About
Born in the U.S.A.
I was born in 1963 in a small town in Illinois. I probably would have been born in Chicago, but I don't think I was timed according to family expectations. My mother was a bunny at the Playboy Sport club in Chicago. Totally different from the magazine, but as on que as any club New York has ever seen. She fell in love and married a math teacher in California. We moved to Los Angeles in the mid 60s.
We lived about a mile from the pier on Redondo Beach. I love my memories of riding bikes to the beach on the weekends, playing in the surf, and jumping off the lifeguard shacks. Making jumps for our bikes, or creating choppers with pipe fork extensions. This was total Brady Bunch living!
Back in that time every kid had to at least try little league baseball. I loved it... until my mom washed my white Dodger uniform with my brother's red pajamas. Being the only pink Dodger did not go over well, but I played. I tried the Cub Scouts, but it wasn't me. The one that got me was soccer!
Southern CA was a great place to be a kid, but these were also the days of Helter Skelter, the Watts riots, a huge earthquake, and then one night was the final straw... My mom dropped us off at the movies. I remember when we came out there was an ambulance and a lot of people. Turns out that while we were watching the movie the people who worked there were killed. We packed up, and during the summer between 4th and 5th grade we moved to my dad's home state, Colorado. We were in the outskirts of Denver, and I coudln't have been there at a more magical time for a kid my age. Colorado is a special kind of magic. I'm in California now, and I'm loving my life, but my heart will always want a home in Colorado. I have siblings there, so for now I have my fix vicariously.
I was the oldest of five. We had our share of drama, so soccer was my escape. I attended school, but that was about it. I was smart enough to fake it, but not smart enough to take school seriously. I’m confident I could have been an A student, but I simply wasn’t interested. One thing for sure is that if I would have paid attention in class I would be much better prepared to present this. At that time college was not even a consideration. I wasn't doing much beyond soccer and part time jobs. Next thing you know I joined the Air Force and was in basic training before our class celebrated at Red Rocks.
Shaped in Japan
As an Air Force firefighter my first assignment was in northern Japan. I fell in love with the country and spent five years there. I took Japanese classes through the University of Maryland and learned to speak well enough that I could switch between English and Japanese depending on which crew I was talking to during an emergency response. It was a dream job in a dream location.
As a fireman I was assigned to the rescue truck where I worked my way up to crew chief. I worked three days a week and had four off. During the summers I used my off days to play soccer and work in the Japanese coffee shops. During the winters I completed two skiing certification programs (S.A.J. first class, S.I.A. gold medal), was on ski patrol at a resort, and spent one year racing professionally. I loved being a fireman but was still more interested in playing than working.
Going back to Cali...
In the late 80s I received orders to northern California. I spent most of my time on the rescue truck, but also spent some time running the alarm room. They warned me of culture shock when I went to Japan, but I didn't experience it until I came back. Stateside and overseas are completely different, and once I got back to a stateside assignment it became a goal to get out of the military as fast as I could… and I did.
One day while I was teaching skiing in Tahoe I had a Japanese student, so I instructed her in Japanese. She offered me a job in the computer game industry. It led to positions with Lucasfilm and Disney, where I produced entertainment software, and eventually to my own company in Tahoe. Everything was perfect on the outside, but the technical element of my company was unable to keep pace with the industry. After 18 months, we had to close our doors. It was the most painful experience of my life, but it also provided me with a very deep lesson – the technical details make a tremendous difference.
In order to stay in Tahoe I got involved in carpentry and other remodeling trades. I had a wonderful mentor who kept a small and tight crew. We did all our own work. I learned carpentry, tile, plumbing, electrical, and a lot of labor I'd rather forget. This was a great foundation to developing a "can-do" attitude. A few years later circumstances had me returning to the Bay Area to participate in the dot-com boom... right in San Francisco.
I found a run down apartment in North Beach but was able to use my construction skills to turn it into quite the place. I learned how to make websites, and leveraged that with my gaming background to work my way up. The dot com boom was very fast paced and an exciting time of "creativity meets core business". It was a front seat to the technology wave that was changing our world, and some of the weirdest people held aces in their hands. It was an awesome ride while it lasted.
I met a lot of great friends. I also met my best friend… my wife. We've been together since day one, and if I ever had a witness, it's her.
After the dot-com crash I returned to remodeling and obtained my California contractor’s license, I have been working the trades since then (www.CallMyGuy.us).
A secular start.
My mother was Jewish, but we grew up secular. I remember attending church by myself when we lived in L.A., but I didn’t go when we lived in Colorado. Later I was surrounded by several faiths while in the Air Force and was exposed to their services. In the mid 90s I started earnestly looking for a church to attend. I found one I liked and became involved, but shortly thereafter moved to Tahoe, where I settled in and found a church I could call home.
I was surrounded by some of the neatest people I’ve ever met. We had a pastor who could keep you on the edge of your seat, and if my company hadn't closed it is very possible I would still be there with them today. In fact, if my company were successful I’m confident I would have helped develop that church to the point were we didn’t have to meet at the local high school instead of a church. In retrospect losing my company was instrumental in breaking free from what would have been spiritual suicide.
Another bootcamp!
After moving to San Francisco, I found the Shepherd’s Chapel. Their straightforward teaching made it clear that a lot of the traditions and teachings from the church I was so endeared to in Tahoe were simply taught out of context. The pastor of Shepherd’s Chapel never mentioned my church by name, but he didn’t have to. Once you hear a truth it easily exposes any misconceptions in your mind.
At first I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, and I set out to prove it was the Chapel that was wrong. There was no way I could have been sucked in as deeply as I was… but the deeper I dug the more it validated what I was confronting. This was the first time I started to see tangible differences between the denominations, and because I was in my 30s I was able to look at it without influence from family or friends. Because I lost my company on the technical details, I knew there was more here than meets the eye. Because I was finally growing up and developing a sincere relationship with God, my wife, and myself, I knew I couldn’t pass it off as personal preference and move on.
It’s as if my experiences funneled me to this very point and in retrospect prepared me to take my position with the deepest conviction while motivating me to write about it. I write because nine out of ten don’t want to hear about something that goes against what they’ve been taught, and I don't want to argue. I just want to point to something that might not mean exactly what you think it means.
A seasoned vet.
Today I am a non-denominational Christian. I attend the same church I found on television in 1996, and our classes are Monday-Friday for an hour each day. I currently live in Napa Valley with my wife, my son, and our dog. On one hand I’ve been able to leverage my collective experience to create and maintain a few of my own websites, build a database specifically to support my business, and service clients with their home needs. On the other hand, I’ve been able to settle down and focus on the passion of writing and to share what is written for our generation in the Bible.