Here you can delve into my raging narcissism. You know you want to.

Some people—my parents in particular—seem confused as to why a EIT-certified environmental engineering grad would spend his first years out of school toiling for a host of wild-eyed social causes, generally for little or no pay. Maybe I pictured more to life than calculating the biological oxygen demand of industrial waste.

So I graduated and landed back in my hometown of Philadelphia, lucking into a job with a local non-profit environmental group. While there, I learned all about grassroots organizing, public relations, politics, the electric industry and—in my spare time—taught myself graphic design and HTML.

After working for some other non-profits, I was intrigued by the thought of starting one of my own. That's what I did along with some friends. It started out with the Independent Media Center of Philadelphia (IMC-Philly), a group that—as the name suggests—produces independent media, in the form of a radio station, newspaper and a video collective. Some of us from the IMC moved on to launch Media Tank. Media Tank raises public awareness about the sorry status of the U.S. media industry. I'm also a board member with Common Cause (Pennsylvania chapter), a good government watchdog group.

When I'm not busy doing design work or non-profit stuff, I play the drums in one of my bands. There's Fandango, a percussion ensemble that performs mostly Brazillian and Afro-cuban music. The other band is One Star Hotel, which is a orginal americana/roots rock band.