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On WHYS I enjoy the ability to hear the personal perspectives of people from all over the world about the same issue or event. It is just a shame that time prevents the show of acknowledging all the opinions that people send in.

Here's some more info about me...

Steve learned early on in his life about the power of the pen. When he was in the fourth grade in the Salt Lake City, Utah area, he wanted to get his class on a local TV station's Weather School segment that had elementary school classes come talk about weather during newscasts. He wrote a letter respectfully asking that his class come on the show, and the meteorologist was more than happy to oblige. During the newscast, he even read the handwritten letter that Steve wrote. To this date his teacher is still wondering why he had more clout than she since she tried for months to get the class on TV.

This natural impulse has served Steve well as it landed him on the ´óÏó´«Ã½ World Service program World Have Your Say in June of 2006 when he pitched the idea of discussing wikis in politics. He pitched the story and got Utah US Senate candidate Pete Ashdown on the show with him. Through this experience he even became friends with the intrepid on-line journalist Kevin Anderson who was part of the show staff at the time.

Steve is also fascinated in the world and what makes it work and the people who live on it tick. As a teenager he traveled all over his native United States and to London, Paris, Rome, Frankfurt, and Amsterdam with his family. During his college years he was able to study Vietnamese as he lived in New South Wales, Australia for nearly a year and a half as a volunteer for his church and later for about two months in Guadalajara, Mexico for a study abroad trip when he lived with a Mexican family and volunteered at a boarding school while studying Spanish and having fun.

Other than traveling, Steve really enjoys running five to six days a week since it helps him remain sane and physically fit. In his free time he enjoys watching complex TV shows that make him think either by trying to keep a complex plot straight or challenging his views. Such series include: the Star Trek franchises (particularly Deep Space Nine for its darkness -- the universe did not have to end and return to its placid self by the end of each episode -- and multi-season story arcs), Alias, and Justice.

Steve also has an innate passion for politics. He has volunteered for many different campaigns for both Republicans and Democrats. For some strange reason, he finds it fun and interesting.

One of Steve's favorite things to do is to write about current events and things that catch his attention. Part of him really, really wants to pursue a journalism career, but his fear of weird schedules and growing personal scepticism of the mainstream news media has squelched any such ambitions for now. He placates this desire through writing on his blog, Obiter Dicta by Steve , and on Gather.com. Further, he follows the news by mainly listening to public radio and trying to pitch stories and submit questions whenever possible to news shows. Of note, he interviewed Jigmi Thinley, the Foreign Minister of Bhutan, as a college freshman for a campus newspaper.

https://obiterdictabysteve.blogspot.com/
https://anhhung18901.gather.com/)

Beyond this normal stuff, Steve enjoys writing about himself in the third person by using complicated sentences that are hopefully grammatically correct since he so frequently catches himself letting typos escape his self editing gaze, which makes him hypersensitive about how people perceive him if he does not write well; this tendency causes him to dread instant messaging since he tries so hard to use correct grammar but goofs up while pointing out his errors to his interlocutors who are not even trying to use correct grammar or even care.

Currently, Steve works as a search engine optimizer (SEO) for an on-line media firm. Basically, he makes websites look sexy to search engines. If you have a website about widgets, Steve would work to make sure that your site would rank high on Google, Yahoo!, MSN, and other engines when people use the keyword "widget" to search. He basically fell into this job as writer and was quickly given additional duties.

Steve hails from Texas as he was born in El Paso and lived in Houston as a teenager. His father's career moved his family to Pennsylvania and Utah, where he resides now. He graduated from Brigham Young University with a bachelor of arts in international relations in 2005.

Cheers!
Steve