About

A portrait of the author as a middle-aged dad.

...a (casual) martial artist

Years ago I took Tai Chi with some friends. Yang style. It was fun, and it sparked an interest in martial arts that I've carried with me all my life.

When I was in my 20s, I started training in an American style of jiujitsu called Budoshin at UMBC under sensei Steven Sfekas. I loved it, but I blew my knee out during a belt test, and that ended my career for a few years.

Time passed, as it does. I spent several years trying to find a good place to train, and experimented with a few different styles. After my first child was born, however, time and money were an obstacle.

The stars eventually aligned, and, after a while, I found a great school: Kogen Dojo. I've been training Muay Thai and Gracie jiujitsu there since 2023. I'm old enough to be the father of a lot of the people I train with, but, thankfully, I'm not the only old guy there. I'm not even the oldest. I'm also not the youngest.

I don't want to tell you how to live, Reader, but if you aren't training, you should start. It's so much fun, and practicing restrained violence is, quite frankly, an important skill to develop. Find a place like Kogen, where there are incredible coaches and a wholesome, uplifting culture.

...a native Marylander

As a young child I moved around a bit, but by 6 I was settled firmly in Bowie, Maryland—the K section, which will mean something to fellow Bowie people. At the age of 12 I moved to Annapolis, where I lived for about thirty years. If you've never been, go. It's a historic city where colonial history is so commonplace that you just come to expect it everywhere.

Growing up in the Chesapeake Bay watershed is a blessing I didn't appreciate until I moved (briefly) away when I turned 18. If you've never been, it's hard to describe. It's the largest estuary in the United States. You can't appreciate what that means reading the words on a screen. In practice, what it means is that everywhere I lived I could smell the water. Everyone I knew had or knew someone who had a boat, and everyone gets out on the water. You get used to seeing osprey, bald eagles, and a host of other waterfowl everywhere you go. It's a magical place, and, while I've seen other parts of the country that amazed me, and that I would love to visit again, nothing compares to this place. It is unique. It is one of the most special places on Earth, and I am blessed to be here.

And yes, I put Old Bay on everything.

But the real ones know J.O. Seasoning is the real deal.

There is no processing on this image. This is seriously what it looks like about a football field away from my house. I get to live here.

...an autodidact

I'm not supposed to say this, but I taught myself web development.

I guess that's not strictly true. I learned it by following online tutorials and just making stuff. I had some background in C and Pascal from CS class I'd taken in community college, but I dropped my CS major when I found out how much math was involved.

I wasn't supposed to say that, either.

The thing is, none of this is very difficult. I've always loved acquiring new skills and learning new things. I am a huge history nerd. I study economics. I read constantly. I've taken French, German, Japanese, Mandarin, Spanish, and Gaelic, although, cards on the table, I only really have any conversational ability in French. I've been meaning to pick the others back up, but you've got to pick your struggles.

Anyway, point being, it's easy to learn things if you like the process of learning, you want the outcome, and you're comfortable just sort of digging around for the knowledge.

...and

a husband and a father to two amazing kids.

a huge metalhead,

an avid gamer,

a casual chicken farmer,

a homebrewer,

a talented cook (seriously, I worked in the restaurant business for years),