While at my parents' house on Christmas eve, I got my hands on a bunch of old photographs that I haven't seen in a while. One of those was that picture of me with Santa in the last post. Here are all but one of the rest of them, for your viewing pleasure. The one I'm withholding is so good that it deserves its own post. Perhaps I'll steal Ree's "Give that photo a name" contest idea. Except my prizes will be less tangible, and will require some imagination to appreciate.

Here I am, circa 1979 or 80, thinking about how Christian Doppler's theories could be applied to weather forecasting.

A class photo in March of 1982. I don't remember it specifically, but I bet I'm not smiling because of those pants.

I visually estimate this to be 1984 or 85. I'd score that fake smile a 7 out of 10. The v-neck, 4/10.

Fast forward 10-ish years to early 1995. My family was going for a portrait, and my mom was not wild about the hair. So though you can't tell it in the photo, my hair was soaking wet in this photo, because it helped the dreadlocks to "lie down" instead of sticking up all over the place (except for that one straggler). This, sadly, is probably the best photo of me with dreadlocks.

And here I am as a high school senior. This was taken only a week or so after I chopped off the locks, which I was (ahem) encouraged to do because of a bunch of award ceremonies leading up to graduation. By "encouraged," I mean "told." And by "told," I mean "forced."