Mark profile picture

Mark

If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you

About Me

I suppose this is the part when I am supposed to talk about myself and how great I am or something. hmm...what to say...
Let's see, I grew up in the great state of Washington (2 states north of here). I left the beautiful state of Washington for California to go to school and then I ended up staying, and took a job at NASA Ames in Mountain View (Bay Area, between Palo Alto and San Jose). Then a series of events and fate brought me to the charming little villiage of Fair Oaks, a place frozen in time, where chickens still roam the streets. I still like to spend time up in Washington in the summer when the weather is nice, even though I live in California. I am pretty much a left coast person, born and raised here, but I have also lived in Colorado, the East Coast, and China. Other than that, I like exploring the world around me, reading interesting things, I am licensed by the FAA to fly airplanes, and even teach other people how to fly. I have my PADI scuba diving certificate, I like to paint in oils and draw when the mood and inspiriation stikes me, I also enjoy the great outdoors and photography(In case you haven't noticed). If you like one of my images enough that you want to buy a print of it and hang it on your wall or in your office, I have prints up for sale of my work here My Imagekind GalleryHere are a few of my photos-
You Are From Pluto
You are a dark, mysterious soul, full of magic and the secrets of the universe.
You can get the scoop on anything, but you keep your own secrets locked in your heart.
You love change and you use it to your advantage, whether by choice or chance.
You don't like to compromise, to the point of being self-destructive with your stubborness.
Live life with love, and your deep powers will open the world to you. What Planet Are You From?

My Interests



TELL ME ABOUT YOURSELF - The Survey
Name: Mark
Birthplace: In a hospital

Current Location: Fair Oaks
Eye Color: Varies
Hair Color: Blonde
Right Handed or Left Handed: Both
Your Heritage: This is actually very complicated. Sometime in the last 100,000 years my ancestors migrated out of Africa and eventually made their way up into Scandanavia, then from there they came across on a boat to America(wanderlust runs in the family I guess). However, since my ancestors were originally from Africa, I would have to say that technically I am African American .
Your Weakness: I am the epitome of perfection, how could I possibly have a weakness? :-) okay, pizza, there, how is that for an answer?
Your Perfect Pizza: What is not perfect about a pizza?
Goal You Would Like To Achieve This Year: Total World domination
Thoughts First Waking Up: Gotta turn that *#$ d#%n f%$#i@g alarm clock off!
Your Bedtime: Over the summer I have been finding myself and I think that I am by nature nocturnal, and it is stupid societal conventions that force me to go to bed at a certain time
Your Most Missed Memory: The time I was abducted by aliens in my bedroom and taken to the planet Xoria, where they described to me how to end world hunger, poverty, war, cure cancer, etc..but I don't remember any of it because it is missing memory. I look at this on the bright side, in that fortunately I don't remember the anal probe part of it either.
Pepsi or Coke: Iced tea
McDonalds or Burger King: yuck! In N' Out Burger Rules
Single or Group Dates: Generally a single date, but a group date is fine as long as I am the only guy
Lipton Ice Tea or Nestea: whatever
Chocolate or Vanilla: do I have to make these difficult choices?
Cappuccino or Coffee: Double tall iced mocha with whipped cream
Do you Smoke: not anymore
Do you Swear: Fuck no, Dammit, I would never fucking swear!
Do you Sing: in the shower, or at kareoke when I am really drunk, then I am a really good singer
Do you Shower Daily: only when the lice start to get really annoying
Favorite Hot Spots: Krakatoa, Mt. St. Helens, Yellowstone
Do you want to go to College: been there, done that
Do you want to get Married: sure
Do you belive in yourself: Not really, but I suppose I could start my own cult of self-worship and call it Markism, then I could say I believe in myself.
Your Most Humbling Experience: Being attacked by an Aplodontia, a prehistoric beast that still lurks in the dark heart of the Pacific Northwest rainforests. [URL]http://www.infowright.com/mtbeaver/[/URL] This ferocious attack, which occured in my childhood, has left me scarred for life.
Your Fears: Coming face to face with an Aplodontia in a dark alley

Do you think you are Attractive: I am a hot piece of man-candy, and no woman can resist me
Are you a Health Freak: Does keylime cheesecake count as health food?
Do you get along with your Parents: Now that I live in a different state we get along great
Do you like Thunderstorms: I like to watch thunderstorms when I am out playing golf, except when it also starts raining golfball sized hail, then things get kinda confusing
Do you play an Instrument: took guitar lessons when I was a kid, my instructor made me play all these retarded songs, like this one about going out to the garden to eat worms, big fat juicy ones, long slim slimy ones, itsy bitsy fuzzy wuzzy worms yum yum:) Imagine singing that to a girl?
In the past month have you Drank Alcohol: Only fine wine, I am too much of a snob for the other stuff, except when I am out getting smashed with friends
In the past month have you Smoked: this is getting tiresome, I already answered this!
In the past month have you been on Drugs: I just took some extra strength Excedrin for the headache I am getting answering all these dumb questions.
In the past month have you gone on a Date: I don't like dates. I think oranges and pears taste much better for some reason.
In the past month have you gone to a Mall: like...totally
In the past month have you eaten a box of Oreos: nope
In the past month have you eaten Sushi: That's what I should have for dinner! Great Idea!
In the past month have you been on Stage: nope
In the past month have you been Dumped: Yeah, I should never hitch a ride on a garbage truck, bad bad bad
In the past month have you Stolen Anything: nope, I have reformed my criminal ways since I stole that orange in the grocery store when I was 7(see below), I am a model citizen now
What is the last thing you read: A solicitation letter asking me if I wanted to join a secret society-you know, one of those ones that secretly rules the world and has a bunch of famous people in it. In a Boy/Girl..
Favourite Eye Color: Hair and eye color don't matter to me, as long as I think she is hot. I'll know when I meet her

