About

Now: I’m a data scientist/statistician with an MS in Analytics at Georgia Tech. My skills include statistical modeling, simulation, optimization, programming, data wrangling, GIS, and visualization. Here’s a recent résumé.

Then: I used to be an anthropologist, historian, and writer. And sometimes I was a busker, comedian, and activist. I performed research in the United States, Mexico, Indonesia, and East Africa and taught at universities in all but Africa. I’ve published a few books, including How to Change the World (Or Your Corner of It): Planning and Working for Success. Here’s my academic CV from those days.

Résumé I share at parties (mostly bragging):

• Possibly the most accomplished body surfer in world history (really)
• Had a twice-weekly gig as a comic on a radio show in Mazatlán
• Musician
  • Busked in New Orleans, Atlanta, Tucson, and Alexandria, VA
  • Had a long-term top 10 Mexican song on MP3.com
  • As a member of Casa Samba in New Orleans
    • Played JazzFest in 1990 and 1991
    • Marched and played in several Carnival parades
    • Played on Sinbad’s Comedy Central special
      • Almost asked out a member of En Vogue, but chickened out
    • Played for (and ‘met’) Quincy Jones at a private party
    • Led thousands of revelers through Bourbon Street in an impromptu parade on Halloween night
    • Paraded with the Mardi Gras Indians on Super Sunday
• Won a short-film contest
• Won races in the municipal swimming championship in Mazatlán
• Was invited home for breakfast by a smuggler after a cross-bay race in Mazatlán
• Discovered a category of evolutionary trait in humans (not specifically encoded genetically but a universal entailment of such traits and other entailments)
• Hung out backstage with the Clash and Joe Ely (but chose to not go out on the town with them)
• Noteworthy jobs
  • Feeding cows in Tucson
  • Proofreading TV schedules for The Cable Guide
  • Opinions editor of the Daily Texan
• Lobbied Congress several times for ME/CFS funding
• Served on an NIH working group for ME/CFS research
• Miraculously survived a close-range shooting
• Dropped out of high school
• Participated in a trance performance in West Java