About me

I was born in good ole’ Berkeley, California and raised in my adolescent years in the Acorn Projects in West Oakland. During the time the Acorn Projects were ripe with many of the challenges of major urban areas in the early 1980’s, the crack epidemic, the prevalent use of drugs and drug abuse and the open drug market which was one of the primary causes of urban gun violence.

• I remember hanging out with friends, a close knit community, first learning to ride my bike (even though it was stolen once by neighborhood kids and recovered by my mom with some select words. That was before she was a Christian haha.)
• I remember falling off of my bike and being carried home by neighbors. In hindsight, I do remember some drug addicted relatives coming by the house appearing disheveled and now I know it was due to their drug dependency,
• I also remember a squad of Police Officers jumping out of the back of U-Haul trucks executing raids on homes.
• I did not think too much of it, beside “That is pretty cool.” Gunshots were a daily occurrence, they didnt phase me, they were much like the sound of a plane flying over when you live near an airport, it was just a part of the landscape.

Although I did not think much of it, my mother knew my chances of future success were multiplied if I were removed from that environment. So in 4th grade, mom moved us to the Peoples Republic of Berkeley. At the time Berkeley has a unique school busing program to promote diversity. Although there were two schools within walking distance, the district required me to go to school across town and they bused children from across the city to a diverse school, this would address the disparity in education based on the socioeconomic status of the area which the school was located. I had a wonderful time in Berkeley, meeting a variety of awesome diverse friends. At my elementary was the first time I was introduced to music, playing the trumpet, hot cross buns was the jam. 

At my elementary was the first time I was introduced to music, playing the trumpet, hot cross buns was the jam. Mr. Gomez the teacher unknowingly influenced a life of music. I was also introduced to Baseball at the little league level. I loved school and excelled in my studies

 One of the experiences I had as a juvenile were family members and friends of the family saying things like: “You sound like a white boy” or “They have turned you white.” While I did not grasp why this was happening, I knew it did not make me feel good. Even my mother felt I may have been losing touch with my roots in the black community, so she enrolled me in the Boy Scouts, in a majority black troop in East Oakland. The funny part about it was, I did not much focus on the fact that the troop was all Black and Latino until people made it a point to bring attention to it.

we moved to the burbs..Vallejo, CA, Home of Marine World Africa USA! My mother not wanting to uproot me from school mid year sacrificed and woke up early to drive me to school in Berkeley, the go to work. She set up arrangements for me to travel to my good friend Joey’s house until I could be picked up. Shout out to Joey, and his parents David and Jane. After the full transition to Vallejo, I continued my musical studies, continued to play baseball and picked up Wrestling as a sport. Fun fact: I was on the same Babe Ruth Baseball team as pitcher C.C Sabathia. I met many friends who I continue to maintain friendships with to this day. Moving on to high school, I continued to play music in the High School Marching Band, played Football, dropped baseball after Freshman year, focused hardcore on Wrestling becoming a member of the California USA National Team later in life and as a Senior in High School becoming a Cheerleader.

 I interned for Congress and found that was absolutely not the job I wanted to do, and speaking with out school resource officer, a career in law enforcement seemed more and more like what I wanted to do.
After that was college and a career in law enforcement, cheerleading, traveling and now photography which you can read about in the blogs and in other sections.
This site will be a combo of many things, for many purposes. I came from a life of frequent deployments to disaster areas around the country. I have also fallen in love with with travel and have been fortunate enough to see many places around the world, and have many more on the list.

 I interned for Congress and found that was absolutely not the job I wanted to do, and speaking with out school resource officer, a career in law enforcement seemed more and more like what I wanted to do.
After that was college and a career in law enforcement, cheerleading, traveling and now photography which you can read about in the blogs and in other sections.
This site will be a combo of many things, for many purposes. I came from a life of frequent deployments to disaster areas around the country. I have also fallen in love with with travel and have been fortunate enough to see many places around the world, and have many more on the list.

I am from the San Francisco Bay Area and recently moved to Chicago (Yikes Snow!) and recently transitioned from government to private sector work. I hope to be able to Chronicle all of those adventures here for family, friends and anyone who is interested.

The above links will send you to a brief synopsis of my professional life along with some photos of some deployments and operations to give you a better perspective of my day to day work life, the operations Ive been apart of and some of the wonderful people I have met along the way.My travels around the world, some of the great people I have met, some of the delicious food and some of the wonderful sites along with some recommendations and synopsis of the trips. Lastly, after my move to Chicago, I have taken on Photography as a hobby, I takes hundreds of pictures around Chicago and other places I travel. The more photos I took of people, the more folks request I post them, so I will post image galleries in the photography sections.