Biography

I am a complete and total nerd, and have been one for as long as I remember. For instance, when I was eight years old in the summer of 1974 my mother enrolled me in Kids, Turtles, and Computers at The University of Utah where I programmed a Univac mainframe for the first time using an interactive paper printout terminal (i.e. teletype).

It was in this same course that I played my first computer game. The always fabulous Hunt the Wumpus. I ported it to great and awsome language Python.

My interest in flying and aerospace started with my father’ job as an engineer for the United States Air Force, and his work with Thunderbirds. One of my first memories was sitting in the front seat of an F-4 Phantom II and lookinng at the ADI. It was at that moment I made the determination to be a fighter pilot, but through slight near-sightedness and a lack of eyesight waivers this goal was never fulfilled.

My interest in skiing started when I was ten. I started with nordic style until I was able to ski on any type of snow in any type of terrain. At this point I became slightly bored with nordic skiing, so I have been working to learn how to telemark using leather boots. This has been a difficult process to unlearn all the muscle memory of nordic skiing and replace it with telemark muscle memory — without breaking my legs or joints.

My favorite places to ski are Solitude, Brighton, Alta, and Snowbird. I have been spoiled with four great ski areas with the world’s best powder snow only fifteen minutes of my home.

I am a third generation University of Utah “Ute” graduate. Therefore I must show my true colors, because I bleed red.

Email Rules

I generally will accept and read email, but if it looks like spam I will delete it without a second glance. I will not run programs that are sent to me unless I know the individual who sent it—so don't try.

Attachments

It is easier to list the things I will accept than those I don't. Therefore the following documents will be accepted, and most probably be read.

For documents I prefer Plain text (.txt), Rich Text Format (.rtf), HTML (.html), TeX/LaTeX (.tex), Portable Document Format (.pdf), and PostScript (.ps).

For multi-media I will accept public standards formats which include but are not limited to JPEG (.jpg), PNG (.png), GIF (.gif), MP-3 (.mp3).

Don't send Microsoft Office documents (e.g. spam.doc). I do not use Microsoft Office, and I will not install it on my machine. Plus, the document may contain executable programs which may expose my system to malicioius code.

I may accept documents created with Open Office, or Apple products (i.e. Pages or Keynote), but it is best to ask first.