My earliest picture
Here is the oldest picture I have of me (in the middle, sandwiched between my two older brothers).
This page is a look back at my childhood years, my teens, when I started a family and my interest in computers that led to my careeer at Carleton. It also describes my pets over the years and my interest in the Bible.
My Childhood
A look back at my childhood years, including family pictures and the hobbies I had.
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Me on a pony
Some say that I was a cute kid, I'm not sure what happened since then 🤔.
Brothers
This is me (on the left) doing a jigsaw pussle of Lassie with my brothers. My grandpa is off to the right.
Family Picture
This is a family picture with my grandpa, my parents and my brothers.
Hockey school
I went to hockey school at one time (me on the left), but was not very good at it. I play hockey better now ... I hope.
Cool shirts!
I grew up, somewhat normally, I think. My mom picked our clothing.
Camping
As a family, we went camping by driving down to Florida a couple of times with my dad's home-made camper.
Disney World
Like a typical kid, I too went to Disney World in Florida. That is me on the right. My fabourite character was Donald Duck.
Niagra Falls
We also went to Niagra Falls a few times. Nope ... we didn't go over the falls in a barrel. I don't think we would be smiling if we did.
TV Shows
I watched a variety of comedy TV shows while growing up, including classic ones such as "Laurel & Hardy", "Looney Tunes", "Good Times", "Happy Days", "Gilligan's Island" and "Three's Company".
Building models
I loved to put together models, mostly of cars. It was a lot of quiet time on my desk in my room but I think it helped me focus and pay attention to details.
Board Games and Cards
My family and I always enjoyed playing board games and cards. Among my favourites were "Pay Day", "Inventors", "Clue" and "Pictionary". We played lots of card games such as Crazy-Eights, Thirty-one, Euchre, Ding, Hearts, etc.. I guess I learned strategy, cooperation and competition from this aspect of my life.
My Teens and Early 20's
Description of other interests that I had as I got older.
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Camping and white-water rafting
As a teen, I went camping with friends during the summers. Sometimes, we went white-water rafting (can you spot me in the image?). I generally enjoyed swimming underwater with a mask on to explore.
Puzzles
I always enjoyed jigsaw puzzles. As I got older, I collected various puzzles that needed solvingm such as variations of the Rubik's cube. This is a picture of my first Rubik's cube. I used it so much that I wore the stickers off it and ended up painting two sides of it. My record time for solving it was 53 seconds. I think I learned some crucial problem-solving skills that benefited me later on.
Electronics
I enjoyed putting together electronic circuits to do various things. At first, I began by following pre-designed circuits. As I learned about digital logic, I was able to design and build my own circuits. It is hard to find these old electronic parts these days, since everything is getting smaller and using less voltage. Of course, this part of my life played an important role in my love for robotics, although watching Star Wars as a child, made me want to build by own R2D2 even before that.
Drums & Percussion
I started playing drums at age 12, with a basic black 5-piece set. I took lessons in drums, xylophone, tympani and other percussion instruments. As I improved, I moved up to a shiny red Tama drumset. I tried to get some actual music togeter with my brother and his friend, but nothing came of it.
Recording my Own Music
I bought an electronic music keyboard when I was in my teens and began recording my own music. Later I upgraded to a drum machine and this Casio keyboard which allows music sampling. I recorded my own original music as well as my own versions of existing songs.
Music Performances
In high school, I was part of the school stage band (playing drums and other percussion). I was also part of a band called "Zodiac" (where we played for a school dance) and then we name-changed to "Partyline" and played a few other gigs. I also spent a year in a Jazz band playing with 14 older ones when their drummer was on break due to medical reasons. We played at weddings, anninversary parties, etc.. I guess I learned to overcome performance anxiety, which helped me be more relaxed when giving lectures.
Spoon balancing
As I matured, I realized the importance of learning hot to balance a spoon on my nose, especially when bored during a long evenning event.
Dating
When I was 21, I started dating Trish. Here we are at a company called Imapro, where I was on a co-op workterm.
Married!
Yep, we got married. I was 26 years old.
Starting a Family
After marriage, we had our son, Elijah. A few pictures are shown.
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Baby Boy
We had our first and only son in 2003. His name is Elijah. My parents were excited.
Happy Baby
As you can see, Elijah was a happy baby.
Humour
We tried to instill in him a good sense of honour.
Cubboard Emptying
We hears some noise in the kitchen and found out that he enjoys tupperware dishes and containers.
Promoting Bible education
He did well at school and won a few awards. However, he did not follow my footsteps when it came to compter science. However, we did teach him to love our God Jehovah, so he followed my example and is involved in the same bible teaching work that I do.
