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I received my BA Honours(Geography) from Carleton University in June 1997.

I've put the analysis from my Honours thesis on my website. When I have time, I may put the full text of the report online as well.

Currently, I'm a senior IT officer in the Survey Operations Division of Statistics Canada.

If you want, you can visit my ride log.

In case you're curious, I spent two and a half years working for Calian Technical Services as an Operations Administrator at the Canada Centre for Remote Sensing's Satellite Acquisition Service.

CCRS tracks several remote sensing satellites:

RADARSAT-1

Canada's first synthetic aperture RADAR satellite. It is operated by the Canadian Space Agency.

SPOT-1,-2 and -4

The SPOT satellites are owned by the French space agency CNES and operated by SpotImage SA. SpotImage SA has an American company called SpotImage Corporation (SICORP), located in Reston, VA.

Landsat-5

The American Landsat programme has undergone many changes over the years. It started out as a public sector programme in the late 1960's. During Ronald Regan's administration it was decided to privatize the program. Landsat-4 and Landsat-5 are operated by SpaceImaging/EOSAT. Landsat-6, the follow-on to Landsat-5, failed during launch.

Landsat-7

Landsat-7 was successfully launched in April 1999. It is being run by the US Geological Survey. Space craft operations are being handled by the Landsat-7 Mission Operation Center (MOC) at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

ERS-2

The European Space Agency has two synthetic aperture RADAR satellites, ERS-1 and ERS-2. Currently, ERS-1 is in hibernation and is used infrequently. ERS-2 is the primary satellite in this family of satellites.

NOAA-14

One of several polar orbiting satellites operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), NOAA-14 provides relatively coarse environmental data (approximately 1km pixels). These polar orbiters are "free" satellites -- with a relatively inexpensive setup anyone can receive data from them.

The International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS).

I joined ICOMOS in '92 and shortly thereafter started them down the road of "getting on the 'net". ICOMOS was the first international heritage conservation organization on the Internet. Initially, ICOMOS had a Waffle site inside the Pinetree.org domain connected via UUCP. Over the years, I created a gopher server and later a webserver which were both initially hosted on a Sun computer in a government department. As these two servers became busier, it became evident that ICOMOS should set up their own server, so we purchased a 486 (state of the art at the time) from The Clones Society and put it on the net with the help of Newforce Communications. Since then, ICOMOS moved its network connection from Newforce to The Clones Society where it is currently located.

The Geomatics Industry Association of Canada (GIAC)

During the Winter '96 term, I did a practicum with GIAC and helped them get on the Internet.

Canadian Owners and Pilots Association

The Canadian Owners and Pilots Association is the national body representing Canadian pilots to all levels of government.

Quoting from their Mission Statement:

COPA raises the awareness of important issues facing the flying community, promotes air safety through education and works to lower the cost of flying.

COPA offers a free year's membership to every student pilot upon the occasion of their first solo flight.

What else am I up to? Well...

• Flying! On August 8, 1997, the back of my student pilot permit was endorsed as a result of passing both the flying portion and the written portion of my license exams. This means that I am a fully licensed private pilot. I did my both my ground school and flight training at Ottawa Aviation Services, which is based at MacDonald-Cartier International Airport in Ottawa. Their primary trainer is the Diamond DA-20 Katana, a two-person low-wing aircraft constructed using composite technologies. If you ever have a chance to fly in one do because you won't be disappointed.


At the end of July 1998, I received my night rating. This allows me to fly VFR at night. Night flying is amazing -- smooth as glass as my instructor used to say.

NavCanada runs an Aviation Weather Services website for pilots.

Hobbies and other interests:

• Dungeons and Dragons
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• Curling
• Model railroads (Just getting into N-guage)
• Salt-water aquariums
• Sailing
• Skiing
• Windsurfing
• MUD'ing
• Bunny hunting
• Amateur Radio (I am VE3XGD)

Other miscellaneous things...

For a third-year course I took in the Spring 1995 term, I created a precipitation model for Maui, HI. A couple images are available:
 

Click here for the boring demographic information.

Click here to see a picture of my house taken from a 1:15000 colour air-photo taken on August 26, 1993.

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