Bio...

I've written longer bio's, and more funny ones, but at least this one is up to date.

Part 1: Floyd (1979-1995)

I grew up in Floyd, VA, a rural area of south western Virginia.  To give you an idea of just how rural, Floyd had one stop light, and I lived 30 minutes away from it (though Floyd does have a quite spiffy web site!??).  My parents decided to home school me, for a variety of reasons, but as I got older I took over most of the control of my schooling.  Unlike most home schoolers, I stuck with it for the entire way - it felt like the right way to learn, and I had no interest in going to public school in Floyd.

Part 2: College (1995-2002)

At 16, I took a class at the local community college.  I found that not to be of my liking, but decided to give college one more try before giving up on the idea entirely. I then signed up as a non-degree seeking student at Virginia Tech, liked my first, seven credit semester, and spent two and half years taking a light load there.  Never really interested in being a full time Hokie, I also spent part of one year working at software lab that was part of the VT ISE department.  After amassing 42 credits at Tech, I transferred to Hampshire College so that I could focus my time on Cognitive Science (mostly Computer Science and Cognitive Psychology).  In my final year at Hampshire I did  research on Genetic Programming, producing a 127 page thesis on a range of topics, as well as maintaining active research in other areas of CogSci.  After graduating in 2001 I accepted a one year paid research position on the Hampshire faculty to continue on the topics in my thesis, teach a class, and research graduate schools. 

Part 3: Graduate School (2002-2008?)

Hampshire was a fine school, but it had no graduate program. After applying to 16 graduate schools, visiting 9 of them, and spending months agonizing over the decision, I decided to attend UC San Diego's PhD program in Cognitive Science. Ah, sunny southern California. Actually, it's too sunny for its own good. 

Part 4: The future (~2079)

My life's only 1/4th over, assuming a reasonable life span. There is much left to do..