I'm currently[1] a master's student of Computer engineering[2] at Boston University. Before that, I graduated from Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts with a bachelor's degree in the same. I live in an apartment in Somerville Mass, outside of Boston, with my girlfriend of over 7 years, Melissa. Before that, we lived in Boston's Fenway neighborhood in a very small and very warm studio. Melissa and I will be getting married in early October, 2009 at the Provincetown Inn on Cape Cod.
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About Me
Politics and Society
Most people would probably describe my poltical and social views as extremely liberal, even radical, depending on who you're using for a reference. But at the risk of sounding self-righteous and pompous, I'd prefer not to be grouped into such categories because it's a generalization and tends to be misleading. And honestly, "liberals" tend to bug me almost as much as conservatives. And don't even get me started on moderates. I mean, come on! Why don't you care about anything?
I'm ashamed to admit I'm not as active as I should be in these areas. The comfort of my middle class life is a real hindrance to activism, but I'm trying to overcome that and take responsibility for my position in life.
You can read more about my views under Category:Politics and Category:Society. For a quick overview:
I think capitalism was an interesting idea and probably a bit better than feudalism (capitalism v. feudalism), but it's proved incomplete and highly conducive to corruption and greed. I think socialism and communism are both closer to the right idea, but obviously has flaws of their own. I dream of anarchy, but I know that if it's at all possible, it's a long ways off and will require vast changes in the way people view themselves and others. In the mean time, democracy seems to be doing reasonably well, though I'd like to do away with the electoral college and various other artifacts of republica. I also think the U.S. is too damn big. I'm oppose to the War in Iraq. I used to think that an immediate pull out was a bad idea because "our" president caused this mess and we had a responsibility to clean it up. Now I think our presence (read "occupation") there is only making things worse and that pulling out tomorrow morning couldn't possibly make things worse. It's a tough situation, but I don't think anyone has the right to ask more soldier to throw away their lives to go over there, or to ask the soldiers who are already there to stay any longer.
I think poverty is a completely unnecessary evil, and a plague that needs to be remedied. Capitalism has brought about a grossly unjust distribution of wealth and the way our system is set up right now, it can only get worse. I also think that one of the most important ways to fight this is through education. So many people are simply ignorant of the situation, and don't understand the complex set of variables that factor into a person's social and financial status.
I also think drugs should be legalized. Not because I necessarily support or condone the use of them, but because I think it's a person's private choice as long as it doesn't negatively impact other people. I strongly believe that a lot of these negative impacts—both to users and society at large—that are currently associated with drug use would disappear if they were legalized.
I'm also pro-choice, which goes along with my thoughts for drug legalization. I don't like the idea of abortion, but I don't think any government—let alone a government consisting almost entirely of aging white men and a hand full of old women—has the right to pass laws about it. I also believe that although there are often better alternatives to abortion, these are often made inaccessible to those who need them most. I would also like to point out that all those pro-lifers out there could be much more effective in reducing the number of abortions if they worked with women to make these options more viable, instead of parading around with gratuitous signs which do nothing more than frighten women into postponing their abortions until later in the term, making it much more dangerous.
Religion
Read more at Category:Religion
Let me preface this by saying that I am not atheist. Also let me say that, with the exception of Scientology and a few other notable exceptions, I try very hard, and am generally very successful at, not judging people based on religion. That said, I think religion is a scourge on this planet. You'd be hard pressed to convince me that the world wouldn't be a better if there had never been organized religion. Let me clarify that I have nothing against personal spirituality, I think it can be very useful for some people. It's organized religion that I have a problem with; I believe it's prone to produce close-mindedness, corruption, fear, and neophobia. I'm certainly not trying to say that every religous person is a bad person. I just think the institutions of religions are over all Bad Things.
So I'm not an athiest? No, I'm not. Let's start from the beginning. I was born into a protestant Christian family, we went to church fairly frequently, but the issue was never pushed much. Real world values and morality were always more important than religous dogma, and I guess after I while I just kind of grew out of it. I never stopped believing in God, but as time went on it started looking less and less like the Christian God. I've basically just developed my "religous" system over the years since then, based on what makes sense to me, based on what I believe to be right and wrong, what I believe to be good things and bad things. It works quite well for me and is still evolving, but I would never expect it to work for everyone, or anyone else, for that matter. But I do think it's important for everyone to evaluate their own belief systems—whether they're religous, political, what ever—and only keep those things that make sense to you personally. Religion is a very personal thing; if your beliefs don't make sense to you, can you really call yourself a complete person?
So where does that leave me now? Well, as of late I've been a Discordian Pope, and that's been working really well for the most part. I'm also an Accordian, which fits my grid a little better. I've spent time amongst the Noodly Appendages of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, and sought solace in the glory of Ipu (bbhhh).
So this is all just a bunch of crap, right? No, for me, this stuff is as serious as it gets, kind of a "Ha, ha, only serious". People say Discordianism is a joke disguised as a religion, but these are people who don't understand it. The true nature of Discordianism is that it's a religion disguised as a joke (disguised as a religion...). And the other stuff...yeh that's mostly crap. But's it's serious crap.
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Music
'See also Category:Music
Music is pretty important to me, though sadly, I don't actually have much musical talent. But I listen to a lot of music, and a wide variety of it. I basically stopped listening to the radio sometime in junior high when I started developing a personal taste in music and thus started considering the radio music to be generally crap. At any given point, you're likely to find me listening to punk rock, clasic rock, ska, jazz, funk, and certain varieties of folk music (not necc. in that order). Some of my all time favorite musical acts are Ani Difranco, The Steve Miller Band, Bad Religion, and Loggins and Messina. Outside of that, my top artists are likely to vary day to day. A more complete list can be found at Favorite Musicians, and some of my all time favorite songs can be found at Favorite Songs.
My co-worker once asked me what kind of music I listen to, so I told him basically the same as what I said above. He responded, "So you don't listen to anything like...normal?" The answer then is the same as now, "No". It's not on purpose, I don't deliberately avoid "pop" music, I've just yet to find anything that appeals to me about it. It all just sounds so hollow, and devoid of real talent. It also all sounds the same to me. But I guess people think the same thing about my music.
Hobbies
Where to begin...I have a lot of ridiculous hobbies which all compete for time. I do a little cooking and I make my own hot sauce. I used to grow and dry mint, but those died in the dorms and I haven't gotten back to it, yet. I do simple one-color screen printing of t-shirts and bumper stickers, and tried my hand at rubber stamp carving, but I don't think I had the right tools. Maybe I'll get back to it sometime. I do a very little bit of painting and sketching. As a computer eng'r, I tend to have a lot of ongoing computer and electronic projects.
Notes
- ↑ 07/28/08
- ↑ Just for the record, this is not the same thing as Computer science. What's the difference?
