About Me
Photo by Greg Peverill-Conti (from Podcamp Boston 3)
To put my condition in the simplest way possible, I’m basically a twelve-year-old in a 36-year-old body. Because of bullying and verbal and sometimes physical abuse from other students from the second grade through high school, I withdrew from meaningful relationships with my peer groups and never learned how to be an adult. The condition is technically called "arrested development," and because of it I deal with things like social anxiety, depression, and some autistic-like symptoms (but I am not "officially" autistic—I just behave like one sometimes). Think of Tom Hanks in the movie "Big," and you’re pretty close to my life.
I work as a programmer/analyst for a third-party health insurance administrator in Tampa—at least, that’s the job that pays the bills. I also volunteer as a multimedia specialist and a small group leader with the Celebrate Recovery ministry at Bell Shoals Baptist Church in Brandon, Florida, where I also teach lessons on a rotating basis. I do enjoy teaching and speaking. I’ve also in the past been involved with the F.A.I.T.H. Riders Motorcycle Ministry as their national webmaster and multimedia director, and—while I was married—with the Marriage Encounter movement.
Being a "grown-up kid," I spend way too much time in theme parks. I have annual passes to both Busch Gardens Tampa Bay and Walt Disney World. Apparently because one of my aunts made fun of my squeaking noises as a baby by calling me "Mickey Mouse," those were the words to come out of my mouth as a child (and I’m told my mother nearly beat my aunt to death). I’ve never stopped being a fan since.
I am a scooterist. By this, I do not mean that I take my bike out of the garage (assuming I had a garage) when it’s bright and sunny or when I want to look "cool." It means that the scooter is my sole means of transportation. I actually own two scooters: a 2004 Yamaha Vino 125 currently in storage in my ex-wife’s garage, and a 2007 Suzuki Burgman 400 that is my daily ride. I do not own a car; when I absolutely have to have one, I rent one from the local airport. I pay about $12 at today’s prices for a tank of gas that gets me about 180 miles or 2-1/2 days of commuting from my apartment in Plant City to Tampa and back. The only problem is that I also live in "hurricane alley" here in Florida. When there’s a severe thunderstorm warning or worse, I’m forced to work at home.
I am a musician. I play both basic guitar and better than basic keyboard, but mostly compose on my MacBook. I served as a musician in churches for the better part of fourteen years until I moved to Florida with my now-ex-wife in 2000. I love most kinds of music, except rap. I spend a lot of time listening to smooth jazz music, but a lot of my writing is ballads and hi-NRG/dance music. Lately I’ve fallen in love with symphonic/gothic metal, particularly bands like Nightwish, Kamelot, Delain, Within Temptation, Sonata Arctica, etc.
The only reason I am still in Florida is because it’s too expensive to live in my native California these days. The apartment I paid $560 a month for ten years ago runs $1,200 today. I, a "city boy," almost continuously feel like a fish out of water in such a "country" place as Plant City. Although I do like country music. Since visiting Boston for a Podcamp in July 2008, however, I’m strongly considering the town as my next home.
There is nothing in life so boring that it can’t be made more interesting with more cowbell. Except, maybe, politics. And most television.
Technology and gadgetry is almost(?) to the level of obsession with me. I shock people sometimes with what I bring into a meeting. I’m also probably the only person you will ever meet who brings his laptop to church.