I was born in Rapid City, South Dakota. After moving away from Rapid, I have lived all over the mid-west, including Chicago and St. Louis (where I finished high school) before moving to the southwest. I arrived in Arizona in 1992, and instantly felt at home in the vast and beautiful landscapes of the southwest. Wishing to stay in the southwest for a while longer, I moved to Santa Monica two years ago. Much of my life has been spent in the region of the famous U.S. Route 66. I now live just a few blocks away from the termination of 66, which ends at Ocean Ave. and Santa Monica Blvd.. It is interesting to note that, even with all the hype about Route 66, there is no official marker at this intersection. Nowadays, I am a graduate student at UCLA in the Department of Earth and Space Sciences studying the dynamics of the Earth's mantle and lithosphere under the tutelage of Paul Tackley. I earned a BS in Geology at Arizona State University in Tempe, AZ in May 2000. While at ASU I worked as an undergraduate researcher under Jim Tyburczy attempting to do high pressure mineral physics experiments. My transition from geology, to mineral physics and geodynamics was due to an increasing interest in the driving forces and mechanisms that are responsible for the way Earth works. In my time away from school (not too much these days!), I spend a good deal of time at the beaches in Santa Monica and Venice either skating around, hitting the waves, or enjoying a nice cold draft at the beachside bars. I also enjoy listening to local bands when I get the chance. This is a truly amazing place to live, with all sorts of things to do at any given time. Living in Santa Monica makes being in the LA area tolerable. I'd like to spend a lot more time there, however my work at UCLA keeps me from doing so all too often. Jim Morrison was a UCLA student that spent a little too much time hanging out in Venice...and look what happened to him! I'm also quite interested in the local marine life. I've gotten quite good at spotting dolphins and have become familiar with their near-shore routines. Various large critters have been detected in Santa Monica bay in the past year, including several types of dolphin, great white shark, grey whales, and even a couple of elusive blue whales. Sea lions are quite ubiquitous, especially around marinas and ports where they can often find a free lunch. I've also been visited by sea otters at certain times of the year, they tend to move quickly and do a lot of flips in and out of the water. On the side, I am interested in most academic topics, though I do spend a disproportionate amount of time studying philosophy of science and epistemology, especially Immanuel Kant. Kant was an enlightenment philosopher who revolutionized our thinking about the nature of perception and knowledge. Kant also put forward what I think is the most self-consistent system of moral philosophy that has ever existed, based on respect for individual freedom (autonomy). His views reflect the major thread in enlightenment thinking, one result of which was the formation of the United States of America. Click here for one of my favorite short essays by Kant, titled: "An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment?" I also enjoy American Indian art and culture, having had the pleasure to live in "Indian country" most of my life. In Arizona, I often attended various ceremonies and visited interesting places, and learned a great deal about southwestern Indian culture. I am also interested in American Indian history and archaeology, from the Bering Strait crossing to the present. Anyways, now that you are surely asleep after reading this far, I recommend that you return to my home page and check out the other links.