My Biography

Here is a recent picture taken at work for an internal web directory.

Most of you reading this page already know who I am so this whole section seems a little superfluous.

I am married to a wonderful woman, named Jeannie, who is originally from Minnesota. We live in Fridley, Minnesota. Jeannie prefers to tell people she is from New Brighton as she abhors the snappy comeback, "Oh, friendly Fridley?", the catch phrase from the Friendly Chevrolet Dealer in Fridley.

Here is a satelite picture of our home.( courtesy of the TerraServer run by Microsoft ) The large arrow is pointing at our house. I would appreciate it if you refrained from using this map to bomb my house.

We love to go an vacations to tropic locales. We have been to Hawaii, Barbados, and Mexico. Recently we had the good fortune of being on Maui for two weeks (March 99). One of our favorite things was biking down Haleakala. We had an excellent time with the bike tour. If you are going to Maui be sure to check out www.mauibike.com.

Currently have no children,[ Update 2/14/00 - We had a beautiful, healthy baby. ] and no real pets. We once had fish but they became cannibalistic and the tank is dry for the time being. I should add that I do have a fish at the office now. I got it at a wedding reception for my friends Rob and Myndi Kistler. It doesn't really seem to qualify as a pet in the traditional sense of the word. The fish is a Betta Speldens if you were curious.

Update:We are now expecting our first child on February 16th, 2000. Wish us luck.

I currently work as a Quality Assurance Software Engineer ( I prefer to say QA dude) for VERITAS Software Corporation. They are a leader in storage management software. What this means is that if you have important data on a computer you should be, or already are, using one of our products to manage that data with. I work in their Arden Hills office which is directly responsible for their backup and hierarchical file system products. I try to make sure that these products work well before they are released to the masses.

If you are smart you will buy stock now. (Of course, I am not a stock analyst, so do not look at this as useful insider information or an offer to buy or sell securities 8-0)

Prior to working at VERITAS ( Yes, it is all supposed to be capitalized like that ) I worked for one of the most interesting companies on the planet. You guessed it, LaserMaster ( now ColorSpan , sometimes Virtual Fund.com, formerly NationalTelevar ) Since I was hired when it was called LaserMaster, I'll probably always think of it as LaserMaster or just plain old LM.

During my tenure at LM I learned an awful lot about myself and the software / technology business. Anyway, that's probably all I can say without breaking my non-disclosure agreement.

My preferred text editor is vi. I know that might sound a little strange to those of you who can only imagine Microsoft products or those who have never used a computer. Vi is a very simple but powerful editor. It is associated with UNIX but you can find a version of it for practically any OS. I will use almost any program to edit text with, but I am happiest if it will emulate vi. I really love the fact that I don't ever have to stop and use the mouse to perform a task. I prefer to think of myself as a literate person who can master a vocabulary. Most editors (MS Word) in particular seem to think we are all so inept that we cannot master a real vocabulary and need to navigate with pictures alone.

  I consider myself to be from Wisonsin, although I have called several other places home. Consequently, I am a Green Bay Packers Fan. I can die a happy man now that they have won a SuperBowl during my life time. From the early looks of the 1998 season, I don't believe I will be watching the boys in another Super Bowl in 99. Editorial Note(9/6/99): Looks like I was right, unfortunately. The odds of a '00 SuperBowl appearance look much better. I am just glad that Green Bay could proudly call itself 'TitleTown' again and that it happened during my lifetime.

I lived in Milwaukee from third grade through high school. I attended and graduated from Hamilton High School. I was fairly nerdy and worked for the school newspaper and the yearbook. My proudest accomplishment in High School would be my ability to be a great source of annoyance to my teachers since I slept through most of their classes, while managing to get fair grades.

After high school, I attended Normandale Community College and the University of Minnesota. I studied finance. Among the most memorable course was 20th Century Art, taught by Professor Marling.

My favorite movies are, The Matrix, Apocalypse Now , Tommy Boy, The Blues Brothers, and The Wrong Trousers. This is a great photo of the villian from the Wrong Trousers.

For fun I like to play raquetall or work out at my health club. That doesn't really mean I am in good shape, but I like to work out.Jeannie and I also spend many weekends at Lake Vermillion , near Tower Minnesota. Sometimes we fish and hike, but more often then not we hang around the cabin reading and relaxing while enjoying the scenery.

I am also planning a hike this year down the North Shore of Lake Superior. If you are interesting in a big walk with me, drop me a line. Visit the Superior Hiking Trail Association for more information.

If you are in the area I sugesst you check out the Soudan Underground Mine State Park. This park gives tours of Minnesota's deepest underground mine in Minnesota. The ride down to the 27th level is well worth the $4.00 admission fee.

I like to listen to music. My favorite musicians or groups include Bob Marley, The Police, Sarah McLaughlin, and Jewel. I tend to like almost any melancholy or angry female volcalist.

My first computer was a TRS-80 Color Computer from Radio Shack. It had something like 32 K (That is K, kilobytes, not M, Megabytes. I routinely use servers with Gb, Gigabytes of RAM in my work) of RAM, used cartridges, and a cassette tape drive. It also has no lowercase letters ,something the modern computer enthusiast may have trouble believing. I recently liberated this from storage at my parents house. The good news is that everything works. The bad news is that I now have the urge to upgrade it. It is a sad little computer. It can do far less than my hand-held Palm pilot, but there is something quaint and likeable about it's battered silver case and chiclet keys.