Hi there. I’m Robb. Welcome to my own little corner of the internets.

Here’s me in a nutshell…

I’m a bit of a vagabond. In forty-something years I’ve lived in or on two continents, three countries, five states, and twenty-one cities or towns. I’ve averaged, roughly, a change in residence every two years. I’ve been told this is indicative of someone who has a fear of commitment. I’ve also been told I have a restless soul and a wandering spirit. Personally, I can see bits of all three in there, plus a few other things thrown into the mix, but I think the primary reasons can really be boiled down to two things.

1- I am a bit of a dreamer.

2- I rarely find myself satisfied.

Neither one on its own sets me apart from anyone else. Lots of folks out there are dreamers, just like lots of folks are perfectionists. For those of us that have these two traits, however, just having a dream isn’t enough. We have to chase it. We have to realize it, or, barring that, do everything we can in an attempt to realize it.

I started chasing my first dream when I was in seventh or eighth grade and saw my friend Jeff in a production of Music Man. For the next 25 years or so, with the only diversion coming my first year or two of college, everything I did and everywhere I went was for a single purpose… to build a career as an actor. That chase took me around North America, and across the Atlantic to Europe. I went to school, I studied privately, I worked odd jobs, I scrimped and saved and sacrificed. I even starved a little… well, ok… a lot.

The fact the dream didn’t manifest into much of a reality isn’t a sad story. It’s just life. I worked my ass off, and it didn’t happen, and that’s ok. I had a ball along the way and wouldn’t change a minute of the chase even if I could. What did happen, though, is that my priorities slowly shifted, and another dream began to surface. And as it surfaced, my efforts shifted from one dream to another…

Computer games. I found myself, though pure dumb luck, making computer games. And I liked it. What’s more, I found I was pretty good at it, especially when it came to managing the people who were infinitely more technically qualified than I was. So for the next few years, I worked my way from the mailroom of a small entertainment company to a QA Manager for a mid-level game developer. And while I really enjoyed my job on a day to day basis, I slowly began to discover that there was too much about Corporate America that I just hated. Between the corporate politics and unrealistic corporate expectations, the environment became progressively worse the higher up the ladder I climbed. In the 8 or so years that I was focusing my chase on game development and Corporate America, I was laid off three times, and laid off over almost 500 employees. I learned two extremely important things during that time. The first is that I will take getting laid off over laying someone off any day of the week. The second thing I learned is that life is far too short to be wasting away in Corporate America.

And so I find myself in the midst of chasing yet another dream… Writing. After casting aside the corporate life (or, perhaps more precise, being cast off from the corporate life), I decided to go back to school and get my English Masters to help me with this particular chase. For a while I taught High School English and went to school part time, but I’ve decided to go full time and finish the degree. The dream is writing fiction, and I write each and every day in pursuit of that dream, but I discovered that I enjoy the teaching side of things as well. Hopefully I’ll be able to take advantage of that after I get the Masters. I don’t know where all this will take me, and that’s ok. I don’t mind not knowing.

Look for more updates to this page as the chase continues!

(last updated 8/4/2008)