Early Me

At the outset, I should introduce myself. My name is Jennifer Eleanor Elaan. I was born in a little place in Newfoundland (in Canada) in the early 80s.

I grew up fast, learning to read at a basic level by about the age of 3 or 4. I started learning BASIC when I was merely 5 years old. I also started learning simple electronics at age 7 (much to the chagrin of a few LED's, which did not particularly appreciate the fact that batteries came in 9V sizes).

My programming became serious, and I branched out into hardware. 7400-series TTL and solderless breadboards were my favorite building toys.

Some of the highlights of this era were:

A full S-buffered 3D software rendering engine. It was much too complex a task for my first attempt at using C, and so it took nearly two whole years to debug.
A 3D Modeller, written entirely in QuickBasic. This was actually written after I had learned C++, so I used a lot of object oriented concepts. BASIC is not easy to object orient.
A hardware-implemented self-training neural network. This project was immense.

Role Models

Several people, both fictional and otherwise, influenced my life in subtle ways. These role models are as follows:

Chani, from the Dune books. She is, without a doubt, one of the most profound role models I have encountered. For those who don't remember, Chani was Paul's lover, and like all Fremen, a real survivor. One of the most admirable female characters I have yet seen in fiction, she combines strength and vulnerability in a way I'm not sure I've ever seen before. Rather than coming across as hard, as many strong female characters do, she seems full of life. Oh, and if you wonder, I find that the miniseries did a much better job of casting somebody appropriate for the part than the movie.
Friday, from Robert Heinlein's book "Friday". This book got a pretty poor reception among feminist circles, which tend to view it, and much of Heinlein's work in general, as misogynist. I find this to be an oversimplification, as the character is very believable and speaks to many of us who feel the same way. Friday, while being a very attractive, extremely intelligent woman, is an "artificial person", a seemingly meaningless distinction that earns her the reward of absolutely zero self-esteem. Despite being supremely talented, all she really wants is to fit in, and she trades anything for that feeling of belonging. As a misfit myself, I find I really identify with her.
Nikola Tesla. Mr. Tesla was one of the most prolific inventors of recent memory, inventing alternating current, radio, robotics, and a myriad of other things. Tesla's one passion in life was inventing things, and he excelled at it. Oh, and did I mention that he was as crazy as a loon? You've just got to love a person like this!

Current Me

Well, now I'm 27. I have seen the world, worked bad jobs, had some good times and some really bad ones, and eventually became a consultant. It's nice seeing my designs appear in real products now.

My Personality

My role models speak volumes about my personality. While my self-esteem has improved substantially and my social skills have improved somewhat, I am still a crazy inventor madly devoted to my work. I doubt this will ever change, and I like it that way. I am an extremely creative person in any medium, working with anything from graphic art to music to woodworking to electronics to computer software. I've even started dabbling in metal and plastic.

My personal spiritual beliefs are a combination of paganism, especially the Nemesisian path, and agnosticism. In fact, I am an evangelical agnostic, and unless you have conclusive proof of the existance or nonexistance of a specific higher power, I will attempt to convert you to agnosticism. Nemesisian values, by contrast, favor concepts like justice, karma, and justified revenge. Following the agnostic tenet, it does not matter to me whether or not such a Goddess actually exists; following the ideals of the philosophy is valid even without a higher power. I once believed that justice should be tempered by compassion, and while I still believe there are exceptions to every rule, I have become far less naive in recent years.

Personal

I married a wonderful woman in 2009, and I am no longer available. If anyone reading this has a problem with the idea of equal marriage, stop wasting valuable air. Seriously, if it bothers you, improve the gene pool by removing yourself from it.

I am bi, and I have dated primarily women. Something about the inventor mindset attracts me to unusual, open-minded, eccentric people. This has, so far, had a tendancy of drawing me to queer folk (and hence primarily women). Narrow-minded people are the scum of the Earth, and I have no time to waste on them.