Hi there, Gary here, thanks for stopping by.
I live and work in the San Francisco Bay Area, where I started Momomedia, a web design consultancy dedicated to creating smart and sustainable websites for small businesses, non-profits, and educational institutions.
Right I’m working with the San Francisco landscape design company Sculpt Gardens to optimize their site for SEO and to develop a content strategy to enhance the user experience.
I’ve recently completed a new website for the Nichi Bei Foundation that is seeking to represent the next wave in community news.
Previously, work includes site redesigns for Many Lives Chinese Medicine, 415 Games, and Stanford University’s African & African American Studies program.
Previously, I worked full time as the online communications administrator for The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching for over eight years. Now, I’m their Web Producer.
I was born and raised in Fresno, CA, where I spent my summers playing baseball, mowing lawns, and fishing for trout.
After graduating from high school, living closer to the beach sounded like a fine idea so I went to college in San Diego to study engineering. But reading Kafka and Conrad led me to switch my major to philosophy. Believe it or not, this was a calculated decision to maximize my career potential. Can’t say for sure that my bet has paid off, but at least I have a decent grasp of the known knowns and even some of the known unknowns. Needless to say, it’s those unknown unknowns that keep getting me every time.
In college, I started playing trumpet in a reggae band called the Cardiff Reefers. After graduating, we hit the road full time, touring across the U.S., Canada and even Tahiti. We recorded two CDs — Alternate Routes and Reefer Madness — that occasionally got radio airplay but didn’t make us rich. Recently, I started a Facebook page for the band that includes some music and videos. It’s great to find old friends there who remind me that those days playing music were very special times.
After nine years and 1300 shows, I decided to get off the road and start graduate school in San Francisco. After I got my masters degree in Ethnic Studies, I taught Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University and City College of San Francisco for three years.
During this time, I also worked at The National Japanese American Historical Society, where I wrote and co-directed an exhibit on Japanese American baseball history called Diamonds in the Rough. It has been showcased in many venues, including The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York, and the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Tokyo, Japan. I wrote a short essay I’ve written on the subject called, “A Century of Japanese American Baseball.”
You may have noticed, I’m a bit of a baseball fan. When I had some free time, I used to write a baseball column called Inside Pitch for the Nichi Bei Times. Here’s a piece I wrote on the 2006 World Baseball Classic.
Now that my kids are getting a little older, I’m trying to find time to play music again. Not too long ago, I got a chance to record a track with some friends in San Francisco. Take a listen to Exceptional Paperboy on the band’s MySpace page.
My oldest son is a skateboarder, so every few months I help him post a skate video on YouTube. Check out the most recent one.
If you are really bored and have nothing better to do, take a look at the list of 25 random things about me that I created a while ago.
Thanks for stopping by. Feel free to drop me a line, or find me on Facebook or LinkedIn.