I am no leader.

I think I would be alright as one. My future goals hint at becoming one. However, no matter what I do, I still don't feel like a person that others can get behind.

But to get ready for the day when I will hopefully become a leader, I've started to dabble at a few things.

• I started a wilderness running group (Team Humanzee). 
• I became a father of two daughters.
• I became a college professor. 
• I mentor students. 
• I hire summer interns. 
• I am chair of an advisory council.
• I'm on three conference planning committees.
• I coach and play on a softball team.
• I am a commissioner of a fantasy football league.
• I run a D&D roll-playing group as dungeon master. 
• I oversee an outreach and communication group at my office. 
• I organized a brownbag seminar series for two years.
• I wrote a book.
• I started a company as a public speaking coach (Your Next BIG Speech).

Hopefully someday I'll be ready to be a leader.

I'm a different kind of scientist. Or, at least, I feel different.

I'm as passionate about doing my research as I am about sharing what I learn.  See, I have a simple guiding principle that defines how I do science. It's my "50/50 Rule."

​50% doing. 50% sharing.*

* I need to give some credit to Bill Nye "the science guy" and Randy Olson, "Don't be such a scientist" for the inspiration growing up. Making science interesting and accessible is always a part of sharing it.

Communication is very much like marketing, where how you say something depends entirely on who you are talking to. For example, this blog is for casual readers with various types of education and background. I prefer to write content here in a very causal and conversational tone. I'm okay starting a sentence with a conjugation and ending one with a preposition. Grammar rules be damned. That is a conscious style choice that I think works best for my targeted audience.​

I've been playing around online a lot lately. I have some new things I've been working on that require a bit of time googling myself. I have discovered a few negative user comments that I wasn't aware of, but then I came across this little ditty, too. This made me smile.

Very appropriate word to describe me during my younger days. However, as an adult, I now enjoy a cocktail. But for those first 21 years of my life, this shit was spot on. Good job internet. And Karma. Oh. And coincidence. Bit of that, too.