ABOUT_

In progress…

Writing a novel is, it turns out, really hard. After getting notes from beta readers, I keep the same premise but throw everything out and rebuild it from scratch with a completely new structure.

I start writing an upmarket speculative fiction novel.

I finish the MBA and change jobs — I'm now at Oxy.

I start an MBA at Rice.

Covid is weird.

My son, Casper Foster Powers, is born. Other than that… honestly, hard to remember what else happened in 2020.

Lots of work travel this year, bouncing around teaching people technology.

We move from Montrose into a 1934 home just down the street, in River Oaks.

Mostly chasing Brighton around and changing a lot of diapers.

My daughter, Brighton Penn Powers, is born. I also start a new job at Onit.

We move out of downtown Houston into a townhouse in Montrose.

I become employee #3 at Code Climate, a New York tech startup (I work remotely). We move from Midland back to Houston.

I marry the love of my life, Jeannie Powers — who's way out of my league. Her job also moves us out to Midland, Texas. Ugh.

Pittsburgh turns out to be a really cool city — genuinely underrated.

I take a trip to Iceland, move from technical writing to solutions engineering at the same company, and spend about four months in Los Angeles for work. On the last day of the year, I move to Pittsburgh, for a girl.

I sell the house and move to downtown Houston, into an old hotel I loved.

I learn VB.NET.

I love working from home and I love the technical writing job — I get to play with tech all day, recruit at nearby universities, and teach software. I also pick up CSS and PHP, get another dog (Scout), and buy my first house.

I finish my master's and move to Hollywood, where I land a job assisting a literary manager who repped writers and directors. Turns out I don't like Hollywood, and it doesn't like me — I quit after four months. Then I stumble into a technical writing job at a software company that lets me move back to Houston and work remotely.

Grad school is a good stretch — I help teach an undergrad video/film production class, write papers on things I love (Radiohead, Frederick Wiseman), and get to talk about movies all day.

I graduate from Baylor with a business degree (business-broadcasting), then decide to stay two more years for a master's in Communication Studies, also at Baylor.

I settle on business broadcasting for my major and start mixing film classes into my business courses.

I try screenwriting and win the top prize at the 2003 Black Glasses Film Festival.

I spend a summer interning for an Emmy-nominated producer in Los Angeles.

Right before sophomore year, kind of out of nowhere, I realize sports isn't for me and decide I want to work in film instead. I also come home from the mall one day with a new dog, Mattie.

I graduate high school, mow lawns for a summer, and start at Baylor University in Waco. The sports thing gets bigger — I decide I want to be an NBA general manager someday and start working in Baylor's Sports Information Department.

I get really into sports — watching, not playing. I land a spot on a local sports talk radio show, start calling games at my high school, and basically live on SportsCenter.

I go through a phase where I want to be a country-western singer.

My grades weren't great, but I really wanted to stay in private school, so I talked my way into Northwest Academy (later Houston Christian High School). High school begins.

Over summer break in Atlanta, my dad finds out the company can move him to Houston. He leaves the decision to my brother and me, and we choose to head back to the States, so we become Texans. American school isn't what I remembered, though — I last three days at the public school down the road before talking my parents into private school. They enroll me at Grace Presbyterian Academy, and it turns out to be the best school year of my life (I also get my first kiss).

Singapore and seventh grade turn out to be a lot of fun.

We move back to Singapore, which was hard; I didn't want to leave my American friends. We spend that summer in Yemen.

We move from the apartment to a house, still in Peachtree City, where I'm in fifth grade — my second-favorite school year. We spend Christmas with my dad in Dubai.

We leave Darwin and head back to Atlanta. The plan was to move to Saudi Arabia for my dad's job, but the school situation kept us in Georgia. We land in an apartment in Peachtree City, and I finally get to go to an American school, play baseball, and be a Yank.

My mom wakes me up on a school night to watch West Side Story, which is what got me into movies.

After a year in Australia I've picked up a full Aussie accent, which I turn on and off depending on who I'm talking to.

A few months back in Singapore and Atlanta, then we settle in Darwin, Australia for a few years. I start school there.

There aren't any English-speaking schools nearby, so my mom starts one. It's still open today.

Same country, new city — we move from Guangzhou to Shekou.

The year is split between Singapore, Atlanta, and our next home, Guangzhou, China.

My brother Carson is born. We spend the year living in Seoul.

Back to Atlanta, then my first move overseas, to Singapore, though we don't stay long.

My dad's oil career means a lot of moving. In about a year we go from Mesquite to Dallas to New Orleans and back to Dallas.

I take my first steps.

I'm born in Atlanta to John, an oil executive, and Joyce, a Delta flight attendant. A few weeks later we move to Mesquite, Texas.