Favourite Hair Color:

Short or Long Hair:

Height:

Weight:

Best Clothing Style:

Number of Drugs I have taken:

Number of Piercings:

Number of CDs I own: Aren't those the things they had before the internet and mp3 players?

Number of Tattoos:

Number of things in my Past I Regret: Wasting my valuable time filling out this stupd dumbass survey. Oh, and if you actually took anything I wrote here seriously, then you have absolutely no sense of humor:-)

CREATE YOUR OWN! - or - GET PAID TO TAKE SURVEYS!

On a more serious note, a couple of my favorite interesting websites-

Immortality Institute

The Edge

I'd like to meet:

The list is quite long and distinguished, on myspace other photographers, and creative or interesting people.

Music:

Music is Nice

Movies:

Talledega Nights is without question not only my favorite movie, but the greatest movie ever made. Not only is it a cinematographic masterpiece, but it also has a deep philosophical theme about going fast that really makes you contemplate and think. The highlight of this move, although not near the end, is the bar scene when the gay French race car driver has the American racecar driver in an armlock over the pool table, and the French guy threatens to break his arm if he doesn't say "I love crepes". The heroic American race car driver refuses to say this and ends up getting his arm broken. I think this shows the true American sprit, patriotism and sacrifice that our founding fathers would have been proud of. The second greatest movie of all time is Monty Python's Holy Grail, I think it beats the DaVinci code hands down.

Television:

Too busy with other things these days to really watch much of anything anymore. And i am not just saying that to sound hip either like everyone else probably is.

Books:

All kinds, as I said I am a voracious reader. For fiction I generally like science fiction, for non-fiction I like books on science, current affairs, philosphy, etc.

Heroes:

superman, batman, spiderman, generally any of the ones with a colorful costume - and a cape is a plus, as I think superheroes who can fly are especially cool.

My Blog

Mt. Rainier National Park Photos

I my visit to Washington State this summer, I went to Mt. Rainier national parkl.  I grew up with a view of this spectacular mountain from the living room window. When I was twenty I climbed to t...
Posted by Mark on Sun, 16 Sep 2007 09:21:00 PST

Some photos from my new camera

I recently got a Nikon D300 and thought I would post a few pics I took with it here. I am still just getting used to it but it is a fun camera, I went driving around the countryside and also went to m...
Posted by Mark on Sun, 30 Mar 2008 05:02:00 PST

Asia Trip

When I was in college, I went on one of those study abroad tours (no, that isn't studying female anatomy) that students sometimes go on to explore and experience living in a different part of the worl...
Posted by Mark on Tue, 06 Nov 2007 01:28:00 PST

Wright Lake and Desolation Wilderness

Well, summer is coming to an end, and tomorrow it is supposed to start to get stormy and crappy out. I recently went up to Wright Lake and hiked in the Desolation Wilderness. Here are some photos of t...
Posted by Mark on Wed, 19 Sep 2007 12:52:00 PST

Merry Christmas

Apparently Santa doesn't think that global warming is such a bad deal-     Looks like he is enjoying his retirement, I just hope he gets off his butt in time to deliver presents this year. ...
Posted by Mark on Tue, 12 Dec 2006 02:48:00 PST

The Forest

I grew up on the Olympic peninsula in Washington State. This summer I went up to visit my family and friends, It was nice to go there to to get away from the hot weather here in the summer. This was a...
Posted by Mark on Sat, 21 Oct 2006 12:07:00 PST

The Mountains

Here are some photos from my hikes in the Olympic and North Cascade mountains in Washington State. I want it to be on top since it contains the introduction. feel free to comment on what you like or d...
Posted by Mark on Wed, 25 Oct 2006 03:22:00 PST

Local Area Nature Photos

Here are some images of the countryside around the Sacramento area in spring. Yosemite and the Eastern Sierra are beautiful, but there are actually some places worth photographing closer to home ...
Posted by Mark on Fri, 27 Oct 2006 04:22:00 PST

The Chickens of Fair Oaks, California

I live next toOld Fair Oaks, the old downtown section of this place. They have a flock of feral chickens running around the town doing chicken type things. I think it gives the place character and I u...
Posted by Mark on Wed, 25 Oct 2006 02:40:00 PST

My Point Reyes Adventures

Since I have lived in California I have always wanted to visit Point Reyes, but for some reason the plans to do this with people always fell through, so I finally just went there, me and my camera. I ...
Posted by Mark on Sun, 22 Oct 2006 09:32:00 PST