Hi! I'm Shawn.

I've been in Massachusetts for most of my life. I like it here, especially the city. I like that I can walk around see new.. er, old stuff every weekend. And where else are you expected to quack at tourists?

I love learning things. I'm curious to a fault. Doesn't matter what it is; math, philosophy, linguistics, color theory, pottery, anything, it's all good. Though I have no plans to study Korean, I'm going to spend a night learning its alphabet, Hangul, because praise like "the most perfect phonetic system devised" makes it practically irresistible.

I'm a web developer for a small company in Davis Square. We give our software away. Big companies, universities, and organizations that really like it pay us for support, training, custom development, and whatever else they want. You've heard of many of our clients. We also have various and sundry websites and other projects going on. I really love my job. It's pretty laid back, and my coworkers and boss are great. I also get to work from home.. or the beach! whenever I want!!

Like just about everyone else, I love traveling. Engineers enjoy talking to other engineers about engineering, so every few months I go to a conference somewhere in the world. Recently I've been to Chicago, Pittsburgh, Minneapolis, and all across Japan. In the next year, I plan to go to Pisa, Vancouver, Orlando, Columbus Ohio, and maaybe Rio de Janeiro. At these conferences, I give a technical talk (or three). Sometimes I even give an eight-hour training course about a trendy software project I work on. And they pay me quite well! On top of that, sometimes I present the class with an interpreter. How surreal is that? It's fun to mess with interpreters by using words like "ontology" and "prolix".

When I'm not bombing across the world, I study Japanese. It's an interesting, productive way to spend my free time. I mean, watching Japanese game shows counts as studying, right? But really, I do study it earnestly. Since I get asked a lot, no, I'm not into anime.

I'm also working on my newfound photography chops. I started because of all the travel I do; it's silly to let all those amazing landscapes and landmarks remain uncaptured. It's probably time I splurge for a really nice DSLR camera..

I'm really good at NetHack, so much so that multiple people have told me stories of things I have done, not knowing I am the same person. I've moved on from that chapter of my life though. Really fun while it lasted, but I've seen and done it all. :)

I haven't gone to college, but I will eventually. When I do, I will probably focus on a totally new field.. maybe architecture? You know, follow in the footsteps of my hero, Art Vandelay. But for right now, I'm very happy with my job and the opportunities it affords me. There's no way I'm giving it up. I am completely serious about the beach thing!

laughing. I practice whenever I can. :)

Books: I'm madly in love with the Dune series. I don't know what it is, maybe the slight air of pretentiousness, but reading Herbert is unlike reading anyone else. My favorite book that I've read recently is Stanisław Lem's The Cyberiad. It's a great blend of humor and science fiction, though it's almost, but not completely, unlike Douglas Adams. Against my better judgment I've just started reading The Stand. I'm a sucker for post-apocalyptic fiction but it's sooo long.

Poetry: I could spend all day reading ee cummings. Oh, hey apparently he was born and grew up in the People's Republic, big surprise! :)

Movies: As someone who generally holds authority and bureaucracy in contempt, Brazil really resonates with me. That Clerks is my favorite comedy probably reveals more about my personality than any other statement in my profile. The Devil's Advocate was a serious mindfuck the first time around, but apparently I'm the only one who thinks so.

Music: Dream Theater, Porcupine Tree, Pain of Salvation, Fantastic Plastic Machine, Radiohead, Queen, Massive Attack. It's mostly progressive rock but I've been branching out lately. My high-school self would gape at some of the stuff I like now. That's okay, the feeling is mutual. That kid is a moron..

Food: I eat many more crêpes than I would publicly admit. I blame my French ethnicity. I'm starting to explore Indian food and what I've tried so far has been incredible. When I want ice cream I go to Toscanini's and you should too!

Let's go with just two. The rest I could ditch, but these are the keepers.

1. the internet: How awesome is the Internet. Seriously.
2. my sense of humor: more funny = better than.

how funny and strange modern life is, like how sometimes ebooks list where they were printed...

When I'm alone and come across a dog, I like to keep its attention for as long as possible by making increasingly weird faces. My best time is several minutes. I somehow haven't been caught by a person yet. . . . Now I want to get caught just to see what reaction my observer would have.

Rocko's Modern Life formed the basis of your personality as it has mine.