This is a capsule-summary of my life, often with links. Enjoy.
I spent most of my youth in Tabiona, Utah. It's a tiny little country town in the Uintah mountains. We had an average graduating class size of 4-10. While I was in Elementary School, I spent a few years in Ohio, where my mom's family is from. My home town is still Tabiona, though, and that's where my fondest memories lie.
I was the class nerd when I was young, unlike now, when I am a pillar of gregarious fun. *grin* Just kidding. I'm still the class nerd, just older.
I read constantly when I was a kid, mostly Sci-Fi, turning to Fantasy as I got older. When I was in 5th grade, our class got a computer, and I fell in love. I've been addicted to video games since I first shot down a space rock in "Asteroids." I learned to program in BASIC on an Apple II+, and I've been fascinated and entranced by computers ever since.
Here's a copy of the listing for Tabiona School, gathered from the web on 3/5/99:
Tabiona School: Robert Park, Principal PO Box 470 Tabiona, UT 84072 801-848-5635 Fax: 801-848-5795 Email: Grades:
K-12 Enrollment: 172, Staff: 11 Public K-12 School First Year of Accreditation: 1994
Notice the enrollment for K-12. That's where I went to school until I was 15.
I've written out a more detailed account of my life in Tabiona.
I was in the school band, where I played the tenor saxophone, and I began to learn the guitar, as well. I haven't played the sax in about 15 years, but I still play the guitar. I sang a lot in high school, as part of a show choir. I also did a lot of drama, and went to a couple of state competitions in one-act plays. I was very active in the LDS church, as well. I spent a lot of time hiking and camping in the High Uintah Primitive Area, deep in the Uintah mountains. Shadow Lake is still my favorite place in all the world.
I guess the next stage of my life was when we moved to Logan. My mom, my sister, and myself moved when I was 15, a junior in high school. Mom and dad got a divorce, and mom went back to school at USU. I enrolled at Logan High School. It was a big change for me, and I guess it was a major turning point in my life. I met Darren Stokes, who became my best friend. I also started learning gymnastics, and hanging out with people, instead of books or a computer. I had a bunch of girlfriends, and pretty much quit going to church. I had a lot of fun during this time, but I didn't really do much, except goof off. That's also when we played role-playing games whenever we got the chance.
I was still 17 when I moved into the dormitories at USU and started school there. I was a cheerleader, and I was learning how to double-stunt, and improving my gymnastics. I quickly found out how to cruise through school without really doing anything, and I spent all of my time practicing cheer, gaming, or just hanging out with friends. I would've thought that I'd date a lot, but my love life almost completely quit while I was in school. I was still really shy around strangers, except when I was cheering. I lasted 3 years in school before my lack of studying caught up to me, and I was suspended. I went back to Tabiona for a while, and worked for my dad, then moved back to Logan and worked there. I lived with Darren's family for a while while he was on an LDS mission, and I became best friends with Wade, who was a buddy of Dave (Darren's awesome younger brother.)
After about 2 years, I met and married Celia. We wwere married for 2 and 1/2 years. I have two
sons from my first marriage. Jedidiah is 7, and Alex is 6. They live about an hour away from Portland, and we have them every other weekend.
While I was married, I went back to school, and discovered the internet. I spent a lot of time mudding on Ancient Anguish, as Psycopath. (Yeah, I know it's misspelled.) I was also a cheerleader for half a year while I was married.
Celia and I were divorced in 1997, and not long after, she moved to Oregon, and I moved to Portland to be close to my boys. For about a year I didn't do much besides work and be a dad to Jed & Alex. Then I settled and made friends, and I've been happy to be a Portlander ever since.
I was a dancer for the local Singles' Ward production of "Saturday's Warrior," which was really fun. There I made a bunch of friends, and met Heather Jo Murray, whom I eventually married. We had 3 children together: 'Topher, Jeremy and Nathan. We divorced in 2006, though we're still on very friendly terms. She and the little boys live in a suburb of Portland, and I see the boys on Wednesday evenings and on most weekends.
I play D&D online in the world I created for that purpose: Mircanum. It's a 3.5e D&D campaign in a home-brew world I've been detailing for 5 or 6 years now. We play (almost) every Sunday evening for 3 hours. I also play f2f, primarily with my old 2 sons, and my sister & her husband, who recently moved into my apartment complex. (Yay!)
About a year ago I met a totally awesome group of performers called Kazum! I've been working with them ever since, gradually becoming more involved in performing as well as in coaching & spotting. It's been absolutely incredible. I'd accepted that the "throw people around in the air" stage of my life was over, and suddenly now here I am doing it again! On March 4th of 2007, I got to perform (a bit) with Kazum, and since then I've joined them for many exciting shows. Working with Kazum has been one of the most exciting and enjoyable things I've done in the last few years. There are a few videos posted on Youtube:
I work for Stream, as a reporting analyst for the Adobe contract. I still paint and model, occasionally, and spend some time on my computer... primarily doing a wide variety of development and world-building for gaming. I spend lots of time with my kids, and I'm pretty busy most of the time.
Between kids, work, practice, and performing, I'm usually way busy. Now & then things kind of ease up and I don't know what to do with myself. During those times I generally either hang out with friends, or do bursts of crafting or painting.
This page last updated on 04/24/2008