Personal Stuff

Sailing

I'm not really sure when I started sailing. It seems like I got my sailing merit badge, but there weren't that many opportunities to sail where I grew up in the mountains of Georgia. In graduate school, I crewed for friends, and when I lived in California, I crewed on a J/24 racing team. Sailing in the SF Bay is intense, and I prefer the more genteel conditions of the Chesapeake. After moving back to DC to work at Georgetown, I caught the sailing bug again, and decided to take the plunge and buy a boat. I bought a 28' Cape Dory from a little old lady who only sailed her on Sundays. I named the boat after my niece, Sedona Ann.

Guitar

I started playing guitar in 1993 as an escape from school. I played piano when I was a kid, but a nice guitar is a lot cheaper than a crappy piano. That is an image of my guitar. It's a Deluxe Stratocastor Plus, which Fender no longer makes, apparently. The one down there is my acoustic, which is a Gibson.

When I lived in California, I built a Telecaster from scratch with the help of the Product Realization Lab at Stanford. Almost all of the materials came from Stewart-MacDonald. Here are some black and whites of the guitar:

  Here are some details:

• Body: Single piece of alder with a book-matched quilted maple front
• Two-piece neck made from bird's-eye maple
• Natural finish with lots of lacquer coats
• 22 fret neck with black inlays and side dots
• Fender Lace Sensors
• Brushed Chrome Sperzel Locking Tuners
• Double-expanding truss rod
• Graphite nut
• All chrome hardware (knobs, bridge, etc.)

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