Where I've Been

I was born on 16 January 1969 in Cleveland, Ohio. A year later my family moved to Massachusetts - first to Waltham, and then to Newton. So, I essentially grew up in the Boston suburbs.

I was a good student, but was not particularly interested in high school academics. Additionally, I didn't really have a good concept of why I wanted to go to college. At age 17 I didn't have much idea what I wanted to do with my life! But I applied, and ended up going to Tulane University, in New Orleans, Louisiana, starting in 1987.

I graduated with a BS in computer science and, still not having much idea what I wanted to do next, in 1991 I started to graduate school at The University of Wisconsin - Madison's Computer Sciences Department. I had a notion of getting a Ph.D., but burned out 2 years into the program.

In 1994 I left school (with a Master's in CS) and went to work for Epic Systems Corporation, still in Madison, Wisconsin, and spent the next several years as a software developer for Epic, working on a package for Managed Care businesses. Epic was a good company to work for as a first job; I learned a lot, built some good software, had a fine time living in Madison, and saw the company grow from 60+ employees to well over 300.

In early 1999, a friend of mine encouraged me to apply for a job at Apple Computer, Inc., which I did, and was accepted. So I've moved yet again, to the San Francisco, California, bay area. I spent a little over two years working on Apple's WebObjects enterprise product, and then in mid-2001 moved to the Xcode development environment product for Mac OS X. Working at Apple is a terrific experience. Living in the Bay Area has much to recommend it, but the high housing costs take some of the shine off of the experience. Fortunately, I was able to buy a house in late 2001, and I now spend plenty of time in Mountain View, Palo Alto and Menlo Park on the southern peninsula.

What I Like To Do

I've collected comic books since 1976, and I read a wide variety of them. My interest in this hobby took a sharp upturn in 1997. I also read science fiction, though my interest in that didn't perk up until late high school. I've also watched a lot of SF on TV and on movies; I was a fan of Star Trek for years, until The Next Generation drove me away by being a terrible TV series. I was a religious fan of Babylon 5 during its time on the air, although the final couple of seasons were on the weak side. I went through a phase as a tremendous fan of Homicide: Life on the Street, and since then have also thoroughly enjoyed Sports Night, The West Wing, and Smallville.

I play a variety of games, although I've long since grown past the role-playing game stage. These days I play a wide variety of board and strategy games, and some card games, including the infamous collectible game Magic: The Gathering. Since moving to California I've also started playing Bridge, which is probably my favorite of the various card games. I'm not very athletic, but I also enjoy playing ultimate frisbee, and enjoy bicycling as well. My biking has tapered off since moving to California (the South Bay is not a scenic place to bike), but I do go hiking from time-to-time.

At various times in my life I've worked on writing and drawing. I've basically given up drawing at this point - haven't really done anything in the area since about 1991. From 1988 to 1999 I was very active in Amateur Publishing Associations, and from 1989 to 1995 with USENET. These days I write a lot for the Web, and occasionally write some science fiction. I'm not publishing-serious about the fiction at this point, though; I'm just not a productive enough writer to feel comfortable saying so. While in the Midwest I attended many science fiction conventions, but strangely there aren't many in the Bay Area.

I listen to a lot of music, particularly rock and folk music, interspersed with classical. In mid-1998 I also started getting into jazz, with a taste for Miles Davis, Joshua Redman, Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins. Around 2001 I rediscovered my love for progressive rock, notably Jadis, Spock's Beard and The Flower Kings. On the radio, I've gone through pop, classic rock, alternative rock and public radio phases, and now I'm mainly listening to KCSM, the bay area's 24-hour jazz station, which you can listen to on-line.

In the early 90s I became a big baseball fan, with my team being the Boston Red Sox. In California I've attended many San Francisco Giants games, and a few Oakland Athletics games. I've been playing fantasy baseball since 1993.

As a friend of mine once put it, I am "happily heterosexual". I've dated several women in my life, each of whom has been highly intelligent and each of whom has had some overlap with me in terms of interests. At the moment I'm dating Debbi, whom I went to high school with and met again in 2001.

What I'm Like

While browsing the Web, I came across several personality (and other) profile tests, my results from which may be a reasonable starting point:

My Kiersey Temperament Type (a variant of the Myers-Briggs system) is ISTJ. My Dad says he could have told me this without my having to take a test.

I've taken two different Enneagram tests. The RHETI test says I'm a combination of Types 3 (Motivator) and 6 (Skeptic). A different test labelled me as a firm Type 5 (Thinker). [Aug 2000]

TheSpark.com's Personality Test says I am a Judge. (It also tells me how compatible I am with some people I know and some people they know.) [Aug 2000]

I scored 54-out-of-60 on Lars Sondergaard's on-line IQ test, which suggests that my IQ is about 146. It took me 30 out of 45 allowed minutes to complete the test.

The World's Smallest Political Quiz classifies me as a firm Left-Liberal (as compared to a Conservative, Libertarian, Authoritarian or Moderate).

The Pew Research Center for The People & The Press says that politically I'm a Secularist, which is about right, given their ten possible classifications.

I scored 100% on the "introvert" scale of Myers-Briggs; I tend to be very cautious socially, especially when I'm with people I don't know very well. I also behave a little erratically in groups of more than 3 other people, exercising suboptimal judgment on topics to discuss, for instance. All of this is immensely frustrating to me, as I enjoy hanging out with friends. But I feel like I've never gotten the hang of being a social adult; I'm still operating on high school principles.

I tend to be very "interest-oriented", as this page might suggest. Most of my friends these days are ones with whom I share common interests - gaming buddies, science fiction aficionados, and so forth. It's usually a good idea not to get me started on baseball (especially my fantasy team!) during the summer if you're not similarly interested.

I often feel that I'm more in touch with my negative emotions than my positive ones, and as the results of the tests above suggest, I'm far more intellectual than emotional. My solution to most problems involves sitting down and reasoning them out as best I can.

I generally try to be polite and helpful to people, and I guess I feel that I do a decent job, except when I'm under stress, when I can be a bit short with people (but I imagine many people are the same way). I prefer interaction either in person or via e-mail, I'm something of a telephone-phobe, for some reason. (I particularly hate answering machines and telemarketers.)

I'm a fervent liberal in my political outlook, and I generally consider the Democrats too conservative for my tastes. I'm not much of a get-out-there-and-protest activist, though.

Other "little joys" in my life include ice cream, water (the ocean, lakes, rivers, rain, etc.), a nice snowfall (especially at night), driving cross-country, garlic bread, finishing a project, and a bike ride on a cool, sunny day.

If you want to read about my life in more detail - especially more recent details - check out my on-line journal, which I began in 1997 and am still writing in today (mid-2003).

Oh, yes, and my two cats:

Jefferson and Newton

hits since 1 July 1996.