Two of us
My wife, Glenda, and I are both Marines. Most of what’s on this page, we do together: we ride together, we started a cabinetry business together, we built our house together, and now we’re building out a homestead together. She even trained in martial arts with Master Nelson.
On two wheels
I started on a Suzuki JR50 dirt bike as a little kid, tearing through the woods. On the street it was Japanese sport bikes: a Kawasaki EX500, then Suzuki Katanas, and eventually a GSX-R 1000. Back then it was about speed, precision and pushing limits.
These days it’s cruisers, an Indian Scout Bobber and now a Harley-Davidson Fat Boy, and the point is the ride, not the destination. Glenda rides too, usually right alongside me. And yes, I always take the first pictures of a new bike in the showroom.
Skydiving
I’ve made more than 10,000 jumps, and I stopped logging them long ago. I’m not chasing records or certifications. Skydiving is the dream of flying every kid has: in freefall you can move forward, backward and sideways, not just down, and under canopy the world slows and goes quiet.
Built by hand
My first woodworking project was a full-size arcade cabinet, built to play the classic games again. Then came a fully equipped tool trailer, and then Glenda and I co-founded a cabinetry business in Connecticut, New England Crown and Cabinetry.
Our biggest build was our own 32-foot tiny house on wheels, 13½ feet tall, with every cabinet and built-in made by hand. We researched the residential building codes and built it to them, to show it could be done and to help improve how tiny-house living is viewed. Today my shop runs on CNC and laser tools, and woodworking feels a lot like software: patience and exactness, with grain instead of code.
The homestead, and Garfield
Glenda and I have a property in Florida that we’re building out as a homestead, a place to experiment with sustainable living and growing our own food. The hardest worker there is Garfield, our orange Kubota tractor. One of the buildings I want on that land is a studio dedicated to martial-arts training.
Music
My father played guitar in local bands, and I had my first electric guitar when I was little. I didn’t get serious about it until later, teaching myself from tablature and leaning into the blues: Stevie Ray Vaughan, Robert Johnson. These days there’s a Stratocaster, a Telecaster, a few Taylor acoustics and a Roland V-Drums kit, and I’ll happily admit I’m not as good on any of them as I’d like.
DJing started with whatever I could cobble together: cassette decks, a hi-fi turntable, even an 8-track player. I played parties for friends, then got on the air at my high school’s radio station in Westport, Connecticut. As a kid I played dance clubs in New Haven before I was old enough to drink; the clubs put staff at the booth to make sure no one served me, which didn’t matter, because I don’t drink. I mixed live on Kiss 95.7 in Hartford as Ryan D’Baisse, and after the Marine Corps I DJed weddings for a while. Today I’m a bedroom DJ on Denon gear and Serato, mixing purely for the love of it.
Watches
I collect watches for the engineering more than the price. A cheap Casio or Timex can fascinate me as much as a Rolex, an Omega or a Breitling. I love the movements, the complications, the power reserves, and also how a watch makes you feel and the memories it holds. Beauty that’s also functional, worn close to the skin.
More of my life
Martial arts and the military each have their own page: martial arts and service. And it all started with a kit computer.