CURRENT MISSION

aiming for my PhD in history--and having a good time enjoying the ride

ABOUT ME

I love reading history, philosophy, some (classic) literature, and talking about all the above! I play bass guitar, and love music.

Interests

enjoying a good brew, movie, book, or conversation. I'm interested in politics, though I'm not particularly partisan. I love music, and almost everything I do has a soundtrack (even if only in my head). I am a Christian, with strong tendencies towards a decidedly post-modern Calvinism, but I love to talk with people of any viewpoint.

• books
• literature
• politics
• reading
• music
• guitar
• wrestling
• history

Music, Movies, and Books

Movies: Shawshank Redemption, Forrest Gump, the Departed, Fight Club, Memento, the Godfather, Star Wars and the Empire Strikes Back (the other four parts are meh).
Music: Jimmy Eat World, Pink Floyd, Metallica, Coldplay, Tchaikovsky, Supertones, Beatles, U2, Everclear, Tom Petty, Handel, the Eagles, Matchbox Twenty, Goo Goo Dolls, Switchfoot, Green Day, Wagner, the Cars, and Five Iron Frenzy.
Books: Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, Appleby's Telling the Truth About History, Voltaire's Candide, Zamyatin's We, Heller's Catch-22, Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, Freud's Civilization and Its Discontents, and then there's my history idols: Edward Countryman, George Marsden, Eric Foner, Harry Stout, and Mark Noll.

Teach, Learn, Share

I have a fair breadth of knowledge, and I love wrestling with nearly any intellectual topic--my tendency to ask questions can help people re-analyze their own views and assumptions, but I can sometimes abuse the role of Devil's Advocate. Most of my learning and experience is the written word, but I desperately want to engage experientially with the world, to find it more tangible than before.

Countries I’ve Visited

Canada

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States