It's been just over a year since I joined Helium, lured by the opportunity to interact with a large and diverse group of talented writers. Writing, for me, has been a cherished hobby, practiced mainly in private or with-in small writers' workshops.

Since then I've met an inspiring assortment of authors. I'm proud to call many of them friends, and all them peers. As Channel Steward for the Home & Garden Channel, I'm trying to help make a difference here at Helium.

This task is far too large to handle alone, so I rely on a dedicated team of stewards within our channel. If you'd like to join our team, please don't hesitate to contact me. I'm always interested in your thoughts and insights, as well. Click Contact This Writer to reach me any time.

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The loves of my life are my wife, two teenage sons, and our all-grown-up step-daughter. I spend my busy workdays building and remodeling, mostly kitchens and bathrooms. Weekends are devoted to camping and golf in the summer, and to football and computer games in the cold months. Alone, I love to putter in our gardens in good weather; a good book is my favorite companion in foul weather.

I've been building things since I was old enough to hold a hammer, and writing stories since I learned the ABC's. In high school, two close friends and I started what became a very successful school newspaper. Local advertisers paid for the printing. Unfortunately, none of us made provision for the paper to carry on after we graduated. By my second year in college I was promoted to Editor in Chief of our official monthly paper. Oddly enough, I wasn't enrolled in the Journalism major there at all. I earned an AAS in Business Administration.

Over the years I've delivered newspapers, managed a sporting goods store, supervised a film-coating factory shift, and done carpentry for a large local builder. My dream had been to run my own business, so I became a building and remodeling contractor more than twenty years ago. Wildly fluctuating market conditions have made this endeavor a roller-coaster ride. But I've had fun doing something I truly love doing, so I feel blessed most of the time.

Along the way I've built a half-dozen houses, including a Victorian in the Queen Anne style for myself. The feeling you get when you look at an entire building, and know that you created it, is incredible.

I hope I can offer some articles of value here at Helium. I've come here to work harder on my favorite hobby, and to share my love of the written word with my peers. Finding a home at this growing national writers' website has been a real joy. Please don't hesitate to use the Contact this Writer link to reach me.

-from a snowy December afternoon, Upstate NY, 2007

My passion is ...

a campground, a campfire, a lantern, and a great book - to the sounds of a thousand crickets and distant thunder

I know too much about ...

thermodynamics and quantum mechanics. Ya right.

My parents always told me ...

close the door - you'll let the flies in!

My childhood ambition ...

was to run my own bicycle shop!

My favorite memory ...

is of my Mom, just before she died (1999, we miss you!)

Why I write ...

because the words must come out, one way or another

What I am reading/watching/listening to ...

anything by (the late) John D MacDonald, any show without the initials "CSI" in the title, and music from artists like John Mayer, DMB, Sarah Mac, Allison Kraus...well, that list is just too long!

My first job ...

(sigh) delivering newspapers.

My best moment ...

two, actually: the days each of my boys were born

My inspiration ...

comes from the smiles of the people I love - my wife, my kids, my friends...

Relationships & Family > Couple Communication Understanding the male mind

1 of 17

There's a popular myth which claims that the average male thinks about sex every 12.5 seconds, or some similar absurd number. Sounds real on the surface of it; but, like many urban legends and email forwards, it's nonsense.

Men suffer at the hand of over-simplification in all areas of rational thought. Do you really believe that Homer Simpson represents any male reality? We men are not cartoon characters, nor are we fixated on some rhythmic repetitive mantra which we are genetically unable to banish from our primitive brains. Those stereotypes are, in the words of MASH's Colonel Potter, ...

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