biohabit.org

I would be kicking myself if I failed to mention something about Dr. Forbes on the first day of biohabit.com being something beyond an index.html file saying variations of "Really, I'm working on this". Dr. Forbes was a very popular biology professor at Portland State University who taught most everything from mammalogy, ornithology, and the fanua of Antarctica.
He was very active in conservation, won the Teacher of the Year award at PSU and was widely known for reassuring nervous students by repeating the same four words: "You're doing just fine." He said it so often that one of his students engraved it on a wooden sign that Dr. Forbes had on display during midterms and finals.

I only had a few courses with Dr. Forbes: Ornithology, Mammalogy and an internship working on the insect collection at PSU , but I was more or less his personal computer geek. I continued to talk/email with him after I graduated. I basically learned 80% of what I know about birding from Dr. Forbes while sitting next to him on the trips to the Malheur Wildlife refuge. I had wished to have biohabit.com up and running to show him. I guess I was coming from the context of 'someday' with biohabit.com. Someday ended last Sunday over breakfast at Bread and Ink when I came across Dr. Forbes' obiturary in the Oregonian. Beyond the feelings of losing a friend, I feel like everyone in conservation needs to step up and fill some rather large shoes.

There will be a public celebration of Richard Forbes' life from 3:30 to 6 p.m., July 29 inside Hoffmann Hall on the PSU campus. What follows is the full text of his obituary in the Oregonian on July 21st.

So now that I finally have a blogging engine installed, I should probably learn how to use css. Yeah I'm color blind and prefer to be minimalist, but this is excessive. However it will not get updated tonight as Emily (www.strangechord.com) and I are off to Embers in an hour. I might be able to have a more interesting template in place by tomorrow night.

I came up with the name biohabit.com out of a conversation with the late Dr. Richard Forbes. I was talking to him about working as a System Administrator and going after a Masters of Environmental Management, and he turned to me and said, "So basically you are doing the computer work to pay for your biology habit".