SGwylan's Home Page
Well, this is going to be a little sketchy, but it's a start, anyway...
For those who don't already know me... well, I'm a bit surprised you found this page! But welcome anyway.
My name is Sam and I live in Portland, Oregon. I moved here from the San Francisco Peninsula in California -- just a few miles from where I was born more than 40 years ago -- in June 2004. My father's family is primarily Scottish and German-Swiss, while my mother's family meandered all over the Island of Great Britain, including Scotland, Wales and the more extreme corners of England before coming to America.
The image at left is based on a photo taken in February 2007 as we had lunch at Mother's Bistro & Bar in downtown Portland, Oregon. He PhotoShop'ed the rest in February 2008 on my request for a blending of my face pic with a seagull (for a clue why, see my Wales & Welsh page). If you'd like to see more of Greg's gallery and a bit about the fellow himself, click on the image to go to one of his pages.
From 1982 through mid-2002, I worked at Thomson - Gale(formerly Gale Group, formerly Information Access Company), starting as a filing clerk and eventually employed as a Software Engineer, working primarily in Java, C++, and Oracle PL/SQL. Presently I am looking for further employment, in the Portland, Oregon Tri-Met area, but would prefer a job writing software documentation or teaching, as I found over the years that I got far more out of working with people than working with computers.
In December 2005, my father suffered a major stroke. Since then, he has broken a hip and suffered a second stroke. While he continues to improve, he's needed to have someone around to make sure he took his medications and ate meals and such things, so my sister and I split eldercare duties, along with an outside person who comes in a few hours a week to help.
In the fall of 2007, I enrolled in H&R Block's tax preparation course with an eye toward doing some seasonal work with Block. The day after my 45th birthday, I took the Oregon state tax preparer's licence exam and passed, and have signed on with Block for the 2008 tax season, being based at the office inside Sears at Lloyd Center here in Portland.
Meanwhile, I have been keeping myself busy with special projects and events for various non-profit organizations I've been involved in, including the Welsh Society of Portland, where I serve as Vice President (see also the Wales & Welsh page) and Warpstock (see also my OS/2 Technology page), as well as keeping up with the things I've kept up with on various on-line services, while trying to update some of my programming skills.
I thought this was cute, but
sometimes I think I'm the most
non-hostile person I know....
Use the buttons below to find out more about me and the things that interest me and occupy my time:
Last updated 25 February 2008 - contact Sam if you have problems.