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A Bit About Me, Shawn Wellons

This is my first semester at SILS. logo Sometimes I wonder what I've gotten myself into, especially when I'm designing a website without a clue as to what I'm doing. When I was an undergraduate back in the 1980's, my friends and I would laugh at the computer science geeks who took all of the computer programming classes. Who's laughing now? Not me, especially when I read in my alumni magazine that so many of them are now retired former dotcom executives are living in exotic locations. Oh well. But except for random forays into hxtml, things seem to be going fairly well. When I'm not at SILS or working on class assignments, I am a library assistant for the Wake County Public Library System. I work at the Duraleigh Branch, which is small, only a little larger than the SILS library reading room, but what it lacks in size it makes up for in patron circulation.

My Hobbies

I once had time for hobbies before starting grad school. Now all I seem to do is prepare for class, go to class, work, and start the cycle all over again like a hamster running on a wheel. But before SILS, when I had a life, I loved to travel. Last May, when my wife and I were in Key West, we took a day trip to Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas National Park. dry torgugasIt was amazing and well worth the time. Definitly do it if you get the chance.

Favorite Books

I am a voracious reader, so it's hard to rank my favorite books. They change from day to day or hour to hour, depending on when I'm asked, but here is my best attempt:

Favorite Books:

  1. The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway
  2. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
  3. The Quiet American, by Graham Greene
  4. Slouching Towards Bethleham, by Joan Didion, and
  5. 1984, by George Orwell

Of course, there are Truman Capote's "Cold Blood," Harper Lee's "To Kill A Mockingbird," F. Scott Fitzgerald's "Tender Is The Night, and Hemingway's "A Farewell To" and "To Have and Have Not." The list really goes on for days. How anyone can have a true favorite is beyond my comprehension.

Favorite Movies

Going to movies is another favorite pastime. I never realized how many movies my wife and I go see on a regular basis until we were going through the ads in the News "&" Observer trying to find something to see and we had seen everything of possible interest to us.

Here are some old and new favorites: