…me

I’ve operated a nuclear reactor under hundreds of feet of water. I’ve traveled to distant lands and experienced foreign cultures. If you owned an electronic device any time between 1997 and 2009 that used memory (things like cell phones, Macs, PCs, Xboxes, iPods, little things like that), chances are pretty good that I personally worked on one of the machines that helped make those memory chips. These days, I help punch holes in Mother Earth to suck out her tasty, tasty crude. I’ve followed a very unconventional career path.

I’ve been described as “an evil genius with a conscience, a sick puppy, a sensitive and compassionate person, and a lot of fun.”

I love movies. I love intelligent movies, ones like “Inception” and “The Fountain” that grab you by the brainstem and make you sit up, pay attention, and think. I love so-called popcorn movies like “Armageddon” and “The Fast and the Furious” that don’t care about things like real-world physics because they’re too busy making sure you’re having a good time. I love movies you can’t really pigeonhole like “Baraka” and “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” that bring something entirely new to the screen and end up setting a precedent for other movies to follow. I can forgive bad acting, maybe even enjoy it, but a boring plot will kill a movie for me every time.

I like to write. I like to joke with people, telling them, “I live a rich fantasy life.” I’ve whole worlds in my head that occasionally leak out through my fingers and into readable form. I’ve written in one form or another for almost thirty years. Even though my interests tend towards sci-fi, my writing leans more towards the fantasy realm. Alas, my first short story, “The Cafeteria Food Blob,” written when I was 14, hasn’t survived the passage of time. In 2011, my short story “Full Circle” was published in the anthology When The Hero Comes Home from Dragon Moon Press, available at Amazon. In 2012, my short story “The Best Laid Plans” was published in the follow-up When The Villain Comes Home from Dragon Moon Press, available at Amazon. I have an author page at Goodreads.

I used to own a t-shirt that was legally classified as a munition.

I graduated from high school when I was sixteen.

I believe in personal responsibility, a big mug of hot chocolate on cold rainy mornings, transhumanism, and the serial comma.

Most people seem to find me pretty interesting but I think of myself as a regular sort of guy. I just try to be the best person I can be and let the rest fall where it may.

…this thing here

I’ve blogged in one form or another since 2001. For nearly eight years I used LiveJournal until letting it fall by the wayside near the end of 2009. I continued with Facebook in 2010, but it’s hard to lay down serious thoughts in 420 characters. And so I find myself here, with proper blogging software once more. It doesn’t have quite the same social aspects as LJ did, but that’s OK. As I’ve grown up, so has my writing. It’s time to start treating it accordingly.

The background image comes courtesy of NASA and the Hubble Space Telescope. It’s a stellar jet in the Carina Nebula, taken by the Hubble’s WFC3 camera. You can read more about it here and get the original image in a variety of formats here. I also use the image on my Twitter page and my personal business cards.

…the name

Oh, my blog’s name? It’s a roundabout reference to Briareos, my usual nom de net which started out way back in the day as a reference to the Appleseed character. These days, though, it seems like I need fifty heads and a hundred hands to keep up with everything going on in my life. It’s funny how life works out like that.