| 1968 |
Alan was born, much to the delight of the world.
Lived in Columbus, Georgia.
|
| 1969 |
Lived in Columbus, Georgia.
|
| 1970 |
Lived in Columbus, Georgia.
Learned to walk, leaving a "trail" of poops behind me.
|
| 1971 |
Lived in Columbus, Georgia.
Pretended that the tree in our yard was a helicopter.
|
| 1972 |
Moved to Griffin, Georgia.
|
| 1973 |
I cried when my mom took me to kindergarten.
I wanted a Winnebago camper toy for Christmas (and I got it).
|
| 1974 |
Moved to Clemmons, North Carolina.
Attended kindergarten at Clemmons Baptist Church.
Started 1st grade at Clemmons Elementary.
Teacher: Ms Beale.
Scott Smitherman moved in next door.
|
| 1975 |
2nd grade at Clemmons Elementary.
Teacher: Ms Lawson.
My teacher sat me in the hallway because I was easily distracted.
|
| 1976 |
3rd grade at Clemmons Elementary.
Teacher: Ms Rabb.
Standardized tests showed that I was bored, so I was moved to a "gifted" class.
|
| 1977 |
4th grade at Lewisville Elementary.
Teacher: Ms Bradshaw.
Started the "Gifted and Talented" program.
I broke my foot while jumping down some stairs (Scott pushed me).
|
| 1978 |
5th grade at Brown Middle School.
Teacher: Ms Lewis.
I signed up for band -- I took the drums because it was easy.
|
| 1979 |
6th grade at Brown Middle School.
Teacher: Ms Bradshaw (again).
I wished that I had taken the flute, much easier to carry than a drum.
|
| 1980 |
7th grade at Southwest Junior High.
Scott Smitherman moved away.
Ricky Kessinger moved in across the street.
I decided that I had no musical talent, so I dropped band class.
|
| 1981 |
8th grade at Southwest Junior High.
Won the school science fair ("Does Mr Clean Really Clean?").
My friend Greg Reid introduced me to the Apple II computers at the library.
|
| 1982 |
Freshman year at Kennedy High School.
Ricky's mom drove us to school, on the other side of town.
My friend Tim Hudson committed suicide.
|
| 1983 |
Sophomore year at Kennedy High School.
Spent a great deal of time in the library, using the Apple II computers.
|
| 1984 |
Junior year at West Forsyth High School.
Got my driver's license.
Rode to school each day with Ricky Kessinger.
On weekends, cruised Stratford Road with Ricky.
|
| 1985 |
Teresa King was my first steady girlfriend.
Senior year at West Forsyth High School.
Rode to school with Greg Reid and Michael Steele.
My study hall teacher let me play hooky for the whole year.
|
| 1986 |
My design was chosen for the high school year book (Crayola crayon box).
Graduated from High School.
Worked over the summer at Burger King.
Started at NC State University in Mechanical Engineering.
Roomed with Michael Steele.
Discovered the Internet (e-mail, usenet news, all text-based).
|
| 1987 |
Survived Freshman year at NCSU.
Worked over the summer at McDonald's and Piece Goods Shops.
Moved to Alexander International dorm.
Roomed with Armando Pizzoni (from Italy).
|
| 1988 |
Met Foong in February, spent lots of time together.
Worked over the summer at Wachovia bank.
Moved to South Hall, roomed with Scott Stonefield.
Participated in Computer and Technology Theme Program.
Started using Unix-based computers.
|
| 1989 |
I spent the summer working at Jepson Burns, airplane seat manufacturer.
Foong graduated in the summer and moved back to Malaysia.
I moved into a single room in South Hall.
Decided to get a minor degree in Computer Science.
|
| 1990 |
Spent the summer co-op'ing for Nortel.
I continued to live in the single room in South Hall.
Played multi-player war games on our dorm's computer system.
John Vestal and Lowell Speight tried to "convert" me to country music.
|
| 1991 |
I graduated with a BS in Mechanical Engineering.
I visited Malaysia for the first time.
Moved into an apartment with John Vestal and Rusty Soots.
Got my ham radio license (KD4DNU).
Started working at Nortel.
Bought a new Ford Probe.
|
| 1992 |
Went to England for six months to work on a Nortel project.
My room-mates visited me in May, and we had a great time in Wales.
Came home to find that my room-mates had trashed the apartment.
Bought a '386 computer and installed Linux (Slackware v0.11).
Joined a new group at Nortel testing a poorly-designed ACD system.
My friend David Robinson helped me keep my sanity in that group.
|
| 1993 |
Second trip to Malaysia, asked Foong to marry me (she said "yes").
Moved to Charlottesville to work with my friend Patrick at GE Fanuc.
Patrick and I shared an apartment as well.
The engineers at GE Fanuc became very close friends.
|
| 1994 |
Third trip to Malaysia, to bring Foong back with me.
I took a new job at Chickway in High Point, NC.
Foong joined me in High Point, and we got married.
