I'm a retired software engineer. I served in the U.S. Air Force from 1983 to 1987, spending most of my enlistment at Ramstein Air Base in Germany as a base supply worker driving forklifts. That's where I bought my first computer — an Atari 800XL — an early 8-bit machine that sparked my interest in programming.
Back home in the Seattle area, I met my future wife and landed a job backing up Digital minicomputers for a company called Timeline Inc. in Bellevue, Washington. When the company discovered I was writing C programs in my spare time, they transitioned me into a full-time programming role.
I joined a small team where the three of us created a spreadsheet product for Digital computers called Digicalc II. Later, the company shifted to Microsoft Access as a platform, and I contributed form and report generators for an accounting system.
Most of my career was spent as an engineer/analyst for two consulting companies, building web applications with SQL backends. Eventually, I joined Microsoft through connections I'd made over the years in IT. I moved from IT into SharePoint engineering, where I contributed for about ten years before taking an early retirement at age 64.
Now newly retired, I'm exploring hobbies, getting exercise, and enjoying my family — especially my four grandchildren.
The purpose of this site is to help me document the things I enjoy doing. I hope someone finds it useful, but honestly, it's mostly a personal journal.
I have a collection of retro computers and need a place to remind myself how to use them — especially with all the modern mods that make them easier to use with current storage and displays. I never owned a Commodore back in the day, but I've grown to really enjoy restoring them. Since it was the most popular computer of all time, I'm having fun learning what I missed while I was fully immersed in Atari systems.
I also plan to explore other activities in retirement: hiking, woodturning, traveling, radio-control airplanes, gaming, and music. This site will be a great place to collect what I know and do — and serve as a sort of photo album.
I may also write tutorials and share “wisdom,” if that's truly what it could be called. Don't take anything here too seriously. My attention span is short, so I'm never an expert on anything. My philosophy is simply to keep exploring.
The site is built using the Astro web framework. I chose it because I'm familiar with generating static sites that can be served quickly. With Markdown editors, I'm hoping to create content efficiently — maybe even on my phone or tablet, where I have easy access to recent photos.