I was born on May 14.....was concieved some time prior; not sure if my parents knew what was happening (my grandpa would laughingly joke,"Did they figure out what caused it?...")....in small Lakeport (Northern CA) on the shores of not-so-ClearLake. I had a very enjoyable childhood, which got off to a good start in Lakeport and continued on the Big Island of Hawaii. Really the only negative thing that transpired for me as a young hellion, was the divorce of my parents when I was roughly 4. Other than that, growing up with my two sisters (Jennifer and Molly Mae) and Mom was thoroughly fullfilling (although, with the overwelming presence and flowering aura of estrogen and progesterone around the house, I have to admit I frequently breath sighs of relief that I haven't, over the years, developed an passion to trounce (a word?) around in sun-dresses and velvety pumps). The Big Island was killer (Kona side)....made some great friends there (for example, Elizabeth, Jeremy and Nicolas West, Rene Roos, Lisa and Christine Kendricks, David Cunningham, Dan Kampling, John Visser). During these years, my family also spent some time in Maui, and American and Western Samoa.......fun stuff. In my early teens my Mom moved us to Manila in the Philippines. A huge, and at first, seemingly over-whelming transition, but I grew to fit in and enjoyed the experience very much. During my three years there we lived in Quezon City and went to school up on the hill over-looking Manila, at Faith Academy ......great school, great teachers, and great friends (Daniel Kurtz, Rob Seyda, Borgar Bjorkas, Ed Brown, Chris Davidenas, CJ Lingenfelder, Mike Martin, Deanna Jenkins, Janine Brubaker, Tay Russell, Todd Anglin, Rachel McDougal, etc.). I was in Manila when history was being made (the 1986 people's revolution).....the downfall of the Ferdinand Marcos regime.....I was there on Edsa Blvd. when the s*** was going down and 'People's Power' brought down Marcos and put Cory Aquino in office. Crazy times. Unfortunately for my Mother, this was to turn out also to be my 'Rebellious Stage.' She handled it well for a while (I was submissive and behaved at times ) but then it became too much for her and she sent me back to Lakeport, CA to live with my grandparents. This was a good time for me though; it brought me back to my Grandparents (whom I was always close with), it introduced me to my two half sisters (Patty and Tammy--both of whom I became very close with), it gave me time to get to know my Dad (who I am now very close to), and his sister, my Aunt Sandy (whom I became extremely close to). So......I was enrolled in Clear Lake High School (where both my parents had gone) and enjoyed my senior year where I made some more great friends (Dan Mitchell, Mike Marcks, Jeff Lankford, Cecil Read, Julie Knoke, Crissy Peters, Michelle Allendorf, Mike Stahr, Paige Merrill, Alisa Hubbard, Jase Harrell, Scott Horning, Tom Ensley, the list goes on). After graduating high school with honors (the honor of graduating in the bottom 50 percentile of my class with a 2.7), I was working a couple of jobs and attempting to save money for college (Round Table Pizza and Coachcraft Auto Body). Realizing the exersize in futility and also coming to grips with the reality that I wasn't ready for more school anyway, I joined the Navy, as they were promising me 28 G's for college after 4 years of good service. After bootcamp, my orders sent me to Pearl Harbor, and it was great to be back in Hawaii. In my four years of "good" service, I swam and shot guns for the USS Oullett FF-1077 , the USS Leftwich DD-984 , and the USS Willamette AO-180 . My free time in Hawaii (away from the ship) was spent in the water, with the Bachle family (they took me in and practically gave me a home away from home), playing a ton of soccer (All-Navy Hawaii , Bad Okole , Mazamba, and Lanikai Tuesday), and making friends (Allan Miller, Arno Reynolds, Victor Mokuleua, Michael Sumile, Phillips Deleon, Bert Relin, John DelaCueva, Sarah Bachle, Maria Caprio). In my time on the ship, I worked, read books, fought the enemy , traveled all over (the Gulf a couple times, Australia , UAE, Bahrain, Indonesia , Alaska , Japan , Korea , Samoa , Singapore and much more), and made more friends (Andrew Estrada, Sean Bjordahl, Mike Gray, Donny Foster, Ryan Osborne, Danny McGinn, Randal Weaver, Seth Kline, Errin Armstrong, John O'Brien, Paul Phillips, Kurt Walz, Lance Batchelder, Lonnie Sparrow, etc.). Rest in Peace homies from HSL-37 . Most of my time at sea was cool but I did have my grumpy days . After getting my honorable discharge in April of '94, I was finally ready for school. I was heading to Humboldt State (thanks to Debra Bachle and Alan Exley) up in Northern California to play