|
 First off, I want to make it clear that I am not a physicist or any other kind of scientist. In fact, I didn’t care much for science as a subject when I was in school years ago. I was more interested in fields that addressed how people lived and how they made sense out of life - fields like the social sciences, philosophy, religion, psychology and literature. But as the years went by, I gradually became aware of some fascinating new developments that were happening in modern science. And slowly (very slowly), it dawned on me that these developments had an immeasurable significance for our lives. That realization eventually led to my creating this site.
Now, as far as the particulars are concerned:
I was born in New Jersey in the 1950’s. The first few years of my life were probably typical of those born around the same place and time, so we’ll skip them.
In the late 1950’s my family moved to the Republic of Panama where my father had a job managing a warehouse for a pharmaceutical company. We lived there for seven years. In addition to the usual childhood experiences, I had the opportunity to get some up-close exposure to the dynamics of US/Panama relations, including several demonstrations and riots. The worst of these, in January, 1964, eventually led to the renegotiation of the Panama Canal Treaty.
Having spent 7 formative years in the tropics, I suppose it was only appropriate that my father’s career would next take my family to Syracuse, New York.  To explain the irony for those unfamiliar, Syracusans actually take pride in having the highest average snowfall per winter of any major metropolitan area in the continental United States. Mention Buffalo and they will snort in disdain. While Buffalo may have had a particularly bad winter or two over the years, Syracuse is the overall big-city champ in lousy winter weather. Needless to say, after one snowbound winter I persuaded my parents to let me take up skiing in December of 1967. Winters have been much more enjoyable ever since.
After high school I attended Hobart College, a small liberal arts school in the Finger Lakes region of New York State. (Geneva, where Hobart and sister college William Smith are located, is one hour west of Syracuse, and about five or six hours northwest of New York City. I throw in the NYC reference because I know many non-New Yorkers think everything in New York State is a suburb of the Big Apple. This irritates Syracusans about as much as the mistaken belief that Buffalo has the worst winters around.)
My four years at Hobart proved to be catalytic. While I had an interest in world events that had probably been sharpened by my years in Panama (and a generational proximity to the Vietnam War), it was at Hobart that I began to question what exactly it was I believed life was all about. My ensuing search for the answer to that question has followed many paths, eventually leading to the creation of this site, but the search itself started for me at Hobart.
One of those many paths was photography. Beginning in my senior year I started taking photographs that led to my exhibiting in such diverse places as Syracuse, Rochester, Quebec and New York City. This also led to my eventually becoming president (at different times) of the Photovisions Cooperative and Associated Artists of Central New York.
In December of 1981,  I went to work for the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles in Albany. My first job there was in the Administrative and Organizational Analysis Bureau. (Known at the time as AOA, it has since been given a somewhat less bureaucratic name.) In March of 1990 I joined the DMV’s Division of Traffic Safety Services. During my first two years in Traffic Safety, I participated in a study of repeat drunk driving offenders - people who'd had five or more convictions in a ten year period. Later I served as the team leader of the Reinventing Traffic Safety Vision Team, the High Risk Driver Study Team, and the License Event Notification Service (LENS) Marketing Team. As you can tell, the DMV had a thing for teams.
Since August, 2000, I have been working for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. While I have a civil service title, I generally tell people I'm the "Internal Control Guy." What's an "internal control"? I won't get into that here, but you can click on the link for an answer.
In December of 1985 I began to practice the martial art Aikido, a practice I pursued for eleven years. I originally got into it to improve my conditioning and learn some techniques for self defense. However, I found Aikido’s focus on the power that comes from harmonizing with the energies that surround us to be useful in many facets of life outside the dojo.
Partly due to my years in Aikido, I have developed something of a passion for activities that bring together the mind, body and spirit in an outdoor setting. In addition to the skiing I’ve already mentioned, I’m an avid cyclist and have hiked extensively in the Adirondack mountains.
 Over the past few years, as I’ve grown more sensitive to the way our lives are interconnected, I’ve found several opportunities to channel this passion in ways that can benefit others. I am a past president of the Capital District Ski Educational Foundation, which had programs that support aspiring Olympians as well as disadvantaged or handicapped skiers. I’m also a member of the Mad River Glen Cooperative, which owns and is working to preserve a very special, old-fashioned ski area in a time when conglomerates seem to be overpowering the industry. In addition, since 1995 I’ve had the very rewarding opportunity to participate in the Pan-Massachusettes Challenge, a mega bikeathon that is “mega” in more then one way. A two-day bike ride of up to 192 miles, it consisted of over 4,000 cyclists who raised over 23 million dollars in 2005 for the Jimmy Fund and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. Finally, once in a while I do some really crazy event, like the Hotter 'N Hell Hundred.
(It should go without saying - but I will anyway - that all opinions expressed here are mine alone, and in no way reflect the opinions and/or policies of the Department of Environmental Conservation or any other organization I may be a member of. Now everyone in those organizations can breath a sigh of relief.)
Well that’s enough about me. Thanks for stopping by!
|
