Programming
I have a long history – 34 years now! (2023 update: 44) – as a programmer now (see my Programming page for a more detailed overview). Last position was as a senior software engineer at ZipRecruiter, laid off in RIF 3.0 on May 31,2023. I was originally hired primarily as a Perl expert, but Zip’s direction has changed, and RIF 3.0 was The Great Perl Purge. I did do a lot of other stuff there in Scala – a very nice wrapper for Amazon’s deequ library for data QA, and a chunk of Go work (including a tech blog post on the Engineering Blog just a few months earlier).
I’ve also written a number of things for RadioSpiral: an automated Tor login blocker, a script to turn an iTunes/Music playlist into CSV (meant to be used to upload a playlist for Radio Station Pro; hooking it in is still in progress), the RadioSpiral iOS streaming audio app, and our station’s bot, Spud.
I’m keeping my hand in, working on a few projects that are currently of personal interest.
Music
I write, record and perform music deriving from many forms – jazz, “classical” electronic music, ambient music, and Indonesian gamelan, with influences from a wide variety of artists: Laurie Anderson, Frank Zappa, Wendy Carlos, Pat Metheny, Brian Eno, John Cage – lyrical pieces with unique timbres and harmonies.
My esthetic could be best summarized as exploring the fractal edge of planning and coincidence. I like to assemble a situation in which I’ve got the basic outline of things under control, but then either improvise inside them, or allow the situation to unfold on its own, letting the uncontrolled and unplanned portions inspire and surprise me, both in my music and my photography.
I have two albums available for download from Earth Mantra, and I”m moving future releases over to Bandcamp.
Photography
I am a strong believer in “the best camera is the one that’s with you”, so I’ve been working over the past couple years to really learn to use my iPhone as my primary camera. I find the quirkiness of the sensor response interesting, especially in low-light situations. I’ve been using Hipstamatic, Camera Awesome, and the built-in Camera app for most of my shooting, with an occasional side trip to Pano for panoramas or fake large-format shots. I like the option to show whenever I like, since I’m always carrying my phone.
I have a few pieces up on Deviant Art, and am planning to add more; have started posting here and there to Instagram as well.