Who I Am
If something actually compelled you to click your way to this page, then I can guess your curiosity is either for insight into my character or some measure how inclined I am to prattle on about myself.
This (being an effort at both openness and vanity) should answer both questions. I can’t really tell you who I am, but I can say things about myself from which you can draw your own conclusions.
-
I am a logical thinker with a love for creative endeavors. So I did the most logical thing I could think of: becoming a game programmer and dabbling in everything else to some tiny degree. Some things I’m actually a little good at.
I absolutely love even-grounds collaboration in creative activities. Specifically, multidisciplinary game development.
If I could find a way to make a reliable but meager income while spending my time making free games, I would take it in an instant over a lifestyle of making commercial games which might occasionally see wide success. My largest and most successful project to date earns me no money and has been a volunteer effort on my part.
I learned the lesson early on that acquiring regard as an artist doesn’t lead to fulfillment, and hold no illusions about the matter. I won’t avoid doing so, as a well-known artist can get a message out to a greater audience. (I’d like to think this is my reason, at any rate. These things are complicated.)
I maintain a healthy disrespect for authority and advise others to do so as well. (I am a libertarian, in a sense largely unrelated to the American political party.) I have on one occasion organized a “mutiny” among coworkers, with my party threatening to quit unless certain demands relating to a creative project were met.
I have assisted in the raising and bottle-feeding of nine orphaned baby raccoons, one crippled squirrel, and the socializing of numerous kittens and puppies. I logged perhaps a hundred hours or more on horseback in younger years. The other day I got to handle a milk snake larger than any serpent I’d held before, regarding it as a beautiful animal. I decided that if I should ever make one a pet its name shall be “snuggles” or some such.
I think extraordinarily little of violence. I don’t hunt. I have taken courses in martial arts, but primarily in an attempt to learn self-discipline.
I am good with kids.
Owing to beliefs about health and mass economics, I minimize my consumption of meat. I would be vegetarian but for the inconvenience. I enjoy my milk and eggs, however. On multiple occasions I have made meals of obscene amounts of fresh fruit, and did not regret doing so.
I’m sober in all regards (and will at most make a habit of the odd glass of wine later on) and generally avoid caffeine for not wanting to be dependent on it. I drink chamomile tea.
I despise nothing more than mass marketing and the effect it has on society. I’m a horrible, hunched, cursing cynic when it comes to matters of corporate ethics and the like. (Otherwise, I like to think I’m pleasant if a little excitable) Today, I considered printing a shirt that says “Save 100% — Don’t fucking buy it”.
I love bicycling. So much. Too bad I don’t have a bike right now.
At the age of 20, I have never had a car or driver’s license. This will change, but only as a matter of not inconveniencing friends and family. After it has, I plan to make a point of riding my bike twice as often as driving.
I consider myself spiritual, but not religious. I consider myself secular, but not an atheist. I like discussing ideology with people of all sorts, but avoid students of philosophy for fear of meaningless semantic arguments. My own philosophy is a bizarre amalgam formed from snatches of Jungian psychology, dreams, Taoism, Buddhism, and artistic expression. Perhaps its most important aspect is that there’s a teacher in all of us.
I consider myself a good judge of character. I’ve tried to explain why on two occasions, both times so shaken to actually articulate the process that I physically shook. I don’t think I got the idea across. (The basic gist is that the underlying character of a human being is a surprisingly unified thing–watch someone, step into their shoes, then reconstruct why you act the way you do. One of those passionate subjects, I guess.)
Though this one should be obvious, I don’t really put a lot of stock in keeping secrets or telling lies for personal reasons. Both of those things tend to complicate things unnecessarily. There are certain exceptions, naturally, such as being a confidant to a friend, small wonders that stand to be spoiled by widespread knowledge, or surprises. Those aside, though, I aspire to be an open book.
-
Anyway, that’s all I have to say about myself for now. Direct hate mail, accusations of egotism, lawsuits, confessions of love, viruses and restraining orders to [evan@infiniteblank.com].