George Washington Quotation

I saw this statement for the first time on a framed print in a stairwell in Washington Hall at Carlisle Barracks in Pennsylvania.  I was there for a couple nights on a work trip, and the statement seemed so apropos that I took a picture.  About a year later I was in an office where my coworkers needed to hear something like this, so I printed it, framed it, and hung it on my cubical wall (the original is in storage right now; this is a rendering with a little more texture to the background).

I'm not sure that it triggered any profound changes, but I am sure that everyone got the point.

Interface Mockup for Custom Testing Software

As I put it in one version of my resume: "Created and documented a mockup of a database-backed system for test tracking and recording."  Some of the resulting visuals are in the composite image to the right..

This was a self-initiated project sparked by seeing how inefficient and mistake-prone testing could be, even with clear regulation-based guidelines.  Some common problems came from turnover in the testing workforce, the sheer volume of test items, the volume and variety of test data, and the frequency of delays during the tests.

My proposed database-backed system would take advantage of the formalized guidelines to make the testing process run on rails, and would thus solve the just-listed problems.

UPDATE 1: Speaking of rails, as I researched the best way to implement the system, I got a taste of the future when my research took me to the Ruby on Rails project; I could see that web-based approach was certainly the best solution.

UPDATE 2: Looking back from early 2013, I can also now see that tablet-like devices would have been (and still would be) the ideal hardware to match with the software described/shown.  On-the-floor testing makes even notebook-type solutions awkward, but a direct touch-based interface running on a small tablet would be just right.

Test Procedure Documentation

From the middle of 2005 to late in 2006 I worked at a government test lab.  The hydrostatic pressure test was one of the most complicated procedures we did, and surprisingly it was also completely undocumented.  After I finally learned how to do the test I decided that it would be a good idea to help future testers by documenting the procedure.

Because the software tools available were very limited, I settled on using hand-drawn illustrations in a Word document.  A scan of some of the original drawings is to the right, and a PDF of the full test procedure is linked below.

Wedding Announcement

Made for my own wedding with Macromedia Fireworks MX.  (I did not produce all the component images - the central picture on the front, the paperclip, the seed, and the bee are the work of others.)

BYU School of Technology Web Design

From March 2000 to November 2002, I was the webmaster for the School of Technology and for the School's Manufacturing Engineering Technology (MET) program.  My work as the MET webmaster continued on to August 2003.

This was a part-time work-study position that involved independent webpage authoring and maintenance, including the production and editing of content on my own and extensive work with professors and teaching assistants to create and maintain individual class websites.

The sample images to the right represent only a tiny percentage of what I did over my three-and-a-half years as webmaster.  Shown are two samples each of the home pages for the School of Technology and the MET program.  I was also responsible for most of the sub-domains shown on these home pages (i.e. the faculty profile pages, the facilities overview pages, the news pages, etc.).

Most of the content and structure I developed for the MET program has been replaced, but it was all intact through late 2006, which means that it had a very long life for web content.

Aluminum Chess Set

I designed and built this set of minimalist-style chess pieces.  Materials and tools used were one-inch aluminum barstock, an Okuma CNC lathe with live tooling, and a wire EDM (to cut the groove representing the bishop’s mitre).  All pieces are anodized and have green felt bottoms.

Cut Spoon

Simply a stainless steel soup spoon with an arrow symbol cutout.  I designed the symbol, programmed the wire EDM machine, and did some minor finishing work.  The spoon was cut in 2002, but the graphics below were made in 2009 and 2010.