This page is a work in progress. It’s here for me to come back and add to every once in a while, when I’m in a reflective mood. You will find me mostly extended in my objects of interest, which do not always include myself.
- I was born in Riverside, CA, where I lived until I graduated high school. Riverside is great! It’s equidistant from the beach, the mountains, and the desert—so one could theoretically surf, snowboard, and ride dirtbikes all in the same day. I know people who’ve done this so they can say they have.
- My family is from Winnipeg, Manitoba (going back to the 1700s), and although I am a California boy, it occurred to me at some point in my childhood that I am quite Canadian. By the letter of the law, on one side of the family, I am first-generation American, but my family’s home country just happens to be Canada, which is almost America.
- My dad is an operating engineer, of Local 12, and a big union man: over the better part of forty years he went from apprentice to Director of Training, and he is the first in the union to have started that low and gotten that high. The house has always been full of Local 12: shirts, hats, golf equipment, and whatever else they put the logo on. His office floor would often have three-inch binders full of information about cranes and everything else an instructor of heavy equipment operation needs to know, and as a kid, when I was bored, I would read this stuff.
- I grew up in the hills, where I developed a lasting taste for frequent saunters in nature. I have since hiked thousands of miles in the East Bay hills: Mt. Diablo especially, Briones, and the EBMUD lands, whose trail permit I buy five years at a time. Now and then I get to the Sierra and elsewhere. To me a hike doesn’t start until there’s about 2,000 feet of elevation gain over six or seven miles, and even that is on the light side. I try to go weekly, sometimes more, sometimes less. Mountaineering I have done a few times, never for the summit but just to challenge myself in very rugged terrain. Lately I am also doing a lot of bouldering in climbing gyms, although I have never gone climbing outdoors. I also grew up camping, fishing, and occasionally hunting, and I long for the ability to do them more often.
- I played baseball for most of my childhood, and I was not bad. (My dad was better.) I actively root for the Dodgers, and usually end up watching most of the games every season, or at least having them on in the background.
- I swam and played water polo in high school. I might still hold one or two swimming records—though less because I was so good and more because my high school was historically not so good.
- My favorite video game growing up was RuneScape, which I got to experience, up close, from the transition to RuneScape 2, the Falador Massacre, the introduction of the Grand Exchange (which was a crash course in basic economics), and through the elimination of the Wilderness. Like many, at this point I stopped playing. In 2020 I started chipping away at a new RuneScape 3 account, which is still active, although I rarely have time to play.
- I grew up with dogs, and I’m pretty good with them. For a few years in the Bay Area I walked, boarded, and trained dogs on the side. The dogs, and the two cats, are here.
- I have had some good teachers, who include Bas van Fraassen, Steven Tainer, George Leonard, and Jacob Needleman. More about each of them is here.
- Between my BA and MA, I spent two years as a high school substitute teacher, first in Albany Unified School District in the East Bay and then in Las Virgenes Unified School District in Los Angeles County. At some point I might write more about it.
- I have a minivan that I converted into a solo camper van. I sleep in it a lot when I travel, even between home and Davis.
- Those who know me well may know something about my fascination with rattlesnakes. Although I grew up around them, I never feared them until the Summer of 2019. They have since become a kind of guru for me. The two stories, plus some reflection, are here.