Just the Facts

For anyone interested in a little about me, check out the following. I've periodically added dated entries over the years.

Thanks for stopping by my web pages. Feel free to send me e-mail if you are so inclined.

09/07/19

I've spent some time updating the website. It's a Drupal website, and I've upgraded it from version 7 to version 8, which took a bit of doing, given that Drupal 8 is quite a bit different than Drupal 7 under the hood.

Not much has changed since my last note. The hardest thing we've faced over the last couple years was Michele being diagnosed with breast cancer last spring. She had the tumor removed in July and is cancer-free now. The chances of it coming back are very low, for which we are very grateful.

11/03/17

Five years since an update. That's really bad. Oh, well. I'm still in Eugene. I am now working at the University of Oregon as part of the Information Services department. I'm a member of the team that is responsible for the infrastructure that supports many of the websites at the UO, including the main website. I've been in this position since January, 2015.

In July of this year, my wife Michele and I bought a house in town. Michele had been living in Puyallup and moved down that same month to be with me here in Eugene. Having her here has been wonderful.

11/18/12

It's been a few years since I've updated this! Since the last update, I've moved to Eugene, OR, and am working for a consortium called the Orbis Cascade Alliance. I'm the Information Technology Manager. It's a great place to work, and I really like living in Eugene. I'm sort of a "jack-of-all-technologies", to torture the old saying. It allows me to do a bit of everything, which is just the sort of thing I enjoy.

I've become a vegetarian (pescetarian, actually, since I also eat fish), and Eugene makes that a lot easier. There is a soy products maker called Surata Soy that is based in Eugene and makes wonderful tempeh and tofu. And one of my favorite place for eating out is the Morning Glory Cafe. They have some tasty vegetarian options.

10/16/09

I've updated my web pages a bit. It's nothing fancy but at least a bit more "modern". Hopefully, the updates will spread to subsidiary pages, as I get time.

Things have changed for me once again. After a lot of hard deliberation, I decided not to continue in the Ph.D. program after completing the first year. Though I did well enough in my teaching duties, I didn't really enjoy it. That removed a major motivation for pursuing a Ph.D. Though there are other potential opportunities for holders of the degree, many of them involve teaching. Don't get me wrong. I really enjoy helping people learn new things. But getting up in front of a classroom of people every day wasn't much fun.

Do I regret the time spent in the program? Mostly, no. For years, I've had the notion that I should have accepted one of the offers of graduate study in a CS program that I received right out of undergrad. Now I know that my original choice was a good one.

So, I'm now back in Tacoma, catching up on a bunch of projects and looking for work. Though this gets me down sometimes, especially given the current state of the job market, I remind myself that there are so many neat opportunities out there, and time and effort will find one that inspires me and allows me to apply my talents in creative ways. Onward...

03/14/09

Things have changed a lot since my last note. I resigned my position at PLU last spring and am now a Ph.D. student at Indiana University at Bloomington. I'm studying Computer Science and Cognitive Science. It's an interesting combination. On a totally different subject, this website will be getting a major face-lift in the near future. It's horribly dated. My apologies for any mental anguish it may have caused you! =)

10/30/05

I've had at least one of my friends tell me that I'd better get around to updating this. Yup, I finished the Master's degree, many years ago. I'm still at PLU as Director of Systems and Communications. Not too much has changed since 2000. I've learned a few new things, tried a few other things. Michele and I visited Scotland in 2003. That was a lot of fun. We've done a bit of other traveling, as well. We visited Minnesota for a family reunion of the Folsom's one year, and Santa Barbara, California for the Dykstra's another. We've also been down to Mobile, Alabama, to visit our friend Dan. Last fall, I started spending a lot of my time practicing for what is known as Cowboy Action Shooting. Though I've let it go for a while, I hope to pick it back up soon. It helps me stay in touch with my family's long heritage of gun use and ownership, both for hunting and marksmanship. We live in a time when a lot of people look down on this...so I also want to do my small part to represent the positive side of the use of firearms to those who know me.

12/16/00

I thought it was time to freshen this up a bit. Things are pretty much the same as noted above. I'm much closer to finishing the Master's degree. 5 classes down, 3 to go. I should be done this time next year. The program is great and very fulfilling, but I am looking forward to finishing.

07/20/99

Rather than totally re-write this, I thought I'd just add something of a revisions section. As of a couple months ago, I was promoted to the Director of Systems and Communications at PLU. I still do the work of Systems Administrator, but I also oversee the networking and telecommunications infrastructures at the University. I've also started working on my Master's in Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington in Seattle. You can check out the program here.

Late 1990's

As you've probably figured out, my name is Keith. I work at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington. I'm PLU's Systems Administrator. I oversee the various computers which make up PLU's central computing facilities. This includes fun stuff like setting up and maintaining the web server that passed this page along to you.

But what a person does as a profession doesn't tell all. Take a look at my list of links to get a feeling for some of the things I enjoy.

Some history? I grew up in St. Maries, Idaho. I attended college at PLU, graduating with a B.S. in Computer Science in 1985. I met a wonderful woman named Michele Dykstra in 1987 and promptly married her in 1993. I've held various positions in the computing industry, having returned to PLU in a professional capacity in 1994. How's that for brevity!