About Mark

Hi, I’m Mark, the main creator behind this blog.  Since September 2008, when Camille turned 7 weeks old, I’ve been a stay-at-home Dad.

My wife Kris has a great job she loves, and since we can scrimp to afford to have one of us at home with Camille - it was an easy decision to stay home with Camille.  While it was not easy to step away from working [especially paychecks] - the longer I’m at home the happier I am with the decision.  Camille changes so fast, and is so absolutely adorable that the tough days are easily forgotten.

Beyond my primary focus on Camille; I have a wide range of interests, some of which I will share here.  Obviously, I greatly enjoy photography - and as demonstrated in posts - can be a bit wordy.

During 1995 and 1996, as part of a research project at the UW, I spent just under 6 months each of those years in Pakistan.  Both trips were unforgettable experiences which have colored my perspective in the years since, with people and places who I will remember with a huge smile for the rest of my life.  It also gave me a great appreciation of the U.S. and parts of our government system that I never paid attention to before.  I’ve kept up on news and events of the region since visiting, and voraciously read everything as the last decade has seen a lot of changes and conflict.  I will post both about my trip, some unique and interesting points of culture/history in the region, and about the constant news from the region.

Currently, these are the primary topics that I am discussing here - though as time changes, so will this blog [and myself].

The photos all come from my Nikon D60, which I purchased just before Camille’s arrival.  I’m still exploring all it’s functionality - but am very pleased with the camera and greatly enjoy using it.  The photos are initially processed in Adobe Lightroom, with any further adjustments, resizing, and red-eye correction and the like performed in Adobe Photoshop.  I also use a Canon CanoScan 8800 to scan older photos - and on rare occasion will post a photo shot with my old Nikon 990.

Let me know if there’s anything you’d like me to post on, and thanks for visiting the Sweet Pea Chronicles.