Good morning!

This is the home page of Rick Gee, a teacher in the Computer Science department at Okanagan College, in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada.

I have been in the sunny Okanagan Valley since the summer of 1985. Before that I was in Calgary and Lethbridge (both in Alberta) and Salmon Arm, Revelstoke, and Victoria (all in British Columbia.)

I have been the chair of the Computer Science department but that ended 2009 June 30. I will continue as the department library rep and member of the department curriculum committee (and other department committees as well.) And then I was re-elected chair of the department, for a three year term starting 2012 July 01. This comes with a half-time release from teaching.

In December 2007 I was elected chair of Okanagan College's Education Council. This comes with a half-time release from teaching. As a result, in Fall 2012 (and for several years afterwards) I am not teaching ar all.

My Java book

My Java textbook, combining an objects-first introduction to Java with elements of analysis and design, is complete and revised and revised again (summer 2012)! It is an interesting mix of simple and advanced Java and is available at this link. It is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada Licence.

Some of my favourites, home pages and others

There are other things in the world than computers (and the older I get, the more I believe that) so here are some other sites you may find interesting.

• For a some inspiring lectures, visit Ideas worth spreading
  
  
• For a touch of humour, visit Chuck Shepherd's News of the Weird or User Friendly, the Comic Strip
  
  
• For things that are just plain interesting and unusual, visit Neatorama or Miss Cellania.
  
  
• The Risks Digest, a site to which everyone should pay attention, if only to realize that computers do not always add to the quality of life.
  
  
• CTDNEWS, a site which used to provide lots of free information on Repetitive Stress Injuries (RSI), among other things. (It took 25 years of computing for RSI to get to me.) They publish a newsletter on RSI.
  
  
• Stan Rogers - The Official Web Site, my favourite folk singer. He died in an airplane crash on June 2, 1983.
  
  
• The Stan Rogers Folk Festival page, a site describing a great festival honouring the memory of Stan Rogers. Maybe I'll attend the festival one year.
  
  
• Birding in BC I watch them and they watch me.
  
  
• Yoho and Waterton Lakes National Parks, my two favourite Canadian national parks, including links to other national parks in the Canadian Rockies. For a more complete (although commercial) page on Waterton, look here.
  
  
• The Central Okanagan Naturalists' Club I organize and lead summer weekend hikes for them.
  
  
• The Nordic Cross-Country Ski Club. A few years ago I got back into snowshowing (can't ski much due to tendonitis and RSI), and now I am the snowshoe director for the club. If you would like to try snowshoeing, we have a series of guided hikes, but only when there is snow. This may be Canada, but we have summer, too.
  
  
• Some interesting reading (you remember books, don't you?) includes High-Tech Heretic by Clifford Stoll, The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester, and The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean. Also any other books by Winchester or Orlean. I also like the Stan Evans mysteries featuring Silas Seaweed and Alexander McCall Smith's series on The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency.
  
  
• The weather forecast for Kelowna and a satellite image for Western Canada.
  
  
• You've heard of the book "Eats, Shoots and Leaves"? Well, here is the website for its author!
  
  

To discuss any of my interests, contact me.

P.S. I always say good morning, whatever the time of day!

And now, what you have been waiting for, a picture of me. Those who know me will recognize that the picture was taken many years ago, before the beard turned grey and the child became bigger than I am. No, I don't have the hat any more.

If you prefer more recent pictures, try 2009-02-22 or 2009-03-08 (Looks cold but it wasn't too bad.). For a summer picture, try this one, from the summer of 2005. (Thanks to Alice for the winter pictures and to Tricia for the summer one!)

Created 1995-05-26 / Last Modified 2012-05-31