I have a hard time believing that anyone really wants to read about a total stranger, and anyone who knows me will probably already know anything I'm going to say here. But I guess I'll say it all anyway, just because I feel like it.

I grew up in Port Angeles, WA, which I think had a big impact on what I like to do in my free time. Our house was within easy walking distance of the Olympic National Park visitor's center and some nature trails on park-owned land. I think I was running through those trails as soon as I was big enough for Mom to let me out of her sight. My parents loved to be outside, so I grew up doing a lot of hiking and camping and backpacking and fishing. And I had the best of both worlds nearby -- the mountains AND the ocean. It was great!

When it came time for college, I decided to leave the state and attend Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo, UT. I had a good time while there, although I had a difficult time adjusting to the elevation, climate, large population, and culture. I got a degree in statistics with an emphasis in computer science and a math minor, but I guess I still didn't really know what I wanted to do. I spent the summer after graduation working on a bird study for a professor at BYU, and then landed a job as a statistician with the Wyoming Department of Employment. It didn't take me long to figure out that I didn't want to do that for the rest of my life, and after a year and a half quit in order to get a master's degree in biology from Utah State University (USU) in Logan, UT. But first, I spent about 6 months living in the middle of the desert in Arizona helping with a lizard study. I really thought I wanted to be a biologist, but a few years of graduate school made me realize I was still confused. My thesis project ended up being a combination of computer science, geography, and statistics, with applications to ecology. That made me realize that what I really wanted to do was develop tools to help with the research, but I didn't necessarily want to do the research myself. Maybe it's just that I hate doing literature reviews and writing papers...

Meanwhile, I had fallen in love with Logan and Cache Valley, and didn't want to leave. This surprised me, because I couldn't wait to get out of Provo when I left there, and never really intended to return to Utah. When I did come back, I only planned to stay long enough to get a degree and then leave. But the Cache Valley is surrounded by mountains and it's beautiful here. And there are tons of hiking and biking opportunities. So I pestered the folks at the RS/GIS Lab on campus at USU until they offered me a job, and here I am. I am getting nervous about how fast Logan and the surrounding areas are growing, however. At this rate, I might fall out of love with Cache Valley and have to move.

My job at the RS/GIS Lab is great. I work with a lot of fun people, and I have a lot of freedom to do things the way I want. My boss is most definitely not a micro-manager, which I appreciate. I'm allowed to research things and play around with different methods before deciding how to do a project, rather than just jumping in and getting it done ASAP. I guess that's an advantage of not being part of that corporate dog-eat-dog we-have-to-beat-out-the-competition world! And since I'm on a university campus, I get to work with a lot of students, which is fun. What I actually do at work is described a bit on the Projects page, but mostly I develop web applications that have to do with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and remote sensing (think satellite imagery, aerial photography, maps, and other spatial data) in one way or another.

So it should be obvious that I like to spend time outdoors. It should also be obvious that I'm a geek and like to sit in front of a computer and write code all day. But I also like to read a good book (not that I find much time for that), I'm a news junkie and get two newpapers and two news magazines, I love acoustic music (yay for the Bridger Folk Music Society!), and I like to cook (I especially love to bake desserts -- yum!). Oh yeah, I'm also a completely hopeless chocoholic. The darker, the better.