About Me

West Virginia

I grew up in West Virginia. I belong to the last generation born into homes without digital technologies such as VCRs, CD players, home computers, game systems, or mobile phones. All of those were a part of my life by the time I graduated high school. I also grew up in the fading era of free-range childhoods and spent much of my time roaming the neighborhood in packs of kids without supervision.

I went to college at West Virginia University, which is located in a town founded by my fifth great-grandfather. I started out as an aerospace engineering student but ended up graduating in business IT.

Washington, D.C.

I got a job in Washington, D.C. as an IT consultant. I traveled around the city (using a paper map!) fixing the IT systems of all sorts of different businesses. I met my future wife in 2006. She was accepted to the University of Chicago for grad school, and moved there. I followed her.

Chicago

Jessica and I lived in Hyde Park. I got a job with another IT consulting firm and traveled all over Chicagoland. My clients inclulded a cheese manufacturer and a now-defunct molding and stamping factory. After Jessica graduated we moved to Wicker Park. We got married, and I got a job as a sysadmin downtown.

I got tired of IT and start writing about space. I applied to grad schools for science writing and ended up at the University of Arizona.

Tucson

Within a month of me starting school, we had our first and only child, Marian. I finished grad school and started working remotely for The Planetary Society. I got to travel to lots of rocket launches and other neat space events. We bought a house and settled in to desert life. In 2024, I started working for Tucson-based NOIRLab.