Ahoy! My name is Ray Kirk.
About to cast off . . .
“Don’t Panic!”
I grew up in what was then a small timber town in northern Oregon. I majored in Chemistry, with a minor in Botany, at Oregon State University, and later took a Master’s in Chemical Engineering. Following a couple of years as a Research Associate at OSU’s Forest Products Research Lab, I spent the next three-plus decades in as many states as an engineer, husband, and father, in that chronological order. With the last kid out of university – at one time we had four kids in four schools in four states and two coasts – and the last major project complete, I retired, and came home to the Pacific Northwest.
Now, I sail when I can. I garden a bit, and I volunteer. I encourage. I explore. In that spirit, I sometimes set off to learn something new.
Like I am now . . .
Seamus is somewhat older, and considerably larger now.
From the standpoint of my attendance of Peninsula College, and my enrollment in Media 111, you may categorize me as me as a non-traditional student. A “lifelong learner.” In PC-Speak, I am a non-degree-seeking student. I’m here for information and inspiration, from my professors and my fellow students.
I will consider myself successful as it relates to Media 111 if in December I have: (1) The basic tools to move forward in the development and management of a couple of websites, one more or less a blog, the other a forum to showcase and sell pretty things, and, (2) the knowledge of what knowledge I lack, and some of the paths/coursework to help me acquire it . . . next steps, as it were.