About the Authors

- THE AUTHORS -

The authors are Jim Connolly and Ellen Debboli. As a couple, they have been together for about 30 years, since

1979 - Prom Picture

meeting in high school in upstate New York, outside Albany. They currently live in Datil, New Mexico, a small town in the mountains about 130 miles southwest of Albuquerque. While in college, Jim and Ellen (with two friends) ran a T-shirt screen-printing company. After a couple of years of designing T-Shirts for local bars, restaurants and clubs, they decided to sell the company, in anticipation of someday moving to California. With the proceeds made from selling their operation, they embarked on their first travel adventure as a couple - to the island of St. Martin, in the Caribbean. This helped to spark their love for adventure, and their desire to explore the world. They left New York in 1984, and since have lived in California, Nevada, Texas, Colorado, Roatan, Cape Town and most recently, New Mexico.

View from our house in Bailey Colorado

In the process of moving around, j&e have had the opportunity to visit almost every state (just missing Alaska and Hawaii) and to explore several in great detail. Over the past 10 years, they have expanded their horizons and done a bit more international travel, including a 3-year stay on the island of Roatan, where at various stages they taught scuba diving, designed web sites, ran a retail shop, and became partners in a web-based travel reservation venture, and became involved in a venture that sells underwater photography (including Jim's photos) as prints and refrigerator magnets. After returning to the States from the island in 2005, the next phase is something yet again different - building their own home in the mountains of New Mexico.

Jim

Ellen

After high school, Jim attended the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He studied to become a commercial artist, back before the Macintosh was invented, and graduated in 1981 after a grueling 8-quarter schedule that didn't allow for much time off. For fun, he would visit Ellen in Oswego, New York (a more traditional college). His career highlights to date include a progression of positions as artist, then art director, then software designer, consultant to the creative industry, and operation of an Internet software development company. His hobbies include motorcycle riding and racing, skiing, scuba diving, and traveling. He is the photographer for the vast majority of visual documentation on this site. Jim and Ellen worked together to design the site flow and how the pages should lay out. Jim physically built the pages and all the database queries, as well as designing the layouts and choosing colors, fonts, and aesthetic considerations. Congratulations to Jim, who in August of 2002, successfully completed the PADI Instructor's Exam, making him a certified scuba instructor. One of his dreams is to someday ride a motorcycle in the Paris to Dakar desert race.

Ellen is a graduate of the University of New York, College at Oswego. She majored in Sociology, and also took many courses in Anthropology, including graduate work at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Career highlights include working with a small travel audit company, where she developed an interest in databases by being involved in creating one for internal use. Since, she has designed and built database-driven applications professionally, as well as consulting with companies in determining their work flow needs. She was also director of database development for a software development company. Her hobbies include motorcycle riding, skiing, scuba diving, and traveling. She is the writer chronicling the travels of j&e. In addition to working with Jim to design the site flow and layout, she created the database, and wrote all the stories, summaries, and photo captions. She also selected which photos should be used with each story from vast photo archives. Congratulations to Ellen, who in August of 2002, successfully completed the PADI Instructor's Exam, making her a certified scuba instructor. One of her dreams is to someday be a professional writer - in addition to her hobby of writing for ThisDoesntSuck.com.

A little history

1966 - Ellen and her brother Paul

1966- Jim's brother John (left) and Jim on John's Confirmation day	1982 - Ellen with friend Mark do justice to a little "Leather and Lace"	1973 - Ellen geeks for the camera	1975 - Jim, brother John, Dad, and their bikes.
1979 - Ellen's High School year book picture	1996 - Puerto Penasco Mexico taken after the "Rocky Point" desert Race	1999 - Cozumel Mexico Jim finds a friend, who steals the "beanie" off his cap	1997 - Ellen with a new friend.A koala "baby" at WildWorld animal park ouside of Cairns Austrailia
1986 - Ellen's 1st flight 1986 - Ellen's first cast	1986 - Jim's first flight. No post-flight cast required.	1985 Fresh from the East Coast Jim learns how to ride in the desert. A couple of casts will be required before training is over.	1972 - Jim geeks for the camera