randomtruth

I'm a typical American immigrant mix that includes English, Dutch, Scottish, Ukrainian and even a bit of Inuit Eskimo. I was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, and while I've lived other places, I currently live just south of that great city (and nicely close to family & friends).

I grew up in a boring town where kids could walk to school and roam freely during summer. Dad split when I was about six, leaving me and my brother to be raised by mom (and her amazing family). Given that she was preggers at 16, and had no substantive vocational training, I think ma did one helluva job picking up the pieces to build us a good life. Those times did involve lots of family help and some welfare and foodstamps and standing in the special "poor kids" line for free school lunches, but dad leaving was one of the best things that happened to us. He was not an easy man to live with. I think we all made our peace and became friends with him though. I did.

After 4 typical suburban high school years that were perfectly re-created in Freaks and Geeks, I stumbled around a few towns, jobs, and art & science majors in City College and University, until finally graduating with a B.S. in Physics from UC Santa Barbara. Since then I've worked at various California tech companies, including Netscape, Shutterfly and Yahoo!.

The various adjectives my friends use to describe me are: tall, smart, lanky, warm, creative, geeky, professorial, sarcastic, and sometimes, "f@%king know-it-all" (we all have our moments).

My interests are quite eclectic, and since my middle name is Truman and I have been nicknamed "the truth" in the past, I figured 'randomtruth' would be a decent online nom de plume.

As for those interests, they include nature, photography, art (once drawing, now mostly appreciation), all sciences (physics, cosmology, archaeology, paleontology, evolution...), philosophy, technology, architecture, home diy, woodworking, gardening & travel (been to about 40 countries so far, and all continents except Antarctica. The world is an incredible place - go see it).

As of late, I've been spending lots of time getting back to nature while working on a stunning slice of Sierra land my brother owns near Yosemite & Mariposa. Not only does going there allow me to hang out with all my wonderful family & friends, but I also get to hang out with bears, cougars, gray foxes, deer, squirrels, owls & turkeys - all while playing with great power tools and farm equipment. My interactions with the nature up there, and my musings on the various land beautification and wildlife cultivation projects we undertake, can be found on my blog, nature of a man. My photos of all the lovely life that's up there can be found in my best of the lodge sets on flickr.