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| Amateur Astronomy: |
| Computers: |
| Sliderules: |
| Fishing: |
| Family: |
| Miscellaneous: |
Amateur Astronomy: [ Top ]
As you can tell from the logo on this page, I really get into amateur astronomy. Sadly, I don't own the beautiful eight-inch Schmitt Cassegrain scope shown. For now, I'll have to be content with scanning the sky with my binoculars. I plan to check out the observatory here at Ferris, and may eventually join the amateur astronomy group in Grand Rapids. I really missed dark skies during my stay in southern California - light pollution made visibility very poor where we were living. Now that I'm back in the midwest, perhaps I'll be able to convince my wife that I really need a six-inch MAK. :-)
Computers: [ Top ]
Computers (and getting them to what I want to do) are among my favorite pastimes. I began with BASIC programming on an old Tandy computer that my brother bought. I later moved on to Hypercard and Appletalk scripting on my first Macintosh SE30. In the mean time I dabbled with bioinformatics on a VAX server in Richmond, and learned PCs from DOS to Windows XP. Personally, I prefer to code in perl both on Macintosh and UNIX servers. I find that MacOSX to be the perfect blend of both. I have written many perl, python, ruby and java scripts. Right now, my main computing interests are in bioinformatics. I have installed and use a variety of UNIX utilities on the machines in my office.
Sliderules: [ Top ]
Once the hallmark of a true nerd, sliderules have now become a sought after collectors item. Over the past several years I have become interested in the history and operation of sliderules. My wife bought me an old Accumath at a yard sale. I taught myself how to use it and became fascinated with it. It is hard to believe that these were in use for several hundred years and then fell out of use virtually overnight. I have a small collection of sliderules now of various sizes, materials, and configurations. Ebay turns out to be mildly addictive...
Fishing: [ Top ]
A pasttime of long-standing with me is freshwater fishing. While growing up in Minnesota, learning how to fish is practically mandatory. Although I have been known to go after trout, bass, and various salt water fish, my favorite is still the walleye. Big teeth, shiny eyes, and wonderfully mild boneless fillets... Granted, they don't put up all that much of a fight - but boy do they cook up nicely! Unfortunately, I don't get out on the water as often as I would like. Now that I live so close to the river and some fishable lakes, I plan to make a point of getting back to angling. Let me tell you about the one that got away...
Family: [ Top ]
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My primary focus is on my family. I love to just spend time at home with my wife Carrie and my daughters Jennifer and Emily. Southern California was a grand adventure for us all so far. We explored from San Diego all the way to Oregon. Now that we're back to the midwest, we have all new things to explore. It will be interesting to compare Lake Michigan to the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Snow will also be relatively novel, as we grew quite accustomed to the "OC". Our favorite times, though, are quiet ones at home just reading. |  |
Miscellaneous: [ Top ]
Rounding out my eclectic mix of interests are camping, solving logic puzzles, philosophy, and statistics. I spend way too much time in my head and not enough in the real world (just ask Carrie). Also, I have spent too much time on this self-absorbed tract. You earned no brownie points by reading it. :-)
