The Story of Allen

Allen was born in Chicago at a very young age. The nurse said Allen was the most peaceful and contented baby in the nursery. He smiled a lot. What was he so happy about? No one knows. For some reason he spent most of these first couple of years wearing just one shoe. When Allen was two years old he moved to Detroit - a bold move indeed. Detroit was a nice enough place so long as you didn't ride your tricycle past the corner or Mr. Hayes' house. The creeks were infested with kid eating alligators. Rather than be consumed, Allen moved to Ann Arbor, which is mostly gator free.

In grade school Allen became interested in math, LEGOs, and computers. To balance out these nerdy pursuits he also took up softball and soccer. Yes, Allen was well on his way to becoming a well rounded individual, but sadly he kept losing his mittens. Froot Loops were much better back in those days when they only had three flavors. The phones had rotary dials and songs came on vinyl discs that spun around only 45 times in a minute. Allen could solve the Rubik's Cube in just 51 seconds.

After grade school Allen started playing Role Playing Games and computer games. Allen and his brother Dave spent many hours playing Mario Bros and Double Dragon II on the Nintendo. In his free time he attended Community High School, Ann Arbor's freaky, hippie, stoner, skateboard, alternative school. (Now CHS is much more yuppie than hippie, but is still cooler than the big correction facility style high schools.) In chemistry class he built a death star out of molecular modeling tinker toys. He learned Pascal, Fortran, and 8602 Assembler Language. He played volleyball in a gym with a low ceiling. He ran around town with Elmo Morales and set the school's 3-mile speed walking record. Allen also learned to type 11 WPM with his tongue.

Allen went to college at the University of Michigan. He majored in computer science, which was voted 'worst major' in the Michigan Daily poll each of the 5 years he was there. He soon learned the following pearl of wisdom: "The sooner you fall behind in your class work, the more time you have to catch up." Allen took numerous psychology and geology classes. If they had offered minors at the time he would have a minor in psychology (for all the good that'd do). He took more 1 credit geology mini-courses than anyone before him, which is either sad or impressive - you choose.

Now Allen works as a network engineer in Pathology Data Systems at the University of Michigan Hospital. For fun he plays games on his Mac, Xbox 360, Playstation II, and Nintendo 3DS. He also enjoys pinball and air hockey. Depending on the season Allen is playing basketball, volleyball,or softball.

Vital Statistics