I found myself reading Fyodor Dostoevsky at 4 in the morning one day. That was after my trip to Venice, Italy during my undergraduate studies at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. That’s what WPI’s global studies program did to poor engineers like me – it made them read at 4 in the morning. That would have been, what? That was in ninetee cough. Excuse me. The guy to girl ratio at WPI back in those days – not too long ago mind you – was about 3 to 1. I know, right? And despite the incredible fraction, I became incredulous to learn that the women had a saying that “the odds are good but the goods are odd.” Totally unreal, right?
I studied electrical engineering at WPI and after Venice completed minors in International Studies and Social Science.
A special thanks goes out to professors Rick Vaz for encouraging me to go to Venice and John Zeugner and John Wilkes for inspiring my growth path in writing afterwards. I walked into John’s office one day and asked for a summer reading list. And, man, that was killer. So, ya, he really messed up my sleep schedule. The other John told me when I was graduating that “I’ve only had a handful of students that have written at your level.” That really knocked my socks off. So those three jerks contributed to me making this website instead of working on my real career.
You know, there was another saying floating around the WPI campus back in the day. And as an electrical engineering major, this one really grabbed my attention. It was this: you can’t spell geek without double-e. I know. Unreal again, right? I’m just gonna say this: little did these folks know that I would one day create a state-of-the-art website.
Who would want to read my writing?
It’s kind of weird asking myself questions that I want to answer for marketing purposes, I feel like a politician that isn’t really answering the question, but, rather, the question he wished would have been asked. But, look, I get it, there’s a lot of writing to choose from. So I’ll give this one a shot.
I’m the son of a former Catholic priest and nun. I’ve also been practicing yoga and meditation for over twen cough years. Excuse me. I grew up Catholic. I traveled to Nepal and spent a month in a yoga ashram. This was a special experience where I studied under Sannyasi Shivgiri at the AnandaYoga Center. That was over ten years ago and I have been meditating regularly ever since. So, growing up Catholic. Having spiritual conversations. Spending six months at a yoga center in California after studying in Nepal. Spirituality does kind of frame my thinking. It undoubtedly comes through in my writing too.
So here you go: if you like reading about spiritual topics, I’m your man.
I also write about international travel, bullying, psychology, fist fights, revenge and art.
If you are interested in reading my upcoming work, please consider subscribing to my newsletter.
Publications
Rick Crispo, “This Time,” Braided Way Magazine, Dec 2023, https://braidedway.org/this-time/
Ted K. A. Brekken and Rick Crispo, “A Motor-generator and Supercapacitor Based System for Microgrid Frequency Stabilization,” 2013 1st IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) for Conference on Technologies for Sustainability (SusTech), Aug 2013, https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/6617314