About Me

So here’s a bit about me, personally.

These days I live in Delaware County (aka, just east of Middle of Nowhere) New York, getting here by way of New York City, Connecticut, Cincinnati, Columbus, Roanoke, Richmond, and other places.

I love science and history, and I spend way too much time teaching myself about all sorts of odd subjects. These mini-obsessions last a week or two: geocaching, hiking, woodworking, programming, paddleball, racquetball, cooking, and more. Some I stick with longer than others, but I get something out of them all. I’m an amateur photographer and I love image and video editing.

I enjoy thinking about the presentation of information — what’s the best way to tell someone what they need to know? My degree’s in philosophy. It’s been more useful than you might think. I read lots of non-fiction — history and science for the most part, but anything, really. And I read a ton of fiction — sci-fi, mystery, horror, or just plain lit. Here, have some conversation starters…

Hobbies

* Like a murder of crows or a parliament of owls

Media

Books

I’m a sucker for a good read with a happy ending. So anything by…

In general…

And…

Movies

Argh… so many! In no particular order:

Music

I like all sorts of music, but I’m not a huge music person. I avoid rap, and I like stuff from the ’30s and ’40s along with some good ’70s rock. But really, anything that isn’t AutoTuned to death.

(What, you want specifics? All righty… Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, ELO, Arctic Monkeys, the Monkees, the Beach Boys, the Ramones, Creedence, AC/DC, Alan Parsons Project… ugh, the list goes on. The Who, Hayley Westenra, Proclaimers, the Beatles … sheesh, it’s still going. Hooters,Tom Petty, Elton John … and that’s enough, right?)

The miscellaneous stuff

I’m a grounded geek — I love technology, but it has to be useful. So I play a lot with Web sites, building things just for the heck of it: message boards, wikis, photo albums, polls, and so on, just to see if I can make them crazy easy to use.

For no other reason, I built my own bit.ly-style URL shortener at fllw.me, and created a customized Web-based mail system just for myself.

I find coolness in the mundane. I’m the guy in the office who everyone comes to if they need computer troubleshooting, want to buy a digital camera, feel like starting a blog, and so on. And I do most of my writing with a fountain pen or a pencil.

Cool stuff I’ve done

And that’s me. Well, barely. It’s a vague outline anyway. If you came here wondering “Who is this guy,” maybe you have at least a few answers. Want more? Drop me a line!