Meetings are on the first weekday of the month!

1. Tell us about your blog – what inspired you to start?

I actually started it out of unemployment. When I was laid off several years back, I told myself that I needed something online to send to prospective employers. It originally started off as a subdomain under another one of my domains (jake.orty.com -- link still works) and had my resume and portfolio prominent. Pretty much every personal domain I owned pointed there. I was unemployed a grand total of two weeks, but I wanted to keep the blog going, as I loved writing and loved venting (I was a columnist in college, so I was even paid to do it then). I originally kept it up just for fun, but once it started getting some traffic, the site started getting popular, somehow got a mention in the New York Times, and things have just gotten crazy from there. Even two years after I started the blog things were far more nutty than I'd imagined they'd ever be. I wish I had more time to spend on it, as it's a blast for me to work on.


2. Where did you grow up?

I haven't actually grown up mentally, but if you're talking where I grew up physically, I was born, raised, and have spent my entire life in Bend. Or at least the 9770x zip code range, as I lived south of Bend out by Sunriver (97707) and going to Bend schools for many years before moving into Bend (97701) when I was 12.

3. What is your favorite ice cream flavor and brand?

Dreyer's Cookies 'N Cream. Not really an ice cream guy, but I could eat a ton of that stuff. I'm more of a cookies kind of guy, and prefer to munch vanilla ice cream between a couple of big toll-house cookies and make a sandwich out of that. Good stuff right there.

4. What was your first job?

First job where I got a W2: Working for my dad when I was 14. My dad owned a hot tub maintenance company in Sunriver. Since I couldn't drive, I had a bike with a kiddy trailer behind it, loaded with spa chemicals and cleaning devices.
First geek job: Online Editor for the Oregon Daily Emerald. They didn't have an online editor before, just a Webmaster, and I basically got the job by e-mailing their editors, telling them bluntly that their Web site sucked and I could help them make it better. A month later, I was working there for the next three years until I graduated.

5. How did you get involved with Cascade Winds? Why can't you convince them to meet on some day other than Thursday?

I've be a percussionist (fancy word for drummer who can read music) since I was in the 6th grade when every kid was forced to pick between band, choir, or orchestra. We couldn't afford anything elaborate, and my parents knew I couldn't sing, so banging on things looked like a good idea. My dad was a drummer and I wanted to be, too. When I was a freshman in high school, I was friends with a senior in the band at Mountain View that was in the COCC Band (precursor to the Cascade Winds). He said the band was looking for percussionists, and with my HS band teacher's blessing, I went up there and gave it a whirl. Thirteen or so years later, I'm basically the senior member of the section, though I got my dad up there to start playing a couple years after I started (and he hadn't played for 25 years at that point). I've since played with a variety of local groups. The band's been around for decades, and has always been on Thursday nights as that's how it fell into place during the week of evening rehearsals -- Mondays were Symphony, Tuesdays were choral, Wednesdays were Big-band Jazz, and Thursdays were Concert Band. It's been that way ever since, and stays that way because many people play in one or more of the groups. Since they've been around far longer than COWPU, we're just not going to have that conversation -- I guess the better question is, why can't COWPU meet up on another day of the week? :-P

6. Why are you a member of COWPU?

I met Jen way back in the day when we both worked at the Statesman Journal in Salem. I was in college as an intern in their online department, while she had some sort of official title of some sort. Wasn't quite sure what it was, but I think it had something to do with harassing online department interns. Anyway, when she moved to Bend, we got in touch again, and she had mentioned starting up a group like this. I said how I'd thought it was a great idea as there wasn't really any groups like this around.

And I think the name is damn cool.

7. Are you good at bowling?

I have my moments. I actually was in a bowling league one summer when I was about 9, back when Sun Mountain Fun Center was over on Greenwood and went by the name "Greenwood Bowl" (I think there's a pawn shop there now). Had my own ball and everything (got it for $1 at St. Vincent de Paul and had it re-drilled for my fingers). I like to bowl, and actually bowled a 215 once, purely by accident, when I was in college during Friday night Monte Carlo bowling in the student union bowling alley. Haven't broken 200 since, but I can usually get into the 160s if I try -- which I usually don't, as I'd rather just have fun.

8. What is the most important thing you have learned?

That the best education in the world doesn't teach you nearly as much as being a parent does.

9. What books are you reading?

I never have time for books anymore. I read a lot of magazines and news sites, but don't have a lot of time for books. The last book I read was Microserfs, by Douglas Coupland. Would like to read the entire Lord of the Rings series, which I've never read but my wife likes. I wish I had more time to read, I just don't :-(

10. What things do you find yourself doing that you said you'd "never" do?

Can't think of anything off the top of my head. I've done some things in the past that I said I'd never do (I was in college, and we all know what happens in college, stays in college), but nothing that I'm still doing now.

Interviews of COWPU members are posted periodically (read: when Jen feels like doing it). Have an interesting question for a COWPU member? Want to be the subject of one of Jen's interviews? Join the group or come to a meeting... and tell Jen!

Labels: interviews