Notes on Me, Personally

I keep a busy life. Even when not working on research, teaching, or service for my school, I have kept very active. On the right, I have posted a map of all of my travels abroad. I have loved making the journey to these places. Some of the trips I have made with my family, others for conferences, and a few of the trips (particularly the Asian trips) have been with several friends. This is a hobby I hope to keep up in the upcoming years.

I enjoy cooking. I particularly enjoy cooking different types of cuisines. I enjoy experimenting with Asian stirfry, Japanese dishes such as tonkatsu and shabu shabu, and Tex-Mex dishes including chili, arroz con pollo, and burritos. Also, I love making pancakes. Lately, my fiancé has been challenging to try to match these dishes from scratch using the basic spices. It has been hit or miss so far, but it is definitely making me a better cook.

I am also an amatuer bagpiper. I played seriously for 5 years from 2000-2005 and have since played on occasions that people have asked me to play. It is something that I have enjoyed immensely and it has given me opportunities to teach and mentor younger players, but I have not had the opportunity to keep it up. I am hoping that once I am able to get my life settled down and starting to grow roots in one place, I will be able to join a band and help them achieve what we did with the University of Notre Dame Pipe Band and Drums Corps. I along with some of the other bagpipe members, grew the band from about 8 members to over 20 members in 4 years. We even managed to produce a CD of our work from our time there.

Finally, my last love is video games. My experiences games has been vast since my childhood when we got our first NES. Some of my favorite games in no particular order have been Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Counter Strike, Civilization, Metal Gear Solid, Grand Theft Auto III and San Andreas, Mario Kart Double Dash and Wii, Katamari Damacy, Lego series games, Final Fantasy X, Super Mario Bros. 3, Luxor, Angry Birds, Tiny Wings, Cut The Rope, Portal, and ToeJam & Earl. This love of video games has certainly influenced my love of interactive artifacts and the role of learning in those artifacts. I have even been involved in one game design project that was a finalist in several competitions called Guardians of Kelthas. Video games are going to continue to play an important role in my life in the future.