I started playing drums in the third grade and picked up the guitar sometime in high school. I’ve played in a myriad of bands over the years, ranging from blues and swing to death metal. During my college years I played shows around the CenCal, SoCal, and Vegas areas with the symphonic blackmetal band Praeter Caelestis.

Currently I am playing drums in a 90's cover band called Grunge Muffin. We play a variety of 90's pop, alternative, rock, and grunge for maximum nostalgia.

I began training in Shorei Ryu Kenpo when I was ten years old, and received my black belt at 18. Shortly after that, a close friend and I started our own dojo called the Unified Center for Martial Arts. We brought in various instructors to teach different styles and encouraged cross training and collaboration. Our dojo lasted roughly 10 years until the global financial crisis took its toll.

While Shorei Ryu Kenpo was my initial foundation, I have trained in other martial arts including Shito Ryu, Kung Fu, Han Pul, Wing Chun, and Tai Chi. I was also a co-director for a dance, gymnastics, and martial arts performance team called Martial Arts Fusion.

Before graduating from college I worked a variety of “McJobs” and other forms of menial labor in order to get by, all of which gave me different lessons and perspectives on life.

In elementary school I would screen print T-shirts and other apparel with my father. In Jr. High I played a character in a cartoon creation called “Two Toes” (which briefly became mascots for my city) where I would perform in costume and even did local commercial shoots. Around this time I also started mowing lawns and doing other odd jobs (e.g. bottling soda in a bottling plant). In High School I interned at a video production company and a computer repair shop.

After High School (but before graduating college) I worked as a production assistant (camera, tape, sound, teleprompter, etc…) at a local news station, worked at a temp agency (which usually meant various construction jobs), worked customer service at a call center for a power company, was an assistant teacher for math and science at a Jr. High School, tutored fellow college students, and worked as a biology lab technician.

I've traveled to Germany, France, Luxembourg, Britain, Iceland, Sweden, and Japan. I have also gone on a few road trips around the United States.

I have been a grip on a few low budget movies and even had a small acting role in one. Technically I am on IMDB but my name was misspelled in the credits and I was in a ninja outfit that covered my face, so I have plausible deniability.

The Selfish Gene and The Extended Phenotype - both by Richard Dawkins. While written in the 70's and 80's respectively, these are still the best books for really understanding who we are as evolved organisms. They should really be read together even though The Extended Phenotype is a little more technical, it is also a continuation and completion of the ideas in The Selfish Gene. There are many great books written about what evolution says about who we are, some much more recent, but I still regard these two as essential foundations.

The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality - by Brian Greene. There is no shortage of really good books on physics and our reality (then again, there is also no shortage of really terrible ones as well), but I recall this one standing out.

Thinking, Fast and Slow - by Daniel Kahneman. This tome collects together a mass of research on psychology and helps explain the rational and irrational decision making of humans.

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind - by Yuval Noah Harari. A very accessible tale of the arc of human history from the Stone Age to today.

Just A Theory: Exploring The Nature of Science - by Moti Ben-Ari. For anyone who doesn't have a degree in the sciences, some kind of understanding of what science is and how it works (beyond what we get in school) is essential. For those with little to no aptitude for math or science, this book may be more challenging than your usual ones, but if you don't have at least a basic understanding of science and statistics you are allowing yourself to live in perpetual delusion and truth will forever be beyond your grasp.

The Myth of the Rational Market: A History of Risk, Reward, and Delusion on Wall Street - by Jusin Fox. Finance may not be exciting to everyone, but it is an essential part of our world and "thinking economically" is a perspective worth integrating. This book is a historical take on the ideas of the market and may even capture the attention of those who usually find the topic dry. If you really enjoy it, I would recommend following it up with The Quants: How a New Breed of Math Whizzes Conquered Wall Street and Nearly Destroyed It - by Scott Patterson.

The Myths of Innovation - by Scott Berkun. A great read for anyone interested in innovation, creativity, and business.

Ageless: The New Science of Getting Older Without Getting Old - by Andrew Steele. A great overview of the science of aging, although the field has been moving so fast this is already showing its age.

Progressive Stages of Meditation on Emptiness - by Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche, and Nonduality: In Buddhism and Beyond - by David R. Loy. Taken together these two are the best books I have run across on the experiential truths of reality. If you aren't already meditating, seeking, or have been exploring such topics, they may be challenging. I suggest reading through them multiple times, taking time to really meditate on the material.