Dave Martin's Home Page

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      Dave, in Black and White...and now COLOR, too!
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      Dave Likes...
      Misc. Dave Facts
      Building Sway...Wheee!
      Dave: In Depth
      Dave's Computers
      Dave's (martind753) stats on the SetiBOINC project
      Tracing Dave's ancestry
      Some of my favorite movie and TV quotes
      Pictures

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Dave, in Black and White

Picture of Dave
Here is a picture of me needing a shave (taken 5/18/97) and another at Disneyland (4/1/2004).
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Dave likes...

First of all, I am a huge Teddy Bear fan. This: will take you to pictures of some of the latest additions to my small but growing collection. Bear St. is one of my favorite places to find Teddy Bears.

I also Love and Pizza! Mmmmmmm...

Travel is fun, and I try to do as much as I can. I've been all around the US Pacific Northwest, Central and Southern California, and Alaska.

Here's a nifty Commodore 64 "emulator" I created: ;-)

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Misc. Dave Facts

I live in Seattle, where visitors frequently watch Microsoft employees jump on Boeing airplanes and drink Starbucks coffee on their flight away from the rain. I lived for two years in San Diego, where visitors frequently watch Qualcomm employees use their cell phones to call their friends at the beach to confirm dinner reservations at "Hotel Del".

I enjoy bicycling, jogging, weight lifting (sometimes), coin collecting and, of course, computers.

For work, I am a computer support technician. When someone needs a new computer, I install the hardware, operating system and software and deliver it to them. If their computer isn't working, I repair it. If they need training, I provide it. I am responsible for everything on the computer and also troubleshooting network connectivity issues.

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Building Sway....Wheeee!

I work in a building in downtown Seattle, 45 floors up. It tends to sway and twist on windy days. A co-worker took some videos showing the effect the swaying has on the window shades. While watching these, keep in mind that the swinging of these blinds is NOT caused by the air conditioning vents, which are about a foot away, but point AWAY from the blinds. The swinging is truly caused by building movement. On this particular day, in early March, 2006, the winds outside were only about 25mph, with gusts to about 35mph. But that was enough to cause those of us high up in the building to feel like we were in a boat.

Video #1 Video #2

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Dave: In Depth

(last update: 11/9/2008)

What, you're still here? Want some more "Dave" info?

Well, Okay. But remember, you asked for it:

I was born in January, 1967 in Seattle, WA, USA to a couple of people whom I'm told are my parents. I went to Pinehurst Elementary School (1972-1979), R.H. Thompson Junior High School (1979-1981), and E.S. Ingraham Senior High School (1981-1985). I graduated High School in June, 1985.

Although I swore I'd never return to school, I started Shoreline Community College (in Seattle) in January, 1987, with hopes of becoming a television news photographer. I got my Associate in Arts degree from Shoreline in 1989 and then transfered to Washington State University. While at WSU I worked on several student produced television programs (some broadcast live) and several professional productions (mostly related to WSU sports). My favorite positions on these crews were camera and technical director.
On May 11, 1991, I graduated WSU. This was a good thing overall, but it also meant leaving the small town of Pullman, WA -- land of pizza price wars. Where else can you get a large two-topper -- delivered -- for $4.99?

Post college, I've worn several different career faces -- in fact, I've never worked for any single organization longer than 3.5 years. I always planned to get that perfect job and stay put for 30 years, or whatever. Guess that didn't happen. From 1991 to 1994, I worked at TCI, Inc as a Public Access Television Master Control Operator (fun, but the boss lost his marbles). From 1994 to 1997, I did work as a contract Legal Assistant (boring, but the pay was good). In previous jobs, I had frequently been called to support office computers, so in 1997 I decided to make a career change in that direction. I worked for the Washington State Department of Transportation as a contract computer support technician (love the work and the pay).

In 1999, after several months of careful consideration, I decided to move to San Diego. I guess 32 years of cold, cloudy winters finally got to me. So, in February, 1999, I headed south. I just LOVE the weather in San Diego. Their hottest season is October-December. (Actually, it's kind of difficult to get into the Christmas spirit when you're shopping at an outdoor mall, wearing shorts and sandals, and it's 85 degrees.) But it is very nice walking to work in bright sunlight almost every day of the year. I had a couple of friends who offered to let me stay with them while I looked for work. Not wanting to impose on my buds (their condo didn't have much extra space), I decided to find a diferent place to live. The day after I arrived in San Diego, I got lucky and found a room-for-rent just a couple of blocks from La Jolla Cove. About two weeks later, I found a contract job doing computer support for the San Diego Water Department. Nine days later, I got fired. Ack! But I found another job soon enough -- contracting as the Help Desk lead for a non-profit organization, SDWP. (I was actually employed by a company called TIG, and my assignment was SDWP.) SDWP was located in downtown San Diego.

Living in La Jolla didn't last long, as the owner of the house decided to sell. After a short stay renting a room in the Kearny Mesa area, I found a nice apartment in the Hillcrest neighborhood, just north of downtown San Diego.

