Autobiography

Me, c. 1996

Early Years (1979 to 1994)

I was born in Irian Jaya, Indonesia, to a loving, caring family, the absolute best in the world. I am the oldest of three children born to my parents; I have two sisters. Ramie was born in 1982 and Liselle in 1988. I grew up in a little village called Kamur, located in the southern swamps of Irian Jaya. Kamur is the central location of the tribe my father worked with, the Sawi. Before my father's predecessor came to work in the Sawi, they were cannibals.
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In 1980, my family went home on furlough. (Missionaries usually minister on the mission field for a length of time, then return to their home country for a year or so to visit supporters and raise financial and prayer support for the coming years.) I don't remember much from this period in my life.
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When I was four years old, I made Jesus Christ ruler of my life and became a Christian.
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In 1985, my family went home on another furlough. I took first grade at Prairie High School in Three Hills, Alberta. While on furlough, my family went to see Expo 86 in all its colour and glory. One time, Dad and I went to see a "surround movie" about the adventures of a guy who hooked up with a big red ball-like UFO (kind of like Disney's "Flight of the Navigator"). After the movie, we happened to be able to come right back in and watch the movie again!
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When I was seven, my father was elected Field Director for the Irian Jaya branch of our mission, RBMU International. (RBMU Int'l and a mission named Worldteam merged to form World Team in 1996.) I took grades two through five at Sentani International School in Sentani, Irian Jaya. During that time, I learned to play the trumpet. For the most part of that time, I was the seventh-chair trumpet player in an eight-chair section.
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When I was in fourth grade, I wrote my first computer program for Dad's Sharp PC-5000. It was a short program that quizzed the user about math, but it was the first of what would become the magnificent obsession of my life. Around this time, I also learned the game of chess from Dad. In both, chess and programming, Dad was initially far superior. It took about four years before I overtook him in programming skill, and it took about twelve years for me to beat him at chess.
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In 1990, it was time for another furlough. I took sixth grade at Prairie Elementary School in Three Hills.
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Back in Irian Jaya, I took seventh and eighth grade at Sentani International School. Beginning in seventh grade, I accelerated one year ahead in math, which continued until twelfth grade. During the last part of eighth grade, our class went on an Eighth Grade Sneak where we spent a week at Lake Holmes (a nice, relaxing station) and had a lot of fun.
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I took ninth grade at Hillcrest International School, also in Sentani, Irian Jaya. During ninth grade, I was taught in computers by William Brown, whom I shall hereafter refer to as Uncle Bill. (On a mission field, all adult missionaries are addressed as Uncle or Aunt.) Uncle Bill taught me C programming and gave me a copy of Borland Turbo Pascal 6.0 to play around with. I learned more about programming from him that one year than I had learned in all previous years on my own. Because of his mentoring and godly example, I consider Uncle Bill to be my favourite teacher ever.
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In 1994, one year ahead of schedule, my family left Indonesia due to a number of reasons. Other than a short three-week visit back by Dad and myself one year later, we have not returned. My parents hope to return some day, perhaps in 2000 when Ramie graduates, they will be able to return. I hope they can, because Indonesia is where their hearts are.

High School (1994 to 1997)

