Man. These homepages are a huge waste of time. I just spent an hour trying to make it look good, and it don't. Don't mind the mess, the missing links, or anything that may distract you--I don't. Things will get better with time. They always do.
Here's the ditty on me. My sister and I grew up in Carbondale, a small town in southern Illinois. My folks work for Southern Illinois University. Though it didn't seem like it at the time, Carbondale is a pretty cool place to grow up. It's a laid back place where a kid can be a kid. In the summer I could roam the streets at night, play ball till the sun went down, and just laze the days away. The summers in southern Illinois are also notorious for their erratic weather patterns: thunderstorms, floods and tornadoes (ya darn right we learned to duck and cover). The autumn in southern Illinois is bliss. The foliage is beautiful. I used to spend hours driving around just taking in the scenery. Yep, ain't no place like home.
I've been away from Carbondale for a while for schooling. I was lucky to attend high school in Aurora, Illinois, home of Wayne's World. My roommate was Ben--a dashing young lad with a particular knack for making the women smile. He's a funny doode. He's from Chicago; we were like city mouse, country mouse. These days, he's out in California doing cool things for folks trying to fly stuff into space. He got much clout. Then there's my boy Fred . Good or bad, he was a major influence on me in high school. He's doing his time in med school now, since he got in straight out of high school. Kinda makes all y'all pre-meds in college feel inferior, eh? Suffer. He's from suburbia and is following the fast track to prosperity and happiness.
I did college in Boston. Over those five years, both the city and people (them New English) grew on me. I'll miss Mattie in the morning, jogs on the Esplanade, Taj India, the Blue Room, bad drivers, those two months of great weather and the other ten of blah. I've moved west to see how the other third lives.
In my spare time, I try not to do much. I listen to my fair share of music. I really dig Saint Etienne and The Smiths. I listen to some jazz, and a bunch of other stuff, but you can look up those links, and links to any band that interests you, yourself using the Ultimate Band List or the Supersonic Guide. If you're really into this web thang, you can go all out and buy CDs (but why bother?) or look up your favorite films through the net. And, when those munchies strike, you can order up some eggplant pizza and a pint of Guinness from your internet grocer.
I'm back from California, now--back to Boston. It's weird to see how things have changed and how somethings seems to stay the same. When I first wrote this webpage, the world was just learning what it could be like to be so connected. In the interim we've endured boom and bust, global homogenization and further economic stratification in part due to the proximity and immediacy brought on by internet communication and the culture that has evolved around it. Strange, isn't it? It's likeWar Games but more insidious and pervasive. Anyhoo, the world is a very different place.
Peace.