I traveled to Canada a lot for work.
|
| 1995 |
I became the lead engineer for the "touch screen" product at Chickway.
I went on 13 trips to chicken plants to install touch screens.
Foong's mom visited us and we went to New York.
We bought our first house, and watched it being built.
Foong left me alone for a month while she went to Malaysia.
I bought a dog (Maggie) while she was gone.
It snowed that winter (Maggie loved the snow).
|
| 1996 |
I went to Germany (without Foong, just the boys) for vacation.
I interviewed at Ericsson, but did not get an offer.
Foong and I moved back to Raleigh.
I started working at A4 Health Systems.
I made plans to go back to NC State for a masters degree.
|
| 1997 |
I started graduate school at NC State.
Spring class at NCSU: Algorithms.
We went to Germany/France/Holland for vacation.
Summer class at NCSU: Operating Systems.
We bought a house in Cary.
Fall class at NCSU: Java, Data Structures.
I quit my job at A4 to do some contract work with my friend Robert Ryals.
|
| 1998 |
Boring contract work at Nortel doing database programming.
Spring classes at NCSU: OO Systems, Real Time Systems.
Vacation in San Francisco.
I started working at Ericsson.
Summer class at NCSU: Computer Architecture.
We went to Ottawa for Labor Day weekend.
Fall class at NCSU: Human Factors.
Joined the Triangle Amateur Robotics club.
|
| 1999 |
I wrote a real time operating system (called Presto).
Spring class at NCSU: Computer Networks.
I finished my first project at Ericsson, an FM-radio/phone prototype.
We went to Connecticut for a robotics contest.
Vacation in Malaysia.
Summer "video class" at NCSU: Compilers (put me to sleep, so I dropped it).
We went to Boston for Labor Day weekend.
Fall class at NCSU: Wireless Communication.
|
| 2000 |
Spring class at NCSU: Internet Protocols (dropped to go work in Sweden).
I spent two months in Sweden working with the WAP team.
Foong's sister visited us from China, so we all went to Disney World.
Fall class at NCSU: Network Security.
We found out that we were going to have a baby.
I graduated from NCSU, with a Master of Computer Science degree.
|
| 2001 |
My second project at Ericsson was cancelled (an instant messaging phone).
We moved to Singapore so I could work at Ericsson's Cyberlab.
Audrey was born on July 4th.
Wrote an article for Dr Dobb's Journal (not published yet).
|
| 2002 |
Budget cuts at our Singapore office, so we moved back to the US.
Last-minute vacation in Shanghai.
My company changed to Sony Ericsson, a 50-50 joint venture.
Started working on a mainstream phone for the CDMA market.
Bought a house in Cary.
Sydney was born on November 23rd.
|
| 2003 |
I was laid off from Sony Ericsson, spent next 9 months looking for work.
Met lots of other job hunters, David Robinson became my job-hunting buddy.
I spent some time making my "Presto" RTOS more robust.
I formed Cape Fear Scientific, Foong formed Park York International.
Daryl Moore let me fly his aerobatic plane over rural North Carolina.
|
| 2004 |
My article was finally published in Dr Dobb's Journal (February issue).
I started working at TMIO, which I affectionately call "the oven place".
I immediately recruited my friend Robert Ryals to join me at TMIO.
Foong and the girls went to Malaysia for 7 weeks, I joined them for 2 weeks.
I abandoned Microsoft Windows completely and switched 100% to Linux.
Foong and I celebrated our 10th anniversary with a hot air balloon ride.
I bought a new Mazda 3s, and I donated my '91 Ford Probe to charity.
|
| 2005 |
I went to Las Vegas to show the TMIO oven at the Consumer Electronics Show.
As the oven project progressed, I learned a lot about networking.
We went to Montreal and Quebec City for vacation.
I started taking flying lessons at the Wings of Carolina flying club.
I had surgery on my eye to fix a blocked tear duct.
|
| 2006 |
TMIO started shipping ovens.
Foong and the girls went to Malaysia for 8 weeks.
Sentosa Corporation opened for business.
I completed my private pilot's license in September.
I discovered geocaching.
With the TMIO project completed, I moved to Tekelec.
|
| 2007 |
Attended Geo-Woodstock, just as my interest in geocaching was developing.
The "summer of toys": our family received a new (old) jet ski.
Vacation in China: Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong.
|
| 2008 |
Found 500 geocaches in 500 days.
Bought an Asus EeePC (before they were cool).
Elected to the Triangle Linux Users Group steering committee.
Foong broke her leg while riding a bike, we spent the summer healing.
Vacation at Disney World in Florida.
|
| 2009 |
The year of "trying new things online": paperless banking, twitter, facebook, others.
Bought an Apple iPhone, wrote my first iPhone app.
Three-week vacation in Malaysia.
Attended Hack-In-the-Box in Kuala Lumpur.
Joined YMCA "Indian" Princesses with Sydney.
|
| 2010 |
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