soccer and pursue an Art degree (after spending 5 months chillin in Hawaii with my bro Allan Miller and his girl 'Squishy-Doo,' body-surfing everyday @ Sandy's, grabbing plate-lunch @ L & L, and collecting unemployment, that is). In August '94 I packed up my junk, shipped my car (a sweet, rusty, '81 Honda Prelude), and moved back to Nor Cal. Along with Sarah-my wonderful girl at the time -I got up to Arcata (town where Humboldt State is located......on the coast, about 1 hour south of Oregon and 6 hours north of SF) the afternoon before double days for soccer were to begin. So that night me and my roomies found a place in the crack-whore district of Eureka...and the next day I began pretending that I was a soccer player. It went well because I fooled the coach (just kiddin Alan) and made the team as a red-shirt freshman . I went on to play four additional years (convenient because it took me 5 years to finish my degree in Art) of glorious soccer where I gave my heart and soul (and ass) to the bench. Got plenty of injuries (mostly in practice getting stuck in on more skilled players in an effort to open up my own spot in the starting line-up), and even had my share of drama on the sidelines. (This one i got when I over-zealously tackled the water cooler in celebration of a Nate Betschart goal .) Other than soccer, most of my time was spent learning a ton, creating art for various classes , studying for other classes (Biology, Oceanography, Native American Studies, etc.) and collecting that monthly Navy College Fund check. I was extremely blessed to attend HSU with the quality professors that I got to learn from and become friends with: Drew Peterson, Shiela Ross, Theresa Stanley, Don Anton, Leslie Vandermolen, Hal Genger, Phil Buttolph, Jean Bazemore, James Dupree, Riley Quarles, and more. Every summer I would cruise back to Hawaii , work for Office Pavilion in Honolulu installing modular furniture with my homies from Waianae and Waipahu...killer job--and body surf at Sandy's everyday. Back up in Humboldt; all warm-weather spare time was spent out at Willow Creek ; cold-weather spare time was spent abalone diving; deer, duck and quail hunting; and everyday was spent making killer friends (Brooks Howard, Nate Betschart, Ryan Hile, Stephanie Valgos, Erik Vinland, Steve Abend, Matt Stover, Allan Buehler, Jen Nadler, Mike Cottrell, Ian and Chad Danielson, Jessica Hassrick, John Koven, Will Borberg, Mourad Gabriel, Trevor Tollefson and the list goes on). Anyway, so I finally graduate in '99 (with honors...3.76 GPA) and I'm feeling good about myself (except for the fact that I was working at the Red Lion doing room service and busting tables). I have a Bachelor Degree in Fine Art, I have a great girl (whose twin brother I am very good friends with) , I have a new truck (a sweet, banged-up '94 GMC Sonoma) and I have my health....what the heck do I do? Well...I'm gulible, so I chose the girl. I move to Fremont in the East Bay with Stephanie. I spend WAY too much for a computer and start doing what I went to school for (on a free lance basis...illustration, web design, graphic design, and wasting time). After about a year, things go south in the relationship department (she was too good for me, I guess...actually, I think it was mostly my fault...OKAY, FINE...ALL MY FAULT! YOU HAPPY NOW?!!). We breakup and I move in with these two killer bros (Dave Carmack and Quentin Solomon--soon replaced by Keenan Carriero) who have a place in the Sunset right on Ocean Beach. It was about that time that I get a job working full time for The Spider doing web design . I also meet some crazy Irishmen and started playing soccer for the SF Celtic Soccer Club . Also spent quite a bit of time getting my Scuba Diver Instructor's License through my buddy Wayne Mitchell (but only got to Dive Master and Assistant Instructor). All this time, I'm in the process of making more killer friends here in the Bay. All present spare time is spent enjoying life...attending Giants games , camping and abalone diving in areas on the north coast like this , body surfing here and there, playing tons of soccer, spending QUALITY time with friends, family, and my wonderful amazing woman Kristen Steele, making my own art, playing ukulele, rowing my butt off, and enjoying life. yay. Thanks for bearing with me.....I'm a ril gud spellr. And yes..... im aware that i used the word 'killer' about 5 times in the bio above. I live in California. Back to Top

Bio...Basically this is a brief version of my life story (very brief), and yet still seemingly long-winded. Click on the camera icon ( ) for interesting, amusing and embarrassing photographs from along the way. *Many photos still to come from the 'poo-in-my-pants' era of the earlier years.