Hi, I'm Zack Moore

Me in Black Canyon National Park a couple of weeks ago.

I'm a 2nd year Sophomore (although I'm really 1 credit shy of being a Junior because of credits I brought from High School) studying Computer Science and I'm originally from Columbia, Missouri which is a town of about 100,000 people smack in the middle of Missouri. Columbia isn't really known for much other than being home to the University of Missouri, but it is also where Sam Walton (the founder of Walmart) went to High School, for what that's worth. As a Missourian I am a huge fan of the St. Louis Cardinals (the Kansas City Royals are alright too) and the St. Louis Blues so I'll probably be wearing something related to one of those teams quite a bit.

Aside from my stereotypical Computer Science hobbies (programming, building apps, tinkering with various computer systems, etc.) I am also a big fan of many outdoor activities including fishing, hiking, and kayaking. 

While I have a pretty good amount of experience with fishing (I have been doing it for as long as I can remember and I go on a yearly fishing trip to Canada with some of my family) and exploring around outdoors (I have been to a plethora of different National Parks around the country) I wouldn't consider myself to be anything other than a complete amateur when it comes to kayaking. When I go I tend to just float on slow-moving streams and rivers or paddle around lakes and I haven't gone down anything with more than Class II rapids. I hope to someday be able to do significantly more advanced runs but it's difficult to find the time do them because Missouri has nothing to offer, meaning I would have to travel to another state to find something.

Over the summer I worked at Booz Allen Hamilton in Baltimore, Maryland as a software development intern. For those who haven't heard of Booz Allen Hamilton before (which is probably going to be almost everyone) they are Defense Contractor / Consulting firm that mainly develops national security and military applications for the Department of Defense. I was pleasantly surprised with my work because I actually developed entire features and sections of projects that are visible in the end-result and it's very cool to look at a part of a finished product and think "I made that." 

As a Computer Science I don't do a whole lot of writing that isn't code, but I am pretty comfortable with writing as a result of other classes that I have taken in the past in both High School and here at UW. The last writing-intensive course I took was a year ago when I took English 177. I did have multiple essays in several classes last semester however, so I did a lot of writing that was just spread out across multiple classes. My specific goals for this course are to continue to improve my writing skills and more specifically learning to better articulate my points concisely, as I tend to be pretty long-winded when writing.

I'm looking forward to working with and getting to know you all over the course of this semester!