(Fri Dec 1 13:06:41 2006)

All about me! Yay!

It used to be that my website was devoted entirely to yours truly; however, recent (well, recent as of July 2009, anyway) changes have made it a much more open site. And also much better! However, in the spirit of... spirity things, I'll go ahead and update this so-called "personal page."

My name is Andrew Metzger. If you Google my name, you'll come up with a variety of scientists, doctors, writers, and even a producer. I am not them (probably, though I've been getting closer to the list). Here is who I actually am:

1. I am a Christian; not as outspoken as I should be, perhaps, but if you spend any time with me, I hope you get a glimpse of God through my life. Please don't get me wrong - I'm not saying that to sound holier-than-thou. It's not a boast, it's a rule - if no one can see God's hand in my life, I'm not living as I should.
2. I am a husband. Lindsay and I were married 2003, and we have been more than happy ever since. I've heard a lot of bad things about marriage, but honestly, I think the only reason for any of them boils down to two things: neglecting to notice the obvious before marriage, and refusing to change afterwards.
3. I am a father. I have two kids, Xan (Alexander) and Ian. Xan at a year and a half was potty trained, could speak a dozen words and sign hundreds, and already loved playing on computers. At 2 and a half, he was already a great help, fetching things for his Mom and helping take care of his little brother. I am amazingly proud of him - he's going to go great places. Ian takes after his brother, bright-eyed and always watching. At only six months old, he was already standing and trying to move along objects; he tried to crawl, but only managed a very slow army crawl. Those little legs just couldn't keep up... but not so any more! He tags along with his brother everywhere. He's our singer - I catch him walking along, singing, "La la la, la la la..." all the time. He's also more of an introvert than his brother - Xan will gladly be your best friend seconds after meeting you, but Ian would rather play by himself, or snuggle with Mom or Dad.

After all that, I'm a pretty good smattering of things. Currently, I'm employed at an absolutely awesome job; I recently graduated from LeTourneau University with a BS in Computer Engineering. My wife graduated a year before me with a Biology degree. Eventually, I'd love to work with smart-house technology, robotics, or other forms of smart automation; I'm already pretty close to that with my current job. Intrinsic to my life is my love of both programming (in C++, Perl, Java, Pascal, and VB.Net to name a few) and electronics. My dream job involves spending half my day coming up with ideas, and the other half implementing those ideas, no matter how harebrained they are.

Before beginning college, I was homeschooled, all the way since first grade; another hot topic in itself. All I can say about it is that if you homeschool and are part of a good homeschool group, there is no better way to learn. Lindsay and I are homeschooling our children - we started with Xan when he was not quite 3, and he loved it.

Though I might blag about programming rather a lot, programming isn't my life. As you can tell from my Tales page and my pictures page, I also enjoy art and writing - I might not be good at it, but it's still fun. While I'm not actively working on any fiction right now, I do have a few stories and a text adventure or two in the works; given some time and effort, I might even finish them. Maybe.

As happens with most writers, I have a voracious appetite for good books. By "voracious," I mean I whir through them at speeds upwards of 700 words per minute - and that's the lower limit! I can crank through literature at over 1000 words per minute, with better than 75% reading retention (Why yes, I did take a test, why do you ask?). Now, reading fast may sound good at first, but it really is a curse - I only take a day or two to go through books that take most people weeks, which means that I have to continually search for new books to read. Coincidentally, most of my favorite authors write huge books that take me a few days to go through: J. R. R. Tolkien (Lord of the Rings, etc), Isaac Asimov (I Robot trilogy, Foundation series), and Stephen Lawhead (Dream Thief, Robin Hood trilogy, Pendragon trilogy). Other, less verbose favorites include Terry Pratchett (the Discworld books), Robert Heinlein (Green Hills of Earth and lots of other short stories) and Ray Bradbury (Fahrenheit 451, the Mars stories). As you can tell, I'm a sci-fi/fantasy fan, with leanings towards epics and weirdness.

I suppose I'm an idealist, mostly; I like to call myself an imperfectionist, since I have a slightly twisted sense of how-things-work. I don't mind pictures being crooked (in fact, I have been known to tilt pictures, just to see perfectionists cringe. Mwahaha). I have a shirt that read "Prefectionist" (If you don't get it, it's not for you). My best days are spent solving mind-bending problems and fighting for the underdog, while my worst days are spent solving mind-bending problems and fighting for the underdog. I'm sure there's a lesson in there somewhere.

I'm a bit of a handy-man - I really do a little bit of everything. I've built a shell for a built-in dishwasher (complete with shelves and cupboard), modded computers, installed a light that was controllable over the Internet (in 2001, before it was cool!), installed cupboards, shelves, and laminate flooring in my kitchen, wired my entire home phone system and network, program, draw, paint (watercolor; can't stand oil paints), write (poetry and prose), design webpages, and cook - not to mention the bits of gardening and occasional cleaning I accomplish. More recently, I rebuilt an entire room, changing from ugly paneling to Sheetrock. I'm somewhere between a "dabbler" and a "tinkerer" - someone who does lots of things for some period of time, but isn't really great at any of them. Oh, and did I mention we had both sons at home? No doctor, no nurse, not even a midwife. I even did the catching. And you think you're hardcore...

As mentioned, I graduated from LeTourneau University, here in Longview, TX; I would have moved, but I got an awesome job... maybe I'll move later. Originally, I'm from Salina, Kansas; Lindsay is from Ohio. How we ended up in this soggy desert, I'll never know. I'm used to tornado sirens and impressive storms, acres of rolling grass, and wind that never stops. Here, there's nothing but fire ants, killer bees, wussy storms, insane heat, no snow, horrific humidity, and of course, the occasional intelligence-impaired inhabitant (though I suppose that is unavoidable, regardless of location). Sure, Texas is well known for beautiful landscape, but I can find that back home. And did I mention there's no snow here? (Ok, I must rescind that one. There is snow. It just doesn't happen very often. 2010 was a great year!)

Lindsay and I both love computers; our favorite escape from reality is Kohan: Ahriman's Gift. I've also been working, on and off, on some computer mods, though I haven't had much time recently. I really should find some time to add some pictures of my mods...

I've also been known to play Starcraft: Broodwars, Homeworld, Red Faction, and a bunch of free games like Smokin' Guns, Teeworlds, Zero Ballistics, and hordes of others. The last few games I've played have been from the latest Humble Bundle. Thus far, my favorite has been Magicka. I've not played much recently, though I have been able to get a bunch of my old games to work in Linux, or at least in my virtual copy of Windows. To tell the truth, most of the games I play are on my phone - currently the original Motorola Droid. Ah, mindless time wastes...

Ah, but to add to the game-playing - I'm also in charge of a small, monthly LAN party; for more information about that, take a look at the Godmode page.

That pretty much wraps it up for right now; I'm sure there's a lot of details I've left out, but I think there's enough there for the average stalker.

I've updated this page a few times, and I'll probably keep updating on a sporadic basis, but I'd really suggest reading some of my blags to get a better picture of what I'm doing and how things are going. Ta ta for now!

This blag is tagged: Me, All