Our family started on Friday December 13, 1996 when I married my lovely sweetheart in the Salt Lake LDS Temple. We now have three children, Joshua, Kayla, and Hannah. You can find some outdated pictures in our online album (I need to update that, don't I?).
I was born here in Salt Lake City, Utah, on the Ides of March as the third and last in my family. I had a great childhood, but you probably don't want to stick around while I rattle on about it, right? I'll just highlight some of the more interesting events in my life...
Ever since I was about 8 years old, computers have been a part of my life. My dad bought an old (well, new at the time) TRS-80 Model III computer while my sister was in college. The first thing he told me was "don't touch", so naturally, it spawned great interest with me. I learned how to spell "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" from the many times I had the computer print it out 100 times (good ol' BASIC for-next loops). From there, I learned more and more by reading the manuals, playing around, and finding ways to take control of the machine. The days came when I taught myself Pascal, C, and C++ in a neverending quest to take the reins of my computer. I also played around with assembly here and there, and wrote a few octal-base machine-code programs for a home-brewed Z80 machine built by my electronics-fanatic dad. The years had passed with a growing desire for computer science -- no wonder I have a bachelor's degree in it today.
But that's my computer side. It's all obvious I like computers, or I wouldn't even have this home page! :) Now for more interesting things...
I'm really an outdoors type person. You might not notice since I'm usually found in front of a computer both at work and at home, but I do like to get outside when I can. One of my favorite activities is riding my bike, even though I seldom find time to use it for leisure. I do occasionally take it to work for some extra exercise, but my favorite location is a canyon right next to my parent's house: City Creek Canyon. It's a great place to walk, jog, or even just go for a picnic. There's a really neat place up the canyon a ways, if you're willing to hike a mile or two past the end of the paved road. It's an old mine, and it's really quite spectacular up there!
Another one of my favorite places is Yellowstone National Park. It's always fascinated me ever since I was a very tiny baby... I was only a few months old when I first saw the place. Don't remember the trip all that well. But we've taken vacations frequently there, and I've got a huge collection of pictures to prove it. Perhaps that's what motivated me to be a photographer as well. :)
Photography has kept me busy on most of my excursions away from Salt Lake City. Not that I've been on that many... mainly just vacations. But I do enjoy taking pictures. Usually landscapes and sunsets are of greatest interest to me, although I usually don't mind if my cute wife happens to sneak into the shot... :) In case you're a photographer as well, let me tell ya what I have! I use a Pentax K-1000 with a Vivitar 28-210mm/f3.5-5 zoom or (seldom) the original Pentax 50mm/f2 lens. I prefer Kodak Gold 100 or Ektar 25 for color prints, and Kodachrome 64 for slides. More recently I've been turning to digital photography with my Olympus D460 1.3 megapixel camera. It can't quite replace the quality of good ol' 35mm film, but some of the newer cameras are coming awful close. I'll have to upgrade to a nice 6-magapixel camera one of these days.
I also enjoy writing, although I don't do it all that much. I usually never have the time that I really want to sit down and compose something that I feel is worthwhile. I have however, over the years, accumulated a few things (see my Gallery ). One of my goals is to write a short story, or even better, a book... You know, make lots of money off the next best seller. :) It could happen!! :)
There is another activity that keeps me inside other than the computer. I love to play the piano. I only know a handful of songs, but it's always nice to take out my frustrations by completely slaughtering a piece on the piano... Every once in a while I happen to play one right, though. I have a GeneralMusic REALPiano PRO1 keyboard right now, though my dream "machine" is a real Steinway Concert Grand (yeah -- dream on). The PRO1 allows me plenty of freedom -- it's hooked up to my computer with MIDI. I've composed a few pieces that probably fit somewhere in the really low-budget new age music arena, but they're fun to listen to.
Amber was born just 4 days before James in Ogden, Utah, as the oldest of 4 children. Throughout her childhood her family moved several times, making it difficult to call any place "home". After finally settling in Kansas (for several years, anyway), she sought out her original Utah roots and attended LDS Business College in Salt Lake City. Through a mutual friend, she was introduced to James and the two hit it off immediately.
Amber is kept busy most of the time taking care of the two young ones, Joshua and Kayla. She also loves scrapbooking, producing several pages every week, provided James can keep the computer running and printing.