Right now in this phase of my existence school is my priority. Work and all other projects are secondary. I am majoring in Physics, with emphasis in optics, and I am minoring in Astronomy. There is nothing more amazing or exquisite to me than viewing and comprehending both the largest and the smallest things in the Universe. I am a member of the Planetary Society, as well as a contributing member in the San Diego Astronomy Association. It's difficult to explain the level of respect and reverence I have for mathematics, physical laws and equations, and the beauty of observational Astronomy. Nothing is more fulfilling to me than walking someone through a naked eye tour of the sky on a dark night, or showing someone some astronomical object millions, billions, trillions... quadrillions of miles away, and explaining it's origins and it's subtle or violent mechanics. It's a blast. I am also trained and authorized to use (being a contributing member) the San Diego Astronomy Association's 22 inch observatory in Tierra del Sol, in the mountains of Southern California. It's a great set of optics, and you can probe quite a ways into space with it. I also use various telescopes at Mount Laguna Observatory owned by SDSU.
As far as school goes, each semester I usually take 18 units, though I have had a semester with 20.5 units, as well as a semester with 19 units. It gets hairy quite frequently, especially working part time to cover my arse in rent and bills, but I always manage to pull through. Recently I have been taking fewer units after a near disastrous Fall 2001 semester where I was spread so thin you could see through me. Upper division Physics and Astronomy classes just weren't meant to be taken en masse. At the same time I write for the SDSU newspaper "The Daily Aztec" for the science section Inquiry, and am a research assistant to Dr.Welsh at SDSU.
As often as possible my friends and roomates play Dungeons & Dragons, my favorite game from another hobby of mine... gaming. I play some computer games, some board games, but mostly D&D. I have a special section that is going to be dedicated to gaming and the exploits of my groups.. Fantasy novels were instrumental in my becoming a fantasy genre gamer. My favorites include the classic Tolkien books (I got started with The Hobbit in 6th grade), Lloyd Alexanders "Book of Three" series which I read through my 4th, 5th, and 6th grade years, various other fantasy novels in Junior High, and Dragonlance in high school. I had the privelege of getting a book signed by R.A. Salvatore at Comic-Con in San Diego not too long ago, author of two of my favorite book series "The Dark Elf Trilogy" and "The Icewind Dale" trilogy. I didn't read these books until after high school, but their imagery, colorful settings, and gratuitous scenes of violence have made them classics to me already. (I love reading, reading is good.) This love of fantasy not only drew me into gaming in Junior High, but also introduced me to some anime shows. My favorite shows are The Slayers and Record of Lodoss War, the reasons being apparent to anyone who has seen these fantasy based shows.
I have always liked the theater, and have been on both sides of the curtain much (I am a lifetime member of the International Thespian Society). I have performed in over a dozen plays since late 1994, and frequently go to see shows here in San Diego. I was the president of the Drama Club back in high school, which helped land me a job at Palmer Performing Arts Center in my hometown of Brawley for about two years. There I operated tech for such shows as the Flying Karamazov Brothers, the Vienna Boys Choir, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and many other touring and local productions. It was interesting and exciting work, but the schedule was random and scrambled, and 16 hour days were not uncommon, with one or two legendary 20 hour days I can remember. A set schedule is much much easier to handle. When I moved from Brawley to San Diego (120 miles West of Brawley OUT of the bloody hot desert) I stopped performing in plays to dedicate more time to school, work, and a few projects I wanted to work on. I still go to productions however, which include Grossmont Colleges entire 1999-2000 production schedule, and almost every Sledgehammer Theater production since December 1997. Sledgehammer is a local theater at a former church called St. Cecelias in Downtown San Diego. The shows there are almost without exception excellent, and their adaptations are entertaining as well as socially and artistically progressive.
I do lots of other things too, of course, whenever I can find the time. I like camping and hiking alot. Recently I joined Karate for the first time, which is very interesting. I also shoot archery, listen to music (hard rock mostly but all sorts of other music, except I don't like rap or whiney country), I spearfish, I enjoy internet chat (especially IRC, I frequent #atheism alot), and engage in computer and internet activities daily. I am a pretty good speech writer, deliverer, and disputant, as I always engage in arguments, sometimes out to sincerely demonstrate a point and sometimes for sport.