About
Here are 10 things about me (updated on Jan. 1, 2018). For details about this site, check out the colophon.
- Deeply thankful for my wonderful wife of five years, Joan and our sons, Michael and William.
- Competed in the 1988 National Spelling Bee in eighth grade, finishing a respectable 59th out of 200 finalists. My elimination word: patronymic.
- Worked as a Walt Disney World College Program “cast member” in 1995. The nickname from my job as a monorail driver inspired the name of this site.
- Graduated with honors from Penn State University in 1996, and an avid Nittany Lions fan to this day.
- Moved three times in the first 13 months after college; resided in Schenectady, N.Y., and Fort Myers, Fla., for roughly six months each.
- Lived in scenic Chesterbrook, Pa., for 11 years before moving to a new house in Newtown Square, Pa., in August 2015.
- Inspired by a wide range of music, including the catchy power pop of Fountains of Wayne, the melodic post-punk of Bob Mould, and the timeless cool jazz of Miles Davis.
- Fascinated by clocks since I was a kid; my modest collection includes a musical cuckoo clock from West Germany (a childhood gift from my great-uncle Charlie) and a few vintage Simplex electric wall clocks.
- Deeply interested in the field of typography; able to identify most typefaces by sight, and not exactly sure how that skill came to be.
- Employed in IT at Comcast in Philadelphia for seven years. Details about my professional work are available on a separate site, mikedevine.com.