About Me

About John	Me, before my hair turned grey and I quit smoking and put on about 20 pounds. Kinda cute back then, eh?
Home ... is Portland, Oregon. I moved here in January 1998, after spending about 25 years in Silicon Valley. I can't believe it took me so long to get here. I can't imagine living anywhere else now. I absolutely love this town. I even love the rain. And can you imagine seeing that mountain off to the east? Wow. On a really clear day you can see 7 mountains from here, from Mt. Ranier in the north to the Three Sisters in the south. Wow!	Portland Photo by Larry Geddis, Oregon Tourism Division
Work I worked in marketing at Advanced Micro Devices for many years, later at Integrated Device Technology. Then I went to work for a British biotech software company called Oxford Molecular. I did some product marketing, but gradually shifted to a technology role, running the web site, intranet, and rolling out a CRM system. When OM went bust, I decided to make my own job: I bought a motel and convenience store on the Oregon coast. Boy was that a mistake. Basically I lost everything, and came back to Portland to start over. Wish me luck. I guess I could have stayed in one place and been a millionaire. But then I'd be sitting around wondering what life would have been like if I tried something different. Remember the Chinese curse: may you live an interesting life. Oh, well. Let's Rock and Roll!	Dimerization of C₆₀ to form C₁₂₀. Structure calculated using DGauss Density Functionals.
Computers I'm a pretty confirmed Macintosh user. I use Mac, Unix and Windoze every day at work, and far prefer the Mac, with Unix a close second. Actually, now that OS X is out, I don't have to choose. I've got 'em both all the time.	I think; therefore iMac.
Education I grew up near Boise, Idaho, and went to school at the College of Idaho (now Albertson College of Idaho, after the supermarket guy), then graduate school at Oregon State. That was a few seasons ago. Somewhere along the way, there was a war. To this day I blame Richard Nixon for the deaths of many of my friends, and I have a life-long goal of throwing every last Republican out of office. I completely fail to understand the selfish, domineering, and anti-democratic mentality of most Republicans. I'm so grateful I don't think like that.	I spent 4 fun years living in this place. Good thing walls can't tell stories!
Music I like most stuff, but especially techno/tribal dance. (If I'm mis-labeling my tastes, my apologies to the hip-language-police. I know what I like; I might not know what to call it.) I never get tired of listening to Deep Forest. I got a cool Australian aboriginal music CD with a digeridoo. And for just plain good fun, nothing beats the Pet Shop Boys, who you may be listening to now!

About John