I'm Dale Favier. I was born in 1958. I've been happily married for thirty-five years: we have two grown children.
I worked developing and testing software for twelve years.
Now I work for a terrific non-profit half-time, and do massage on evenings and weekends.
I know most of the constellations visible in the Northern Hemisphere, but not all of them. I stopped because I thought it was a bad idea to have a name for everything in the sky. But still, if you ask me what that bright star or planet up there is, I can probably tell you.
I play solitary, improvisational congas, from time to time.
I practice Buddhism, in the Tibetan tradition. Meaning I meditate. Except when I don't.
I have a shrine on top of my dresser.
I have an M.Phil. in English, which is the degree some institutions give you when you've been a grad student so long that they can't in good conscience send you away with just an M.A.
I wrote half of a dissertation on Old English Poetics, and half of one on Chaucer and Abandoned Women, before I gave up on all that.
I have a B.A. in Computer Science, too.
I qualified as an LMT (Licensed Massage Therapist) ten years ago. Yes, 49 years old is rather late in the day to start a new career. But it's what I've always wanted to do.
For high school I went to a hippie free school, as a boarding student.
In my youth I wrote a couple short novels. They were very bad.
My beard is mixed up white, blond, gray, silver and copper. It's short.
My favorite poet might be Blake.
My favorite artist might be Cezanne.
My politics used to be radical. I suppose they still are, but I don't take them very seriously anymore.
I love Oregon, and the city of Portland, passionately.
Being more than a couple hundred miles from the ocean makes me panicky.
I once wanted to be a (literary or visual) Artist, with a capital 'A'. Everything about that desire fills me with loathing now. So I am not very tolerant of Art or Artists (although I love good writing and good pictures.)
When I was quite young I wanted very badly to be an astronaut. Since the career path to being an astronaut was being a military pilot, and I could not stomach much of what military pilots were expected to do, I gave up on the idea. I've borne a grudge against American militarism ever since, on that account.
I love wind and rain and clouds.
Before I die I want to travel to the southern hemisphere and see the southern stars.
I love learning enough of a language to be able to read it, laboriously, with a dictionary. After I get that far I tend to get involved with another language.
I sometimes invent alphabets.
I draw pictures on napkins.
By the time I was twelve, I had climbed many of Oregon's mountains (though not Hood or Jefferson), and hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon.
I have a personal blog, where I write about all sorts of things. But I'll give you fair warning: some of it's in verse.