Since then, I've stayed in the Eugene/Springfield area. I grew up in Eugene, and for a number of years after high school lived out in Springfield. However, back in April 2000 I sold that house near 42nd street, and moved back to Eugene, in the Santa Clara district. It's not bad... More of a family community than my previous house, so it makes for hectic holidays (Halloween especially).

My mother died back in 1999, and my father just recently sold the house I grew up in, and moved into a really nice house in Springfield overlooking the city from atop a hill. There's a webcam attached to the house, and sometimes it shows the view outside (or more usually, the office the PC is located in). Take a look! I have a sister who is two years older than me who lives in Coburg, about a half hour north from me. We both have hectic schedules and don't get to see each other very often, but we have a lot in common and can talk for hours! She has a son (my nephew) who loves drawing and is really into the whole Dungeons & Dragons thing (just like my sister and I were way back when). All my other relatives still live down in California. Occasionally, I get to see them when they come up and visit or I have the opportunity to make the trek down south myself.

I work at the Springfield Utility Board, not very far from my father's house. My job title is "Utility Analyst", which generally means working with a lot of data in the form of spreadsheets and databases. I enjoy the databases more, and I think I have a real knack for the whole data normalization thing. Sometimes I even find myself doing computer technical support (fun, but stressful)!

When I first decided on a career back when I was a kid, I thought of becoming a Systems Analyst and designing automatic systems to replace outdated manual ones. I always saw myself working with three or four other people as part of a consulting firm doing just that. Although I may end up there still, I'm pretty happy at SUB. I get some diversity, which is nice, and the people and management there are just great. I've been there over ten years now, and have a real feel for the place. I only wish I had more of a opportunity to do more technical support. Working with data is okay, and nice and logical, but fixing computer problems really feels good; if only for the gratified employee's face. Nancy, one of my good friends at SUB, keeps me laughing and helps me when I'm troubled (I tend to fixate on inconsequential things some times).

I also do some moonlighting with a self-owned convention services company called Jaycatt Event Management. My father and I manage a book show for the Pacific Northwest Bookseller's Association called "Tradeshow -- Northwest". We've only got that one show at the moment, but we plan on growing once my father and I have more time. There's some great pictures of a couple of the shows in the Jaycatt website above.

I have only a few close friends, and at the moment two of them live in town (and in my house!). Joel is my "primary" roommate, you might say, and has been rooming with me since I first moved out of my parents. I've known him since the 7th grade. Another close friend, Jeremy, who I've known since first grade (he used to live a block away from my parents), is also staying with me for the time being while he pursues his musical career. He sings and plays harmonica and some keyboards. He also does a bang-up job helping out with a local community children's theater, and is pursuing children's voice lessons! I also dabble in the music industry (or at least, I did, I'm not as active any more) and you can listen to my new age and boogie woogie sounds here. My last close friend, Wes, lives up in Portland, Oregon (about a two hour drive away). Wes and I met waaaay back in 1982 at a summer computer camp in town. He used to live in the Eugene/Springfield area until 8 or so years ago, but we've also kept in touch. I've got pictures of all three of these guys on my picture page. I have another roommate now too named Chris, and we've become good friends in the last year or so. I've known Chris through Jeremy for quite a few years now, but he's only been a roommate for a little over a year.

A lot of my life revolves around different types of media (television, computers, books, music). At times I feel a little guilty about this, as I get the feeling that it's not really "living". So, from time to time I like to go hiking (just day hikes, no overnighters) or camping. However, I recently started exercising once again and hopefully that will improve my activities too :) It's certainly helped my blood pressure!

I also chat a little bit on the Internet. These days, you can find me at the TinyTownChat or ThirdAge. I used to chat at Groupboard, but that's no fun unless you're 14 and enjoy Dragonball Z. Still, if you get bored chatting, there's a whiteboard to doodle on at Groupboard. I've got a small sample of a whiteboard, myself, under the "Chat/Draw" link to the left.

Since I have no room for a "Links" button on the left there, I'll put a few of my favorite things in these last few paragraphs, and link to sites about them. I really enjoy animated media. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a "superhero" fan; I just can't get into the whole X-Men, Batman, Superman thing. I also never quite got into the whole Japanese anime thing, but I'm warming up to it more and more.

Mostly I prefer the "prime time" animated shows, such as The Simpsons, Futurama, Family Guy (which is pretty much extinct now *sigh*), SouthPark, and the now-extinct Duckman and Critic. It take a huge amount of work to put together an animated show, and since every scene is draw, no item of detail is left to chance. With animation, it's possible to create an imaginary world where the jokes always happen at the right time, the action can be fast and furious, and the "actors" do impossible things. I'm especially fond of the voice actors in these shows, since I like to mimic voices from time to time (people say I'm good at it). I guess my favorite voice actor would have to be Dan Castellaneta, who does popular voices like Homer Simpson and also does other "cameos" around the animation biz.

Recently, I've also been reading quite a bit more. My favorite author used to be Stephen King, but he's gotten kind of commercial these days, so now I read more Steven Koontz for my horror-fiction. I've got lots of other favorite authors, and Spider Robinson tops the list... He writes mostly science-fiction, but there's some great ideology (for lack of a better word) in his books too... Another of my favorite authors is Sue Grafton, who writes detective fiction (most known for the Alphabet series) with a spunky female detective. For some great other single books, check out these two time travel books: "The Green Futures of Tycho" by William Sleator, and "The Man Who Folded Himself" by David Gerrold.

That's all I feel like writing about for now, but I'll embellish this section when I get more ideas. Hmm... Actually, since I read a lot of web comics from time to time, I think I'll post the ones I like as links here too (no trouble, since Netscape's bookmarks lend themselves so easily to cutting and pasting into HTML code ;) (NOTE: Add these later)