Welcome to My Personal Website

Welcome! My name is John Skaggs. I am a Catholic West Virginian. I went to Marshall University where I studied civil engineering and applied mathematics with some post graduate work in mathematics. Since college I have worked primarily on bridges and bridge-like structures. Some of my interests will be documented in the links above. Thank you for visiting!

Pets

I currently have one beautiful Australian Shepherd. She is very playful and rambuctuous. She is also quiet intelligent. I love her.

From May 2014 to May 2023 I had a beloved dog name Scott. Some things that his friends commented on the instagram post announcing his passing were "Scott was the best dog ever", "He was the best dog", "He was the best dog ever".

I like cats but they make my eyes water and itch really bad so I don't have one. When I was staying in Springdale, AR an orange tabby used to play with me on the front porch of the airbnb I was renting.

Woodworking

I had been watching instagram shorts of people making boxes for some time and was driving past a funny looking store front filled with toys in the window. On the side it said "Regular Open meeting every second Thursday at 6:30 pm" and I thought "I know what that means".

I was greeted by the members who encouraged me to take the safety test, no big deal pay $10 for the class and if you don't pass the test you can take it home and correct the answers. The first thing the instructor Tom told me was "I hope you guys have been studying, because we want you to join!" It turned out that my email address was mispelled in the email list and I had not received the study materials ahead of time. It turned out that you are required to pass the exam with a minimum of 80% prior to taking it home and correcting it. Everyone must turn in a 100% correct test before they can use the tools in the shop. One 20 hour hands-on safety class and 2 test attempts later I was in.

Stained Glass

One day a guy named Larry came into the woodworking club and showed off a piece that he had created which caught my fancy. He had built a wall clock with a cabinet which framed a stained glass window that a woman from his church helped him build. her studio happened to be right next to my parent's house and I made a mental note to pop in at some point.

I did not have time to work on woodworking projects while I was working in Arkansas, my schedule was too unpredictable to undertake a project that would take multiple sessions. However, the glass art studio offered classes that could be completed in a single session so I thought I would give it a whirl. I really enjoyed the class and decided to keep at it. My portfolio is currently rather meager, but in August I will build a lamp shade.