Personal

The boundary between work and play has always been a fuzzy one for me. I love intense and creative problem-solving, and my work provides plenty of opportunities for that. I also like technology and gadgets, but resist the institutional urge to use technology for technology's sake.

I'm a visual/spatial thinker and learner. I like designing and organizing things—such as documents, book covers, web sites, office space and kitchen. I especially like creating websites, where I can combine my inclination for both function and esthetics without spending a fortune. I have developed and manage websites for the Journal of Second Language Writing, and the Symposium on Second Language Writing, among others. I've also created several personal websites and blogs both in Japanese and in English. A few of my early blogs long predate the term blog.

Lately, I've been spending a lot of time in the kitchen—I find cooking both relaxing and stimulating. My repertoire includes Mexican, Chinese, German, Japanese, Korean and Italian. I also like beverages of all kinds—I especially enjoy talking with people over a cup of coffee or tea. I've been a big coffee drinker, but since my last trip to Taiwan, I've been drinking more Chinese tea. I've always liked energy drinks for the taste of it, and I'm happy that they have become popular in the U.S. in recent years.

I'm a real night owl. I usually stay up until around 4 a.m. No, this is not a long-term jet-lag; even when I visit Japan now, I get back into my noon-to-four cycle in a few days. I've always been this way—it just feels more natural to me. (Can you imagine how hard it was for me to get up at 7 a.m. to go to school?) I get most of my writing done between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. It's not that I don't sleep—I like to stay in bed until around noon whenever I can. (In other words, don't even think about calling me at home in the morning or asking me to come to a meeting before noon!)

I like having people around when I write—as long as they don't talk to me. My favorite places for writing include coffee shops and airports. I also do a lot of writing on the airplane. I also enjoy driving; I like to explore and organize my ideas on the road. In fact, some of my best ideas were developed behind the wheel.