Who is thirdeye?
Well, I'm a third generation backyard barbecuist, a food blogger, a regular member of several barbecue forums, and a Certified BBQ Judge. Over the years in my spare time, I have designed and fabricated numerous tools and gadgets, some of which are displayed on this site. I currently cook on Big Green Eggs, Big Drum Smokers, and Big Chief Smokers.
What's in a name?
I've been a third party welding inspector for 30+ years, and thirdeye was a nickname I got early in my career. When the internet came about, ~thirdeye~ was unique enough to be a good internet nickname.
Where did all this start? My interest in “online” cooking and recipe information started in the 1990’s when I subscribed to a service called Prodigy. It had sections like news, weather, sports, politics, markets, lifestyles, shopping and also offered e-mail and bulletin boards on a variety of topics, some of which were cooking related. I still have some recipes I downloaded from that site. This early information highway really grabbed me. I started my adventure in online writing with a blog site I called "my cookin' site". The real name is Playing With Fire and Smoke.
When did you get into online forums?
The early chat rooms and newsgroups were a fun place to cruise around on. Many of them evolved into forums, For what it’s worth I do visit some professional forums and several handgun and fishing forums, but barbecue forums are my favorite. Over the years I’ve swapped recipes, told stories and posted a lot of photographs. All this time I never stopped asking questions, learning from others and having a lot of fun fine tuning my cooking.
Why do you like making online footprints?
When I started cruising around on several barbecue forums, I really liked the atmosphere. Forums are a great way to meet folks from all walks of life who happen to share a common interest. The interaction is what I like. It’s really cool to read through a thread, then ask a question about a specific post and get an answer (or maybe several answers) in little or no time. Sometimes just minutes. In a similar fashion, starting a thread with a particular question will yield a variety of interesting responses.