed many Joe Camel billboards and ads; earned an advanced degree in banking from the Graduate School of Banking at Colorado; branding and branch expansion expert for community banks and retail businesses; organized a Guinness World Record for the largest serving of fried chicken; ran a canoe race and festival drawing people from 31 states and three countries before being removed “for the good of the community”; is the basis for the cartoon character Jim Kuback on the cult TV show Mission Hill; appeared in The Onion under the name of Chaparral Field Marshal Mike Dornheim; and authored and designed The Chappie – 125 Years of Issues Chaparral anniversary book where he discovered evidence, or coincidence, of the Zodiac Killer on the Stanford campus in the 1960s and 70s.