John Spahn lives in Fairfax, Virginia and is now an avid sailor. He attended college at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois and graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering and a minor in computer science. After college John worked as an aerospace engineer designing plane turbines. He has four children, three who have graduated college and one who is currently attending Penn State. In retirement John enjoys sailing, programming and is active with the Fairfax Democrats. Everyday he walks his labradoodle Kenai around the lake across from his home. John is also a devoted sports fan with large connections to the San Antonio Spurs, the Chicago Cubs, and Chicago Bears. John’s wife worked in the Air Force for over 20 years so he has lived all over the country and travelled to large portions of the world. John now enjoys visiting London about every other year and has taken many trips to destinations along the east coast. In high school and college John was an active runner and now he enjoys watching his children run various races.
Interview with John Spahn:
Why do you choose to display stickers on your laptop?
Seven or eight years ago I was writing programs and I thought that it was cool that the other programmers were showing off stickers so I started to put them on my MacBook pro then, and have continued on my new computer since then.
What sticker do you get the most comments on or are you asked the most about?
My Duluth Trading Company Bare Naked Underwear sticker . I get a lot of laughs about that sticker. I also get a lot of comments on my Pete Buttigieg sticker because it’s written in a way that people don’t understand right away.
Which sticker is your favorite and why?
That’s like asking what my favorite song is because it’s always changing. Usually it’s the last one I put on. Right now I would have to say it’s my St Michaels Maritime Museum and the Maine Island Trails stickers. The Main Island Trail is a trail that boats are supposed to follow when coming up the coast of Maine, there are little island parks only accessible to boats along the trail. Both of my favorite stickers are sailing related because sailing is something I love to do.
What does the no pebble mine sticker mean?
Pebble is a mine in Alaska, south of Mount Iliamna, which is a volcano. It is where the biggest natural surviving salmon run is located. About 30-40% of sockeye salmon in the world are from this area where pebble mine is going in. There is a ton of gold, silver, copper and lithium in this salmon run so people want to mine there because there are upwards of a trillion dollars worth of metals. There is a large debate over whether to conserve the salmon or mine the metals. I support the salmon. Because the metals are so dispersed mining would involve drilling deep into the ground over a large area of the salmon run. To try to keep the mining from affecting surrounding areas barrier walls would be built, but to support a mine this size the walls would need to be as tall as the Washington monument. This area in Alaska is also known for having large amounts of earthquakes so the walls would eventually break and kill the salmon in this run.
Where do you get most of your stickers?
Pretty much everything I am interested in has stickers. They have them at counters, political events, and companies give them to me. Sometimes I have to send away for them like my Spurs sticker and my cubs sticker. I had to pay for the Penn State sticker though so sometimes companies do make you pay.
John displays a high volume of stickers on his laptop and he expresses concern that sometimes when he opens it up he is offending conservatives because of his large amount of liberal stickers and Lakers fans because of his Spurs sticker.