It's me - Philadelphia-born, Cranston-raised, Providence-educated, California-initiated, New-York-hardened, Sam.
ORIGINS, BESTIARY, LOCATION
I
am a member of the Tregar clan of Cranston, RI. At some point in the
past we had some foreign assignations, but these days we're American
Jews in the classic liberal-Reform style. I've married into the
Ruggieros of North Providence, RI by way of my wife Kristen Tregar née
Reiff.
Kristen and I have a few pets. I'll leave it up to her
as-yet-unpublished website to detail them. In brief, we have 1 German
Shepard Dog (Buddy), 4 cats (Merry, Pippin, Molly and Former President
Gerald Ford), 2 Egyptian Spiny Mice (Ardvark and Captain), 6 rats
(Ezzy, Joeline, Typhoon, Catastrophe, Ismine and Morgan), 1 Cavy
(Bindi), 1 Guinea Pig (Hector), 1 Cornsnake (Boss), 1 rabbit (Gabriel) and 1 horse (Rhianon). How about that?
We live in the town of
Ossining in Westchester County, New York. Ossining is about 45
minutes north of Manhattan by train or car.
THINGS I DO
Go: I play Go obsesively, usually at least a couple games a night. I'm ranked at 8-kyu on KGS. You can see my up-to-date rank graph or look at my games. I also review games for the Go Teaching Ladder. You can see the list of games I've reviewed here. My goal is to one day reach 1-dan.
Programming: I program at work for pay and I program at home for fun. I have a hard time dividing the two. You can find examples of my work on the software page.
Black and White Photography: When I get a chance I like to
print pictures at a darkroom rental place in Manhattan. I learned
what I know in high school and during my time at Deep Springs where Michael
Smith was temporarily teaching. I also took a class in printing
with Bob Brookes at the School of Visual Arts.
Novels:
On the subway, on the can, before bed... If only I was a bit faster at
it! These days I favor Japanese authors (in translation!) - Kenzaburo
Oe, Yasunari Kawabata, Kobo Abe, Osamu Dazai. I wish I hadn't already
read everything that's been translated.
Science
Fiction is almost exhausted for me - I'll still read an undiscovered
Brunner, Lem or P.K. Dick but I'm not actively chewing it up like I
once did. Of course the classics still own my soul - Tolkein chief
among them, Heinlein close behind.
Ondatje, Brautigan and Rushdie are all favorites.
Poetry:
What once I wrote, now I mostly read. Paul Celan sits on the top of my
stacks. Appolinaire is a constant companion. Tennyson is close behind.
An odd group, but I don't seem to need much more. An occasional whiff
of William Carlos Williams...
WORK
I work as a Perl programmer for Plus Three.
