Hobbies and Interests
Ferris WheelMost of my non-working time is spent with my family--my wife and daughter.  They're my most important and cherished hobby and interest! We live in Park Slope, Brooklyn, with our dog, three cats, two gerbils, and an ever-growing number of computers. 

I've been a computer hobbyist since seventh grade (when we used analog modems to dial in to the university main frames to play Colossal Cave and write programs in BASIC).  Since then I've lost count of how many computers I've owned, broken, upgraded, built, programmed, pushed and hacked.  My current primary system is a Windows box, but I also run Linux (usually Ubuntu) and Mac OS X on several different alternative machines--sometimes at the same time!  I enjoy computer games (mostly first-person shooters, but sometimes MMORPG's, too--I currently have a priest in World of Warcraft that I'm pushing towards level 60), and online political discussion forums--and I like pushing the machinery to do things it didn't "know" it could do.  Other than computers, I work on several different kinds of electronic projects--constructing little gadgets and robots, and repairing and restoring antique radios (mainly the beautiful wood Philco and General Electric radios from the 1930's and 40's).

I read mainly Science Fiction for pleasure, but I'm also a big fan of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series of historical fiction, and the detective novels of Robert B. Parker and Andrew Vachss.

And I enjoy traveling--to foreign countries as a tourist, to my native California for vacation, and, during the summers and early fall, to the county fairs and carnivals across the country where I did my doctoral research.

Home
Professional Biography
Areas of Research
Contact Information