So much has happened since the end of the Update Page that I could never really hope to condense everything into one convenient web page. All I can do is talk about things that cross my mind at this moment. I'll undoubtedly leave something out. I'll never capture more than two years of life by typing in a text editor. All I can do is interpret life and take the role of the critic.
Probably the biggest change in my life has been my marriage to Allyson. We got married on August 12 of 2001 in the Baughman Center, a new "spiritual center" on campus. The wedding was performed by my dad and was typically Protestant. The ceremony was over within 30 minutes. We took pictures for longer than it took us to get married. Jason was my best man, and Richard gave one of the nicest toasts that I could have ever imagined possible. We stayed at the reception for a couple of hours and then we flew in my little gold Toyota to Orlando as quickly as the Interstate and Turnpike system of Florida would take us. We hung out at various Disney theme parks and saw Tim Burton's version of Planet of the Apes. And a fun time was had by all.
When I graduated I got a full-time job as a Senior Clerk at the Registrar's Office (where I had worked as a student assistant for over two years). I recently got promoted to a Coordinator position, which means that I'm a supervisor for the first time in my life. I can honestly say that I don't mind going to work everyday, and I consider myself lucky in that respect.
Since the update page went down, I've switched pretty exclusively to Unix-based computing. I started my forray into Unix with RedHat Linux. I put it on a partition on my spare 13GB hard drive. Slowly I came to use Unix more and more and Windows less and less. About halfway through the summer of 2000, I started converting all of my documents on my Windows drive into Unix-friendly formats. Then I repartitioned and reformatted my Windows drive and turned it into a backup drive. On the 13GB drive, I put FreeBSD, and I have never been happier with a computing platform. FreeBSD (actually BSD-style Unix in general) is my home. And I never want to leave my home.
Of course recently I did make a little Windows partition after months and months of nothing but pure Unix in my house. I did this so that I could play Baldur's Gate. The version of Windows that I have is so stripped down that you might consider it to be nothing more than a videogame console - a Wintendo if you will. I don't regret installing Windows on that stripped down partition though because it is letting me play Baldur's Gate. Baldur's Gate is one of the best games that I have ever played. Right now, my main character is based on the first character I ran in pen and paper AD&D. He's an elven spellfilcher (mage/thief). I'm having a blast playing the game. One of these days I intended to actually finish the game.
After many long years of lusting after IBM Thinkpad laptops, I finally got one a while back. I got a 365XD which has a Pentium 120 processor, 24MB of RAM (upgradable to 40MB), a 1GB hard drive, built-in CD-ROM, attachable floppy, two PCMCIA card slots, blah blah blah. Immediately upon getting this wonderful device, I installed FreeBSD on it. It worked beautiful for several months, and then one day inexplicably the LCD display died. The computer itself still works fine though. I put Debian GNU/Linux on it, and I plan on setting it up as the router for my network if I can ever find the little gadget that connects my PCMCIA network card to my network cable.
Where am I emotionally? That's a good question. I'm happier than I have ever been - that much is clear. But I'm also questioning everything. The big question possessing my mind has been the question of good and evil. What does it mean to be good and what does it mean to be evil? The intent behind my actions is almost always good, but somehow I have managed to bring about so many evil results in my life. I've been reading the Dark Elf trilogy by RA Salvatore, and I can't help but identify with Drizzt. Once Drizzt makes his way to the surface world, it seems like he can't do anything right. He always has good intentions, but he only ends up getting people killed and being chased by those who are "good". I've caused so much pain in other people in my brief life, and that leaves me questioning exactly how good I really am. Maybe I'm nothing more than friendly evil.
I don't know. I could be wrong. I certainly have been in the past.