About
This page satirizes the format of a Wikipedia biography page. I don’t actually take myself this seriously.
Michael Narong Smitasin (May 1985 – Present) is an American IT Technician for the Lane Transit District and alumnus of the University of Oregon, where he also served as an IT Consultant within the School of Architecture & Allied Arts from August 2008 to January 2012. Smitasin was responsible for the implementation of asset management and technology needs assessment in the Department of Art, and the adoption of centralized task management and documentation systems in A&AA Computing Services.
Early Life and Career
Michael Smitasin was born in Portland, Oregon. His father is Vatcharachai Smitasin, a programmer analyst at the Oregon Department of Human Services. His mother is Gina Smitasin, an independent landscape designer. He has one sibling, Abigail Smitasin, a senior auditor for PricewaterhouseCoopers in Seattle, Washington. His father’s family was Chinese, and in the late 1940s, following the rise of the People’s Republic of China, emigrated to Bangkok, Thailand and later to the United States. He graduated from Winston Churchill High School in Eugene, Oregon in 2003 and the University of Oregon in 2007 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Digital Arts. In 2010 he began work toward a post-baccalaureate degree in Applied Physics, also from the University of Oregon.
After completing his first degree, Smitasin spent a year in Corporate IT for the fashion retailer Nordstrom, Inc. in Seattle, Washington. In August 2008 he returned to the University of Oregon as an IT Consultant for the School of Architecture & Allied Arts. A year later, his position was expanded to provide support for non-standard uses of technology in the Department of Art, working closely with the Digital Arts program. In January of 2012, he accepted a position with LTD, providing support for Information Technology within Lane county’s transportation agency.
Motorsports
Smitasin was introduced to Club Racing at Portland International Raceway by his uncle, Skip Yocom. After working on Rampant Racing’s pit crew for several years, he participated in his first driver’s school around 2006, and has since attended several High Performance Driving Events around Oregon. A close friend, Gabe McGinnis, introduced him to autocross with the Emerald Empire Sports Car Club in 2010, where he competed in the BSP class with his 1995 BMW M3. After selling the BMW back to his brother-in-law, Todd Fink, he acquired a 2001 Mazda Miata, which is currently being track-prepared for the 2012 season.
Gaming
Beginning with side-scrolling shooters such as Commander Keen and Duke Nukem in the early 1990s, Smitasin has had a long and diverse relationship with computer gaming. His first foray into the realm of 3D shooters was with Apogee’s iconic Wolfenstein 3D, followed later by Doom, Quake, and Half-Life. In addition to entertainment, these also presented an opportunity to delve into the world of 3D modeling and texturing. Smitasin tried his hand at level and weapon design, contributing to a handful of community-driven modifications to the Quake and Half-Life engines. Around 1999 he was introduced to the world of MMORPGs with Ultima Online, an isometric fantasy scroller from Electronic Arts (then Origin Systems). From it would spawn an obsession: Anarchy Online, Dark Age of Camelot, Star Wars Galaxies, Shadowbane, Asheron’s Call, Planetside, Eve Online, Hellgate: London, Tabula Rasa, and finally, World of Warcraft. Burnt out after years of raiding, Smitasin has retired to a simple existence of Minecraft, where he explores caves and builds simple homes from cobblestone blocks.