Let's see...me in a few paragraphs. I'm usually pretty quiet around people I don't know or have just met, but get me around friends and family and I never shut up. I could be surrounded by filth and find a way to endure it, but if something like DVDs or CDs are out of alphabetical order or a framed picture is slightly crooked, I can't sit still until the situation is rectified. I prefer white chocolate to all other kinds, even though I'm fully aware that it isn't really chocolate. I double-wrap every Christmas present I give because I believe that the mystery and the act of unwrapping is ultimately more exhilarating than anything that could possibly be contained within.

I went to school to get my BFA in Illustration and then went back to get my teaching certification in Art Education. I use both degrees in my job now (see below). I'm interested in pretty much everything and never want to stop learning. From cooking to film-making to wilderness survival techniques...the list gets sort of eclectic, but I pretty much want to learn and know as much as I possibly can. Sometimes that gets a bit tricky, since I'll be working on or towards something and find myself suddenly interested in something new. Which makes me sound sort of flaky...but I prefer to call it perpetual curiosity! Growing up, I was really into comic books, magic and making prop weaponry from household scrap. Yup...I was that kid. Aw, heck...I'm still that kid.

To make a long story short (too late!)...I love life...I love living...and I'm never bored, even if I'm just sitting there thinking...I'm always working on something! Boredom is a choice and I really enjoy being with people who can always find ways to entertain themselves.

Living it...loving it...leaving it (one day at a time...I guess...damn, that's kind of morbid!). Job-wise, I'm the Education Coordinator at a small museum, as well as the graphic designer. Education Coordinator doesn't sound like it really means anything, but I basically work with kids every day...school field trips during the year and summer camps during the summer. Lots of fun!

Coming up with more than a single sentence to describe things that I'm really good at. Damn it! Oh, wait...there we go!

The red hair, I guess. Once they've spoken to me a little, they'll probably notice my dry and slightly absurdist sense of humor.

BOOKS: Atlas Shrugged; American Gods; Neverwhere; Anything Agatha Christie; Dark Is Rising Sequence; Prydain Chronicles; Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy Trilogy

MOVIES: The Princess Bride; Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory; The Spanish Prisoner; Double Indemnity; Anything Mel Brooks; The Incredibles; Shattered Glass; The Englishman Who Went Up A Hill But Came Down A Mountain; The Big Kahuna; A Christmas Story

SHOWS: Psych; Firefly; Twin Peaks; MST3k; The Prisoner; Samurai Jack; Lost (up until the ending...oh yeah...I went there); Venture Bros.

MUSIC: Hank Williams; Tom Petty; Merle Haggard; Tom Waits; Gary Allan; The Civil Wars; Miranda Lambert; Flogging Molly; Johnny Berry & The Outliers; The Long Winters; The Pogues; Rush .... older favorites include Jets To Brazil; Rilo Kiley; John Vanderslice; Pedro The Lion; Spoon (if you know those bands, you'll probably notice that my tastes have changed in some respects!)

I guess I'll just pass over the sort of obvious things, like family, friends, my brain, etc. and focus on "thing things."

1) A ballpoint pen (I use these for writing and for sketching!)
2) Some paper
3) A computer (but mainly for writing, artwork & design purposes)
4) A good knife
5) I don't know...apples? I enjoy a good apple quite a bit.

I sort of can't think of a sixth thing (or...y'know...a real fifth thing). I've got tons of junk cluttering up my space, but I really can't say that I couldn't do without any of it.

Anything. I can't understand or appreciate it when people claim to not be thinking of anything. With so much to observe and consider and reflect upon in the world...not to mention so many ideas yet to surface and concepts yet to be created...who has time not to think about anything and everything? As an outgrowth of that, one of the things I think about all the time these days is how incredible it is that we can never have any real idea of how other people see and interpret the world and events that happen to them. We can never be witness to the filtering process that other people's minds and memories go through. Even if someone were to try to explain how they perceive reality, they wouldn't have the words to make someone else understand it. And even if we could see inside someone's mind to see how they saw, we'd still be filtering it through our own processes. Weird. Stuff like that blows my mind.

Dancing to the rhythm in our heart and soul. Oh...no, that's Saturday Night. Wishin', Lord, that I was stoned? No, that's a Sunday Morning Sidewalk. I'm just going to stop here, before I really get ridiculous. I don't know...depends. Might be relaxing after the work week (or turning in early if I have to work on Saturday!), might be out with friends.

Most of the things I actually consider private, I'm really not willing to admit...or share rather. But embarrassing things? Hmm...I still have a scar above my right eyebrow from the time I needed 11 stitches in first grade after tripping in the school bathroom and cracking my head open on a urinal. But that's not really private...everyone I know's heard that story.

You don't mind a guy who can be equal parts loving, sentimental, sarcastic and opinionated. I'll always respect everybody else's opinion though...just might try to make them see their errors in logic. I'm kidding. Half.