chicus.com
have your sliced bread and eat it too.
About
About chicus.com
chicus.com is a miscellany of writings by the namesake of the site, whom you can learn more about below. It is a collection of his thoughts and questions, as well as the activities that lead to those thoughts.
About chicus
chicus is the name Carl Cottrell took his in his Latin class at Saint Edmond High School in Fort Dodge, IA. The common joke was that if you take any word and change the suffix to '-us' it becomes Latin. Thus chico, meaning boy in Spanish, became 'Chicus' and a nickname was born.
The monicker traveled with Carl to Dubuque, IA where he attended Loras College and majored in Management Information Systems (MIS, computer stuff). He credits his senior year at Loras with his predisposition for thinking. With his roommates Dave and Phil, Carl spent many an evening on the front porch sipping a fine beer (probably Miller Light) and reflecting on the state of politics, current events, and society in general. Together they never found any clear answers, though they had many ideas. He also took a haiku class that fall semester which taught him to slow down and take note of the small things around him. He credits this class with his attention to small details that others may find insignificant.
In late May of 2001, with tornado warnings popping up around Dubuque, Dave and Phil shooed him out of town. He pulled away towing his car behind a fifteen foot Uhaul, a cooler of PB & J, Mountain Dew, and deer jerky parked on the passenger side floorboard. Twenty-five hours later Carl pulled into his new Brookline, MA neighborhood to begin the next chapter of life.
After a brief adjustment period--his first lesson was that it is not common to share deer jerky with coworkers on your first day--Carl settled into the faster big-city life. The things that he took for granted as being 'right' in Iowa were largely 'wrong' in his new life. A revolt of sorts occurred in his mind and for a while he spurned all things Iowa. In time he was able to appreciate the good and bad of both Iowa and Boston and realize neither had a monopoly on the 'right' way to live. Five years later Carl can still be found meandering around Boston on warm days, contemplating otherwise trivial things, as well as a few important things.
About the About page
A friend and I were 'googling' each other and I realized how far down you had to go to find information on me. Other Carl Cottrell's took up the first two pages of results. Even when the result was about me, it didn't exactly give any relevant information on me. Therefore, I created this page that contains my name and other keywords that may help people interested in finding me.
Welcome, I am glad you found me. I apologize for the third person references, it just felt odd writing an autobiography.