About Me

For those who don’t already know me, my name is Jesse Card.  I’m a Provo, UT native, but am currently hanging out in Central TX.  Life’s been good to me overall, though I have had my challenges just like anyone else.  In my early years my life lessons came from my Grandpa, Charles William Crosby.  He was a cattle rancher in the area of southern Utah and northern Arizona known as the “Arizona Strip.”  It is from him that I learned my basic identity, those quintessential values of the western rancher: love, dignity, pride, and honor.  I’m a few generations late, but I’m still part of the spit-and-handshake way of life.

After graduating high school, I joined the U.S. Army, where I still work full-time.  I have deployed to Iraq four times, spending most of my time working with Iraqis trying to get them to not fight each other.  It was basically marketing, but working with intangibles rather than good ol’ see-hear-touch-feel-smell things we look for at WalMart.  It is a sales job with no clear measures of effectiveness and zero return on investment at personal levels.  Despite all of that, it was fun.  I have learned much about that culture, seen the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and the Ziggurat of Ur, and made better friends than can be found without equal common hardship.  I have lost good friends, too, but their memories will all live on through the efforts of those of us who remember them.

As for my interests, I read.  From Chaucer to Brown, Shakespeare to Bryson, Hemingway to O’Brien, I love it all.  Stories fascinate me, and I love learning.  Though my Army schedule has only left me enough time to get two years of my BA in Middle Eastern Studies complete, I would yet place my knowledge base significantly higher than the average college grad simply from the volume of reading I do.  Right beside reading is outdoor activities.  I have a television, but no cable or dish connected to it.  Instead I choose the natural nature channel.  Long hikes, distance runs, and backpacking are the activities I most often engage in.  If I could I would take Thoreau’s route and just leave: though unlike him, I would actually set up camp far from civilization.  I like people from time to time, but I would love just living in the middle of nowhere.  I would need a shed or something to store all of my books, though. Hopefully I can retreat to a place with plenty of natural vegetables, too, because I no longer eat meat or participate in animal suffering in any way I can avoid.

But, since I can’t leave, I might as well assimilate and use the talents that I have, right?  I’m just now kicking of my meager writing career.  I don’t have as much time to commit to it as I’d like, but I figure it to be an excellent hobby, and when I do finally have the time to dedicate to it I will have a firm base from which to get started.  I am still building my portfolio, but it things are going well. 

If you’re looking for a writer, feel free to contact me.  I prefer to work through Elance - a fairly simple service that protects both the service provider and the hiring agent – where I am gurujesse as well.  You can also email me at gurujesse@yahoo.com if your project is non-profit or for some reason you just don’t feel comfortable with Elance.