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Ondine

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About Me

I am an assistant professor of composition and rhetoric at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado. Durango is a small city of about 15,000 people and a great deal of microbreweries and good restaurants. At Fort Lewis, I teach mostly Comp 252, the professional and technical writing course, but I do also teach first-year composition and I will also be teaching a speech class in an upcoming semester.

My research focuses on computers and composition. My dissertation examined online social networks such as MySpace and Facebook and their impact on the writing classroom. I am also interested in peer-to-peer music networks, video games, and Japanese anime. We have four crazy cats, Mephistopheles, Faust, and Jalep(No!). Mephy and Faust obviously go together and are a testament to my background as an English literature major as an undegraduate. What can I say? I also had pets named Dante and Milton at one point along with a passel of hamsters named after anime characters (Ranma, Yokho, Akira ...) Jalep(No!) has the most interesting name of the cats and he is named sort of after the jalepeno pepper. It's a long story, actually. Ichi is named after the movie "Ichi the Killer"--thus named because he is so small and cute, he doesn't look like he could (or would) kill anything ... and yet appearances can be deceiving! I ride a 2001 Suzuki SV 650 and I drive a small 1991 Mazda Miata. Both are red(dish)--the Suzuki is burgundy and the Miata is red. Oddly enough, my previous rides were both blue: a Kawasaki Ninja EX500 and a '77 VW bug. I guess I'm a believer in matching one's motorcycle to one's car. In my spare time, I love to cook and I'm particularly intrigued by the field of molecular gastronomy. Maybe someday I will whip up some liquid nitrogen ice cream. Right now I'm getting into homebrewing. My first two beers were a Hefeweizen and a Witbier. They turned out well! The next project will be a mead. Haikus are easy
but sometimes they don't make sense
refrigerator This above all: to thine own Ondine be true.

Which work of Shakespeare was the original quote from?

Get your own quotes:

My Interests

I like to play various video games, mostly of the first-person shooter and "cute" varieties. Some of my favorites: Nintendo DS: Animal Crossing: Wild World, Nintendogs. (Old-school) Nintendo: Bubble Bobble, The Legend of Zelda. Playstation: Silent Hill, Parasite Eve 1 and 2. XBox 360: Viva Pinata. Wii: Cooking Mama: Cook Off, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.

Music:

Other than country, I will listen to just about anything, but I prefer 80s New Wave and pop music. Think Depeche Mode, XTC, Thomas Dolby, etc. I love discovering new music through recommendations, so if you have any suggestions of artists you think I might like, please let me know!

Movies:

Comedies and indie films are probably my two favorite genres. One day I'll watch Ichi the Killer and the next Clerks II. I particularly enjoy suspenseful horror films a la the "Cube" series (Cube, Cube 2: Hypercube, Cube Zero).I also enjoy anime by Miyazaki and the Ranma 1/2 series.

Television:

Offensive cartoons: Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Wonder Showzen, and Drawn Together.Shows so awesome they were cancelled: Firefly and Arrested Development.Getting my sci-fi on: Red Dwarf, Lost (I maintain it falls under the category of science fiction). I am sorely disappointed that Harold Perrineau (Michael) is coming back for Season 4. I guess I get to hear a few more episodes' worth of "Waaaaalt! Waaaallllt!!" I was hoping the reprieve was permanent.

Books:

Stephen King is my favorite popular author. The Stand is one of his best books in my opinion, and I also loved the whole Gunslinger cycle.The genre I enjoy most is science fiction: Robert Heinlein, Harlan Ellison, Neal Stephenson, Philip K. Dick. I also like horror: Anne Rice's "Witching Hour" series, Poppy Z. Brite, and any novels/stories about plague and biomedical disasters (like Outbreak, Year of Wonders).

Heroes:

Those who are about to rock. I salute them.