My Personal Interests

Here are some things I'm interested in personally.

Coffee and Espresso: I am an avid coffee aficionado and appreciator of a fine espresso.

I'm a home roaster, and have fun roasting coffees for espresso blends and single-origin drip. My current roasting rig is my West Bend Poppery I, with a PID electronic and manual control unit which I designed and built. The control unit allows me to control the heat carefully, and upload roast profiles from a laptop. I aim for about 11-13 minutes for a full city roast.

I brew espresso at home. I'm currently grinding with a Macap MXK conical grinder, Fellow Ode (for drip & press), a Zassenhaus hand grinder for drip & press, and brewing espresso with an Isomac Relax espresso machine. I also refurbished a 1959 Caferina, a predecessor to the La Pavoni Europiccola, and added a PID control to a Solis SL-70.

Pottery: I enjoy throwing pots, and even won 2nd place for one of my pots in the prestigious Yolo County Fair, in Woodland, California. My pottery is functional, but I want to branch out into artistic pieces and handbuilt ceramics.

Radio & Music Production: During grad school, I hosted a new music radio show on the University of Arkansas student-run radio station, KXUA. During my undergraduate years, I was Folk Music Director at Whitman College's radio station, KWCW (90.5 FM). I was also the Coffeehouse Co-Manager at Whitman, where my co-manager, Liz Smith, and I produced a successful weekly concert every Friday night. Attendance averaged 65 students, faculty, staff, and community members. We had up to 130 people in standing-room-only shows (e.g. Dave Carter & Tracy Grammer, Keller Williams).

I headed up a group which produced the Whitman Acoustic Music Festival on March 4th, 2000, at Whitman College in Walla Walla, WA.

I also coordinated the musicians for the "Bluegrass Under the Stars" concert, produced by Tri-County Technical College in 2006.