Since October 25th 1995, you are visitor #

Eventhough we didn't have a car in these days, we were fortunate enough to still travel around a bit-- although I must confess to having only scarce memories of these treks. We did make it to Nantucket, Cape Cod and the beaches of Revere Beach or Quincy at the end of the Red Line. In those days, I was already a big fan of subways, a love that still burns inside of me at this date. Naturally, we also enjoyed hot dogs and lazy summer days at Fenway Park watching the awesome Boston Re d Sox play, and, on every 4th of July, we would picnic on the banks of the Charles River to listen to the Boston Pops and watch the annual fireworks display. Once my father finished his studies, the time had come to move on. He was offered a wonderful res earch position in France and, naturally, accepted.

Moving to a foreign land at the age of 5 is tough enough without also having to learn a new language. One would think that the French would've lear ned English for my benefit but they didn't-- typical, isn't it? We moved to the southern suburbs of Paris in a town by the name of Antony in September 1972. From there, one could jump on the RER line B (a commuter train line) and be in downtown Paris with in 15 minutes. Antony wasn't the most pleasant of towns but their first grade class did offer a basic English course which made my learning of the French language a bit smoother. In these first years in the land of Moliere, my mother and I would spend man y a days in Paris shopping and visiting the sights while my father worked hard and long hours on his low-temperature research.

After two years in Antony, we moved to a neighbooring town: the quaint V errieres-Le-Buisson. The schools were better, they had woods where one could go running or walking through. I even got my first bike, a Gitane 8 speed. The family also purchased its first car, a sky blue 1974 Renault 5 TL. With this new familial means of transportation, we were able to go on vacations and visit the French countryside such as Bretagne, Normandie, Alsace, Vendee, la Loire, Champagne, Perigord, Lorraine, and, my favorite, the French Alps. This new environment was far more pleasant, and, even tually, I became inovled in two of my favorite sporting activities: soccer and cycling. Although I was more succesful in cross country running, I never played enough soccer or rode enough miles.

I fi nished elementary school in Verrieres-Le-Buisson and commenced middle school as well. From the sixth grade onwards, each student was expected to learn a foreign language. As the choice was English or German, I naturally studied the latter. As the years we nt by, I began riding more and more miles, venturing as far as 20 miles from home. Of course, France being such a bicycle-nut nation, cars and trucks were very respectful of cyclists, young or old. In late 1977, my parents purchased their first house. It would take two years for it to be built. It was neat watching every step of the construction from the foundation to the roof. In July of 1979, we moved into our new home in Voisins-Le-Bretonneux, a Versailles suburb some 20 miles southwest of Paris.

It was in Voisins-Le-Bretonneux that I met my best friend, Frederic. We were neighbors, and, as all teenage males do, we used to get in trouble together, etc... I used to have to commute every day to my middle school which was located in the neighbooring town of Guyancourt. They had neat "accordeon" buses on that route. It was composed of two bus sections adjoined at the middle by a rotating platform with accordeon-like rubber as a coat. We, as students, would fight to get in the middle section which, during turns, would spin like the Tea Cups at Disney World. After finishing middle school, I started high school in St. Cyr L'Ecole where, like all other teens, started hanging out in cafe's dri nking coffee and playing pinball. Oft, we would all go to Paris together and catch a movie. Those were the lazy absent minded days. In 1982, my father was offered a professorship at the University of Florida which he accepted. On March 22nd, 1983, I retur ned to my home soil, the United States of America.

After completing my senior year of High School in Gainesville Florida, I started attending the University of Florida in the summer of 1984 where I pursued studies in History and Economics. While attending the finest institution of higher learning in the Southeastern United States, I became an avid fan of the Florida Gators and have attended many home and road games, most notably the 1993 and 1994 Su gar Bowls-- of course any reason to go to New Orleans is a good one.... Once I finished my studies, I pondered attending another institution for further studies, but that infamous four letter word got in the way: love. Well things didn't work out and, aft er six years, she called things off. At least I can thank her for teaching me that love is like liquid drano, you can drink it but it leaves you hollow inside. Her loss anyways hehehehe.....

In ad dition to my academic studies, I picked up two great hobbies: music and computing. Although I haven't mixed the two a lot except for some dabbling at composing, I enjoy both and usually use one to take a break from the other. I have a Macintosh Performa 4 75 with 1GB of hard drive space, a Zoom 28.8 fax modem, a power user 4x cd-rom drive, an Avec Colour Relysis 2400 dpi color scanner, a HP 550 color printer, and a Connectix QuickCam to handle my computing needs, and a Stinger XP-500 and a Fender Stratocas ter guitar with multiple amps to handle my guitar playing needs. Eventhough my playing has improved conisderably, please do not ask me to sing.....

Presently, I work for the local county in Waste Di sposal. No I don't pick up garbage nor am I the machine in your sink that grinds and makes all kinds of gurgly noises.... yes some people have asked, that is why I must mention this. When I'm not at work, I spend way too much time on the internet and shou ld be out socializing instead. Then again, I tend to socialize world-wide on the net. This past 4th of July weekend, several of us met in New Orleans for our first annual conference. It was lots of fun. If you're ever surfing the internet, one can usually find me on CU-SeeMe at reflector 131.123.5.2 (nick:Samster) or on the Internet Relay Chat at irc.afn.org (Nick: Iggy--long story so don't ask me where it came from). But if you don't find me there, I must be surfing the net with Netscape and may even be looking at your own home page.

I'm presently working on creating a huge cyber-Gator-station where I will collect a multitude of links regarding the Gators so please drop me a line if you know of Ga tor links or have Gator material on your own homepage. I also plan on soon having a link to the Larry Vettel on the net so that people know where to find him weekdays between 12:30 and 2pm eastern when not in the WRUF-AM broadcast area.

Asides from my hobbies, my fondness for gourmet foods and fine wines, I have one hobby called my brothers: they were born on October 30th, 1981 and are the two most important people in my life. Although very unique individuals they are the greatest brothers anyone coul d ever ask for:

Finally, I must ask all you drivers out there a small favor. The next time you're driving along a country road and you encounter a cyc list, please take your time and ensure that there are at least 3 feet between you and the cyclist when you pass him/her. I realize this may extend your trip by two or three seconds but it will help keep people alive, and that's worth a few seconds of your time, don't you think? Thank you.

I always look forward to hearing from the people that visit my homepage, so please feel free to drop me a line and tell me not only what you thought of the page itself but also about you.

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