About

dē mēmetipsō / περὶ ἐμαυτοῦ

Hello there, and thank you for stopping by! I really enjoy computers, music, reading, movies, languages, and learning of all kinds.

I spent most of my academic career studying to be a classicist (scholar of Latin, Greek, and the ancient Mediterranean world), and earned my Ph.D. in Classical Studies in 2014. My B.A. and M.A. are both in Classics as well, but I almost pursued a career in computer science, my original major. I wasn’t a good enough student to be a CS major, and couldn’t figure out the math. I’m fine with how things turned out, but now I have a completely different career.

That said, I adore Latin and Greek. I’ve been studying Latin since 2001 and Greek since 2003. I taught for a number of years as a graduate student and adjunct, and then taught middle and high school Latin and Greek for 3 years, but ultimately academia, secondary or higher education, was not for me. I translate as much as I can in my spare time, and I need to make more time to read both languages. I don’t want to lose them and I like sharing my knowledge with others as often as I can.

My goal in my job now is to directly and immediately help people (instead of waiting for “seeds to grow” teaching; all respect to teachers though!), and the hours are also fixed, so no “homework” or lesson planning &c. That has been a lot better for my work-life balance (I was never any good at it as a scholar). My job is emotionally and mentally exhausting, but it’s also extremely rewarding, so it’s all worth it.

I have been obsessed with computers for most of my life; my parents got our first family computer when I was 9 in 1993. I grew up on DOS 5.0 and Win 3.11, and lived through all the weirdness that was Windows in the ’90s and early 2000s. I tried Linux back in the ’90s (Slackware, which was a really difficult learning curve at the time, and still mostly is), but switched to it full-time in 2007 when I found out about Ubuntu (I think it was Hardy Heron but don’t remember). I used Xubuntu for many years, but now I run Debian Xfce and absolutely love it. Most of the time it Just Works, and when it doesn’t, I tweak as needed.

I really enjoy running this site and my server in general. It’s been a learning experience, but many of the best things are. Thanks for reading my little blurb about myself!