Quick Bio
I was born in Ponchatoula, Louisiana, aka the Strawberry Capital of the World (My grandfather grew Strawberries, in fact, and is himself a past king of the Ponchatoula Strawberry Festival. It is generally assumed that I am not related to any other royal persons). Ponchatoula is equidistant from both Baton Rouge and New Orleans, though it is not technically between them. In addition to strawberries, it is also known for antique shops and for housing a live alligator in the middle of town. Other alligators have apparently tried to steal the show, but to no avail! As you've probably guessed, Ponchatoula is a fairly small town.
I went to Saint Joseph's Catholic School (SJS) from Kindergarten through eighth grade. My class had 23 boys and 7 girls - I can still name all the girls. After SJS, I went on to Ponchatoula High School (PHS). Because the high school draws from a large geographical area, it is surprisingly large compared to the size of the city itself (around 1,400 students when I was there). I had lots of fun at PHS: playing soccer and baseball, running track and cross-country, singing in the choir, etc. But I didn't know anything about college or about getting in or about application deadlines! Fortunately, despite missing nearly every deadline, I was still able to attend Southeastern Louisiana University in the neighboring city of Hammond, LA.
After 2 years at Southeastern, I transferred to Texas A&M University (A&M) because I had decided to get an engineering degree, which Southeastern does not offer. I was fortunate to receive a scholarship to A&M, otherwise attendance would have been impossible! While there, I did several internships with National Instruments (NI) in Austin, TX, and when I graduated, I went to work for NI full time.
I worked there for five years doing analog design for Data Acquisition products. I also earned four patents and became a Senior Engineer. Despite a more-than-satisfactory career at NI, I left in the summer of 2005 to attend graduate school at Stanford University. In fact, I quit my job, got married and moved across the country all at the same time! Honestly, that just sounds harder than it really is.
I now live in Menlo Park, CA with my wife, Laura Lee. She's the lovely lady in the picture with me in front of Buckingham Palace at the top of this page. She is a graphic designer in San Francisco who can make much nicer web pages than I can!