Bio
A reverse chronology…
2009
Wrote two digital audio synthesizers for Silverlight: (kSynth)[http://kindohm.com/ksynth] and (kSynth.b)[http://kindohm.com/ksynth.b].
Implemented a new web site to host all of my music I’ve recorded over the years: http://hodsaudio.net
Released “The Drow” by The Skill Druids: http://hodsaudio.net/Album/Details/11
Released “Robots Stole My Computer”: http://hodsaudio.net/Album/Details/12
2008
Microsoft Silverlight and I became friends.
I discovered the Farseer Physics Engine for Silverlight and started doing some game development. I released a game called TANKS: http://kindohm.com/tanks
My home recording studio finally reached a “finished enough” state to use.
2006
Nikki and I took a getaway trip to New York City. Lots of sight-seeing.
I took a high interest in WPF 3D and wrote a tutorial: http://kindohm.com/technical/wpf3dtutorial.htm
2005
Our daughter Eva was born. Having a child was the single most life-changing event ever. Minutes after she was born, I remember her laying quietly on mom’s chest with wide-open, curious eyes. She still has those eyes.
Released “Calle Fabio Rufino”: http://hodsaudio.net/Album/Details/9
2004
Nikki and I went to Europe. It was actually a cruise around western Europe from London to Rome, with stops in Paris, Lisbon, Cadiz, Casablanca, Gibraltar, Barcelona, Cannes, and Florence. The best trip I’ve ever taken. Europe != USA.
Halo 2 was released for the XBox. My nights have been consumed ever since.
I also started working for Inetium.
Started finishing our basement in our house. I love carpentry.
Released “Fury Stopper”: http://hodsaudio.net/Album/Details/6
2003
I started playing Halo on XBox. A friend of mine and I played some multiplayer on it and I instantly recalled the joy of playing Quake on a LAN with friends. We started planning Halo LAN parties about once a month.
Nikki and I moved in to our current house, in Chaska, MN.
Released “Basic”: http://hodsaudio.net/Album/Details/7
2002
Landed a job with Nextel Partners - a sister company of the former Nextel, Inc. I helped introduce .NET to the classic ASP team there. We developed ASP.NET intranet applications on SQL 2000.
Became a Minnesota Wild season ticket holder.
Released “Sonar”: http://hodsaudio.net/Album/Details/8
Released “OS”: http://hodsaudio.net/Album/Details/5
2001
Nikki and I got married. Nikki is one of the only people in the world (if any) who “gets” me.
I took my first job as a developer at a consulting company early in the year. I also got laid off a month after Nikki and I got married.
Put out my first home-recorded album, “I Invented Plastic”: http://hodsaudio.net/Album/Details/4
2000
I was working at Honeywell as a manufacturing engineer at a printed circuitboard factory. I was responsible for the manufacturing line that applied and removed the photo-resist material used to protect circuit board components from the gold plating process (e.g. on PCI card contacts, etc).
1998
I got my first job out of college at United Parcel Service in Minneapolis. I got my first taste of real-world software development, doing classic ASP intranet sites on SQL Server 6.5.
This was also the first time living on my own away from home. Being able to live in the same vicinity as my future wife (and then girlfriend) was fully awesome.
Recorded a lot of really weird audio in my parents’ basement: http://hodsaudio.net/Album/Details/10
1997
Met Nikki during a weekend with our mutual friends Lee and Shannon. It only took a couple of days and we were hooked on each other.
I also remember grinding through a hellish Robotics and Automation class in college with a tough instructor. It was a really fun course with an insane amount of math.
I was the web master for the Industrial Engineering department’s web site at UMD.
1996
My friend Lee and I were working in a metal casting lab in the UMD engineering department. Earlier that summer, the university installed a new sprinkler in the ceiling above the melting furnace and we set off the fire alarm. We flooded the entire lab. None of the emergency drains worked. 20 engineering students pitched in and helped direct the water out a garage door.
HTML and I became formally introduced to each other. It has been a pleasant yet sometimes rocky relationship ever since.
1994
Graduated from Duluth East High School. I recall absolutely loving school until near the end of my senior year. I was very ready to move on. Funny, I moved on to more school and went to college at the University of Minnesota Duluth.
I joined the Industrial Engineering program, but was a music major wanna-be.
I performed with the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra. I played on Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances - and played bass drum, crash cymbals, and gong, I believe.
Played in the pep band a the Minnesota High School Hockey Tournament. Our school took 3rd place if I remember correctly… it was an unbelievable experience at the old St. Paul Civic Center (R.I.P.). Pep band gigs will always be some of my most memorable experiences from high school.
1993
I auditioned to be an “extra” for the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra’s percussion section. I’d never been so nervous before.
1990
Started taking drum lessons with Dave Hagedorn. Dave studied with Vic Firth. I had no idea playing straight quarter notes could be so hard! I am forever in debt to Dave for teaching me good time.
1989
Got my first drum set. A used 5-piece Gretsch with huge shells and no bottom heads. 24” bass drum. It came with two big 22” ride cymbals that I still use to this day.
1988
I started to play drums for real. I took lessons at school with the band director. I didn’t have a drum set yet, but I remember air-drumming to Bon Jovi’s “New Jersey” album with two halves of a Nerf Pool pool stick.
1984
For some reason I recall this year being one of the best of my childhood.
1976
I was born January 20th at 11:33 (I think) at St. Mary’s hospital in Duluth, MN. My mom always tells me that I never cried for the few days I was in the hospital, but I cried all the way home.