My Interest in Computers
A brief explanation of my interest in computers, leading up to my career as a professor.
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Discovering computers
I became interested in computers when I was in grade 10 where I took an "Informatics" class. I was hooked! I bought my first computer, which was a Timex Sinclair ZX81 ... it hooked up to the TV and used a tape recorder to store programs. Hold on to your seat ... it had a whopping 1K of memory! I remember taking a trip to the states with my mom to get the 16K Expansion Pack. It was so exciting that I was able to make a hangman game and pacman game!
As time went on, we purchased a Commodore 64 computer. I was exciting because it had color and rich sound. I developped my first inventory system for my dad's Electric company.
Of course, over the years, I owned various PCs and Laptops (e.g., Dell 386, 486, Compaq Presario, Mac Centris 610, iMacs, Alienware, etc.). I tried hard to like my Mac computers because the hardware always seemed to be of higher quality and components seemd to be intergrated together in a more organized manner. However, I had endless compatibility issues with hardware. Also, the absence of a second mouse button is always a bad decision for anyone who grew up with a PC. Ultimately, I got less done with my Macs until I installed Windows on them.
Bachelor Degree in Computer Science
My love for robotics gave me options, since I could study it from various sides (i.e., mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, computer systems engineering or computer science). While they were all interesting, I think that my love of programming won me over to Computer Science. After all, once a robot is built, that is where the fun comes in. And that fun comes from algorithms in computer science.
So, I began a Bachelor's degree in the School of Computer Science at Carleton University in the fall of 1986. I graduated my Bachelor's degree in Computer Science in 1991. I was among the first batch of co-op graduates from Carleton.
Masters Degree in Computer Science
After graduation, I was not too excited about sitting in a cubicle for the rest of my life. Although having a regular paycheck would have been nice, I decided to go for the MCS degree. I found the graduate courses quite easy (when compared to undergrad courses). I built a walking robot with pre-programmed instinctive behaviors. It was done in the Smalltalk language.
PhD in Computer Science
After my MCS, I decided to continue my education. I was able to teach a couple of times and was hired fulltime as an instructor while comleting my degree. This is a photo of my graduation alongside my dad, who was very proud because I am the first (and only) Ph.D. in the family. A couple of years afterwards, I switched over to become a regular faculty member, and received tenure. So, here I am.
Pets
Various pets in my life over the years.
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Puppet
Puppet was our family dog when I was growing up. She was a Yorkshire Terrier. The pictures here are a little old ... before digital cameras. She spent a lot of her indoor time in the laundry room and in the hallways because she was not allowed to go onto the carpets.
Tarantula
Yep ... I owned a tarantula. I didn't name it. I don't have any other pictures of it that are in focus. It ate moths, crickets and grasshoppers ... whatever I could find outside. It lived a long time ... 12 years ! Every few months it would shed its skin (molting) and it would look like another whole tarantula was in the terrarium with it. I rarely picked it up.
Glossy Snake
I owned a glossy snake (also had no name) for about 8 years. I never did give him a name. It was a very cool pet, but I did not like having to feed it live baby mice. Here I am holding it. I was experimenting with developping my own photos ... here is a black & white one of the snake. I wish I had more pictures of it, but this is all that I was able to find.
Al
Al was my first Iguana. She was very fast when she was young. She was actually able to run across the water in the bathtub! Incredible. Here she is after running away into the corner of the room. She was such a cutie and actually liked being cuddled while lying on my chest and shoulder. Here she is asleep in our bed. Here is also a nice picture of her on an artificial tree. Al was a girl. We found out when she laid some eggs one day. We thought that they may have been fertile because we caught Zack doing "the deed" with her one day. We tried to incubate the eggs but we did not have success. No baby Iguanas.
Zack
Zack was an Iguana that we adopted. He spent most of his time roaming loose in my office as you can see here. He turned out to be pretty hefty. He was never agressive towards me but he didn't like other male Iguannas around. Here he is trying to get to Sally inside the aquarium.
Sally
Sally was our third Iguana. He (yes, we named him Sally thinking it was a girl) was very smooth and colorful ... and green. She too was fast. Here she is on the bed and when when she got older. She snagged her tail on our oustide cage somehow and it broke. I had to cut part of it off and bandage it. She remained mad at me until the rest of her life and often based me to bit my toes when I walked in the room to feed her.
