When I first began this webpage in 1999, I created the "Vagabond-X" persona -- "Vagabond" to reflect my inability to settle down in one place and be "successful;" "X" because I was born in the 1970s. It was intended to be without gender, without nationality, without any cultural identity. This reflected my yearnings of the time, to be free of all the crap people attach to such things. But eventually I saw that was just silly. All these factors have affected my worldview in inescapable ways. Not knowing the words for alternate genders like agender or demiguy, which I always was but didn't know it; being raised Creationist, but then majoring in biology; being homosexual while at the same time trying to live up to Christianity's acceptable standards; being Hispanic, but in a family that had consciously tried to assimilate into Anglo culture -- all this must, of course, have influenced who I became. My nationality is 100% American, born and raised; English is my first language, Portuguese my second (beginning in high school), Spanish my third (beginning in college). I also picked up the basic grammar, and a few words and phrases, of Mandarin Chinese and Oshindonga, and would have learned these better had not my sojourns in those parts of the world been abruptly cut short. At some point, I also took an interest in the constructed language, Láadan, a language better suited to expressing feelings than the male-dominated natural languages.
By now it should be obvious I am not a professional web designer. As I have time, I will be reworking this website to try to make it more interesting; expect some old content to disappear or be updated. My new book, Spare the Rod, Don't Hate Your Son is now available from Lulu.com. As the practice of spanking children is increasingly discredited, the strongest pushback against this movement -- as against every form of progress -- comes from traditional religious circles. My book makes the case against spanking, from a traditional Christian, Bible-believing worldview. But do not expect this site to be just a billboard for my book. There is so much more I want to communicate to the world than just that.
Natural Celebrations Experiencing the wonders of our planet: although the rules of scientific writing demand a cold, factual approach, most natural scientists chose their career because of their love of the subject matter.
Caparo Forestry Reserve, Venezuela
I am accepting emails, unless the spam gets too bad.
