Sequoia Steve (that's me next to some Giant Sequoia way back in 1997) at Kings Canyon National Park, CA. Nothing like an enormous tree to pinpoint your general importance in the grand scheme of things. Here's a more recent shot (6/02) at Yosemite. That's not very recent either, is it? How about Uhuru Peak, Kilimanjaro, Tanzania (9/04)? Screw it--there are always updated pictures on the hiking page.
If you have to start a story somewhere, it might as well be education. I received three degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Florida. Why Florida? Well, I spent the memorable part of my childhood in Orange Park, FL (graduated in 1988 from Orange Park High School), and UF was unquestionably the best engineering university in Florida (in-state tuition was key). By graduate school I could afford to go elsewhere (since it would be free--ain't engineering great?), but had already started working in the Florida Solid-State Electronics Laboratory under the guidance of Prof. Chih-Tang Sah and believed that I could do no better (educationally) elsewhere. This turned out to be true, although there were frequent periods when I doubted this decision. . .
After a couple years of tight living under UF's graduate research assistant salary, I was awarded a Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) graduate fellowship. Life improved considerably. I also had a couple summer internships at a small California company called Intel.
I didn't always want to be an Electrical Engineer (EE). In fact, I came to college leaning toward Computer Science (CS). Somewhere along the way I was convinced that EE was the most challenging major, so that's what I did. I ended up in device physics by a similar twist of fate: a well-taught class in my early undergraduate days. Prof. Toshikazu Nishida was the professor; and he later supervised my undergraduate senior project and ushered me into the Florida Solid-State Electronics Lab. I think I should thank him for leading me down such an odd path.
I have been interested in computers for about as long as I can remember, and was lucky enough to have a TRS-80 Color Computer (CoCo) during my formative years. I became so attached to this goofy platform that I did not buy a "modern" PC until after graduate school (nine years of college CoCoing with a Radio Shack television as a monitor).
My post-graduation goal was to obtain a position where I could use my knowledge of device physics, computer architecture, and operating systems simultaneously. The day after my defense, I flew out West to start interviewing. After six full-day interviews over seven working days at five different companies in four states, I was left with the problem of choosing among the offers, as all were good groups with great positions, and most fit my objectives. The plus side was that any choice would work out well. Good friends, good weather, and good benefits motivated me to come to California, and the rest is history.
I lived in on-campus housing for nine years with no car and nearly thirty (!) roommates over the span. I changed these two situations immediately after graduation by purchasing my first (and still only) car (1998 pearl-magenta gray Mitsubishi Eclipse) and moving into the semi-posh Élan (check out those California rents!). I'm forever waiting for the big one to hit the Bay Area and drive down property values. I figured the market was overheated when I arrived, so never considered buying a house. So much for the "easy money".
I enjoy just about any physical sport except tennis (I prefer racquetball, where an errant shot has substantially constrained boundary conditions). Since I had no car during college, I became an avid biker (though not to the point of wearing lycra regularly), and occasionally ride the only reasonably-long traffic-free paved stretch of trail in the South Bay: Coyote Creek Parkway. Although I haven't played in years, ultimate frisbee is perhaps my favorite game. It's a great amalgamation of all the good parts of several sports. I also like card games of any type: hearts, spades, anything with a normal deck (or even Mah Jongg, for that matter). In the deadly arts, I play a mean game of darts, routinely beating various friends. . .although it has been many moons since I've thrown a dart. I've also been known to dabble in the stock market, a not-too-rare hobby in the Bay Area.
Hiking is good, which made Florida bad and California great (HP in Fort Collins would have been the ultimate choice). I hike every weekend with I.N.C.H., an ever-growing Bay Area hiking club, where I'm often trying to log a geocache along the way.
