About

Hi. Welcome to my blog, a sort of public journal of my thoughts, observations, and experiences. To understand my articles it could help to understand me. I will try to provide a brief summary here. I last updated this in February of 2011. If a year or so has past, someone remind me to give this an overhaul.

I became blind at birth. This happened in 1977. I got my first computer in 1983 or so, an Apple II/E, the first home computer the blind could use. I took to it immediately, and started programming as soon as I learned how. Since day one I have pretty much taught myself everything I know with computers. It all started when I had the idea to type LIST. To this day it still seems magical that I can write code and make a computer do something new.

In third grade, I listened to an audio adaptation of the Time Machine. The next day I went into class and asked my teacher if a cube has no duration does it still have an actual existence? He didn’t know. I realized then that I couldn’t talk to anyone in my class about these things, and that I think differently than most people.

In the fourth grade we had a jellybean counting contest. They filled a jar with jellybeans, and students in all grades would submit their guesses. The closest would win an undetermined jellybean-related prize. We had just done the unit about area, specifically how to find the area of a cylinder. I quickly figured out that I should use the formula, PI(R^2)H to find the area, using jellybeans as my unit of measure. I thought those wily adults just wanted to see if we had learned the concept. But then why did they involve the whole school? What a dumb contest, I figured all the kids would realize this, count the jellybeans to get the height and radius, get the same data, and get the same answer. It never occurred to me that nobody else had thought of this. I asked a lunchroom aide to count the jellybeans across then divided in half to get the radius. I asked her to count the jellybeans going up the side of the jar for its height. I compensated a little since jellybeans don’t have cubic shapes, submitted my answer, and won! The jar had close to a thousand jellybeans. I got forty as a reward.

After that a bunch of stuff happened. I moved to the PC in middle school. I started running a bulletinboard, and to this day I have never had more fun on a computer. I also became a Discordian. I figured any religion that could get me through high school could get me through life. Besides, the idea of a crazy woman running everything makes sense to me.

I attended Capitol College and Widener for computer science, but never got a degree. I just can’t deal with extraneous stuff. That does not make one well-rounded. Living does.

I became a vegetarian in 1998 or so. I do it purely for physical reasons. My body feels repulsed by meat. Idealism doesn’t enter into it. I don’t care if other people eat meat. I just want a good meal too. Because of this, I have also become a good cook, at least good enough for my own needs, and my friends seem to agree. I enjoy cooking for the same reason I enjoy programming, you know what goes into your system. However, when it comes to your body, you only get one. You can’t trade it in every three years like a computer, at least not yet. By the way, I love Cacao, raw chocolate.

I began meditating around age fifteen or so. Most recently, I have developed an amazing technique, which I will begin publishing shortly. That always comes first, above computers or politics or anything else. It has to.

I campaigned for Ron Paul in 2007, and will again this time. I did the tech work for Ron Paul Radio. Since I didn’t want people to really contact me unless necessary, my tagline on the contact page said: Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain. I did a show with that name, and the blog grew from that. After the station collapsed, I decided I enjoyed having a blog, so kept it and moved it here. Now I have so much more. I hope you enjoy it. The Goddess prevails!

You can contact me via email, Twitter, or if you know me in real life and want to risk it, Facebook.

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