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About Me
I was born in Tulsa, OK and grew up in Stigler, a small town in eastern Oklahoma. I went to the Oklahoma School of Science and Math (public boarding school in Oklahoma City) for the last two years of high school then moved to California to study physics and political science at Stanford.I graduated in 2002 and wandered around bartending and traveling for a couple of years until I landed in Palestine. I lived in Ramallah for a year and a half and had an amazing time working as a journalist, doing foreign press coordination for a presidential candidate, traveling, and writing a blog called Letters from Palestine.
In January 2006 I moved to Washington, DC and worked at a Defense think tank in the belly of the Bush Beltway to find out what I could learn and teach. After nearly two years in DC, I moved back to Ramallah and started writing a book called Fast Times in Palestine. Its aim is to bring a sophisticated understanding of the Israel/Palestine conflict to ordinary Americans through an engaging, well-researched narrative full of suspense, humor, beauty, terror, and romance. You can view my blog to check the status of the project. It will be published in North American in March 2013. (My agent and I are still trying to sell the foreign rights to countries around the world.)
I enjoy sports, especially soccer, basketball, jujitsu, and scuba diving. Here are a few quotations I enjoy.
Rough chronology of my life:
21 January 1980 - 1987
Tulsa, OK
1987 - 1988
Tahlequah, OK (Cherokee Elementary with Mrs. Rahe)
1988 - 1996
Stigler, OK (3rd grade through sophomore year at SHS)
1996 - 1998
Oklahoma School of Science and Math, Oklahoma City
1998 - 2002
Stanford, CA (including fall 2000 in Moscow and summer 2001 in Qingdao, China)
Summer 2002
Backpacking through France, Spain, Switzerland, Italy, and Croatia
Fall 2002 - Spring 2003
Working in Palo Alto, CA, as a bartender, environmental research assistant, and various other things, squatting in Columbae
Summer 2003
Novomikhailovsky, Russia (Camp Golden Shaft)
Fall 2003
Backpacking through Egypt, Jordan, Palestine, Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey
January - June 2004
Working in Palo Alto and researching the Middle East conflicts, squatting in Box of Rain
June 2004 - December 2005
Living and working in Ramallah, West Bank, Palestine
January 2006 - September 2007
Living and working in Washington, DC
October - December 2007
Ramallah, Palestine again
January 2008 - June 2009
Stigler, OK, writing Fast Times in Palestine
July 2009 - December 2009
Back in Ramallah working on my book and blog
March 2010 - Present
In New York writing, working with peace and justice groups, and promoting my new book, Fast Times in Palestine
"There are people who prefer to say 'yes' and there are people who prefer to say 'no.' Those who say 'yes' are rewarded by the adventures they have, and those who say 'no' are rewarded by the safety they attain."
~ Keith Johnstone, Impro
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