The long of it...

I was born at Fairchild Air Force Base outside of Spokane, WA in 1962 and it wasn't until 1978 that I saw my first personal computer, a TRS-80 Model I with a whopping 8K of memory. It belonged to a buddy so I never actually got to use it. Later that summer my father, a night librarian at the local college, brought me to work with him where they had a TRS-80 Model II (with 16K RAM and a cassette tape drive!). The first game I played was called "Taipan" and it took about 15 minutes to load. Next to the computer was a manual on BASIC programming so it wasn't long before I had made a few games. The first was a text Psychiatrist, the next an ASCII Slot Machine, and later I made an impressive "3D" dungeon game with randomly generated dungeons, mazes and monsters --- all under 16 Kilobytes!

I immediately went to North Idaho College in 1980, right out of high school, and took about 20 credits of computer courses but because computers were so new I found I knew more than most the teachers and wasn't really challenged. There weren't that many exciting computer jobs at the time and I was having a difficult time deciding whether to go into programming or digital engineering. I switched my major from computers to physics education. I married the love of my life, Cherie, in 1983 and have 2 sons, Ryan and Tyler.  I graduated from the University of Idaho in 1990 earning a B.S. in Secondary Education with an emphasis in the physical sciences, mathematics and computers.

Currently I teach Make-It! Science, Introduction to Computer Technology, and Game Design at Lake City High School in Coeurd' Alene, Idaho AND Physical Science, Chemistry, and Game Design at the prestigious Richard McKenna Online Charter School out of Mountain Home, Idaho.

My hobbies include running an after school game design club and helping others rapidly prototype.