About Me

Last update: 10/29/09

I was born in 1983 and grew up entirely in Ann Arbor, Michigan. My dad's family is based in Buffalo, New York and my mom's family is based in Chicago. My mom lives in Tallahassee, Florida.

I graduated in 2001 with Honors from Pioneer High School. While there, I ran Cross Country and Track for three seasons each. I was much better at Cross Country. In 2000, I won a mile race with 4:48; I won my age group in a half-marathon (13 miles) with 1h20m; and I led my Cross Country team as the second man with a personal best 5K time of 16:25.

I like to act and direct. My friends and I have been making home movies since we were 14. We have somewhere in the ballpark of 40-60 hours of movies, mostly parodies and/of/or horror flicks. I also played a minor role in the play Pride and Prejudice -- the experience has made it impossible for me to find the will to read the book (it was a close adaptation). We hope to one day purchase or rent a video camera and create a serious movie project, which we would enter in competitions and film festivals.

I'm also pursuing publication for my fiction writing. It's like the writing on this site, but better. I'll post notice when I'm successful. What do I write? Speculative fiction, especially horror. I've written books (still undergoing revision) and numerous short stories, some of which I consider "finished" and am attempting to sell.

Photography is one of my favorite hobbies. I shoot a Nikon digital SLR. I've been told my most interesting, worthwhile pictures are those I take of other people, but I especially enjoy shooting trees and wilderness scenes.

Right now I live and work in New York. Before that, I lived in Rome. It was the first place I'd lived outside of Ann Arbor. I taught English there to Italian students. In the past I've been a sales assistant at Frank's Nursery (plants, not babies), a polling place Election Inspector and Chairperson for two presidential elections, an Exhibit Museum docent, a busboy at an Italian restaurant, and a sports camp counselor.

My Favorite Things

Foods:

Italian, especially Ravioli
Mexican, especially Chimichangas
Thanksgiving Dinner
Frank's Louisiana Red Hot Cayenne Pepper Sauce
American classics like cornbread, baked beans, green beans, chicken, and potatoes
American Ice Cream: Mackinac Island Fudge and Mint Chip
Italian Ice Cream: Nocciola and Pistacchio
Beverage: Apple Cider

Movies:

Cool Hand Luke
Brazil
Blade Runner
Evil Dead I and II
Aliens
Beauty and the Beast
The Terminator
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Somewhere in Time
The Big Lebowski
...almost anything Horror

CDs (current):

Radiohead - all of their CDs
NIN - With Teeth, The Downward Spiral
Supertramp - most of their CDs
Bob Dylan - most of his early work
The Doors - Waiting for the Sun, Strange Days
Gorillaz - Demon Days
Soundtracks - Snatch, Desperado, Kill Bill 1 and 2, Lost Highway
Pink Floyd - Meddle

Books (novels):

Frankenstein
Great Expectations
Dracula
We
Moby Dick
Night in the Lonesome October
The Dead Zone
The Traveling Vampire Show
The Phantom Tollbooth
War of the Worlds
The Island of Dr. Moreau

Short Stories and Novellas:

The Mist, from Stephen King's Skeleton Crew
The Whisperer in the Darkness, by H.P. Lovecraft
Grail, by Harlan Ellison
A Painful Case, from James Joyce's Dubliners
The Boogeyman, from Stephen King's Night Shift
Jerusalem's Lot, from Stephen King's Night Shift
The Sandman, by E.T.A. Hoffmann
Dread, from Clive Barker's Books of Blood
Pickman's Model, by H.P. Lovecraft
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, by Harlan Ellison
The Reaper's Image, from Stephen King's Skeleton Crew

My all-time favorite quote, which has echoed at every point of difficulty or despair in my life:
"Are you then so easily turned from your design? Did you not call this glorious? And wherefore was it glorious? Not because the way was smooth and placid, but because it was full of dangers and terror; because at every new incident your fortitude was to be called forth and your courage exhibited; because danger and death surrounded it, and these you were to brave and overcome. And now, behold, with the first imagination of danger, the first mighty and terrific trial of your courage, you shrink away, and are content to be handed down as men who had not enough strength to endure cold and peril; and so, poor souls, they were chilly and returned to their warm firesides. Oh! Be men or be more than men. This ice is not made of such stuff as your hearts may be."
From Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley

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