Eric Talaska, "Eco Neato", (first ever name & nickname) was born in Findlay, Ohio in March, 1969 and writes left handed. He is eclectic with a diverse background of education, work, skills and travel. He has sacrificed much to relocate frequently in search of education, meaningful work and a higher quality of life. He is not zealous about pop culture or religion. He is candid, altruistic and ecocentric. He lived and did things unusually solo, but not solitary. He got his first name and risk taking from his late mother Erika. Erika's father owned a second generation bicycle and sewing machine shop in Schmolln, Germany. Eric got his middle name Charles and humor from his father "Charlie". Eric's parents were married 50 years. Eric's maternal haplogroup is J1c3c.
In 1977 at age 8 and when Smokey and the Bandit was released, Eric moved to Texarkana, Texas because of his father's job. He lived in a fancy Spanish style home in a quiet neighborhood as an extreme, minimally nurtured "latchkey" Gen-X kid who suffered boredom but also developed self-reliance and the ability to adapt. In his early teen years, he was a Cub Scout, collected stamps with his father and worked on and rode motorcycles. He was very briefly abducted at the local mall at a time between Adam Walsh's abduction and creation of NCMEC. He mowed neighbor's yards often. He was made fun of in a snobby school for many things such as dress "Where's the flood?" due to pants not touching shoes, haircut by mom and suggesting the power button be placed on the front of Apple IIe computers, not back.
In 1987, Eric joined the U.S. Army during the end of Cold War I, risking everything for peace and freedom. His entrance exam score was very high which is stunning as he did poorly in grade school. He was a 31C Radio Teletype Operator (early information security) in the 101st Military Intel. He participated in exercise "Reforger 88 - Certain Challenge" in Germany, the largest NATO maneuver since the end of World War II. In 1989, he was lastly stationed in Alaska. He attended college in addition to his full time duties. He did all this in just two years by age 20. He was in the reserves for five years during the Persian Gulf War.
In 1989, Eric moved back to the Texarkana area and did strenuous tire factory work for two years, simultaneously taking college classes at Texarkana College where he was a newspaper reporter. His hobbies were sailing and again motorcycles. He tried to relocate to Australia. In 1992 he read "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" which inspired him to quit the factory job and attended The University of Arkansas at Fayetteville full time. His final research paper in 1995 was "The Future of Internet-Facilitated Communication". He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Communication and his name is inscribed in the University's famed Senior Walk. This university helped advance Eric's interests especially in environmentalism, the Internet, videography and fitness.
In 1995, Eric invented an inline skate brake system while skating in Dunedin, Florida while in job training there. He moved near Washington D.C. to vastly explore the Smithsonian Museums and to do patent research. He built a prototype of his invention and wrote, prosecuted and won an appeal pro se for his patent with a "method claim", a difficult combination to achieve. He was awarded U.S. Utility Patent #5,860,492. He was an original HTML1 website designer, animation creator, video embedder and video uploader with his first website, skatebrake.com in 1996, then NoEnd.com, d.b.a. Controlit, Inc. in 1998 and domain broker.
In 1998, Eric earned a Paralegal Certificate and worked as a paralegal and bonded notary public for three years. In 2004 he purchased his first building in Murfreesboro, Arkansas, remodeled it himself and opened his own home based computer store where he built and serviced computers and did website design. He adopted his dog Tippy II who greeted his customers. In 2005, he learned and practiced natural health techniques. Eric sold his building in 2008 and tried unfruitful (timing vs. time in) investments. In March, 2009, he took a vacation around Florida to swim with manatees, dolphins and sharks and barely escaped a rip current. He developed a lot overlooking Carter Lake in Colorado by laboriously self-installing underground power, a cistern and an RV, but soon sold it all.
Eric's mother passed in June, 2009 and his father in April, 2011 as his last ancestor. Their estate was severely neglected by others in charge of it. In 2013, Eric found the world record sized Western sand dollar. Since mid 2015, he has been living and traveling in a large van he upfitted into a small motorhome on his own. In July, 2019, Eric's service dog of 15 years was put to rest, but always serves as a "ghost service dog". In December, 2019, Eric launched a campaign to run for the President of the United States with the Democratic Party, but since the media refused to cover him, he plans to try again for 2024 or 2028.
Eric's priorities are: Health, freedom, wisdom, contributions, fun and social. His mission is to achieve environmental advocacy. He's most looking forward to what we will learn after the Webb telescope is launched around 2021.
