Random Personal Information

My name is Chris Palma, and I'm originally from Cedar Knolls (Exit 36A off of 287), New Jersey (which is actually quite nice and undeserving of its reputation). I currently live in Charlottesville, Virginia with my wife Shannon, and our 3 cats, Chloe, Roux, and Arizona. I'm a graduate of Whippany Park H.S. and Penn State University, where I got my BS in Astronomy & Astrophysics and Physics. I recently received my Ph.D. in Astronomy from The University of Virginia. In August, 2001, I'll be returning to the Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics at Penn State to begin work as a postdoctoral scholar.

If you're really interested, click here for a quick overview of past research I've been a part of. Or if you're really bored, I've made my curriculum vita available in HTML.

Just for the heck of it, here's a quick list of things I'm interested in:

• Favorite Color = green (just check out the text on my page)
• Favorite Music = all kinds including The Police, G. Love & Special Sauce, Blue Oyster Cult, Tori Amos, Pearl Jam, The Chilis, Alice in Chains, Ice-T, Queensryche, Luscious Jackson, Soundgarden, Iron Maiden, Rush, etc. (Not in any particular order)
• Favorite Teams = All Penn State teams, Phoenix Suns, Arizona Cardinals, Penns Valley Rams basketball, any team playing Ohio State, Kansas Jayhawks basketball
• Favorite Sports = Volleyball! (strange choice for someone 5'6", I know...)
• Favorite Car = Saturn (It's an astronomy thing)
• Favorite Truck = Toyota Tacoma 4x4 (the Saturn belongs to the wife now)
• Favorite Authors = Michael Moorcock (who I owe the title of my page to), Larry Niven, Julian May, Jon Barnes, William Gibson, Neil Gaiman, Jonathon Carroll, and many other sci-fi writers
• Favorite Movies = The Big Lebowski, My Cousin Vinny, The Professional, Mississippi Burning, The Princess Bride, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Cape Fear (old and new)
• Favorite Superhero = Spider-Man
• Favorite Computer = Macintosh (Bill who?)

• CHARLOTTESVILLE DRIVERS!
• First USA credit cards (be sure to read the fine print...)
• John Cooper & his OSU Buckeyes
• Wintel boxes