Welcome to learning about John.
Being a handsome young man isn't easy, so I chose the internet as a vent for my creative spirit. Thanks to being able to find and woo the right woman at a young age I am no longer on the hunt, but rather married, and happy to pass on what obviously worked for me to others. Anyway, here are the bits about me that probably aren't important to anyone I didn't marry.
- My wife's name is Heidi, and it was love at first sight. We have hardly been apart from the day we met. Our family also includes four cats, two ferrets, and an empty fish tank.
- I work in the software industry. Previously I had been with the same company for long stretches, but this year has been a bit of a roller coaster. Currently I am working as a supervisor at a software company for a support team of UNIX technicians.
- Photography is my new love. I hadn't even realized how much I enjoy it until I started learning from Heidi. I am looking forward to having a studio some day even if it is just for fun in my amateur works. My new love is my DSLR. (Canon 40D)
- For a computer guy, I am a bit odd at the moment in that I don't own a computer. The one I currently use is Heidi's laptop while I await acquiring my own. I am saving for a Macbook Pro, it just hasn't been going very well because moving around is expensive.
- I used to live in England. Heidi and I spent 3 years over there, and I am very glad I did it. It nearly ruined me financially, but it proved to be invaluable for learning about global business as well as bringing me to a much better cultural awareness. Unfortunately it has sparked a lust for travel that I can't afford to keep up to. Hopefully I will be making good money soon so I can become reacquainted with my joy in international travel and photography.
- I love reading and I do a lot of it. I tend to mix fiction and non-fiction in streaks. Sometimes I will read four or five novels in a row, digesting some Sci-fi/fantasy stuff or maybe just some action thrillers, and then I will read some non-fiction works in few areas. As Stephen Covey says, "You have to sharpen the saw." The last few I read include some excellent PHP books by David Powers, and some books on personal organization by a number of different authors. I split an Amazon Prime membership with my friend Mike, and I like putting it to good use. Right now I am reading Teach Yourself C# 2008 in 24 hours.
- I also love the movies. I spent a lot of time in the UK especially attending film showings. We used to have an unlimited card that let us attend Cineworld as much as we wanted for 10.99/month. We made good use of it. I saw an unbelievable number of movies, often going 2-3 times per week. It was so much easier when it didn't cost me any extra.
- Another thing I am fond of is music. I love listening to music. I have a giant music collection made mostly from ripping CDs. I hate DRM, so I still take the CD-Ripping path. The only sad thing for me is that I have to make sure I keep it backed up because most of our CDs were stolen during our move back and forth to England. This means I don't have the originals to rip from again if I get a virus or my hard drive crashes. Most of the rest are scattered around in storage as well, so it can be quite the challenge.
- Two awesome toys for my love of music and movies are the iPhone and the AppleTV. I watch a lot of media on those two, whether its my movie collection, or podcasts that I love so much from Ask a Ninja, to Photoshop User TV. Both have an excellent user interface, and the iPhone is wonderful because I can watch my movies or listen to music while I am out walking around or at the gym and automatically be interupted and notified if I get a call or a text message. This solves that horrible problem of missing calls while your listening to your iPod, especially annoying if your ringer is going off and everyone knows but you.
- Lastly, this year I have been working on going to the gym more. I have been going as frequently as twice per week between the baby stuff and the car troubles. It will be more in the winter as my gym is close enough that even if my car gives me static I can walk. I also walk a lot more in general in the winter because I live close to a lot of stuff.
