About

some facts about me

  • I am a retired faculty member of Kent State University who has interests in travel, photography, hiking, cycling, skiing, and generally in what’s going on in the world.
  • I have a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Colorado State University (1986), a Master’s degree in Library Science (1993) and a PhD in Information Science (1998) from the University of North Texas.
  • I was born in Hampton, Virginia, and I’ve lived in Newport News, Lakewood, Fort Collins, and Vail, Colorado, Douglas, Wyoming, Denton, Texas, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Kent, Ohio. I currently live in Stow, Ohio with my lovely wife, Valerie Kelly.
  • I have worked as a paperboy, dishwasher, cook, waiter, bartender, laborer, and in a mine, My career in academia began when I worked as a librarian without the requisite degree. I then pursued the master’s degree without any goals of going further, but when I was offered a fellowship to take the PhD, I took it. I worked as a faculty member at Louisiana State University, the University of Pittsburgh, and Kent State University.
  • Among my favorite artists are Edward Hopper, Georgio Morandi, Richard Diebenkorn, Charles Burchfield, Philip Guston, Pablo Picasso, and Rembrandt.
  • Among the photographers, who are also artists, I admire are Robert Adams, Robert Frank, Willard Van Dyke, David Plowden, Edward Weston, and Dorothea Lange.
  • Some favorite movies: the French Dispatch, Jojo Rabbit, The Big Lebowski, Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon (1941), Dr. Strangelove, Dinner at Eight, It’s a Wonderful World (1939, not to be confused with It’s a Wonderful Life), His Girl Friday, North by Northwest, Babette’s Feast, Amarcord, Radio Days. 
  • My musical taste runs from Rock (classic to contemporary–too many to name), Jazz (Miles Davis, Canonball Adderley, Coleman Hawkins, Dexter Gordon), and “Classical” (Beethoven, Schubert, Mozart, Debussey, Ravel)
  • Authors that have had an impact on my thinking: Dostoyevsky, Carlos Castenada, John Steinbeck, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Echardt Tolle, Hans Rossling, Neal Stephenson, and Thích Nhất Hạnh.  

My aim with this site is to make observations about the world around me through photographs and writing about my reactions to things that interest me. I hope that others will find these observations interesting and critique me on the weaknesses of my views.