Jimmy
Jimmy was our last Iguana. As it turns out, she is a female ... so Jimmy was not the best name after all. Here she is soaking up some sunlight on the cat post. Morning baths allowed her to "do her business" in the tub instead of on the floor in the office. We found out that Jimmy was female when she laid 63 eggs one day!!! They were very soft ... but not fertile though.
Ren & Stimpy
Ren & Stimpy were budgies that spent most of their time flying free in our bathroom. Here they are perched on the top of our blinds.
Sven
Sven was a hand-fed budgie. He stayed in our bedroom in his very own cage which we covered at night so that he would sleep. He spent most of his time flying free in our bedroom and sitting by the dresser mirror. Here he is sitting on Al.
Pigeon
Pigeon was the name that my son Elijah gave to his skinni-pig (i.e., hairless guinea pig). We had a fence enclosure that we set up in the living room to allow him to roam around.
Fish
Over the years we have had various fish. Here a a sampling. We didn't really give them names. However, Elijah was particularly fond of "Black Goldfish" ... that's what he named it.
Patrick
We had taken care of Patrick the chameleon for about a year because a friend was not able to take care of him for a while. He lived in a mesh aquarium with a heat lamp and we sprayed him with water often to give him that warm tropical climate feel. He moved very slowly and carefully. He was quite green at times. Here he is during a color change from green to brown. The other photo shows hm with a brown spotted color. I think that he was just "showing off".
Jorg
Jorg was a Golden Gecko. His skin was very soft and a little bit transparent at times. He lived with Jake and Fry in an aquarium. One day, we noticed that a chunk of his tail was missing. We are not sure what happenned, but we think Fry may have eaten it! The tail started growing back ... really neat!
Jake
Jake was a little crocodile gecko. He was beige/brown at times and white at other times. He lived with Jorg and Fry. One day he lost his tail. It started growing back.
Fry
Fry was a Leopard Gecko that we kept in an aquarium and fed crickets. He looks a little pale in the second image because he was is about to shed his skin, which took a few days.
Skittles
Skittles was a parrot that we adopted. He was very colorful and made lotsa noise. He mimicked the words that we said to him often. He liked the mirror and often repeated "Pretty Bird". He was a messy eater. He had a very powerful bite. Elijah was afraid of him.
Stewart
Stuart was a fancy rat. He was an interesting pet, fun to hold. Buut he left little pee drops on us when we held him. Also, we had to cut his teeth every month. It took three of us to do it because he was so squirmy.
Orson
Orson was a hairless sphinx cat. You can see here that he was quite pink with some gray patches. We was always willing to play fetch with his fuzzy ball. He liked sitting by the window in the sunlight.
Ash
Ash was a hairless gray sphinx cat. He spent a lot of time lying around but was also playful. Be brought us a dead mouse in our bed one day. He slowed down as he aged.
Steve
Steve was another gray sphinx cat that we adpted along with Lily. He had a lot of energy and a long body. He could jump from the floor to the ceiling in one attempt! He was always very alert and like to jump on blankets as we placed them on the bed. He sadly liked to purposely rub his bottom along the clean blankets.
Lily
Lily was adopted along with Steve. She was the "hairiest" of all our hairless cats. Her paws and tail are kinda hairy and she has some fuzz on her sides. Like Orson, she loved to roll over and get pet. She loved going outside and would meow relentlessly until we took her out on the sunny days.
Mystique
Mystique was our 5th adoped cat. She had some kind of nasal issue that caused her to blow her nose on everything. She seemed to have mental issues, perhaps she did not develop well. But she was very playful at times.
Bible-Teaching
More about why I volunteer to help people understand the Bible.
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I grew up as a Catholic, but stopped attending church when I was 21, because I got nothing from it. As a typical Catholic in Ottawa, I had a bible but never read it. When I was in my early 30s, I began reading the Bible and was suprised at how many things that I believed were not based on the scriptures. For some things, I was taught wrong information that went directly against what the Bible taught. Truth is important to me, so I dug in deep. Despite being sceptical, I came to realize that Jehovah's Witnesses follow Jesus' teachings more closely than any other religion I have encountered. Although not perfect in any way, they are "good" people who do their best to live by Bible standards. So, I became one of Jehovah's Witnesses in 2002 and I now volunteer my time to help others see the Bible's answers to deep questions such as these:
- What happens when we die?
- Why does God allow suffering?
- What is God really like?
- What should we be doing with our lives?
- Is the Bible really a book from God?
- What will happen to our planet?
- How can the bible help us cope with life's problems?
- How can I be happier in life?
Feel free to come talk to me (or email me) about the bible at any time, or visit jw.org for more information. Interestingly, it is the most translated website on the planet (over 1125 languages).