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Valan Q. Wood |
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I grew up in Los Osos, a small town near a small city about halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco in California.
I went to college at University of California at Santa Barbara with the College of Creative Studies . While there I learned a rigorous and mathematical approach to physics. I also learned enough about chess to be competitive. And I hooked up with the Santa Barbarian Hash House Harriers (thanks to my long lost friend Alfred Vargas - are you out there, Al?). This is also about the time I learned that I was a wiz with computers. It wasn't a big surprise, since I'd had more exposure to computers than most while growing up. But it was a revelation to me when I realized I could be even better than some of my brothers who had made a business out of computers while they were younger than any ordinary college student! The reason this was possible was because of my superior talent with mathematics!
In 1993 I began graduate school at the University of Pittsburgh. People tend to look at me incredulously and ask, "Why the hell did you go from California to Pittsburgh??" Well, I know everyone loves the weather in California, but I kinda wanted to see what it's like on the other side. I'd never been in a snow storm, ya know. I took to the cold pretty readily, and I enjoyed learning the nuances of the culture. But after about 2 years I was ready to go back. After about 7 years, I finally went back, and it's good to be back in California!
Currently, since Oct 2000, I'm working for a company called Telephia . I could say alot of good things about the company, I enjoy my work there and there are alot of good people there. But they are struggling very hard, and haven't been giving me a fair shake, so I'm not real pleased with my deal there.
A few summers ago (1999) a friend said "Hey, want to do a triathalon?",
to which
I replied "You'll teach me how to swim?" "Sure, you'll help me train to run?" "Ok." So I did a couple triathalons that summer. They mark up your body with permanent markers so that you can have a visible number for the swim/bike/run regardless of what you're wearing and how wet you get. The one I did solo was a sprint (400m swim/20km bike/5km run) in which my bicycle derailer fell apart and I ran in the last mile plus... total time was 1:29:14. The team triathalon I did was international length (1.5km swim/40km bike/10km run)... our runner came too late, so I did the bike leg and the run leg (in my bike shoes!)... total time was 2hours 55minutes. I may not have these triathalons figured out yet, but at least I always finish!
Check out this pic of me and some friends on our way to North Carolina in 1997. (Left to right: Jim, Dave, Amy, Me). We stopped at this scenic
overlook just south of the West Virginia/Maryland border. But I regret to admit I dont own a bike anymore. I am an analyst. I have strong math and computer programming skills. I have been trained well in research, and know the fundamentals of physics very well. At Telephia, I apply myself to counting mobile phone subscribers. The company has an array of receivers across the US, by which they gather information every time someone in our range makes a call. My job has been in transforming that data into accurate estimates of the number of subscribers each carrier has. One of the big issues has been estimating how many subscribers we don't see with our receivers (people who don't use their phones in areas that we cover, or just don't use their phones). I have also worked on developing methods for filling in "gaps": i.e. estimating the number of subscribers we missed when a receiver goes down.
I grew up in Los Osos, if you look on a map you'll see it's located on the coast of California about halfway between SF and LA. Los Osos is Spanish for "the bears". It's a small town, pretty much created while
I was growing up, near San Luis Obispo. When I saw "created", I mean that
when I was born it had a population of less than 1,000, and by the time I got out of highschool it was 10x that. One of the interesting things about Los Osos was that the soil was almost all sand.
It has the biggest line of sand dunes I've ever seen, bigger than the
one's in North Carolina that boast to be the biggest on the East coast. I would dare say they are the biggest on the West coast, but I do not really know if there are any bigger. As a kid, I would ride on boards down them like sleds or like snowboards. I didn't realize how unique they were, but I did enjoy them! Also, being close to Morro Bay, there was a beautiful view of Morro Rock. I wish I had a picture of the rock from a hill in Los Osos, but here's a site that has some good pictures.
My parents owned a fairly large plot of land. They were not rich, remember how small this town was. Land was cheap. It was right on the edge of an oak wood forest. I think that oak tree's are the most climable tree's
there are. You can probably imagine, I took to them at a very young age.
Although I don't remember this, my mother told stories about how I would terrify her by climbing high into the trees when I was 2 years old. I do remember from around the age of 6, while playing follow-the-leader with my two next older brothers:
Luke was 12, and Victor was 7. Luke was the leader, and he took three
fast steps along a low-lying branch that contained no hand holds. This
terrified me, actually. I was used to having hand holds. I had learned to always have one hand firmly grasping a branch, and this stunt that required balance scared me. With a little coaxing, I did manage to do it. It opened up a whole new technique to me. And there were many more years of tree climbing ahead of me.
It is interesting to look back at oneself, remembering the times when
profound thoughts were first considered. This particular story starts when I was 12, one day when I was feeling lonely. I do not remember if there was no one at home, or if everyone was just busy doing their own things, I only
remember that I was by myself with nothing that I could think of to do. So I went to climb tree's and wonder about my life. This was not the first time I had wondered about the meaning of life. I don't remember if I really thought of it exactly in those terms, nor do I remember if it was a question that had already been planted in my head or if I had actually come up with it myself.
So there I was, climbing tree's to pass the time, wondering what made life interesting. This was before puberty for me, so my judgement was not
influenced by girls at all. My answer was: challenge. We live life in search of challenges.
What I do
Train
Rides
Work
Where I live and work
I live in Oakland, and work in San Francisco, CA.
When I get a chance
... I'm going to finish my web page!
How to contact me
I had my e-mail here, but spam is becoming a problem. I may post my e-mail later once I find an acceptable spam solution.
My resume
My thesis
Stories
Los Osos
Woods Edge
The Meaning of Life