My work at SDWP was not fun. I hated that job. After 3 months, I was already considering leaving. TIG saw this and asked what it would take to get me to stay. So, I did some math and came up with what I thought was a fairly high salary request. They accepted it! So, as much as I hated the job, I stayed on for the money. I did good work for them and stuck around as long as I could, but at the 2-year point, I was really fed up. Eventually, my dislike for SDWP became public and they asked me to leave. TIG liked my work, and managed to find me a couple of short-term gigs, but basically I was a "floater" -- when someone else was sick or on vacation, I back-filled their position. I didn't like that at all. In mid-2001, I quit.

Unable to find work quickly enough (thanks for the recession, Bush), running out of money and missing friends and family in Seattle, I decided it was time to head back home. In October, 2001, I moved back. I moved back in with my parents in Bothell, WA. About two weeks later, The Washington State Department of Transportation hired me back under a contract position, but a hiring freeze left me unemployed at the end of 2002. So, there I was, a 35-year-old unemployed geek, living with my parents. It wasn't horrible, but certainly not where I wanted to be at that point in my life. Blah. I was unemployed for 9 months -- even had to get an extention on my unemployment benefits. I felt like a moocher, but with a good old-fashioned recession going on, I had a lot of company!

In September, 2003, I found a Help Desk position working for a law firm in downtown Seattle. I started out making about 20% less than I did in San Diego, but it was still the best job I had ever held. Unless something goes wrong, I'll probably be with them for a long time. UPDATE 2006: Something went wrong. The f**kers laid me off 10 days before Christmas. Oopsie! Laid off, eh? Not only was I laid off, but a big storm the night before left my condo without electricity for 97 hours and 9 minutes. Jobless and sitting in my cold living room. Gads...those were some dreary times for me. I applied to several downtown law firms, feeling I could get in. No such luck. Oh well. After nearly 2 months of unemployment I was hired by The Polyclinic, a medical clinic headquartered in Seattle's Capitol Hill area. My position focuses less on software support and more on the hardware and operating system side. I like that much better! It's a great job, with an I.T. department that is very energetic. It's a comfortable atmosphere with friendly and fun co-workers. The clinic has been expanding across the city, so there's always a lot of work to be done.

Enough about that....here's a little non-work info:

On the living arrangements side of life, I grew up in north Seattle, lived in Magnolia for a few months, had a couple of apartments on Capitol Hill (3 months in 1992, and again from about June, 1994 through February, 1999), lived in San Diego (La Jolla, Kearny Mesa and Hillcrest) from 2/1999 through 10/2001, and times in-between with dear old Mommy and Daddy in Bothell. In May, 2004, I moved out of my parent's house and into a rental condo in Woodinville, WA. In September, 2006, I bought a different condo in the same complex.

Much of my family lives in the Seattle area. I have one older brother, Jon, who lives in Kirkland, WA with his wife Laura and son Ryan. My Mom and Step-father live in Bothell, WA. My maternal Aunt's and Uncle's also live near Seattle. My paternal relatives live in Alaska, Washington, Montana, Arizona and Indiana. My parents divorced when I was two years old. My step-father's family lives near Seattle, also.

By the way, in case you're wondering: I'M SINGLE (again, dammit).
But that's just because I'm too lazy to go on any dates. :-)

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Some of my favorite movie/TV quotes

Head Office:
  "We are not, I repeat: not, involved in the under-arm issue. That's the WACPFSMML."
    (Women Against Corporate Promotion of Female Self-Mutilation Marxist-Lenists)

  "Child Psychologists for a Free Poland Against Whaling."

  "Zionism is Fascism, Fascism is Murder, Murder is Whaling, Whaling is Zionism!"

  (Max's "Lessons" for Jack:)
  "Lesson #1: Beware the furniture movers. When the axe falls, they're always the first
                       to know. People see them coming and they shit."
  "Lesson #2: Never volunteer, never confront, never talk to anyone you can possibly avoid."
  "Lesson #4: The secret to survival is: never make a decision. The minute you do,
                      you get screwed."
  "Lesson #23: Don't try and figure 'em out: if they give you something, go for it."
  "Lesson #47: There are no truths, only stories."
  Jack (drunk) "Lesson #59: Take off, Durango!"
  "Lesson #79: When the tough get going, the weak get screwed."

The Matrix:
  "You take the blue pill and the story ends. You wake in your bed and believe whatever
   you want to believe. You take the red pill and you stay in Wonderland and I show you
   how deep the rabbit-hole goes."

Kill Bill Volume 2:
  Bill:        "Pei Mei taught you the Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique."
  Beatrix:  "Of course."

Bugs Bunny, from "Baseball Bugs":
  "Eh, watch me paste this pathetic paluka with a powerful, paralyzing, perfect,
    pacidermis, percussion pitch."

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Pictures

Pictures, man! Click here

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