More than anyone in their right mind would want to know about Mr. Hook

Mr. Hook was born and raised in Iowa, went to college in Minnesota, and currently resides in Nebraska. For reasons beyond his ability to fathom, he has always lived within miles of a state border in a border town. This is why he has a tendency to cross state lines without even noticing. Aside from crossing lines he probably shouldn't in his spare time, Mr. Hook is also a free-lance illustrator and computer graphics artist. To account for his life and times we might as well skip the boring bits and delve straight into the following three catagories:

WHERE MR. HOOK WENT TO HIGH SCHOOL

Mr. Hook attended Sibley-Ocheyedan High School from 1986 to 1990 and graduated with honors. His extra-curricular activities were Concert Band, Marching Band, Jazz Band, Pep Band, oh, and did we mention Band? He took a year of Music Theory too, but mostly he played euphonium, baratone, valve trombone, marching trombone...well, you get the picture.

Mr. Hook did fairly well in his Music, English, and History classes, and performed rather poorly in most of his math classes. But he was in his element most of all in Art class, for it was there that he decided Art was the career he would pursue. A kind word should be put in here for Faye Vos, his Art teacher, for maintaining one of the best art curriculums you're likely to find in the Iowa public school system. During his senior year, Mr. Hook attended a Portfolio Day at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design where he was offered a scholarship to go to Moorhead State, which leads us to:

WHERE MR. HOOK WENT TO COLLEGE

Mr. Hook attended Minnesota State University Moorhead from 1990 to 1995, taking five and a half years to earn a five year degree in Pictorial Illustration. He could have finished earlier if he hadn't been so determined to get into a Beginning Filmmaking class usually reserved for theatre majors during his second year, but he has no regrets in that regard. In fact, Mr. Hook took several film classes while attending MSU, including screenwriting, so he as a fairly solid background in Film History. His background in Art History isn't too shabby either, as he was required to take two full years of it in order to get his degree.

Mr. Hook was heavily involved in the Science Fiction & Fantasy club at MSU. He helped create, organize, and maintain the Sci-Fi & Fantasy Club Library and usually hosted Dr. Who night. Mr. Hook hosted his Senior Exhibition (for which he recieved an "A," by the way) at the Moorhead Public Library on a cold snowy day in December, 1995. Then, after he got his grades and paid for his Macintosh, he went home to Iowa and sent out resumes and portfolio samples until he got a graphic design job and moved to Omaha, NE.

WHERE MR. HOOK GOES TO WORK

Mr. Hook currently works as a File Clerk for Appled Underwriters. Because starving artists deserve to starve! In his spare time, however, Mr. Hook creates various graphics for Bagock! Games.

If you're the sort of person who can't leave well enough alone, or if you happen to have way too much time on your hands, or if you've been living in an abandoned missle silo all your life and are easily entertained, you might be interested in:

The Long and Winded Story of How Mr. Hook Got His Goofy Nickname

Once upon a time, a young lad named Joel attended his first Driver's Education class just prior to his first year of high school. As the driving instructor was calling out the students' names for roll call, he had difficulty pronouncing the "Hoek" in Joel's arcane Dutch surname, "Hoekstra." Trying to be helpful (and sick and tired of people pronouncing it wrong in general), Joel yelled out "It's Hook!" and the name stuck. And since there were three other Joels attending S-O High that year, and since two of them were also in the freshman class, it was really more a matter of conveinence than anything to simply call the tall skinny geeky Joel who always wore a big blue jacket "Hook" instead. And that is why, years later, it occurred to Joel Hoekstra to sign on to Earthlink Network with "mrhook" as his username (apparently "mrgone" was already taken, but that, as they say, is another story).

If you've read this far, you've read too much. Turn back now! Sanity lies elsewhere.