Life has been really random: I've never settled in one situation for long, and it looks likely to continue that way for a while. I got bored with engineering school and switched to film school. Then I moved to seattle and did headshots and album covers for some incredibly awful grunge bands. Then I did the slacker expat thing for a while. Then I got a masters in "Electronic Art" and discovered I wasn't much of an artist but was pretty good with the electronic part, and this Internet thing was happening anyway, so I helped start a website called Tripod and lived in what in retrospect was sort of a commune and got married to someone who's the best thing that ever happened to me and moved to New York and worked for another website in New Jersey and moved to Chicago and worked for another one in Denver and that's where I am right now. (I know that last bit was sort of jumbled, but it all happened really fast and was sort of confusing while it was happening anyway; I'm still trying to sort it all out.) I skipped a few jobs and moves in there, but those are the high points, anyway. I'm not really sure what's going to happen next, but so far it all seems to be working out.

I don't think so... I'm a lot less nervous and agitated these days. Or rather, I'm still nervous and agitated, but about different things. I'm still just as much of a geek as I always was -- but that seems to be allowed, now. Encouraged, even.

It's sort of a converted-warehouse loft in Chicago, upstairs from a really good bakery. (The closets smell disconcertingly like croissants). The neighborhood is ok, sort of an overlapping gay / punk rock / Swedish retiree kind of place.

A big ugly house in western massachussetts filled with drummers and artists and computer programmers and buddhists and whoever else happened to need a couch that night. At the time it seemed kind of crowded and noisy and sometimes annoying, and you never knew whose turn it was to buy the groceries; but with nostalgia's-eye-view, it seems like the best way to live ever. It's also where I met my wife, which made it that much better. We're moving back there this summer.

I really liked living in Seattle, but I think that had more to do with the people I was with than with the city itself. The travel bug bit me pretty hard, as you can see from the list above... there's still a lot of world out there that I haven't seen.

When I describe my life to people, it doesn't sound boring (even though many parts of it have been, of course.)

I've made some baaaad, baaaad business decisions. I'd be retired by now if I hadn't been so dumb. :)

Part of the problem with moving around so often is that I don't have a lot of friends who live closer than about 1,000 miles away... it'd be nice to be able to go out for coffee with someone now and then.

I had something up here earlier that turned out to be not much of a surprise to anyone, so oh well. I don't think I have a clear idea what people thought I was like back then, so I'm not sure how much of what I'm like now would be a surprise to anyone.

A tie: 1) I got snowbound in Romania with a busload of Turkish businessmen. 2) I worked at a successful internet start-up, but quit before my stock options were really worth anything. 3) I just thought of another one: I was once mugged by a lower primate (macaca sylvanus, to be precise.)

We'll be staying at a friend's house in the berkshires, as far away from the madness in the cities as possible. I don't exactly expect civilization to end -- but I do expect a good number of people will be disappointed when it doesn't...

Decriminalize all victimless crimes... just for starters. Then outlaw campaign contributions (or treat them like a secret ballot: you can give money to a politician, but he can't know who gave it to him.)

I plan to go to college for four years, get a Ph. D. at CalTech, graduate summa cum laude, go to work as an engineer, and 3 days later quit and become an out-of-work actor.

I did go to engineering school, but it only took two years to get bored, not 4 (and certainly not a Ph. D.) Instead of becoming an out-of-work actor, I became an out-of-work film director, which I seemed to be pretty good at -- the out-of-work part, anyway -- but then this internet thing happened and suddenly I wasn't out of work anymore.

It's too hard to plan six months ahead, let alone 10 years.

Or 20.

None

I hope nobody thinks this website was a stupid idea. Or at least that if they do, they don't tell me about it.

I'd also like to make it clear that I had nothing to do with Mike Howe's photo -- he did that all by himself :) As for the barber... the trick is not to have one.

Made a fool of myself, most likely...

That awkward first half-hour of "Oh my god I've turned back into a sweaty pimply highschool geek that nobody wants to talk to." Problem seemed to be solved after a few drinks. Maybe I should've tried that back in high school.

Same thing, but more so... one night wasn't really enough.

Nah. I always pay seven bucks for a gin and tonic.