Hello fair readers!
I’m Brad, newly anointed bringer-of-bloggedy-goodness to Macgasm. I’m here to introduce myself. I won’t try to tell you what to expect from me, per se. Rather, I’ll tell you a little, or possibly a lot, about me, and let you draw your own conclusions. That’s just how I roll.
My cred.
I’m a geek, and a Mac lover. If there was a spectrum of Mac Zealotry, I’d be somewhere in the deep, angry, red, you-can-have-my-MacBook-when-you-pry-it-from-my-cold-dead-hands zone. I love Macs. I use a LOT of them. I have.. Well, let’s just say “a fair few” of them around the house, of various vintages, in various capacities. My first brush with Apple, like a lot of American kids my age, was in elementary school. They taught us how to move a little turtle around on the Apple II, and made a Apple freak out of a lot of us at a very early age. Later on, though, when I finally became a professional geek in the mid-90’s, I turned into a Systems Admin — Novell first, then Linux and Unix later (no, I never drank the NT Kool-Aid). I almost never came into contact with Mac’s, and almost never thought about them.
The rest is largely history.. Jobs came back into the fold, Apple released the iMac, and BANG — Mac’s existed again! In 2000, I started work in my first role as a web developer, and got issued a Ruby DV iMac. That was it for me. Since then I’ve toyed with Linux (on Mac’s) built Samba file servers (on XServes), and built startups (using my beloved G3 and then G4 iBooks). The common thread for several years now for me has been the Mac. I’ve made it a mission of mine to use Mac’s in environments that aren’t especially Mac friendly, across multiple industries.
Nowadays, I’m a freelance web developer, and thus, I’m largely broke and spend rather an inordinate amount of time at home. I write a lot of PHP on my MacBook (a hard drive crash on my beautiful G4 iBook when I was under the gun on a deadline last year forced me to adopt Intel, which I was bucking against). I watch movies and TV shows on a G4 Mini plugged into my TV.. You get the picture.
What will I write about?
I said I wouldn’t try to tell you too many specifics about what I’ll write about (as I’d like to keep my options open, at least for the time being, plus I haven’t a clue at this point). But, like I said, I’m a broke-ass freelancer who spends his time in front of a Mac every day. When I’m supposed to be working, I spend a lot of time tinkering with whatever Mac app crosses my path (see my wakoopa feed to get an idea). So, I suppose I’ll write about Mac software, rather than, say, gushing over whether or not Steve combed his beard before the latest keynote. I’m pretty geeky, so I can’t guarantee that all of my posts will be as interesting to anyone else as they are to me. For instance, I’ll really REALLY try to avoid posting love sonnets twice a week to MacVim, though I can’t promise anything at this point.
Anything else?
Some peoplefind me funny, so I’ll try and bring the funny as often as possible. Other than that, I’m just stoked to be here (I promised myself I wouldn’t cry.. gimme a sec..). I hope I can provide something of interest / value / amusement / shock / horror / whatever.
Stalk me ontwitterandfriendfeed,as, along with a fairly eclectic taste in music, they’re my favorite diversions from my constant working life, and what little self-worth I have is derived entirely from how many people I can get paying attention to my feeds.
One last HUGE thanks to Josh for asking me to do this (I promise that’s the last one!). I’m looking forward to warping the minds of Macgasm readers everywhere, and greatly appreciate the opportunity to do so!
Cheers,
Brad
