About

Only a quarter life to tell at the moment. From a rural part of North Carolina but became part of the rest of the world. Extensive travel since 17 in Europe, North Africa, and Asia and hopefully more to come. Received a degree from the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill in International Affairs in between. I've dallied with Spanish, Russian and some Indonesian over the years. Always on the look out for new experiences, brilliant ideas, and great food.

Work

Most of my early working life spent in bookstores with subsequent stints as a doorman at a lively bar, professional barista in Ireland, and work in hospitality at youth hostels in London and Kuala Lumpur and eventually a five-star five-diamond hotel. Eventually landed in a position at a large retailer on their email marketing team. Enjoyed my time there but enjoyed my time in Southeast Asia even more. Returned and worked on expanding my domains of knowledge in anything and everything (reading list here) in preparation for future opportunities.

Interests

Many and varied. In no particular order: Brazilian music (esp. samba rock but also bossa nova and some MPB); the future of film and publishing; architecture; Richard Francis Burton and other 19th century explorers; urban design; psychogeography; design thinking; sustainable development; techno-utopianism; techno-dystopianism; society in a networked world; user experience, interaction design, and information archecture (essentially how we understand, experience, and design information); the future of nation-states and the international order; network-centric (4G) warfare; human rights; maps, especially the emergence of crowdsourced digital cartography; literature of all sorts; evolution of information communication, distribution and consumption; tiny houses; Central Asia; Russia and Eastern Europe; social entrepreneurship; and much much more...