. Because I don't feel that I am a specialist in anything - although I am planning to become one quite soon;) - I decided to call this rubric Certificates and References. This subpage is divided in three parts: first, I allow you an insight into my nerdy academic history. Second, you can check out what people I have been in contact with in one form or another have to say about me (References). The third section functions as an outlet for a reflection on self and others. I first wanted to call this section revenge, but it would have missed my purpose. Quite in the spirit of my intention, I called this section Conciliation.

Academic Certificates

. Too bad I didn't graduate a couple of months later from UCSB, because I would have been able to present you with Arnold's signature. Please apologize, I know Gray Davis' is much less cool. But nothing I can do about it now...

References

Coming soon...

Conciliation

. I called this section conciliation both as a sign of conciliation with myself and second as a means to say thanks to people who I have been around with and who have contributed to the human being I am today. Some sarcasm is purely incidental.

. Let me start off by saying that it has taken me quite a while to accept me the way I am: a nerd in the truest sense of the word - studious, motivated, boring, and even equipped with a healthy load of pimples in my face - although they are disappearing. I added this truthful piece of self-definition because it puts a lot in perspective. Arriving in the US and A, I deemed it a good idea to learn the English language in all its forms and shapes...time went by and my language skills and, of course, charming personality jumped into the eye of Anne Kingdon, coordinator at the Campus Learning Assistance Services (CLAS) at the University of California. She hired me as a language tutor, and I was finally able to afford going to the same burrito place as my buddies. Thanks Anne for hiring me and the <<nice words>> you have to say about me.

. Around the same time, I publicised for the first time in the Daily Nexus, the UC Santa Barbara's Student Newspaper. Some call UCSB the "University of Casual Sex and Beer". Reading the "wednesday hump" can give you quite an accurate idea of what the average student - besides surfing - was doing at this place except during finals week. For me as a true nerd, you can imagine that I encountered this Sodom and Gomorrah lifestyle with nothing but disgust:) Here a selection of my master works:

<<Men's Tennis: UCSB Netters Take Route 46>>

<<Men's Tennis: Santa Barbara Netters Test Waters at ITA's>>

<<Men's Tennis: UCSB Soars Over Pilots, Finds Trouble Duck Hunting>>

. My next internship brought me to the Office of Science and Technology (OST) at the Austrian Embassy in Washington D.C. where I worked for the "most bestest" and "most reflectested" Dr. Philip Steger, a man for whom all superlatives are a mere understatement. Her his <<reference>>. If you can read between the lines, you can easily identify his skill to mask his true opinion.

To be continued...