 Sometime in the 1970s I was born to a nice couple in Decatur, Georgia. I grew up in Centerville, however, in a working class subdivision built on old man Cannon's farmland. I have numerous scars from running into barbed wire fences, and have probably had more tetanus shots than a captipiller has teats. I went to South Gwinnett High School in Snellville, Georgia.
With some savings my grandmother gifted me, I acquired a Volkswagon Beetle on my sixteenth birthday. I loved that car, and still dream about it every once in a while (I fondly recall screaming Nine Inch Nails' Pretty Hate Machine at the top of our lungs with my friends as I drove us to and from school). As a result of mistakenly trying to convert the fuel injection system back to a carburetor system, the bug died, whereupon my grandfather scored me an orange Volkswagon bus with a sunroof that went from the driver's seat all the way back.
After graduating high school and reluctantly trading in the bus for something less prone to repair (a Toyota something or other), I moved to Washington D.C. where I studied philosophy and interpersonal communication at the George Washington University. My interest in philosophy led me to earn a Master's and Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Public Address at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. After six years in the Frozen Land of Seasonal Affective Disorder, I returned to the south and sunshine for a job at the Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. After three years in the bayou, I relocated to Austin, Texas, where I currently teach cultural, media, and rhetorical studies in the Department of Communication Studies.
Outside of teaching and writing, I'm a rabid fan of popular music. One of the best and worst things about living in Austin is the live music scene: it's the best, because I see/hear a lot of great music; it's the worst because I also miss-out on seeing and hearing lots of great music (sometimes I avoid the alternative paper in town because I don't want to know who I am missing). Every now and again I DJ a party or a wedding for fun and cash. I like to garden and love to cook. After an almost twenty-year hiatus, I've recently got back into camping and hiking. I am an Eagle Scout, and have enjoyed getting "back in touch" with that part of my life history. I am thinking about planning a trip to Big Bend next year.
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