About Me
Home Messier Lists Photography Articles Presentations My Links Telescopes About Me

If you really must know something about me...


Background:

I was born and raised in central Pennsylvania, then joined the US Air Force after graduating high school.  I worked in communications electronics and computers.  I was lucky enough to live in exotic places like Athens, Greece and Adana, Turkey.  I had several extended stays in Latina, Italy and Ramstien, Germany.  Thanks to mobility units, I also traveled extensively, with "camping trips" to Egypt, Oman, Jordan, Sudan, and Honduras.  I had shorter visits to Israel, Spain, and England.  While in these countries, I tried to absorb as much of the culture as possible and enjoyed each country.   In 1994, I took early retirement from the USAF and moved to Lubbock because it was a nice town and had an Air Force Base nearby.  A few days after buying my house, they announced that Reese was closing - Just my luck!


Work   

My current employer is Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas.  I am the information systems manager and systems administrator for the College of Human Sciences.  Translated to common English, I'm the head computer geek who plans, maintains, and manages computer systems, multimedia rooms, and computer labs within the college.   It's my job to give the faculty the technology they need to teach and to give the students experience using the computer technology they'll find in the real world.  Here are photos of two of our labs - main lab, tech lab.

The fringe benefits are that I get to play with neat technology toys while working in a family atmosphere of the college.  It's a complex & challenging job, but it's also very rewarding.


Play

Astronomy, computers, and bicycling are my current passions.  Each has its own place in my active life and each are my haven from the stress of my demanding job.  I don't have much to say on this site about computers & cycling because the Internet is filled with sites dedicated to them - I don't have much more to add that's not said elsewhere.

Astronomy is one area that I can add a bit.  I'm very active in the local astronomy club, I'm a bit of an equipment freak, and also help with real world data collection and research when I can. I spend many Friday and Saturday nights at TTU's observatories helping instruct the open air portion of the freshmen astronomy courses.  These sessions are also open to the public and I really enjoy showing the beauty of the heavens to people of all ages for the first time.  That "OH WOW" is worth the time and effort to set up my scopes.

I'm very active in the club's outreach programs - We're hoping to assist local schools with their science programs, give presentations to civic clubs, and help Boy or Girl Scouts with badges and progression.  (If you're in the area and have a club, school, troop, or gathering that could benefit from our programs, please contact me!)  I sometimes give presentations to the astronomy club - For example, I've got one on sunspots  posted in PowerPoint.  The club site has another on Eclipse Timing in HTML format.

Besides astronomy and computers, I also enjoy woodworking (from fix-it projects to small items of furniture), SCUBA (as a PADI dive master), cycling, photography, and the outdoors.  I usually have a dog as a companion and for the last 10 years, it's been a crazy English Springer Spaniel named Sparky (I picked him up on the 4th of July weekend), who's been with me through thick and thin.


School

Before leaving the USAF, I earned an Associate's Degree in Electronic Systems Technology from the Community College of the Air Force (CCAF).  The degree is based on my education, experience, and training as a computer and communications technician and manager. 

In 1999, I started work on a bachelor's degree.  While I work at Texas Tech, I am attending Wayland Baptist University because Wayland recognizes my CCAF credits.  Wayland's Lubbock center caters to nontraditional students like myself and runs eleven week semesters, with one 4-hour class per week (6-10pm).  It's a brutal schedule with only one week between semesters, but it's the best choice available to me in Lubbock.  I will complete a dual degree in Business Management and Electronic Systems Technology in November 2002 and get the diploma in January or February of 2003.  After a break, I will probably return to Wayland to earn an MBA with MIS specialization.

 

 

Return Home