Thunk

Location:Omaha, Nebraska

Occupation: Software Engineer

My Story: Thunk (previously Thunkalator) swore he would never play video games or own a cell phone. Thunk caved in when his wife (Debbie) requested he get a Halo2 disk so that he could play with his son, Nick. Soon after, Nick moved on to Xbox, leaving Thunk to ponder continuing on with Halo, but it was too late - Thunk was hooked (he also owns a cell phone now and even a Bluetooth thing that you stick in your ear).

You'll find Thunk on Halo usually late in the evening when he is too tired to do anything else. What, you may ask, else would a Thunk have to do? Thunk is a software engineer for Raytheon Corporation in Omaha, Nebraska. Thunk has been in IT in a variety of roles since 1985. Prior to Thunk's entry into IT he was chipping away at a career in geology; he has a B.S. and M.S. in geology and a master's certificate in hazardous waste management.

Thunk's first love is geology and he does get to share this passion as a Sierra Club National Outings leader. Thunk has led week-long backpacking and base-camp with day hikes trips since 2001 in New York's Adirondack Mountains, Wyoming's Wind River Range, Montana's Bitterroot Range and California's Sierra Nevada Range.

No doubt you find Thunk a tough opponent in Halo; Thunk hikes and works out with weights on a regular basis. He is hard to kill - in 1997 Thunk survived an attack of severe aplastic anemia (his bone marrow completely shut down). Doctors saved Thunk through a course of chemotherapy (not a bone marrow transplant) and acknowledged Thunk's level of fitness as a major contributor to surviving this attack. Thunk knows how important physical fitness is to one's overall health and encourages others to stay fit (this is vital to a Halo player).

Other activities Thunk is engaged include finishing his basement (one day Thunk will be sending you rockets via a home theater). He is Webmaster for the Sierra Club National Outings Trip Submission System (TSS), which leaders use to submit new trips and budget to the Club. Thunk wrote the TSS in PHP with a MySQL database back-end, but is beginning to convert the system to a PostgreSQL database with a Java front-end.

It is no wonder Thunk plays Halo. Thunk used to be an avid science fiction reader. Some of his favorite authors are Arthur Clark, Harry Harrison and Isaac Asimov. His favorite book - actually three books - is Harrison's West of Eden series. These days, Thunk rarely finds time for reading fiction - he spends too much time playing Halo! See you online.