About Me: Personal Info, Who I am, my Bio, etc.

Born the son of a sharecropper, etc..

No not true. Actually, I'm a Marin County native who has lived here for all my life with the exception of 3½ years that I spent in upstate New York in order to graduate from Syracuse University.  There I majored in Film, Computers, & Philosophy.  My High School was the Branson School in Ross.

I grew up in Kentfield, at the edge of the Greenbrae Hills.  For 6 years I lived in an apartment near the Civic Center, but in 1997 new owners bought the building and evicted all the tenants (including me) on Christmas, forcing me to move.  Since March of 1998 I've lived near Kaiser Hospital in San Rafael.  Click here to see a MAP of where I live.   I had several roommates at my old place, and if I could remember them all, I'd list them, or their web pages.  Due to problematic roommate experiences, and enough financial success to afford my own place, I now live in a one bedroom apartment, which is no small feat in Marin County.

My parents are Phyllis and Richard Metcalfe.  I have a brother, Ryan, and a sister, Kathryn.  I also have a half-brother, Kevin.   My sister now lives in San Diego and works as a teacher and as a stage actress.  My brother had been working for various small town newspapers in the midwest and northwest, but is now working for the local Marin County Independent Journal.  My father is a corporate insurance broker, currently working for Acordia Insurance of California.  He only handles commercial accounts, but if interested you can E-mail me at keithco@comcast.net and I will get you a response as quickly as possible.

Here is our Metcalfe Family Crest.

Hobbies Include: Movies, computer games (& video games), and Amelioration. I also like to exercise, and train in various martial arts, as well as fencing. I also highly enjoy taking and editing digital photos.

Favorite Art Form: Movies. I never show up late for one, and always sit through the credits.

Favorite Food: Don't have one. I'm just not a big food person.

Favorite Pet: Cats

Favorite time of my life: Right before college, when I worked at the Rafael Theater in downtown San Rafael. It was an old theater that had a balcony and lots of secret rooms, but what made it my favorite time were the people there. It was an important time for me, and I grew a lot socially.

Worst job I ever had would have been the 3½ years at CSAA. I was an insurance claims adjustor and everyone who came to see me had either hit someone, was hit by someone, had their car broken into, or was hurt in an accident. The only thing that would make the majority of these people happy again was cold hard cash, and believe me this attitude can really bring out the worst in people. And the work environment was very bad too. It was a lot closer to Dilbert than any job should be.

Favorite Books: "The Once and Future King", "The Godfather", "Ender's Game"

Recent Books I've Read (that I liked): "Ender's Shadow", "Odd Thomas", and the first Harry Potter book.

Recent Video Games I've played: Rise of Nations, Half Life 2, Alice, Pirates, Max Payne, Civilization 4, Battlefield 2, Enemy Territory,

Recent TV Shows I'm watching: Simpsons, Lost, West Wing, Enterprise, Family Guy, The Shield, Veronica Mars, and The Daily Show. I now own a TIVO. And boy does that change your TV viewing habits! I'm certain I'm watching more TV than before because shows I would otherwise have missed, the Tivo picks up and reminds me.

Special Skill: Am able to successfully divide by zero!

Movies are a large part of the 'artistic' side of my life. I love to watch them and someday hope to help make them. I own a Laserdisc player, and resisted the push to the (initially) inferior DVD format, as was true for most movie-philes. And like most people who love films as much as I do, I have many opinions on the films that I watch. Check out the index for a listing of laserdiscs (I still have more laserdiscs than DVDs) that I own and also a listing of movies that I've reviewed.

I have trained in Martial Arts for most of my adult life (and pretended to for most of my juvenile life). Since 2003, I have been training in Wing Tsun under Sifu Simon Mayer who trained at the Wing Tsun castle in Germany. Before that I studied Aikido under Sensai J.D. Sandoval. Previously, I studied Wing Chun/Tsun under the tutelage of Derek Kolchak. Previous to that I studied Hung Gar under Sifu Yew Ching Wong in Chinatown, San Francisco. I have also trained in Wing Chun under Chris Cunningham out of Syracuse, NY who also had roots in Buffalo, and the Bronx, NY. I also have rankings from the East West Karate Association and have trained under accomplished Tai Chi, Weapon, and other Karate instructors. See my Martial Arts Page for more details.

On and off over the last eight years, I have been Fencing at the Marin Fencing Academy.  Although much more of a 'sport' than a 'fighting art', it does teach many important things such as focus, minimal motion and the importance of defense before offense. I've also been an assistant instructor at the club, and at Marin Academy High School.

I was a large comic-book collector for many years, and devoured all works by the three Gods of Graphic Novels, Frank Miller, Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, and most recently Garth Ennis.  I also have all issues of the Savage Sword of Conan series (thanks Ebay!), and the regular Conan comic book.  The last two series I subscribed to were Hellblazer and Sandman.  Miller has really slowed down his writing of late, and I hope someday that he may once again reach the lofty heights that his "Dark Knight Returns" and "Dark Knight: Year One" set over two decades ago.  I still consider issue #2 of 'Returns' to be one of the masterpieces of modern writing.  I actually wrote an English term paper lauding it.  Click here to read my Epinions review of The Dark Knight Returns.  Although not as detailed as that term paper, I am quite proud of it.

I also wrote graphic novel reviews on Epinions.com on Batman: Year One, Sin City, Hell & Back, Ronin, 300, Big Fat Kill, Daredevil: Marked for Death, and Wolverine.

If you like "Sin City", then check out this excellent Sin City Fan Page.

In the late 80's and early 90's, accessing local BBS's from my Atari ST took up some of my time. Unfortunately since purchasing my first IBM computer in 1993, and then getting onto the Internet in 1994, my reading of literature has dramatically declined, but when I did, I loved Clive Barker, Eric Van Lustbader and read reference and educational books (like Carl Sagan) quite often.

I used to spend an unhealthy amount of time playing computer games, and still do when otherwise bored.  To see a list of my favorites check out the game section on my index.

Other interests include the Simpsons, Anti-smoking & Wendy's. See the index for details on these subjects.

I am a huge fan of the TV show The Family Guy,and for some reason almost feel bad now that everyone seems to be a fan of it. I worked so hard to get people to watch it, and so few seemed to like it when I did. I started videotaping each episode starting with the second episode because I knew that this show was something special. I have them all on tape, even though their airings were so rare, with many of them playing at one in the morning because it was pre-empted by some stupid baseball game or something. I even have the infamous Osama Bin Laden going through the airport scene that they wouldn't even allow on the DVD version!

Other things I like are Amelioration, Dilbert, Leonardo Da Vinci, Star Trek, the TV show Homicide, Alexander the Great, Cats (the animals, not the musical) & more that I can't remember.

On a more disturbing note, check out the Helico-Bacter page for info on a one-time Ailment.

Hall of Heroes:
(Well, most are Heroes of mine.)

Page last updated on: 11/28/2006
© Keithco 2006

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