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| Since you
seem strangely curious about my background, here's a very rough sketch of my
life so far... |
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| Along with such notables as Harvard scholar
Cornel West, acclaimed essayist Joan Didion, and former Playmate of the Year
Barbi Benton, I was born and raised in Sacramento, California. With two
parents and three kids, my family was pretty typical... |
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| After high school, I made that painful leap
towards independence by going off to college--UC Davis, a far-flung 30 miles
west of Sacramento. There, I sampled a variety of courses from disciplines
such as chemistry, economics, history, art, and film. It wasn't until my
Junior year that I made the life-altering decision of becoming an English major.
I graduated in 1988 with a B.A., and not willing to face the prospects of a
"real" job, I went off to graduate school... |
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| UC Riverside took me into its English Masters
program, and I quickly finished with an M.A. degree in 1990. Then, just as
England became mired in the Hundred Years War with France during the 14th
century, I stayed to pursue a
Ph.D. for the next five years, completing my coursework and qualifying exams in
1994, and devoting my professional career as a scholar to studying the works of
the truly remarkable 14th century English poet Geoffrey Chaucer, author of The
Canterbury Tales... |
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like the Hundred Years' War during Chaucer's time, my Ph.D. became a long,
drawn-out struggle never to be fully resolved... |
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| However, there are two things that happened
while I was at UC Riverside that changed my life: I started teaching
English and I fell in love with Sharon, the woman who would one day become my
wife. She's kind, generous, and from northwestern New York (on a curious
side note, my sister also married someone who came from this same area of the
country--an amazing coincidence). |
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| In
1996, Sharon and I moved off to Las Vegas. After a failed attempt at
making a living as an Elvis impersonator, I began teaching at the University of
Nevada, Las Vegas. Over the course of five years, I taught classes in
composition, world literature, literary criticism, medieval literature, Shakespeare, business writing, and drama.
In 1999, the UNLV English Department recognized my hard work in the classroom
with its Excellence in Teaching Award; my name now appears on a plaque that
hangs next to the men's restroom. My wife Sharon became an administrator
at UNLV by directing their campus writing center. |
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| While in Las Vegas, we also started a
family; not "children" in the
traditional sense, but a pack of spoiled quadrupeds: three cats (Bart,
Pepper and Katie) and two dogs (Abby and Kermit). All five of them are
cute, but neurotic... |
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| After five years of living the high life in
Vegas, Sharon and I decided to head back to California in the Summer of 2001.
We actually had several choices on where to settle down, but we chose Redding.
We loved the fact that it had the distinguishable seasons of Fall, Winter,
Spring, and Summer (as opposed to the Summer and Brief-Period-That's-Not-Summer
that occurs in the desert). We appreciated the friendliness of its
residents, and we were very taken by the people at Shasta College. |
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In
the summer of 2004 my wife and I welcomed our first child, a beautiful
little girl named Olivia. As a child of two English teachers, she will
very likely say her first words in the form of grammatically
correct independent clauses. We are currently in the process of
training her to be the world's youngest hovercraft pilot. |
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| Some
miscellaneous details about me: |
 | Hobbies:
Films (I also teach Humanities 304, a non-credit course devoted to
International Films); Reading; Sports (especially baseball, basketball and golf); Food
(any and all kinds); Dogs and Cats; and anything that will amuse my
daughter. |
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| Favorite
quote: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice
everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality,
tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly
affects all indirectly."--Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. |
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| Alternate
favorite
quote: "Just gimme some inner peace or I'll mop the floor with
ya!"--Homer J. Simpson. |
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| Favorite
vacation destination: Hawaii. |
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| Favorite
musicians: R.E.M., John Coltrane, Mark Knopfler, Ella Fitzgerald,
Bob Mould, They Might Be Giants, The Beatles. |
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| Guilty
pleasures: Fast food and bad movies (Mystery Science Theater). |
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