Since I began to "blossom" intellectually after my family moved to Lancaster (PA), I have endeavored to become a connoisseur of life, a modern Renaissance man: my interests span the gamut from art to music to topology (For more specific data, see my "Interests" section.)
I have studied Classical piano for over 20 years, studied and dabbled with dozens of foreign languages (and their literatures)—Latin, German, Japanese, Italian, Spanish, French, Russian, Classical Greek, Serbo-Croatian, Chinese, Hebrew, Welsh, Esperanto, Arabic, Sanskrit, Swahili, Modern Greek...
My first career entailed teaching German to high school students in a rural central Pennsylvania district. The paucity of social activities there led me to engage in fire company activities, including training as an EMT, the first step towards becoming a paramedic. Much of that training took place in a hospital emergency room, where I quickly learned I was drawn to medicine. With the encouragement of several physicians at that hospital, I enrolled in medical school and after many years of training became a board-certified, Osteopathic family physician. Like Dr. Weil, I find beneficial aspects of many fields termed "alternative medicine"; so I am gravitating towards "integrative medicine". As part of this interest I have studied—and am now teaching—tai chi, a Chinese martial art that has evolved into a holistic exercise program.
In recent years during my free time, I have tried my hand at writing novels, which incorporate aspects of science fiction, parapsychology, and romance; many of my characters are GLTB-based. More recently I have attempted to compose music; my first completed composition involved setting a friend's love poem to music; I am also working on a Hebrew version of the "Lord's Prayer".
During my pre-med college years I was enticed by the growing field of personal computer technology. My first experiences were with IBM PC's, on which I learned programming in BASIC-A, but exposure to user-friendly Apple Macintoshes at some educational seminars convinced me Mac was the way to go for me. Over the years I have studied HTML (and its descendants), CSS, and JavaScript; I'd like to learn Macromedia Flash and become adept at Adobe PhotoShop as well.
There is much more to my long journey through life, but I'll save that for one-on-one discussion with those who contact me for friendship and sharing knowledge.
