When I was back in Washington state, I had quite a few climbing and hiking adventures, unfortunately Michigan is a bit of a topographically-challenged state. I have started orienteering here though, and it’s a lot of fun! I joined the Southern Michigan Orienteering Club (SMOC) in the fall of 2001. Basically, orienteering involves running through forests (and sometimes marshes) looking for small orange flags, while trying to read a map and follow your compass. You will find a better description here.

Some orienteering sites of interest include:

• Michael Eglinski’s orienteering blog and Randy Hall’s O Log.
• Attack Point, an orienteering discussion and training site.
• The US Orienteering Federation (USOF) Site and the International Orienteering Federation (IOF) Site.
• USOF sanctioned national events.
• Orienteering Cincinnati, with a fairly comprehensive local and national schedule.
• Orienteering Ontario (with the closest Ontario club being the Golden Horseshoe Orienteering Club).
• An instructor’s kit for teaching (and learning) how to make orienteering maps.
• Catching Features, a 3D orienteering game/simulation.

Other Southern Michigan outdoor clubs include SOLAR (sponsoring a wide range of outdoor activities) and SMAC (adventure racing).

Check out my Adventures Page... it probably has some info on recent orienteering events, as well as other outdoor pursuits.

Contests - I’ve participated in quite a few Java and C++ programming contests sponsored by TopCoder. In 2001, I was one of the finalists in the Collegiate Challenge, and I won $25,000. In 2002, I made it to the regional final, but failed to advance to the “big money” rounds. I’ve won about $30,000 overall.

I won the “Smartest Person in the World” contest in January of 2003. Strictly speaking, this wasn’t a programming contest, but I solved several of the problems with my computer.

I have also served as the coach of the University of Michigan’s ACM Programming Team for four years. Take a look at the ACM’s International Collegiate Programming Contest home page for more info about this competition.
Our programming teams finished 4th and 5th at the 2003 regional tournament (behind two teams from the University of Waterloo and one team from the University of Toronto). In March 2004, our team will be competing at the World Finals in Prague (UM EECS story).

Companies and Industry - I co-founded Ubiquiti, a start-up company here in Ann Arbor, in the summer of 2000. Our software helps companies analyze, search, and organize their text-based documents.

I was invited to be part of the TopCoder Development Review Board in March of 2003.

Projects - Programming is a hobby of mine, so I'm almost always working on a coding project in my spare time. At some point, I'll get organized and release the more useful programs as free software.

I haven’t managed to financially support myself just by playing sports, but it’s not from lack of effort.

• Ultimate Frisbee - I play on the University of Michigan Ultimate Frisbee Team. After winning Sectionals, and Regionals in 2001, we qualified for Nationals in Boston, and made it to the quarterfinals where we lost to UCSB.
  My wife and I also play in the Ann Arbor Ultimate Frisbee Spring, Summer, and Fall Leagues.
• Boxing - I am also on the University of Michigan Boxing Team We practice year-round (as does ultimate frisbee), and compete in various tournaments, including the regional and national tournaments during the Winter term. The tournaments are sponsored by the National Collegiate Boxing Association (NCBA), and participants come from traditional universities as well as the various military academies (Air Force, Navy, Army). I advanced to the national tournament in 1999, sat out 2000 with a shoulder injury, and lost in the semifinals of regionals in 2001 to a boxer from the Citadel.
• Tennis - I played tennis for Pacific Lutheran University as an undergrad. I’ve been playing pretty infrequently out here in Michigan though.

Here’s a page of mine that contains various "hard to classify" links...