Kent Quirk - Personal

Interests

Parent and all that goes with it

I have two boys -- Lincoln is 9, Morgan is 6. I happen to think they're wonderful, but then, they're my kids. I coach recreational soccer once a week here in France, and I hope to be coaching Morgan's team when I return to the US.

Juggler

I have been juggling three balls since my early teen years. In the summer of 1994, I discovered the newsgroup rec.juggle and the associated Juggling Information Service. I found myself a juggling partner, Ralph Becker, and since then I've been a juggling fool. [NOT to be confused with a clown!] Until I moved to France, I used to juggle with him at least once a week. I've found an occasional juggling partner here in France, who at the moment is only on the net as a consumer.

Dartmouth Alumnus

I am a proud 1982 graduate of Dartmouth College, as are my wife, both our fathers, my brother, and a large number of our friends. I've stayed involved by interviewing high school seniors who are candidates for admission.

Friend

I am blessed with many friends. Most are connected electronically, but only a few have their own home pages. Ralph Becker, mentioned above, is one, and another is Brian Sharp, who explains our relationship nicely on his home page. My friend John McNeill is a godlike professor of electronic engineering at Worcester Polytech (WPI).

Reader

I am an avid reader -- two or three books a week. Fields of interest include:

Science Fiction and Speculative Fiction: I like pretty much everything in this genre except for the wizard/magic/unicorn type of fantasies, and even some of those aren't bad. Favorite authors include Bruce Sterling, William Gibson, Harlan Ellison, Ray Bradbury, Orson Scott Card, David Brin, Isaac Asimov, Arthur Clarke until he started working with other bad writers. Ray Feist happens to be married to a friend of mine from high school; if it weren't for her, I'd probably not have discovered his stuff. Faerie Tale is particularly good.
Science and programming nonfiction: Complexity, physics and general science, fuzzy logic, design patterns, cooking, environment -- whatever is interesting to me at the moment.
Great fiction: I like well-written contemporary fiction with bizarre situations or characters in it. I also like 19th century novels, such as Dickens, Wharton, Melville, and so forth.
Suspense: Everything from Ian Fleming to Elmore Leonard.
Mystery: Spenser, Marlowe, Brother Cadfael, and of course Holmes.
Shakespeare: I've read most of the plays, and seen about half performed. I love it. Check this: The Shakespeare Homepage

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