About Me
I'm the owner of Flare Development Group, a company dedicated to everything computer related and nothing in
particular. It hasn't gotten off the ground officially, but I get mail and catalogs and visa card offers every week,
and it's my experience that if creditors believe in you, it's destiny. :-)
My wife and I live in Austin, TX. It's been a nice
town to grow up in, but we may be looking to live elsewhere soon. It really depends on where we
decide to raise our family, now that she's pregnant with our first. Update! Our first born has arrived.
The professional me. If you're hiring, I'm looking.
My Other Pages
I got busy and expanded the tiny pre-fab molded pond into a legitimate water feature in my back yard. It's 90% done, but I
figured I'd go ahead and make this web page now, because it could be a while before it gets finished, if ever. The fish have
already grown and I'm already enjoying the pond, so the last 10% isn't that pressing to me.
All the details and tons of pictures, such as the one on the left. If you're considering going on a relaxing trip,
you can find almost anything you enjoy there except snow.
I built a few planes from styrofoam, wood, and spare parts and strapped rocket engines to them.
Photos and videos, and limited build plans are shown. Check it out!
While from hard experience, these tips are about a year old. I started working on a book that covers style and C++, including a lot of hard earned experience from
writing sections of code one way or another over the years. It will never get completed because in the end, it was a preachy list of do's and don'ts that ultimately
would not help impart actual experience to readers. I'm even more convinced that good programming style is something you come to by learning from those better than you,
and no other way. It's a shame, really, because the best teachers can only influence so many minds in a lifetime, then their experience and intuition is lost.
Home base.
The master of acoustic pop guitar and soulful vocals, Monte is a star on the rise. I run a site that helps promote his
music. Check it out; some MP3s are available for download.
This was my home for six of the best years of my college life. :-)
Find E.T. so we can kick his butt.
A minimal and dated page on Austin, TX.
Free Time
What do I do when not working?
- Mountain biking is great stress relief. Besides, Austin has way too many great limestone cliffs to NOT ride bikes up them. I don't get around to this much anymore, but it is the healthiest thrill on earth, once you get past buying the bike.
- Occasionally I like to play character-based RPGs, such as ADOM and NetHack, where emphasis is on the game and not the graphics.
- I work on home projects. This may be anything from my new pond to sound proofing my office, or any of a number of odd projects I take on with ambitions to complete.
- What very little time there is after all that, I play some guitar, drums, and occasionally bass. Once upon a time, I had some piano skills and was quite accomplished at violin. I haven't seriously played anything in a few years, though. Something to do with marriage and priorities... Now that I've sold my drums and bass, I have a lot more space for other projects, too.
- I read. At least, I try to. Nowadays I do more reading on the web, but I have about 30 books sitting on or in my nightstand waiting their turns.
The kind people at Half Price Books knew me by sight for a while there.
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Favorite Authors
- Isaac Asimov - He has one of the best overall styles of any author I've read. Somewhat simple, but accessible and good for all ages.
- Robert Heinlein - His work has brought many a grin to my face, with the most vibrant (and occasionally sensual) characters of any work I've ever read. Everything he writes simply feels intelligent.
- Patricia McKillip - Her series beginning with the Riddlemaster of Hed is amazing, though very hard to find in bookstores. It was a better read the first time, though.
- Douglas Adams - A genius with a British wit that transcribes Python amazingly well to the written page. His later works were less inspired, but I mourn his recent death nonetheless.
- Lloyd Alexander - A childhood favorite who gave me incredible inspiration on many levels. I still go back and read the Prydain Chronicles every few years.
- Roald Dahl - Stories about Charlie and his adventures... what wonderful reading for kindling the imagination. He passed away just a few years ago, too.
- Steven Levy - Everything I've read of his is golden. Even when covering what could be incredibly dry and textbook-like material, I am enthralled and envy the groundbreaking newness of the period documented in Hackers.
- Robert Asprin - The Myth adventures are some of the shortest and most interesting books, which, similar to Adams, get more tired and symbolic of the author's life rather than imaginative or astonishing as the series runs.
I still search the shelves for the next book every time I hit the store, though.
I have a goal to read all the good science fiction and fantasy ever written. My only hope for completion is that the genres go the way of the Western, and lately, I think sci-fi probably has. Fantasy will never
die, as they can continue recycling the same plot contrivances in an infinite variety of dragon colors and silly character names. That's only half a joke.
Recent Reads
- Riddlemaster of Hed from McKillip. This took weeks of searching to locate a copy, and it's not even in great condition. The rest are still in print, from what I can tell.
- Asimov: Foundation, Robots, and Empire Series. Great works.
- Heinlein: A few Lazarus Long books
- Bradbury: Several short story collections and the Martian Chronicles. A bit dry, but at times spellbinding.
- H.P. Lovecraft: A few books of collected short stories. It's hard to sink my teeth into it, but when I do, the stories end too quickly. If I can find any complete books of his,
I'd be satisfied, but I'm beginning to think Lovecraft had difficulty carrying the momentum of horror for that length of writing, and ended his stories as quickly as he built the approprate mood for fear. Pity.
The Nightstand
- Godel, Escher, Bach. Too bad it's such a hard book to read straight through, because there's a good bit of insight in various places. It's just so damn tedious in others.
- Lots of expectant father books. (Thanks Mark & Cat)
- O'Reilly books on Linux, Perl, Java, etc. These are the bee's knees of continuing education in the technology sector.
- More Lovecraft.
- Heinlein (yay!)
- A number of one off Asimov books that looked interesting in the book store.
(By the way, I'm sad that I waited so long to discover science fiction and classical literature. While my mentors
never mentioned sci-fi, all those English teachers were right about good books, for the most part. Too bad it's too
late to answer all those empty essay questions.)
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