Bio(ish)

If you're looking for a traditional bio, you won't find it here

This is the part of the site where you might expect something written in the 3rd person that delves into as much as possible in about 30 to 45 words or so. How am I doing? Before I jump into the meat of things, let me say that I've written at least 500 bios for other people since November 2000, when I landed my first job in an advertising agency. Funny thing about the experience is that, on the day they fired me (less than a year later), I swore up and down that I would "never work in advertising again." Yet here I am, still working in the realm of brand, while the agency has mysteriously disappeared from the web. Weird.


Things you should know about me

  • I like beer and pizza
  • I talk a great deal about baseball
  • I write poetry and apply the tools of poetry to every piece of writing I create
  • I'm among the poets featured on Oregon's Poetic Voices
  • I'm a father and a husband, both of which factor into nearly every decision I make
  • I work from a home office but am known to shuttle around
  • I was fired from my first agency gig because of my Birkenstocks
  • In 2004 I was laid off from my second and last full-time job. That company has since imploded as well though is still sort of around
  • I tend to stare longingly out the window whenever "My Hometown" is playing nearby
  • I left my hometown to play baseball and wound up becoming a writer
  • I like donuts
  • There's photographic evidence on this website of me being cited for selling beer without a license in a Phish parking lot, July 1999 (but you have to look for it)
  • I'm okay not using periods at the end of a bullet statement, but I will use periods if it makes more sense to do so
  • I'm left-handed but am actually stronger with my right hand
  • I'm a middle child (two brothers)

A few other random things

  • My wife and I have a side business that involves selling meat from our home, but really it's Moe's business
  • I do not like soccer, but most designers I work with do and they don't mind that I don't
  • I have taught writing workshops throughout Portland since 2005 (kids and adults)
  • My daughter was born on April Fools and fooled my wife by being breech, and our world turned upside down in a profound way
  • The futon in my office is there for Moe, who likes to hang with me while I write
  • The Birkenstocks that got me fired were the same ones I'm wearing in the picture of my Phish lot citation
  • My title at the last full-time employer was "marketing specialist," but I never really understood what I should be specializing in
  • "Glory Days" also gives me pause, but for different reasons related to my father and baseball
  • As the story goes, as soon as my father discovered I was left handed, he put a ball in my hand and told me to throw
  • I have passed my like of donuts onto my daughter
  • I've been writing a book about the summer of 1999 since the summer of 1999, and I'm still writing it. It's the story I'll never finish but will always write, and I'm okay with that.
  • The right and left hemispheres of my brain work well together

Questions? Ask away.

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