About Cory Carpenter:

Cory Carpenter was born in a small Washington town in the latter part of the 20th century. Although a number of things happened in the intervening years, we'll skip ahead to 1982, when he took his first class in computer programming at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology . He bought his first personal computer shortly thereafter. He holds a degree in Technical Journalism from Oregon State University, and has won awards for news reporting and technical writing.

He has lived in various small towns in Washington, Oregon, South Dakota, and (feh!) California.

Cory has been employed as a busboy and dishwasher, stockboy in a grocery store, handyman, data-processing department manager, surgical instrument assembler, biological laboratory aide, electronic technician, newspaper editor, technical writer, software engineer, software technician, technical writer, and software engineer.

Cory's interests include people with a good sense of humor, classic and new rock, live blues and jazz, wrenching on automobiles, travel, sailing, and pretty much any sort of technology, from metalsmithing to woodworking to aeronautics to circuit design. Why so many diverse interests? This sums it up.

If you've got time on your hands, you can explore Web pages and other goodies by some of my net.buds:

• Allen & Tania: The Thompsonians
  Allen Thompson's House of Donuts ...has been "off the air" for some time now. Will it ever return? (You can no longer listen to The Donut Song. Sad.)
• The Pre-Astronauts by Craig Ryan: A documentary on the history of high-altitude ballooning. (The Pre-Astronauts can be found at Powell's Bookstore in Portland, OR, in the Rose Room. At Barnes & Noble, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, it can be found in the Astronomy section for some reason.)
• Magnificent Failure by Craig Ryan: The biography of Nick Piantanida, who died as a result of attempting a privately funded jump from a stratospheric balloon.
• Come Up and Get Me by Joe Kittinger and Craig Ryan: The autobiography of Colonel Joe Kittinger, fighter pilot, POW, and the first man to "space dive" a la "Star Trek" (the 2009 reboot movie) -- for real, no special effects and no Romulans.
• Sonic Wind by Craig Ryan: The biography of Dr. John Paul Stapp, "the fastest man on Earth" who was responsible for putting seatbelts and airbags in cars, and thereby indirectly saving Cory's life.
• Ochoco Reach by Jim Stewart: An Ironwood novel. Murder, intrigue, action, and romance from the Portland waterfront to Oregon's High Desert to Mexico.