WHERE DID YOU GROW UP? WHAT WAS YOUR PATH TO CAL?
Concord, CA in an Irish and Italian Catholic community (I loved my Catholic
elementary school; the nuns were a progressive bunch coming out of the 60's).

From Concord, I went to Davis for college and majored for a couple years in Computer
Science, moved into an independent study, self-made program in 
Computer-aided Environmental Science, and then went through a massive 
metamorphosis after taking a class from Dean MacCannell and switched gears 
entirely to read social theory for two years:  Marxism, Lacanian Psychology, 
Bateson, Goffman, Barthos. 

After a short stint working at Big Brothers Big Sisters of the East Bay, I pursued 
a career in teaching and re-discovered my interest in Computer Science and software
engineering. For the past 15 years, I have taught Math and Computer Science at 
Monte Vista High School in Danville and Albany High School in Albany.
About 5 years ago, I responded to a request from Nate Titterton and Mike Clancy 
to work on the AP Computer Science curriculum. Following this, I joined the local 
group piloting the CS 10 course in high schools, met Dan Garcia, 
and accepted his invitation to teach this summer course.

HOW MUCH PROGRAMMING HAVE YOU DONE (& WHAT LANGUAGES)?
I have spent hours and hours programming in numerous languages both in teaching and 
industry roles over the last 15 years. Logo and Basic in grade school, C in college, 
and after college Java, asp/php, ruby, R, javascript, coffeescript, BYOB ...

I have had the opportunity to work on exciting professional projects: data 
crunching and statistical analysis with CAL's Demography Department, transportation 
network mapping and visualization with CAL's PATH group and numerous database integration 
projects with a couple of school districts.

WHAT ARE YOUR HOBBIES?
Mountain biking, gardening and spending time with my two kids and wife. I have always
been a voracious reader and have spent a large chunk of time, off and on, over the past
ten years studying and playing Chess - a really beautiful, challenging game 
to geek out on.

WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR TALENTS & SKILLS? 
I can juggle, hoola-hoop, have a reasonable amount of endurance, and move with people easily.

HAVE YOU DONE ANYTHING REMARKABLE? HAS ANYTHING MEMORABLE 
HAPPENED TO YOU?
I once had the opportunity to spend a weekend with Robert Johnson, the famous 
Jungian psychologist. I had no idea who he was when I met him at a conference 
at the end of college in 1994 -- 23 years old. He spent the 
weekend seeking me out at various moments and talking to me about Jung, western mythologies,
being introverted in an extroverted culture, and India. It wasn't until I got home that
I realized who he was and what had just happened. 

WHAT COMMITMENTS WILL BE CONSUMING YOUR CYCLES THIS SEMESTER?
I am spending as much time on my bike and playing with my kids this summer as I can. 
Workwise, my time will be spent between this course, the traffic mapping and 
visualization project I have been working on for two years, and working with 
colleagues in the area on the cs10k project (http://cs10kcommunity.org/).
Camping trips are planned for the weekends; painting our house, making gaspatcho. All good.