Falcon's Eyrie

Falcon's Eyrie

an old photo

Kevin Murcray - University of Denver - Atmospheric Physics

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Certified Usenet Kook since Fall 1989

This page is undergoing constant minor refinements (whose isn't?). Major refinements will have to wait until I can afford a scanner. Don't hold your breath.

Update - I now have a nice new Microtech ImageDeck stand-alone scanner, so photos are being added here & there. A fully indexed photo gallery page is in the works, albeit progressing slowly. Unfortunately I'm actually required to work for my paycheck on occasion....

I am:

Biography:

I was was born in September of 1959. I grew up in the foothills southwest of Denver in an historic old stone house ( Glen Plym Ranch ) that was built in 1872. The area was so rural at that time, that our nearest neighbors were a mile away. The nearest grocery store was in downtown Littleton, half an hour away.

I attended public school (Columbine Elementary) for first and second grade. And then, because the public schools taught (gasp!) sex education, which my parents didn't think was anything I should ever learn about, I was "sentenced" to Silver State Baptist "penitentiary" for grades 3 - 10, where I quickly excelled at becoming the least popular kid in the whole school. I imagine always routing for the other teams didn't exactly help.... I didn't like most of my classmates, and they didn't like me. I did not fit in at all there. I was a rural kid from the sticks, they were a bunch of urbanites. I wasn't into sports like they were, or fast cars (that came later, after I learned to drive), I didn't attend their church (thank the gods!), and I was a geeky kid into rocketry and electronics and other stuff they didn't understand. I was then sent to Columbine High School for the summer of 1976 as punishment for rebelling against Silver State to the point I was almost flunking out. I finally managed to get my parents to let me out of Silver State in 11th grade. I was transfered to Temple Baptist "penitentiary", where I quickly excelled at becoming the least popular kid in the school.... I graduated from there in 1978, vowing to never again set foot in a religious institution except for weddings and funerals, and I avoid them as much as I can.

I then attended the University of Denver for a short time before realizing that the so-called "great" parochial school education didn't teach me much of anything except how to spout bible verses, so I transfered to Arapahoe Community College in Littleton. I graduated in 1981 with an Associates in Applied Science in Electronics Technology with a near straight-A average and some prestigious honors. In spite of that, I couldn't get a job in the field. So after working various "junk" jobs, I ended up working as a receiving clerk for Skaggs/Osco drug for 5 years. Also during this time I served on Inter-Canyon Volunteer Fire Department. Eight years as a fire-fighter, two as a lieutenant.

After leaving Osco, I decided it was time to fullfill my life-long dream of becoming a scientist, so I went back to the University of Denver. There I majored in physics and computer science, with minors in math and geology. I graduated with a bachelors in physics in 1994, and will have my bachelors in computer science if I ever get around to putting in the paperwork. I should probably do that one of these days...

Immediatly after graduating from D.U., I went to work for D.U.'s Physics department's Atmospheric Research Group. Which is where I hope to stay. It dosn't pay worth crap, but I love the work, the people, the laid-back environment, and the university itself.

I been trying to start working on a bachelor's in chemistry, but it's difficult to schedule classes when work sends you out of town for weeks at a time. Upon completion of the chemistry, I will start on a Ph.D., most likely in geophysics.

Well, there you have it folks - my life and future plans in a nutshell.

What I do for a living, in very simple terms:

I help build and operate instruments that collect atmospheric data, which they represent as a bunch of squiggly lines. we then write programs which control these instruments, and collect their data in the form of columns of numbers, from which we write extremely dull scientific papers which are printed in obscure scientific journals which no one ever reads.

A Favorite Quotation:

"One should respect public opinion insofar as is necessary to avoid starvation and to keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny, and is likely to interfere with hapiness in all kinds of ways." - Bertrand Russell, English mathematician-philosopher (1872-1970)

A Personal Quotation, resulting from catching a snippet of Mighty Mouse one day:

"It is the sign of a very sick society that makes heroes out of mice, and villains out of cats!"

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This page was last modified on 11 January 2000.
Copyright 1996 - 2000 by Kevin G. Murcray. All rights reserved.
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