Non-Work Stuff

Personal History

I was born and raised in the city of Watsonville.   Watsonville is on the coast of Central California, and is best known for producing most of America's strawberries (one such farm is shown on the left).

My parents live right on the coast (our beach is shown on the right).   Like San Francisco, they have oddly cold summers.   A summer high is typically in the mid 60's.

I graduated from Aptos High School in 1996.   I graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in 2000 with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.   I was in the Cal Band the whole time and I had a blast.

 

After graduating from Berkeley, I came to Texas.   I received a M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Texas at Austin in December 2002 and a Ph.D. in December 2007.   Now I'm living in the Portland, Oregon area, and using my formal verification expertise at Intel.

In Texas, I also met the love of my life, Carrie Pankrast, who is shown, along with her dog Jack, on the left.   Carrie was in Texas getting her Masters in Clarinet Performance from UT Austin.   Her brother, Mike, is also musically inclined — he is singing in the background music, accessed in the upper left.

Carrie and I got married on May 3 2008.   Carrie is now living with me in Beaverton, OR.   She teaches private clarinet lessons.   Plus, she so enjoyed making invitations for our wedding that she is now selling wedding invitations and greeting cards.

Travels

Here are pictures from our trip to Seattle.

Hobbies

When I learned to program, the first thing I wanted to do was write a video game, so I made this break out game. Unfortunately, I've never written any games since then. I guess I'd rather play games than write them.

Golf is my favorite outdoor activity. Golf is particularly fun in Austin. If you're interested, you should check out Austin 360's guide.  

Lately, I've gotten into the hobby of fish keeping.   Here's a web page on my aquarium.

I also love computer games, though I don't play them as much as I once did.   I love the Civilization series and any game made by Blizzard. I also have been known to get addicted to anything with "Sim" in the title.   I've gotten into a few MMORPGS as well, but I am trying to stay away from those now.   I could lose myself for months playing JumpGate or Star Wars Galaxies.

I used to be into music more, since I once played the Trumpet in the Cal Band.   I've been starting to listen to live music again lately by going to concert's performed by the bands at UT.

I also must mention college football.   Texas has an awesome football team, but I have never been to a game here. My heart is still in Strawberry Canyon.   I catch every Cal game I can.   And when I can't catch them on television, I listen to Joe Starkey on the internet.   I've been a fan through many losing seasons, but now Cal has a good team.

Go Bears!