The following story best sums up my hiking habit and personality:
| 10/8/02 | 13 parks around New Mexico in five days, 2500 miles (plus TX, OK highpoints) |
| 11/8/02 | 13 parks in MO, AR, LA, KY in five days, 2200 miles (plus MO, AR, LA highpoints) |
| 5/21/03 | 8 parks in SD, NE, WY in four days, 1250 miles (plus SD highpoint) |
| 4/26/04 | 6 parks in AZ in three days, 950 miles (AZ highpoint the following weekend) |
| 7/14/04 | 14 parks in five days, 2100 miles (plus VA, SC, NC, GA, TN, KY, WV, MD, and PA highpoints) |
| 8/01/05 | 11 parks in 14 days, 2850 miles (plus ID, CO, UT, and NE highpoints) |
| 10/26/05 | 0 parks in six days, 1030 miles (plus HP of seven CA counties; 87 miles of hiking w/20,300 ft of elevation gain) |
| 9/08/06 | 7 parks in eight days, 2375 miles (plus MI, WI, and MN highpoints) |
| 9/07/07 | 10 NP, AZ HP, one wedding, 100 miles hiking, 1885 miles in 10 days |
| 10/20/07 | 3 country high points (NL, BE, LU) 5 countries "visited", 1201 miles in 6 days in Europe (not inc. Isreal) |
| 6/15/08 | 7 NP in nine days, 2012 miles (plus HP of AL, MS, FL, some other hiking, and a class reunion) |
| 9/27/08 | 33 NP in 10 days, 2264 miles (plus HP of DE, CT, MA, NJ, and RI) |
| 12/13/08 | 1734 miles in NZ |
| 4/30/09 | 8 NP in eight days, 1922 miles (plus HP of VT) |
| 6/5/10 | 4 NP in nine days, 2375 miles (plus HP of IL and IA, and seventeen random county HPs) |
| 8/1/11 | 4 NPs in seven days, plus six CA county HPs |
| 10/1/11 | 8 NPs in eight days, 1983 miles (plus HP of NY and NH). |
| 7/23/11 | 3 NPs in five days, 1590 miles (plus HP of NM and KS. . .and RMNP) |
| 10/1/12 | 6 NPs in six days, 1966 miles (plus HP of ND and two speeding tickets) |
| 10/21/16 | R2R2R, then 8 AZ HPs in 6 days, 1586 miles (already had Grand Canyon!) |
| 12/6/17 | AZ trip for Mom/Dad, 1348 miles (HP of 4 AZ HPs) |
| 8/20/18 | CO trip, 400 miles (HP of 9 CO HPs, 5 14ers) |
| 4/x/22 | CO trip, 520 miles (1 winter 14er, lots of breweries) |
| 6/x/22 | NM->CO, Ecudor, Costa Rica, NC->VA |
| 4/4/23-4/27/23 | Austrailia, >5000 miles of driving; Sydney/Brisbane loop, Cairns, Newman, Perth/Albany loop, Melbourne |
| 6/1/23-6/10/23 | Lake Michigan Loop, 2496 miles |
| 7/11/23-7/18/23 | Colorado, 3 county HPs, 2 14ers, 1 13.5k, 906 miles driven |
| 12/26/24-2/7/24 | Florida/Georgia, 20 Co HPs, 2 city HPs, 2026 miles driven |
| 8/6/24-8/13/24 | Maine plus a little NH and VT, 8 CO HPs, 5 non-HP prominance points, 1304 miles driven |
| 3/20/25-4/4/25 | 15 TX, 4 NM, 5 OK HPs plus 9 NPS properties, 3382 miles |
| 5/14/25-5/23/25 | Closed out Maine and added a little NH, VT, and MA, 9 CO HPs, 1515 miles driven |
| 6/4/25-6/10/25 | 5 county HPs in Michigan, 830 miles driven |
| 7/8/25-7/14/25 | 11 IA, 7 NE county HPs, plus 1 NP and 1588 miles driven |
| 8/31/25-9/7/25 | 1 CO, 2 WY county HPs, plus a 13.5, 13.9, and four 14k peaks, 733 miles driven |
| 10/19/26-10/25/25 | 5 NM, 1 TX HP. 1122 miles driven. Connected CA to the middle of AK. |
Some people find identity through culture. Although I'm 1/2 Dutch (Walstra is Dutch for "Really Cool Guy"), 3/16 Irish, 5/32 German, 1/8 English, and 1/32 "other", I'm 100% American. This leaves me with an undeniable cultural wanderlust. I finally left the country in 2001 to attend a good friend's wedding in Singapore. While in the "area", also visited Malaysian Borneo (hiked Mt. Kinabalu) and Thailand (Phuket). One of these days I'll get back to my European roots. (Done! 10/2007)
Also on my cultural agenda is to learn enough Mandarin (Chinese) to request more steamed rice without thinking too hard (done--thanks Jinglan!). So far, I took a semester at Mission College, which provided a reasonable base to learn, but my Chinese is still bù hǎo. I did manage to travel to China in 2003, but most of the communication involved broken sentences supplemented with pointing.
Philosophical Rant
My page is called the "Tao of Slaw" because, although I am an atheist, the general feeling of Taoism is a step in the right direction. It's more of a good idea than an explanation for the unknown. Plus, how can you not love The Tao of Pooh? Nonetheless, I occasionally bust out the Bible for debate. For a little more earthly ideals, I find the writings of Ayn Rand to align, for the most part, with my own thoughts on the world. Atlas Shrugged was a good book (Galt's redundant sermon excluded), and Rand's other fiction works were all pretty decent too. No, I'm not a Libertarian, raving Objectivist, nor particularly right or left about anything. My philosophy is very much embodied by The Golden Rule, and my interactions with people tend toward a sort of upekkha.
Oh, yeah. Why the "Slaw?" The "Slaw" in "Tao of Slaw" comes from my last name, spelled backwards (Artslaw). I used this name often in my halcyon BBS days in Jacksonville, FL--people from that long-gone time still occasionally call me "Artslaw." I also used Slaw as my intramural basketball moniker in college. We got beaten so often that an alias was preferred.
The Tao of Slaw predates the movie The Tao of Steve by about six years. Should I sue?
I can't believe you read this far. Thanks for caring (or, please return to work!).
Fri Sep 29 22:15:25 PDT 2006
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