About

Standing next to my cabin of kids as their camp counselor.Standing next to my cabin of kids as their camp counselorStanding next to my cabin of kids as their camp counselorBoulderingCreating an easel made out of oakLeading song service with guitar and two girls.Hiking in the Austrian Alps

I've always been a curious. Learning about the world's people and complexities.

  • Science

  • People

  • Reading

  • Hobbies

  • Music

Science

  • Physics

  • Biology

  • Astronomy

  • Statistics

  • Economics

  • Psychology

People

Enjoying and understanding people: life's reward and challenge.

Teaching those who want to learn is one of life' most rewarding endeavers. I've taught and enjoyed teaching high school, community college, and university-level physics. As I learn something, I try to improve upon the instruction I've received.

I enjoy learning from people I meet.

Games are a great way to learn more about friends.

I often find myself as social coordinator.

If you are not actively involved leading in your local church, you are missing out.

Hobbies

  • Sports: running, rock climbing, volleyball, triathlon, whatever my friends are doing

  • Cooking: curry, stir-fry, cowboy caviar, . . .

  • Hiking: Great Smokey Mountain National Park

  • Games: group, table, strategy

  • Woodworking

  • Children

  • Writing

  • Traveling

  • Languages: %50 Spanish, 0.01% Swahili, Arabic 0%

Music

My parents gave me piano lessons as a child, and I picked up the instrument during my year abroad as high school teacher in the island of Yap, Micronesia.

At summer camp, where I spent ten summers working, I learned to play the guitar by ear. I took trombone lessons in high school, and enjoyed playing in the school band.

The difference in sight reading and playing music by ear was striking; they use opposite sides of the brain. I took the first music theory with the hope of reconciling these differences, and I was pleased to learn solfage (sight-singin), figured bass, and functional notation which helped me annotate sheet music in a key-independent way.

One day, as I was visiting our departmental secretary, I noticed a mystical looking blue-glazed, hollow, potato-lookin instrument sitting on his desk. When I asked him what this enchanting object was, he told me it was an ocarina from Zelda. After tooting a few notes, I fell in love and ordered my own ocarina and taught myself to play.

Finally, I enjoy singing:

  • congregational singing at church,

  • leading song service with a guitar, or

  • joining a choir or ensemble.