The Self


Who am I? I'm a lot of things -- too many, sometimes. Here's a quick rundown of some of them. (Some of this still needs a little updating.)

I'm irilyth, and there's a story behind that. (Although I should warn you now that it's not a very good one; but people kept asking, so hey.)

I'm a troubleshooter. I find out what's wrong with things, and figure out how to fix them. First and foremost, across all aspects of life.

I'm a sysadmin. I know how computers work, I know why they break, I know how to make them work again, and I know how to make them break less often.

I'm a catalyst. I talk to people, and make them talk to each other, and help them come up with better solutions to their problems than they could figure out on their own. BASF turned it into a marketing slogan, but it was true for me before I heard them say it: I can't make everything you do, but I can make everything you do better.

I'm a gamer. Board games, like Titan and Civ, Die Siedler and Outpost, Wiz War and Cosmic. Card games, like bridge and hearts and poker. Hybrids, like Magic and Jyhad, Nuke War and Illumniati, Once Upon A Time and Dark Cults. Parlor games, like Telephone Pictionary and Chain Link Murder, Charades and Encore and Botticelli. RPGs, like Fuzion and neo-D&D.

I'm a dancer. English country -- beautiful, elegant, graceful, subtle. Contra -- intense, alive, enthralling, erotic. Scottish -- intricate, strong, powerful, precise.

I'm an athlete. Ultimate frisbee, cycling, weightlifting, volleyball, racquetball, hiking, kayaking. (Not all well, but enjoyably anyway.)

I'm a music-lover. Capercaille, Clannad, Patrick Doyle, Dream Theater, Enya, the Eurythmics, Peter Gabriel, Indigo Girls, Lowen and Navarro, Loreena McKinnett, Sarah McLachlan, Nightnoise, Oingo Boingo, Rush, Steeleye Span, Sting, Tangerine Dream, Tempest, 10,000 Maniacs, Wolfstone. (I haven't updated this list in a while, so it's a little out of date...)

I'm a TV-watcher. The Amazing Race, West Wing, Junkyard Wars, The Daily Show, Futurama, South Park, Angel, Survivor, The Mole, Friends, ER, The Simpsons, King Of The Hill, 60 Minutes, Alias, Monster Garage, Full Metal Challenge, Six Feet Under, The Sopranos, Samurai Jack, Travel Sick, Pardon The Interruption. Buffy, Seinfeld, Babylon 5, Murder One, Homicide, Relativity, My So-Called Life.

I'm a geek. I run a small network out of my apartment, serving e-mail and web sites for friends and family. I have a Handspring Treo that puts a phone and PDA into a space the size of a pack of cards. I have a computer museum that includes my original Mac SE/30, a Duo 250, and a NeXT.

I'm SWIL. I grew up at Swarthmore, among these Warders of extremely Imaginative Literature. My best friends are SWILfolk, and they form a social group that spans a decade and a half and then some. They're like a family without the sibling rivalry, a frat without the drunken violence, and a Scottish clan without the funny accents. (Ok, we actually do have plenty of funny accents, but we figure that's a good thing.)


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Last updated on 2003-06-04 (Wed) at 17:33 PDT