I always find it hard to write an ‘About Me’ section because it is hard for me to describe myself in a way that I think encapsulates who I am. I’ll make this a little easier on myself by making this a combined ‘About Me’ and ‘About This Site’ page.

First of all, this site is going to be my creative portal to the world. I will be posting about literature, writing, music, composing, photography, food, and anything else that can be somehow deemed a fine art. I feel that our society has lost a lot of the impetus for creating works of art – in any form. I know that there are still many artists out there, but the consumption by the public in general is not all that great. Hopefully this site will share more of this with you who read it and maybe someone will be inspired to contribute in their own way.

Now the hard part. I suppose I should start by saying that I am a systems engineer by trade. I guess it wouldn’t be a stretch to assume that I am tech guy who is into electronics of all sorts. I also happen to enjoy fast two seater sports cars and off-road vehicles. In my younger days (I make it sound like I’m old,) I was really into literature of all sorts with J.R.R. Tolkien and Anne Rice being my favorite authors. I was a musician who played classical and jazz music and I even liked to draw at one point (though I was never really good at it.) Fast forward through college and I was now pressed for time as the demands of my career field overshadowed my creative pursuits, and I became one dimensional technical guru. Well, for the last two or three years, I have been slowly deciding to expand my creative pursuits again, more for balance than anything else.

That brings me to how this site came to be. This site used to be an online resume for my engineering work so that potential employers could get a better idea of who I was. Suffice it to say that I am no longer worried about employment as there are maybe 10 people in the country that do what I do, so job security is a given. I decided to re-purpose the site as my personal creative portal, discussing my views on literature pieces, music, art, food and the like. I will also be dabbling with creating music and creative writing. Who knows, I may even decide to draw or paint a few things? We’ll see how this all pans out in the end, and I don’t really have a solid structure for how this site will evolve. I would rather let it evolve as it choses to and see how you all react.

So, I guess I should close this section with a list of the things I enjoy. I already mentioned my two favorite authors above. I guess you can add my newest liked author, Stephenie Meyer, creator of the Twilight series. My musical tastes vary from classical and jazz to hard rock. I listen to a lot of 60s music and have an affinity for the love generation. I sometimes think I am a reincarnated hippie. My favorite genre of movies is horror, but not necessarily gory stuff like Saw. I prefer movies like The Exorcist, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, etc. My favorite movie of all time is Tombstone – Val Kilmer just nailed that one. I am a fan of Ghost Hunters and just about anything paranormal. I like HGTV, the Discovery Channel, the History Channel, the Science Channel, etc. I like to travel all over the world, but I especially like Mexico, Central and South America.

Now the technical stuff. I am a Linux/Unix engineer, so Linux is my operating system of choice. I mainly use Ubuntu, but I use CentOS a lot with clients who prefer the Red Hat stuff. I just got a new Macbook, the all aluminum one, and I like it so far. I’m still getting used to the OS, but it’s intuitive enough and it works for what I need it for. I am mainly using it for web publishing and writing a new novel. I will be getting Logic Studio soon to start composing music on it. Open Office is my office suite of choice. I am proud to say that I am Microsoft free. That doesn’t mean I don’t us it at work, but from a personal standpoint, I do not use any product of theirs. I have an iPod that I use all the time. I don’t really prefer the iPod over other mp3 players, but it works. I prefer Bose sound electronics for the majority of my casual listening, but I use a pair of Sennheiser head phones for the reference listening that I do on occassion. I love my Xbox 360 and PS3. I will be getting an iPhone soon, so I think I’ll like that. I think that pretty much sums up everything about me. If you want to know something else, just send me an email and I’ll either post it here or maybe blog about it if it might appeal to others.

Ernest