About Me

Hello Everyone!

I’m a non-traditional student, which is a way of stretching the words “I’m older” into more syllables. What else am I? The son of a woman of Korean heritage and a father of German heritage, yet familiar with neither culture in much depth. A long-time writer of poems, three of which have even been published. The favorite human of my cat, Florian, who provides thoroughgoing supervision whether I like it or not. Vegetarian for about twenty years: at this point my body would reject meat in the same way that the present Republican Party rejects facts, science, and basic decency.

Chess is something I’ve gone back to recently, and it’s been a painful and enjoyable return. I really wish I had stuck with it after high school! I’ve been reading Spanish since high school and French since around 2009. Learning that the news is bad in other countries is a source of relief daily. Eventually I’d like to take the A1, A2, B1, and B2 certifications for those languages. Those certifications can aid in getting translation work. Those certifications would also be pleasant additions to my C.V.

I wrote a poem about the late New York Times fashion photographer Bill Cunningham, and it can be found here: http://punklawyer.com/?s=photographs. It’s called “He Photographs the Fashionable.” Another poem of mine won the 2013 Society of Southwest Authors’ poetry competition. That poem, “History of the Gladiola Girl” doesn’t seem to be online just yet. I’m eager to return to submitting poems this fall and then silently awaiting form emails of refusal while I listen to Morrissey. It truly is about the process.


The work that I've done the longest has been private tutoring. I helped prepare many high school students for standardized tests such as the PSAT, SAT, and ACT. I generally found the work to be rewarding. I might go back to tutoring this year, though my future career will be quite different. I’m aiming to work in marketing or standardized test design, preferably on the data analysis side. “Why the career change?”you may ask. Well, I live with a number of chronic health issues, most of them autoimmune. And that means I have to minimize risk of infection, so client-facing work and the running around that requires is out of the question. Another reason is that I enjoy looking for and finding patterns. Finding those small advantages students can gain on standardized tests was always very satisfying. Yes, I'm just a little bit weird.

I look forward to working with you all!