Interests

Reading

I love books and read as much as I can. Nonfiction interests include history, biography, social justice, science, and tech history, though I try to read outside those categories as well. Fiction interests primarily center on fantasy and science fiction, with occasional forays into mystery and classic lit and other genres. I’m also interested in ereaders and other ways of reading.

History

While I’m interested in most parts of history, areas of particular interest include the history of innovation, the history of science, the history of medicine, prehistory, the ancient world, medieval times, the Renaissance, and American history (both early and recent).

Writing

On and off I write fiction and poetry, mostly fantasy or science fiction. I’m quite interested in writing routines and outlining vs. discovery writing and crafting sentences. I also very much enjoy blogging.

Art

My artistic interests tend to revolve around making art with digital methods, though I’m also interested in analog methods even if I don’t spend much if any time actually making art that way. I’m particularly interested in making digital art look more analog. (Not in an attempt to deceive; I just like the look more.) Good textures make me happy.

Typesetting

I’m interested in making books, which for me usually means typesetting (designing book interiors) and type design (which I haven’t done much of but maybe someday will). I love good typefaces. Designing book interiors with HTML and CSS has been a recent focus of interest for me. (There are some compelling advantages over, say, InDesign. Or LaTeX. But also some disadvantages.)

Food

Thai food, all the way. Also Vietnamese food. And tacos. And ice cream. And shawarma and gyros. And pizza. And homemade bread. I like trying new foods from around the world.

Music

I mostly listen to film soundtracks like Star Wars (even though the films don’t interest me much anymore, the music hits the spot for me, including more recent soundtracks like Rogue One) and Lord of the Rings, with favorite composers including John Williams, Hans Zimmer, Michael Giacchino, and Rachel Portman (I need to listen to more film music by female composers). I also listen to musicals and tend to prefer shows like Les Mis, Phantom, Aida, Little Women, Finding Neverland, Into the Woods, Jane Eyre, Secret Garden, and West Side Story. And I like classical music. Especially Rachmaninoff.

Productivity

I’m always interested in better techniques for getting things done and being more productive. That doesn’t mean I’m always productive, of course (rest and relaxation are important), but plowing through a to-do list is tremendously satisfying.

Languages

I don’t spend much time studying languages any more, sadly, but Latin and Old English are still my favorites. I have a family history interest in Spanish and Italian, and an interest in Thai from my mission.

Genealogy

I’ve been doing family history research on and off for a while. Lately I’ve tended to focus primarily on my family lines from Spain, Cuba, and Italy, because those Catholic records are amazing. I’m also interested in genealogical chart design.

Tech

I’ve been writing code for the vast majority of my life, and it’s been my day job for basically my whole career. Areas of tech that interest me: the web (especially the web platform and the indie web), compilers and interpreters, DSLs, small VMs, assembly languages, systems languages like Rust and Zig, programming language design, human-computer interface design, graphics, Vim, and toolmaking. I’ll note that with a lot of these, I’m interested and read/think about them on and off but haven’t done many (if any) projects with them. Maybe someday. (Or maybe not. Outside of work, I tend to not put much time into coding these days, partly because of my back issues and partly because there are so many books to read and yet so little time.)