The road less traveled passes through some strange country, beautiful and inexplicable. My road has wound through high school records, college failures, start-up manias, experiments in isolation, snails (so many snails), college resurrections, tips-of-the-tongue, CIA sponsored nobilities, Ph.D. meanderings, motherhood(s?), and one rather astonishing bend in the road. Today, I'm a researcher at the Redwood Center for Theoretical Neuroscience at UC Berkeley and Mind, Brain & Computation/MBC, an interdisciplinary research center at Stanford University, where we think deep thoughts about deep thinking. Here's my personal philosophy on the subject:

Away from the lab... well there really isn't an "away" from science; it can be hard to escape. It leaves an imprint on the brain. As a result, romance tends to come with other people who use words like orthogonal in regular conversation. Fortunately, I found one who is both brilliant and beautiful (just like her wife). We live in a lovely little spot in North Berkeley, Just a short hike away, the Berkeley Rose Garden offers fairytale views of Golden Gate sunsets.

Through the wonders of science, Thumper, the Chubby Monster, has joined our family. Sunshine falls indiscriminently, warming but incidental. Thumper's smiles are a gift. Slightly less wonderful is his love of pulling my hair, earings, eyelids... whatever he can reach.

Steinbeck wrote a book called "The Pastures of Heaven". I grew up there. It's pretty a nice place. My mom and dad still live in the area. I did a lot of bragging about them and still do. Over in San Francisco, my older sister merges serious and wild while tending to the nursing needs of the land. Our younger brother is probably a CIA agent. He definately runs marathons ("Is it safe?"). My two best friends remain such after more than 30 years, which included 4 very indulgent years of private school. If you have a growning suspision that I consumed a rather heaping helping of "great childhood", I would very much agree with you. It might well have been better spent be someone else, but I certainly appreciated it.

One of my principle pastitmes is food, from my own kitchen or from the professionals. I have a very simple rule: only eat good food. Don't waste space with junk; I'd rather goes hungry and enjoy the next meal that much more.

There's more to say about me than can be squeezed into a few paragraphs. Those who know me may notice one or two highly salient missing details. Well, drop me a line. Stop by and say "hi". In the wide view my life's full of great stories.