Welcome to my home on the Web!

Hey, wanna see a GREAT picture of my parents, ca. 1963? Click here.

After the easy life in Burnsville MN, where I grew up, I went to college at the University of Minnesota. There I spent a short two years as a full time student, though I've never really stopped taking classes. I spent four years in the Marching Band. I still spend time volunteering for the band each year as a photographer. And last year, I decided to spend another year marching with the band, where I earned the nickname, "Old Man". Ye-haw.

In 1991, I was hired by the US Government as an Air Traffic Controller. As an air traffic controller, I work not at an airport, but in Farmington, MN at one of 21 Air Route Traffic Control Centers (ARTCC) nationwide. Our resposibility is for the millions of miles of airspace between the major airports. Minneapolis Center alone controls over 350,000 square miles and parts of 9 states and Canada.

I spend my free time doing a number of things. One of my main interests is marching or helping with Minnesota Brass, Inc. MBI is a senior drum and bugle corps based in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, MN. I have been with that organization since 1990, and since 1993 have served on the Board of Directors.

I also spend some of my time creating, writing and playing a variety of strategy board games (non-computer, if you can believe that). Hopefully someday I'll even make some money doing that. Until then, it's just a fun hobby. Along with writing game, we enjoy playing these games as well. The biggest types of non-computer games out right now are Collectable Card Games. One of our little projects now is to sell a bunch of them off.

Perhaps the most time consuming hobby I have is running a Bulletin Board System called Sporga's Place that is a part of FidoNet. FidoNet is a world wide amateur (hobbist) organization of computer bulletin board systems currently with about 30,000 members. In addition to being an outlet for my computer interests, Sporga's Place is also an outlet for my gaming friends and I to discuss, work on, and join others in our gaming activities. Many games can be talked about and played on Sporga's Place, from Chess to Roleplaying to one of our favorites, Stars!.

One of the other interesting things I've done with my life is spend a quarter of college studying in St. Petersburg, Russia. This was one of the highlights of my academic career after I restarted it in 1994. It was after my second year of studying the Russian language, and I spent 10 weeks living with a Russian family, eating Russian food, riding Russian mass transit, and basically having a good time. I also got to visit Moscow, and saw the sights there including the Kremlin and Lenin's tomb.

Here's one of the sights in St. Petersburg: The Catherdral on Spilt Blood. I'll put up some more pictures as I have time.

Since then, I've managed to acquire an ex-girlfriend who teaches Russian. How's that for luck! (Well, the russian part, not the 'ex-' part!) And becuase of that I was able to return to Russia this year as a chaperone with her and students from her Russian class at South High School in Minneapolis. We will be putting up pictures of our trip in the future, so check back when you can.

I'm always looking for more excuses to go back to Russia, so if you know of any, let me know.

One of my current projects is chairing the organizig committe for the annual MONDO Jugglefest, held on the campus of Concordia University in St. Paul, MN. MONDO is the largest juggling festival held in the upper mid-west.

Thanks for stopping by. Come again sometime and you might find graphics and pictures and stuff! (No really!!).