About
This site is an ongoing experiment in building connections and clarity — an attempt at making sense of things. The experiment began in May 2002, and through the years has been a roller-coaster of changing content, ideas and styles, culminating in what you see today. Of course, don’t expect it to remain this way. Like all good experiments, it — this site — is not static; it is dynamic.The Author, A.K.A. “The Me”
Who I am or what I do is not really of much consequence in the cosmic scheme of things. But, if you’re anything like me, you wouldn’t have clicked on the “about” section if you weren’t at least curious about the man behind the curtain. So, for the sake of brevity, I will describe myself as miscellaneous. I am, or have been, a designer, computer programmer, technologist, writer, teacher, student, business owner, management consultant, public speaker, Zen Buddhist, kiwifruit orchard pruner, and professional cancer patient. I am a native of San Diego, spent the first years of my adulthood at UCLA, then working in industry, and will soon be a graduate student in the Arts Computation Engineering (ACE) program at UCI.
My primary interests involve exploring and promoting human creativity, innovation and potential. I do this through the mediums of art and technology — building and hacking software and electronics and other sundry technological gizmos, and teaching others how to do the same. Mostly, I’m interested in understanding and creating new forms for interacting with such machinery (sometimes called human-computer interaction), as well as understanding the general social and psychological effects of integrating digital technology in day-to-day living, and more importantly, education. I believe in the principals of voluntary simplicity, but I am certainly no Luddite, and sometimes seek to determine how new technology can lead to less complexity instead of more … though the second law of thermodynamics may be against me on that one.
When I’m not coding or building things or teaching or writing brief personal biographies, you can usually find me outside with my girlfriend Sara, playing my guitar or ukulele, hiking, cycling or reading a book. That’s about it. I really am a very simple person.
This information will change at undocumented random intervals. It was last updated on July 26, 2008. Accuracy is guaranteed to degrade over time.
Curriculum Vitae
If the preceding information wasn’t detailed enough for you, here’s my curriculum vitae.
Talks
Sometimes people invite me to come blab about random things the interest me. I keep an archive of these talks for posterity’s sake.