Enough With the Narcisism, Already!

Just an experiment everybody has to try out I guess. What do I think I look like, rather than the haggard stranger I see in the mirror every morning and those poor souls at work have to look at every day... apparently I have no face.

A little bit about me.

This is the part where I officially go all out and talk about myself as if anybody should care... Just think of it as if you're eavesdropping on some psycho having a conversation with himself, and you'll probably enjoy it more.

Anyway, I was born in Southern California in 1974 and grew up primarily in the northern extremities of the San Francisco Bay Area. And by "grew up" I mean I managed to reach 6'7" before my frightening ascent into freakdom finally halted when I hit college. And by "college" I mean California State University, Chico, where I acquired a BS in Computer Science and almost but not quite a Masters in the same subject. Along the way I worked the student helpdesk and had a 2-year stint as an intern at Hewlett-Packard, all along putting out a weekly comic strip for the campus paper called "The Bastich" that had a parallel existence on the web from 1995 to 1998.

Now I work in San Francisco as a web developer for an interactive ad agency. My focus has been in building web sites and branded video games, but I also work on banner ads and other fun marketing stuff. I do a ton of server-side coding as well as plenty of client-side Flash, DHTML and Java coding... a combination that keeps the job satisfying overall.

Comics!

I'm a huge comic book geek... which should come as no surprise if you've seen the illustrations I've been posting to this webblog. I was going to be a cartoonist until I "discovered" computers and opted for a more secure future. Now I have a job where I can straddle the line between my two childhood goals, and play both technical and creative roles on a regular basis.

Music...

My favorite band is They Might Be Giants, the one band in the world I would consider flying across the country to see play... However, there are a lot of big contenders in my own little pantheon, including Talking Heads, XTC, Frank Black, James, and Placebo. 80's New Wave in general also dominates my listening time. I am just a complete sucker for cheese...

Outlook...

I have to say -- right now is one of the better periods of my life so far. The past year was a nice little stretch of hell between my own personal set-backs (layoffs, breakups, you know the drill) and of course all of the national ultra-disasters and escalating fear and loathing on a global scale...

But right now, I have a good job where I feel I'm carrying my own weight, an excellent group of friends, and a kick-ass family. Until my next personal disaster, I'm going to enjoy these good times while I can. I could use a bit of romance, of course... something that will take a lot of effort for me to bring back into my life, but sooner or later one of my hair-brained schemes will pan out!