This is the section where all the silly and strange things that I do, think, or say live, safely isolated from my "professional demeanor." You have been warned.

This page is out of date. Consult my LiveJournal for current information.

To start with, I'm a white man, married, mid-twenties, with long brown hair and glasses. I'm 6 feet tall, and weigh around 230-250 pounds. I'm not much of a flashy dresser. When I'm at work, I wear a pair of nice jeans and a polo shirt, or a button-down shirt, no tie. When I'm out doing stuff, I generally wear a t-shirt and jeans. I own three pairs of shoes: a pair of cheap sandals from Payless, a pair of sneakers that resemble Ben Stein's Airwalks, and a pair of eight-eyelet smooth leather Dr. Marten's combat boots, which unfortunately don't fit, so I plan to sell them.

If you think I have a thing about combat boots, you're right. I started wearing combat boots during my abortive semester at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I had recently decided that I was a Goth, and I had it on very good information that Goths wore combat boots. So I went to Champaign Surplus and bought a pair of boots with a zipper down the side of each boot. Later I was told that these were known as "Jump Boots," although I always referred to them as my "Zip Boots." From there, when one pair wore out, I'd reinforce them with duct tape until I could afford to buy another pair. There were a couple of periods where I didn't have a pair of combat boots, but they were relatively short. At one point I wore a pair of oxblood steel toed work boots. After my accident, my current pair of boots had gotten stained with blood, so Hlynna (my wife) made me throw them away. Between then and the day I got my Docs, I wore the aforementioned sneakers.

I'm proud to call myself a computer geek. I worked for A World of Difference, Inc. doing tech support for two years. In all honesty, I'm none too fond of doing tech support. In total, I've been doing telephone tech support, on and off, for two and a half years, and I'm heartily sick of it. I've come to the realization that the "real world tm" is scary and unpleasant, at least for me. That's why I've gone back to school (the College of Charleston to be precise) and I now plan to pursue my doctorate in Computer Science. I've got another two years to go on my undergrad, so there's still room for change, but as of now, that is the Plan. Maybe I'll go do something completely unrelated to computers, just for a change, but truth be told, I probably won't. Once a geek, always a geek, I suppose.

As evidenced by the banner at the top of the page, I am a supporter of OpenNIC. For in-depth information on who OpenNIC are, and what they do, see their FAQ. I see OpenNIC as a valuable addition to the Internet, as it is comprised mainly of individuals, rather than corporations, and is governed democratically. ICANN have their place, and are certainly extremely valuable to the Internet. I just don't want them as the only game in town.

My operating system of choice is Linux. I use KDE for my desktop and e-mail, and Mozilla for my web browser. I spend a fair amount of time mucking about with my system, and occasionally breaking things. When I break things, I fix them, and while I'm not an expert by any means, I do consider myself quite well-versed.

When last I worked on this page, sometime in September 2001, I was working 6 days a week. All that changed on October 22, 2001. I was riding my bicycle home from work, as I did every night since CARTA changed the bus schedule so that I could no longer take a bus most of the way home. As I was crossing the North Bridge, (aka the Cosgrove Bridge, where S.C. Hwy 7 crosses the Ashley River) a drunk driver hit me. E.M.S. were called, and I was rushed to MUSC, where I remained until November 4. I suffered various and sundry painful skin abrasions, scalp lacerations, a concussion, broken ribs, a collapsed lung, and a broken leg, which explains why I was in the hospital for so long.

I am, once again, a fairly avid bicyclist. I've sworn off bicycle commuting from West Ashley to North Charleston, and vice versa, but I do commute from my home downtown to the College. I ride a Gary Fisher Capitola, that I just got. I go to Critical Mass regularly, and so far, I've managed to avoid getting hassled by the police.