First of all, it is obvious that computers have made a significant change in my life.  In addition to my career, I have been pursuing seveeral activities that are related to the advent of the personal computer but of a personal nature.  Home computing has enhanced and created many new hobby areas for me and I suppose for many others as well.

One long standing hobby of mine has been photography.  I have been interested in photography since I was, maybe, 10 years old.  Then, of course, money and time were against any serious attempt to pursue the interest.

Family histories had been a mere curiosity until my cousin decided to put all his historic pictures on a compact disk (CD).  He sent me a copy of what he had put together and I was really amazed.  I had never thought of doing something like this, even though I had the equipment.  My scanneer, at the time, was a bit inferior and frankly didn't do a good job of scanning photographs clearly.  I immediately went out and bought a new CANON scanner, called a Canoscan 8000F, which is capable of scanning slides or pictures with a great deal of clarity.  My printer is also a CANON, Model iP4300.  I have had good luck with previous CANON printers so there wasn't any reason to change.  With a good scanner and printer, I was in business and ready to put together a family history book.  It really put my photography hobby and writing experiences to good use.

My cousin and I have, more or less, finished putting together a family history book of our grandfather, Jens C. Leum, which is quite impressive.  This would be my father's father.  I have also assembled a similar book on my grandfather, Rev. Christian T. FIndahl. This would be my mother's father.  This side of the family was, more or less unknown to me for many years.  Suffice it to say, what I learned about both families was very interesting.  I feel both these accomplishments weere long overdue and hopefully, after we are all gone, the books with live on forever and, of course, be enhanced and updated to reflect current and future generations.