About Me

I was born in Grants Pass, Oregon (in a parking lot, but that is a story for another time.). My parents at the time lived on a mining claim above a small mining town in Northern California. I spent the first several years running around the hills on that mining claim. When it was time for me to get my public education, we moved to Crescent City. (about ten miles south of the California-Oregon border right on the coast.)

I spent all of my years growing up there, going through elementary school, junior high and on into high school. I liked it there and so did my friends but anyone that had not lived there did not like the school system. I was very involved in the music department playing trumpet and toured extensively.

I graduated in 1995 from Del Norte High and decided to go to school at Humboldt State and become a music education major. I graduated with a Bachelor of the Arts in Music Education and a Minor in Computer Information Services in May of 2000. In the last few years I was shown how to do digital audio by a friend of mine and was a pretty good recording tech. I finished my student teaching on June 22, 2001 and finally got my teachers credential in December of 2001. I received a Single Subjects Music Credential with a Supplementary Authorization to teach Computer Concepts and Applications

After graduating from college, I spent one year working as a computer technician for SoundChaser and built computers for people and organizations like Hans Zimmer, Danny Elfman, Mark Isham, Christopher Young, Trevor Rabin, Lucas Arts, and EA Games. By the end of that time period, I had worked my way up to being manager of production, but decided that I really wanted to go back to teaching.

Lake Quinault

In July of 2002, I got a teaching position at a small school district in Amanda Park, WA. It is small and beautiful, just like the other places I have lived. Lake Quinault Schools is now where I spend most of my days teaching.

I have been very active in the community by being in the fire department, repairing computers and tutoring community members on how to use them, and have even taught both violin and barbershop music to people.

I have taught k-6 general music, 4th and 5th grade band, Computer Applications, Multimedia Productions, 6-12th grade band, Computer Technician, Robotics, Space Exploration (a game based class), Graphic Design, Webpage design, Programming and other classes. Enough students have been interested that I once was able to start a small jazz combo and an orff group that met before school. I have been known to create classes for small amounts of students that are interested in specific subjects.

In the Fall of 2014, I moved to a beautiful new house on the North Shore of Lake Quinault. Full of fruit trees, I never ran out of apples, pears, blueberries and huckleberries. I even have a kiwi tree.

Shortly after I moved in, my Aunt from Michigan came out and spent her sabbatical with me. We got along great. In all the trips we took, we came up with the idea of low cost data collection stations that use arduinos as a base. The units cost half of what off the shelf units do, are more versatile and report the data to her college. I have spent the last two years working as a consultant designing and building them. I even had the pleasure of going back to Michigan to work at her college for a bit during the summers. I realized then how much I missed working in a higher education environment.

It is time to move on. My story is not finished yet but I hope it turns out well.

If you like what you see and would like to hire me, please see my resume here.