I am a member of a nuclear family unit which also includes a spouse, a dog and an elderly cat. I came to the United States from Finland in 1986 to go to college at the University of Southern California. I still think Los Angeles is one of the coolest cities on earth. If you disagree, we can take it outside.

My hobbies include cooking, photography, endurance sports, rock climbing, and CrossFit. I used to run marathons (personal record 2:48:01), but only running got boring, so I have moved onto adventure racing. I write a blog called Into the (Not So) Wild, where I document some of my recent athletic endeavors and other outdoorsy things.

The banner above and on the landing page is a collage of two photographs: an Immanuel Kant finger puppet on the left, available from the Unemployed Philosophers' Guild (no financial interest), and a Photoshopped detail of a 1985 photo of the Berlin Wall. The photo is taken around the Potsdamer Platz; the graffiti is by the French artist Thierry Noir. The smaller photo above on the right is a more local ruin: the famous, glorious, abandoned and sad Michigan Central Station in Detroit in 2008.