Links & Resources

The Walt Whitman Archive
If I had to pick a single website about Whitman to share with anyone, it would be this archive, put together by Ed Folsom and Kenneth Price. Anything you might want to know about Whitman is here - you can see his poems in his own handwriting, hear any number of poets and performers reading his work, and look at pictures of the man himself, his friends and family, and the world he lived in. Basically, this is the ultimate Whitman resource, a site I visit at least once a day, usually more like ten or twenty times.


Poets.Org
Run by the Academy of American Poets, this site is one of the largest databases of poems. You can type in the name of just about any poet who has ever written in or been translated to English and find a collection of their most famous work, along with recordings of the poems being read either by the poet or another performer. The ability to search by topic, era, or name is a major bonus. If you love poetry, you should bookmark this site. I spend a few minutes every day on this site searching for new poets or learning new things about writers I already love.

My Luxury Mattress 
I am not the kind of guy who surrounds himself with fancy and expensive things. In fact, I pride myself on a minimalist lifestyle. I have a few prized possessions, one of which is my fancy mattress. As an insomniac, having the best and most comfortable mattress has meant a world of difference in my energy level, and I recommend this bed to anyone who has trouble sleeping, back pain, or just wants to own a little slice of luxury.

Password Manager Software
I do almost everything on the Internet. From grocery shopping to banking to communicating with friends and family, I've just about moved my entire life online. Because I have so many different Internet accounts, with different usernames and passwords, software that helps create difficult-to-crack passwords and stores and encrypts them for me on my computer is a necessity. Keeping your passwords safe and secure is important, especially if you (like me) pretty much live on the Internet.

Finale SongWriter
No, you won't hear my song on the radio, and you probably won't even hear them coming out of my mouth, even if you're a close friend. I take my songwriting very seriously, and use it more as therapy than anything else. I use this songwriting software to help me put together my tunes, which range from the extremely simple to the incredibly complex. Finale helps me turn the tunes in my head into sheet music that's easy to edit and easy to store and share.

Texas Brews
I'm a native Texan, though I've since moved far away from my homeland. The Texan in me rarely shows up - if you're a guest in my home, the only vestiges of the Lone Star State that you'll see are an antique flag displayed very simply on my wall and a special refrigerator and closet that I use to store my favorite Texas beers. The microbrewery and craft beer scene in Texas is exploding - for a state that used to sell nothing but commercial beers, the past ten years have been a time of great change. TexasBrews.org keeps me up-to-date on the best and brightest that the Texas craft beer scene has to offer.