Giant, rabid squirrels make wonderful pets...(and weapons!)

...or so I have been told.

First off, I'm a born and bred Michiganian. Not a Michiganite, most definitely not a Michigander (I am NOT a male goose), a Michiganian. Just wanted to make that clear. Now that I've moved to New Zealand (hopefully to stay permanently), I fancy calling myself a MichiKiwi.

Both of my parents are also Michiganians and I grew up in a town called Perry, 9 miles from one set of grandparents and 16 miles from the other. We moved north to Kalkaska during my freshman year of high school. I returned to the Lansing area to spend 5 years at Michigan State University and Lancaster University (UK), earning my B.S. in Fisheries & Wildlife (specializing in Spatial Information Processing) in 2006.

During my undergrad years, and the years since, my free spirit has kept me on the move. Perhaps my single favorite thing to do is travel and I will often get in my car and drive for hours, just to go somewhere I've never been. Since 2001 I have been to England, Scotland, Wales, Norway, the Netherlands, Costa Rica, Canada, and of course, New Zealand.

November of 2006 saw me move to Iowa City, Iowa, to take up a position as a commercial baker with Panera Bread. I'd spent the previous 7 summers working as a baker at a pie market, with a supervisory student position in the Gov Docs dept at the MSU library during school terms. Iowa became a stepping stone to a long journey of finding myself, and I left there in February 2008 to begin post-graduate studies in Auckland, New Zealand. That year I began dating my future partner and at the end of my studies in November, we had a civil union and I returned with her to Seattle, Washington. I was awarded a Post-graduate Diploma in Geography/GIS the following spring, but not until after we'd moved to her hometown of Marble Falls, Texas. We stayed there a year until the door opened to return to New Zealand for my dream entry-level cartography job, and we've been living in Auckland since February 2010. I'm working as a geo-graphic technician with the University of Auckland's School of Environment; she's a shift supervisor with Starbucks.

Will the Hardcore Nutball™ please stand up?

The internet is by far my greatest passion. Or rather, my online communties are. Though it's a hobby, I have and continue to pour more sweat, tears, blood, and energy into them than I ever have for a paid job. And I haven't regretted a minute of it. Through my fandom connections I've made the most wonderful friends I've ever known, found the best life partner I could've prayed for, and learned that for all of our differences, there's a whole world of people out there who share the same loves as myself. Little did I know where a first email address and an interest in a book series would take me.

In the more than a decade since my initial online foray, I have been active in numerous Wheel of Time websites/email/roleplay groups, founded my own WoT community (TheGreatHall.org), and assumed multiple administrative roles for some of the largest WoT communities on the net. I've also staffed the WoT Track at Dragon*Con in Atlanta, assisted with a Robert Jordan book signing in San Diego, and even had dinner with RJ and his lovely wife. In the process of building my site and assisting with others I've taught myself to be a website developer, webmistress, graphics designer, convention planner, and community administrator. I've also traveled all across the United States and Europe attending gatherings and calling on friends, some in places I would never have visited otherwise.

Early in 2007 I picked up the DVDs of Xena: Warrior Princess and rewatched the show, falling in love with it in a way I never anticipated. Reminiscent of my intial love affair with WoT, I found myself completely hooked and readily immersed myself in the fandom online, eventually finding a home at the Xena Online Community (XOC). I'm not nearly as active there as I once was, as having a real job in my field has stolen much of the spare time I once had. Alas.

So long and thanks for all the fish!

Hrm...what else to say?

My partner and I have been together for more than two years and are going strong. :D I've had more than a little falling out with my family and faith community over my choice of partner, but for all of the drama I don't regret our relationship. It's a strange transition from a life amongst the hardline evangelical community to somewhere on the edges, persistently standing my ground against the maelstrom of disapproval that keeps coming my way. I'm not quite sure where I fit these days; I'm no longer a hardline conservative Christian but neither am I a mainline liberal Christian either. I have faith, though, that God will lead us to the congregation we're meant to call home. And perhaps, with time, I will find some measure of reconciliation with those I love.

I'm a big, very eclectic music fan. I have something playing most all of the time, in my head if nowhere audible. It accompanies those voices I hear. ;) As a musician I'm currently teaching myself acoustic guitar and am a very out-of-practice flautist.

I'm an avid amateur photographer. My digital camera is my baby and as you can see from looking around this site, I take a heck of a lot of photos, especially of landscapes. :) When I'm out hiking the camera is almost always tucked in my daypack, ready to feed my photo appetite. The beauty of digital is you can take as many as you wish and only keep the ones you want. Unfortuantely, I tend to keep them all. *lol*

I love animals and wolves are my passion. I own quite the collection of wolf figurines, tapestries, blankets, photos, etc. I also collect knives and swords, books, and fuzzy fleece clothing.

That's honestly all the drivel I can think of to share for now. I'll may add more later if it comes to mind. For day-to-day random drivel visit my livejournal, though it doesn't get publically updated very often. If you managed to read the whole text above, kudos to you! I've been told I'm long-winded. Could it be true? *lol*

Last updated: May 17, 2010.