General Description of an Individual

the useless trivia he is willing to disclose online

I teach in the Department of Writing Studies at the University of Minnesota. However, my precise doctoral degree is multidisciplinary: Rhetoric, Scientific and Technical Communication, with an emphasis in Online Pedagogy and Disabilities. I study the philosophy of education, the science of education, and how technology is changing education.

The most important things in my life are my wife (and best friend), my family, and my cats. Everything else in life is a bonus.

What I Am (at this moment)

Writer. It is the one word I know describes me now and has always described me. I would like to add “reporter” to that, but writer is a start and something I cannot stop being. Do not confuse the two, as a journalism professor reminded me. When you write, you are an artist creating. When you report, you are a craftsman. Writing seems to be a safe form of communication. I currently write plays and poetry, both of which I think are best heard, not read, by others. Poetry is performance. It is my goal to see one of my plays reach Broadway, a novel on the New York Times Bestseller List, and a text book forced upon students world-wide.

I have self-published poetry, for a time frequenting coffee houses in the early 1990s. I have been published in several local newspapers, and was on staff at one in high school. (It folded within a year; I don’t encourage anyone to try publishing a newspaper.) I have had two plays produced, including one I did help underwrite. Finally, my clients have been published for the fiction mass market. I enjoy editing works (to various degrees, including a lot more than “editing” might imply) destined for the public, but would enjoy seeing my own works published under my own name.

I am a person who wants to sit and think, preferably somewhere relaxing. In the vocational sense (barely being “vocated” at the moment with a teaching assistant grant at a university), I am an entrepreneur, an editor, and a writer. My résumé lists many things I have done. As is often the case today, employers merged, closed, or downsized leaving a lengthy list of short-lived positions. Also, I tend to do more than one thing concurrently, keeping my mind as active as possible.

Some years ago I began work on my pages on existentialism. I maintain and expand them, but I cannot claim there is a deeper interest in that area than any other. I started the notes and now keep working on them, assuming that if they were important enough for me to start they must be worth continuing.

What I Am Not (at this moment)

I am a (later-in-life) doctoral student in rhetoric and communications at a major state university. Rhetorical analysis and theory draw from philosophy, but I am not a scholar of the general history of philosophy. I have taught English, journalism, photography, and various business courses at the secondary and junior college levels… and I briefly landed in administration. (When a permanent administrative job was open, I declined.) I do not have a degree in philosophy. I am not, nor was I ever, a student of philosophy at any university.

Likes & Dislikes

I cycle when I have some time, love racquetball, lose at tennis, play darts, drink mixed drinks (and wine), and like colder weather. I hate hot weather, most television, and wannabe artistic types.

Artists

The Impressionist period produced most of my favorite artists, including Renoir, Cezanne, Pissarro, and Degas. However, I consider Van Gogh and Claude Monet the defining artists of the movement — and its ending. Van Gogh began the expressionist movement as a “postimpressionist.” Van Gogh wrote “I am not an adventurer by choice but by fate.” He painted the majority of his great works during the last two years of his life. While Van Gogh was manic-depressive, Monet was just obsessed.

Writers: Fiction

As an English student, I enrolled in every class on existential literature that was offered. The thing that attracted me to existentialism was the idea that all people are forced to make choices, whether they want to or not. That person must accept the consequences of his or her decisions. Sure, that is a simplification, but what do you expect from a philosophical group so large that it ranges from Catholic existentialists to Sartre, the adamant atheist and believer in pure self-determination? My favorite writers: Sartre, Camus, Kafka, Mann and Capote.

Writers: Non-Fiction

No question, the journalist/writer I admire most is P. J. O'Rourke. He is a cynic in the grand tradition of great journalists and columnists. I also collect books by Ambrose Bierce and H. L. Mencken. O'Rourke is the modern Mencken.

Music

I own some of almost every style. Swing and classical occupy a lot of space in my collection, with classic jazz and blues expanding rapidly. I need things that calm, relax, and sooth. All jazz seems to work, even when others ask, “You find that relaxing?”

As a member of Generation X, I am required to own the music of the 1980s. This means ABC and Adam Ant through Wall of Voodoo and Yaz. My college years were filled with Depeche Mode, The Cure, and the sounds of KROQ. Classic 1970s and early 80s heavy metal is also good, when I'm in the right mood.

Movies

I dislike most movies. (Who likes most of them?) Yes, some movies do grab me — I have cable and start a lot of movies… just finish few of them. While I can read all night, I can't seem to watch a screen for any amount of time. When I do sit through a movie, it's usually a mystery, very odd comedy, a romance, or classic drama. I love old movies. The acting wasn't great in most of them, but I consider the writing much better.

19 Feb 2003: I realized a theme in the movies I like. The characters grow personally after making choices. They challenge what is around them or expected of them. From Casablanca to Pleasantville, there are characters willing to challenge their fears in order to change the world. The movies I enjoy ask “Who am I?” and “Who can I become?” while telling a good story.

Frequently Asked Questions?

I keep receiving a list of questions from friends; I assume this list is making the Internet rounds. What the heck, I thought to myself, why not answer them here? Sure it is juvenile… but isn’t life?

Pets: Cats.

Hair: Short, easy to maintain.

Body Art: On you? Cool. Me? You have got to be kidding? I thought about a piercing once, but it would not be my style. Namely, a tad geekish and conservative in dress, if not life. Plus, body art is so trendy that not having any sets me apart!

Colors: Grey and burgundy; black and white; forest green, crimson, and tan.

Food: Yes. I like it. I can even cook... and love to buy new kitchen toys.

Day of the Week: Monday. Seriously, I tend to like Mondays because no one else is shopping when I am. Unfortunately, too many cool places are closed, so Tuesdays are not bad, either.

Phrase: When do we eat?

Restaurant: Tommy’s on Rampart count? Nothing like a double chili-cheese burger at 0200. Seriously, I like to try a lot of things.

Flower: Roses, in various colors. I prefer miniature roses in unusual colors.

Drink: Tea. Most any hot tea, accompanied by a pastry or baked good.

Sport to Watch: Hockey, in person. Not on television. Sports are about watching the crowd — unless it is soccer, where the point is to run ahead of the stampede. I am not really a sports person, though.

Ice Cream: Peanut butter and chocolate. Also, I like java/mocha flavors.

Sesame Street Character: Elmo, but Grover is the classic.

Disney or Warner Brothers: Warner Brothers… Animaniacs. Pixar rules modern animation, but Fox did well with Ice Age. Old Disney cartoons seeded my DVD collection.

Favorite Store: Home Depot, any antiques store, things I cannot afford…

Most Annoying Question: How do you feel? / How are you?

Favorite TV Show: Law & Order: Criminal Intent. I like Nero Wolfe on A&E, Monk is fun, and old reruns of The Saint. I like mysteries and puzzles. The current popularity of crime shows makes it nice to watch TV again.

Talents: Writing, I hope.

Goals: Write, write, and write more until I die.