Hello hello! it's June 2004, and the big news is, I've bought ANOTHER sailboat! So check out the new web page, also linked below. I'm not entirely sure why I keep maintaining this goofy site -- in some ways it seems like a terribly egotistical project, but it's been up for so long now, I might as well keep it going. And it's a great way to keep track of my favorite web links without having a totally out-of-control bookmark list. So enjoy what's here, and please let me know what you think!I don't seem to update these pages very often, so if you want to see the most recent photos and so forth, feel free to browse my daily photolog -- I post something almost every day, so it's more current than anything here -- and the site has some AMAZING photographers, be sure to check out the "friends/favorites" column...
Here I am, hidden behind sunglasses but happily sailing... ------------>Let's see, what should I say about me? I was born on the winter solstice, 21 December in 1966 (that means I'm into those dreaded late-30s -- yikes!) in the beautiful metropolis of Newark, NJ. I spent most of my tender years growing up in Palo Alto, CA, in our now-considered-classic Eichler house. Unlike all of our ordinary suburban neighbors, my family spent my summers at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (near Crested Butte, CO), where my parents originally met, and where my father (and now stepmother, too) still does research every summer. When I got a little older we moved onto campus at Stanford University (where Dad is a biology professor), and eventually I attended the lovely Gunn High School.
At the tender age of 17 I moved across the Bay and proceeded to get an undergraduate degree in biology at UC Berkeley (class of 1988), somewhat specializing in herpetology, and doing senior research on viper evolution in the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology with Dr. Harry Greene. After becoming disillusioned with the working world in only two short years, I returned to academia and got a Masters' degree in environmental policy at Duke School of the Environment (cheesy name, but good school). After I finished I returned to the Bay Area and tried working again, this time at The Nature Conservancy as a policy analyst of sorts, but soon retreated once more to the ivy-covered halls of UC Berkeley, in the department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management (quite a mouthful, hmm?). I've now been back in the Bay Area for 12 years -- spent 8 years living in San Francisco, then returned to the East Bay for the past four years. I share my home with my cat Louise the Beauty Queen, despite being slightly allergic to her -- she's a goof.
As of December 2001, I finished my PhD, studying American land policy and preservation efforts with Dr. Sally Fairfax. If you're interested, CLICK HERE for more info on my research, specifically about cultural landscape preservation in the National Park Service. While trying to continue some of that resarch, I'm also currently working at an environmental consulting firm in SF called EDAW, Inc. -- mostly working on a resource management plan for the King Range National Conservation Area, a truly spectacular chunk of California coast north of Mendocino -- lucky me!
Among other things, this place I call home is notorious for being earthquake country -- if you'd like to see all our recent seismic activity, CLICK HERE.
For my more cultural moments I like going to musuems -- the new SF Museum of Modern Art is my current favorite (great photo exhibits!), although my traditional favorite from childhood is the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park. I'm a completely rabid fan of the San Francisco Giants, and in recent years have become oddly fond of ice hockey. Perhaps in contrast to that, I've been doing yoga pretty consistently for about five years now -- just need to get more disciplined about doing it OUTSIDE of class as well as in! And contrary to my mostly urban tendencies, I'm quite fond of going camping and/or backpacking, mostly in the Sierras. And as mentioned above, I own my very own sailboat, so you can guess what I spend a lot of time on the weekends (or weeknights, or...) doing!
If you have any comments on this page, or if you just want to say hi, please send me e-mail at lawatt@california.com. Thanks!
hope you enjoyed your visit!
law