About Me

Profile

About: Well, hello there and welcome to my Texas 4000 page. My name is Michael, but there tends to be a lot of us around, so feel free to call me any variation thereof. I was an English major at UT, but now I am a graduate student at the School of Information specializing in archives. If you don’t know what that means, no worries, I have trouble narrowing it down myself sometimes. Basically I want to look after the documents and artifacts that are evidence of historically and culturally important events. I go gaga over David Foster Wallace’s notebooks. I drool over illuminated manuscripts. It’s just embarrassing to see me next to a first edition of Jane Eyre. Why? The shortest answer is that I’m a nerd. The answer with a bit more context is I love stories. It’s why I majored in English and why I am continuing on this career path. Archives let you look behind the curtain and get a glimpse of the events that happen behind the scenes.

So what do I do when I’m not geeking out over a yellowing manuscript? Well, granted I am intending to bike to Alaska in a year, I have an increasing interest in physical fitness. I have taken up aerial silks, yoga, and running. In whatever spare time I have left, I love to write. Mostly poetry, although I am trying to branch out into fiction, and someday I hope to see my name in print. Of course, hand in hand with that is a voracious appetite for books. Sci-fi and fantasy are my main genres, but I’ll read almost anything, so if you ever want to debate the finer points of Dune, I’m right there with you. Did I mention I like stories? Maybe sometime you can tell me yours. I look forward to it.

Why I Ride

I ride for my friend, Alexandra, who lost her grandmother mere weeks after the diagnosis. She has always been there for me and I know she always will be no matter what.

I ride for my friend, Shondi, who is battling breast cancer, but remains one of the most cheerful, positive people I know. She is an inspiration.

I ride for the caretakers of those battling cancer as well as the patients. No one in my immediate family has been diagnosed with cancer, but I have seen both my parents working hard to take care of their own parents as Alzheimer's took its toll. It’s not easy taking care of someone who is seriously ill. It makes you feel helpless, afraid, and often scared. But you are not alone. I am riding for the hope tomorrow will be better, for charity to make the burden less heavy, and the knowledge that if you reach out, someone is always there to lend you a hand.