Thalidar aka Mike

Read Mike's groundbreaking Gospel of Knaufias

Location:
I was born in Salt Lake City, Utah on January 22, 1971. Despite their best efforts, I was never a Mormon. :o) After a brief stint in Texas where I married my wonderful wife, Tonya, we are currently located in Illinois, where I am a graduate student at the University of Texas at Arlington stationed at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab).

Education:
Since 6th grade, from my first physical sciences class, I have known that I wanted to be a physicist because I love figuring out what makes the world work. I went to college at the University of Utah, and within in 5 years had a B.Sc. in Physics and another in Mathematics. I took a few years off, then went to graduate school. By August I hope to have my Ph.D. in high energy particle physics.

Interests:
I have always been a voracious reader (especially scifi/fantasy). The first book I remember reading was "Lord Foul's Bane" in 5th grade. This has given me an active imagination and smattering of knowledge in all sort of different topics, and has tended to drive me into various fandoms (e.g.
Star Trek, Star Wars, X-Files, Firefly). I also have a great love for computer games (especially puzzle and strategy games).

Carnivale:
I remember seeing some previews for Carnivale on HBO, and being intrigued, but not really knowing what to expect. I sat down to watch the first episode and that was all she wrote; I was irretrievably hooked from that point onward.

So, with what I've picked up from my reading, combined with an ability to analyze hints and clues and try to put them into a cohesive whole, I think I have been in good stead in trying to analyze Carnivale. But more importantly, having wonderful online communities (like CarnivaleHBO on Yahoo and the ChowTent on Carnycon) upon which it is possible to bounce off varied ideas and get exposed to such different perspectives has been invaluable.

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