Mission & Goals

Out migration is an extremely serious problem that has been negatively affecting Newfoundland & Labrador for decades. I promise to highlight the problem and educate people about it with the hope that a solution can be found.

As the title and name, “From Newfoundland to UpAlong”, implies, this site caters to those of us who had to leave our province. Misery loves company, so if we can stick together, even virtually, then maybe we’ll feel just a little bit better for doing so.

Until the out migration problem is resolved, I know that I will not be able to live in our beloved Newfoundland and Labrador.

The goals of this site are to give Newfoundlanders and Labradoreans who live away from our province a place to go that feels like home, reunite with old friends, have some fun, and, hopefully, allow them meet others from the province who live in their area.

The Web Site:
This site is my hobby. It takes a lot of "spare" time, but I am having a lot of fun working on the site.

It's great to meet people, receive photographs from people, and find out where they come from and where they are now. When you meet people who, like you, had to leave your home, it somehow makes you feel closer to your home.

A bit about Me:

When not working on the website, I hang out at Mardi Gras parades....

I am from Boxey, Fortune Bay, Newfoundland, and lived there until I graduated high school. I moved to St. John's then to attend the Marine Institute. I graduated from the MI in 1991, having obtained my education in Naval Architecture. After I graduated, I was unable to find a job (surprise, surprise) and the student loan nazi's began hounding me for loan repayment.

Discovering a way to delay student loan repayment, I returned to MI and completed a 3-year Marine Systems Design course in a 1-year time frame (which was NUTS!), graduating in June of 1992.

Now I was very highly educated but still unable to find a job.

I spent a few months traveling around da Rock, and New Brunswick, selling encyclopedias door-to-door. That was a lot of fun, but not very profitable.

After a few months of that, I landed a job working as a baker at Tim Horton's (NFLD Drive and Torbay Road, St. John's). At the same time, I started my own Naval Architecture design firm, Zeppelin Naval Architects, and began my double life of being a baker by day and Naval Architect at night.

This continued for about a year until I landed a contract to go to Bull Arm and help design the Hibernia Platform Topsides.

My work on Hibernia gave me the experience I needed (or, at least I thought) to get a job on da Rock. I was wrong and, after Hibernia, ended up unemployed.

After three months of unemployment, I landed a job in the United States and have been working all over the US since then.

I now reside in the wonderful city of New Orleans and have a lovely wife and two beautiful daughters. I find that New Orleans is similar to St. John's in many ways, so this keeps the homesickness to a minimal.

In my spare time (which is a lot less now that I have children), I operate this web site, play guitar, write poetry, stories, and songs, read, and sometimes just lay around and do nothing but watch TV (TIVO rules!).

Enjoy the site, and let everyone know you were on UpAlong.org by signing the Guestbook!

"You can take the boy out of the Bay, but you can never take the Bay out of the boy."