That Pesky "About Me" Page

Here's the "About Me" list I've been fretting over for longer than you'd believe. It is arranged in order of writing difficulty, from easy to impossible.

Places I've lived

• two miles north of Cromwell, Iowa
• Ames, Iowa
• Storrs, Connecticut
• Washington, D.C. Metropolitan area, including Arlington, Virginia and The People's Republic of Takoma Park (Maryland)
• Pocahontas County, West Virginia

Jobs I've Had (see my on-line resume for details)

• Newspaper proofreader, technical editor
• Sorter of dead mosquitoes and ceratapogonid midges
• Insect collection technician
• Zoo-keeper's assistant
• College instructor
• Teacher of all subjects, for all ages, K-12 subject matter
• Molecular geneticist
• Bacteriologist
• Bioinformatician

Subjects I've Taught

• Introductory Biology for Biology Majors, labs and lectures
• Entomology labs
• Scanning Electron Microscopy
• Adult Basic Education, including math from addition through algebra and reading and writing at every level

Computer Experience

• Fortran programming course, 1976: The joys of a public keypunch area
• Life in Unix Big Iron Land, running Xedit and SAS
• Exile to DOS and Apple OS's
• The joys of GNU Unix on Sun workstations
• Some unpleasant exposure to Microsoft Windows
• A return to *nix Nirvana via OSX and Linux

Fiber Arts Interests and Experience

• Sewing--garment construction, quilting
• Knitting
• Spinning wool yarn for knitters

Natural History Interests

• Heteroptera, the True Bugs (accept no substitutes!)
• The Burgess Shale
• Trilobites
• Mushrooms of West Virginia
• Nature writing, particularly of Aldo Leopold, Loren Eiseley, Edwin Way Teale, Rachel Carson

Musical Interests and Obsessions

• Baroque flute music
• English concertina
• Clawhammer banjo

Meaning of My Life