My Interests

I suppose I should tell you something about myself.  I work as a computer programmer at Pearson Digital Learning in Champaign, Illinois.  My job before this was at ERES Consultants, Inc., where I worked for 2 and a half years.  For 10 years previous to that, I was a student at the University of Illinois.  My bachelor's degrees are in electrical engineering and music composition/theory.  I also have a master's degree in electrical engineering, with emphasis on computer interfaces for audio signal generation for musical applications.  I tend to miss school, though I've noticed I have an inclination toward selective memory, where I seem to forget the bad occurrences yet remember the good ones.  My favorite part of college was playing clarinet in the marching band.  It was great!  We were there at every home football game, as well as at some away games, and we got to travel and perform at many places--the Hancock Bowl, the Holiday Bowl, the Liberty Bowl, Soldier Field in Chicago, you name it.  We even marched in the St. Patrick's Day Parade in Dublin, Ireland--twice!  I made numerous friends and shared many good times.  Band was awesome.

Two of my main interests are computers and clarinet.  Actually, I like all kinds of classical music, but I especially like clarinet music.  I live only 2 km from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and for a time I went to every clarinet concert and recital there was.  This is one of the benefits of living so close to the university--they bring in excellent performers all year round.  In addition, I like computer music.  The university possesses one of the finest computer music research facilities in the nation, and I'm proud to have been a part of it.  Within my compact disc collection there are more than 40 CDs of nothing but computer music.

My other great interest is in reading American literature.  I like to read a lot, and my favorite reading of all time has been in the texts of the New England Transcendentalists.  If you've read Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, or Amos Bronson Alcott, you've experienced my favorite authors ever.  I really think they had something vitally important to say.  I try to read from them every day, or at least so much that my dad jokes that I ought to start my own "transcendental club"!  In fact, if you wish, you may say that American Transcendentalism is my religion.

Had enough yet?  If not (what endurance!), follow the links below for more about me.

The music I listen to.  The music I've composed.

A few issues I think about from time to time.

I'm interested in gourmet coffees.

Links to the Web pages of my friends.

I'm also a member of the Audio Engineering Society.

Hey, support these companies!  I've invested in them, so they better do well!

My Ideas Journal, from 1983.

A few trees in Champaign and Urbana, Illinois.