I went to Prairie High School in Three Hills, Alberta, for grades ten to twelve. I was nervous when I entered the school for the first time, but I quickly grew to like the teachers and students who went there.
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For almost my entire tenth grade year, I played chess with the teacher, Ademir Guedes, during math class. Ademir is a superb player, about equal to an International Master in chess strength. We played eighty-five games over the course of the semester; in my best game, I was able to beat him in eighteen moves. If you know chess notation and follow through the following game, keep in mind that Ademir would occasionally purposely play "bad" moves in the opening to make the game interesting; otherwise, he would always win and no one would want to play with him.
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Guedes - Mills (PHS, 1994) 1 e4 e6 2 f4 d5 3 exd5 exd5 4 Nf3 Nf6 5 Bd3? Nc6 6 0-0? Bc5+ 7 Kh1 Bg4 8 c3 Ne4 9 Qc2 Nf2+ 10 Rxf2 Bxf2 11 Ne5 Nxe5 12 fxe5 Qh4 13 Bf5? Bg3 14 h3 Bxe4 15 g3 Bf3+ 16 Kg1 Qxg3+ 17 Kf1 Qg2+ 18 Ke1 Qe2#
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Ademir and I formed a school chess club and were able to attract a core group of two other vict … er, people, and several other occasional members, to play in the chess club. It was a fun experience for all involved, especially when someone managed to beat Ademir, the undisputed champion.
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One of the best extracurricular activities in high school was His Singers, the school traveling choir. I entered the group in grade eleven and was part of it for two years. His Singers learned songs and traveled to other churches to sing on Sundays. In the spring, we would take two weeks and travel to many churches, usually singing once a day except for the Sundays, when we would sing in two churches. In my eleventh grade year, His Singers traveled to Montana (the US state south of Alberta). The year after that, the group toured British Columbia, the Canadian province west of Alberta. His Singers was an incredible experience.
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I learned a lot about leadership and public speaking while in high school. In tenth grade, I was a little shy, but as time went on, I became more confident. By the time twelfth grade came around, I was able to speak to all the students of the high school for twenty-five minutes during our daily chapel time. I also organized and led a worship chapel, and spoke on being an MK at church for several minutes.
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In November, 1996, I wrote an assembly language program that simulated fire. Everyone I showed it to asked if I could make it into a screen saver. At the time, I replied that it was impossible, but a few months later, I made it happen. Blaze 2.11 was born. I released it as freeware and uploaded it to C|Net's Download.com on April 4, 1997. Within a short time, my little hack was the sixth most popular download there. In its first four months, it was downloaded over 250,000 times. Blaze stayed on Download.com's top 25 list an amazing seventeen weeks!
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It was nearing the time when I would have to go away and make a living on my own in the big city, and I was looking for alternative sources of revenue. I decided to make Blaze shareware. I rewrote some of the code, added features, and in general made it more a professional product. The head of Forward Design, Scott Thede, worked closely with me during two hectic weeks to polish Blaze into a commercial product.

Early Adulthood (1997 to the present)

During the summer of 1997, I moved from Three Hills to the big city of Calgary, Alberta. I had been accepted to study Computer Technology at the Southern Institute of Technology (SAIT). Blaze was selling about CN$300/mo or so, which was extremely helpful as I learned firsthand about shoestring budgeting. I moved in with my mother's sister, Aunt Elena. Luckily, Elena makes supper every day; otherwise, I would probably be sick of Kraft Dinner. I learned about such previously foreign concepts as public transportation and really big stores.
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Going to SAIT was not a purely enjoyable activity. The first year, targeted at those who had never programmed before, was boring to one with eight years of programming experience behind him. Luckily, most of my teachers didn't comment too harshly when I surfed the Internet for most of the classes. After a few times of asking questions and being told we would cover that later, I realized it was just smarter to keep a lid on it.
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Blaze went through three iterations while I was studying at SAIT; the revenue generated by it was of inestimable value, as it allowed me to study for three semesters while remaining completely debt-free. I am also greatly thankful for my parents, who had the foresight to save enough money to help me during the tough times. My parents and I share the same philosophy on many things, and one of them is that debt is bad.
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When it came time to apply for a co-op position, I was able to secure a position at TransCanada PipeLines, and that brings this journey through time to the present. I will write how that went after it ends in April 1999.

The Future

I try to have plans laid for the long term as well as the short term. We all only get one chance at life, so accomplishing everything we want to accomplish is hard to do. With that in mind, I have a few goals I am working toward.
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Once I finish my co-op term in TransCanada on April 30, 1999, I will finish the three courses I have left during the summer semester. Once that is finished, I will look for a job and work at it for a year. After that, I will go back to SAIT and take the Bachelor of Applied Information Systems Technology program, which takes two years to finish. When I have finished that, I will be 23 years old. I will work for another year, then go to Bible college for two years, which will end when I am 26 years old. That's seven years of advance planning; after that, we will see. Hopefully, by that time, I'll be married, or at least have a girlfriend <smile>.
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I am a Christian, and God has gifted me in the area of computers. My life's work that I have chosen is that of prayer and financial support for missionaries. That is the underlying goal that motivates everything else I do. Deo Supremo!
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What do I want written on my tombstone? "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."