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Well....where to start? Graduation, I suppose...
I blew it off. I wasn't getting a "real" diploma anyway; I needed to finish senior composition at Roosevelt (you might remember that alternative adult education high school for "non-traditional students"); I'd already flunked it at Central. I completed my graduation requirements a week late. Then I took some time off to deliver pizzas and embark on a promising career as a no-good-shit. After a couple years of that, I was finally shocked back into reality, and decided to get my lazy ass into college.
In 1996, I graduated from UND with a degree in Electrical Engineering. I immediately set out to Seattle in search of a job. During my studies, I'd spent a couple of wonderful summers working in nearby Olympic National Park. Beautiful rainforests and glacier-covered mountain peaks; I highly recommend a visit. That's where I decided that the great Northwest was my place.
I worked at a couple of high-tech startups in Seattle, the second of which was a company called Digital Harmony. They specialized in the design of professional audio electronics and home theater systems. Fun stuff. I worked there for 3 years alongside a gifted crew of engineers and professionals. However, in spite of all the talent, the company didn't survive the great dot-com bust of 2001.
Shortly before the last round of layoffs, I was contacted by a Swiss company called BridgeCo. They were working with nearly the same technology as Digital Harmony, and they wanted me to come to Zurich, Switzerland, to work for them. At the time, I was 30 years old, and 1 year into my first serious relationship. My girlfriend (ex-girlfriend actually) wasn't ready to make such a move...so I committed to a 6-month working period in Switzerland, and a lot of travel to maintain the relationship. This evolved into a 4-year period of living half in Zürich and half in Seattle; I'm still burning through the frequent flyer miles! ...in fact, I just used some to fly my girlfriend and myself to Olympia, Washington, for Onder & Mandy's wedding http://www.gfcentral1988.com/class_profile.cfm?member_id=51453
At the end of 2005, my girlfriend (ex-girlfriend) and I broke up and I decided to completely up-root from the US and settle in Zürich. In an attempt to fully embrace the Swiss experience, I moved into an apartment in the middle of the old town, in a building that was built in 1607! I switched employers at this time as well; I went to work as a Customer Projects Engineer for another small (but this time public) company called Esmertec. They make Java virtual machines (in layman's terms: software) for mobile phones.
Later in 2006, I met a wonderful German gal, Kerstin Hansen, at a rather extreme festival in Leipzig, Germany. Yes, she's my *girlfriend* (not wife), and has exactly the same last name. Yes, it's a complete coincidence, and no, we're not related...at least we have no common relatives in the last 500 years. We did a long-distance, cross-language relationship for the next year-and-a-half. As of 2 months ago, we're happily living together.
I spent most of 2007 working on-site at the headquarters of a major mobile phone maker in Sweden (not to be confused with Switzerland!). I also reconnected with distant relatives in nearby Denmark (where the Hansens came from). It was a positive experience, but I found myself longing to settle down a bit. All that moving and travel can be draining...especially after 15 years of it!
Now I (we) have indeed settled down a bit. We moved into a larger apartment on the edge of the Zürich city center - and across the street from the botanical gardens. She in November and I returned from Sweden in January. I also switched jobs back to BridgeCo; they made me a great offer, which involves relatively little business travel. I'm now a Linux kernel hacker (officially a Senior Software Engineer). I'm writing Linux USB drivers for electronics that will go into A/V receivers, mixing boards, and all kinds of other "toys". The environment is mostly German-speaking (and the radically-different variant, Swiss-German). Group conversations can still be a bit of a struggle, but I seem to get by. Why did I go for French at Central?!
Well, I hope you've enjoyed my autobiography!
Unfortunately, chances are not good that I can make it back to the reunion. I'd love to go, but flights to GF (or even Minneapolis)....
*News Flash* I just purchased my tickets. I will be there! Can't wait to see everyone!
