I swore I would never write one of these. But one day it plopped out, so what am I to do?...

For those of you who haven't met me, the name's Jeffrey Williams. I'm from Elizabeth City, though I favor myself a coastie. I went to UNCG from `95-99 as a Computer Science major, Mathematics minor. I took a break from school for full time work and experience life a little more before going back.

The second time I met Ike, he took my shirt and ran over it a number of times with his CRV, added more road grime and red goop, tore it and burned it. Sara then made me a Zombie :)

I volunteered for it. It's hard to say no to Ike.

I moved to Atlanta in 2000, shortly before joining this board to work for Verizon and several other companies before deciding to return to Greensboro in `03. During this time, I found a love for cooking and SCUBA diving.

I did a lot of web design & programming/database design/SQL procedure programming/unix scripting/cronning and on occasion, beating two proprietary software solutions together until they communicate properly. All of my initial programming experience was with C/C++, Java and such, and I would like to work with more of that, but it's really wherever the winds of demand dictate these days.

I started tinkering with Linux since Red Hat 4 something. I like linux a lot for level of customization, potential[ly small] size, and ability to run faster and more efficiently on older systems, as well as the gobs of free software one can run with it. I should know more about it for someone who has played with it for this long, but I'm no spring chicken either. ;)

I like a lot of the other open source projects (OpenOffice, Mozilla, Postgres, MySQL, Eclipse), but I use and enjoy many of commercial products at home (XP, Office 2k, dreamweaver, photoshop, etc). I'll go with an open source program if it runs faster, has a feature that I just have to have or is just too expensive to obtain commercially.

Currently, I'm looking for FT programming work in the triad and working at the local theater (The Grande) in concessions/as an usher/in the box office. It's nothing to write home about, but I do get to watch almost all the movies for free and get to catch sneak peaks before the general public.

I'm a movie aficionado and enjoy all sorts of movies so long as Baz Lurman had nothing to do with it(guy can't direct traffic down a one-way street). My favorite directors are Akira Kurasawa and Martin Scorcese, and I really like the works of Roberto Begnigni, Mike Nichols, Wolfgang Peterson, F.F. and Sophia Coppola, Spielberg, Fincher, Ritchie and Busson(in no discernable order).

Music-wise, I'm kind of all over the map. Tool, Pixies, Radiohead, Will Oldham, The Stones, Van Morrison, Dave Matthews, Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, Bjork, Sunny Day Real Estate, Iron Maiden, Rush, Ben Folds, The Band, The Smashing Pumpkins, U2. I'll listen to Requiems and whatevers on NPR from time to time. I enjoy bluegrass from time to time for it's performance merit, and if I'm drinking, I'll just enjoy it ;) .

The beer is either Guiness, Yuengling, Red Oak or Battlefield. The vodka: Grey Goose, neat, sipped. Wine: Red, Pinot Noir is usually my favorite, but when I can, I've branched out a bit to the other reds and some whites.

I enjoy cooking and find it therapeutic at times. I've got an itallian cookbook that has added inches to my waist for a number of years that I've enjoyed, but now I'm working on preserving a number of family receipes for posterity(except I can't find a place that carries swan... ;) ).

I enjoy gaming of most sorts. I never got too involved with MUDding or D&D roleplaying, but the PC/console RPG's/Action/Simulation games have consumed a concerning portion of my youth and early adulthood. I have been known to enjoy a large scale (20 vs. 20) game of Battletech long, long ago.

I'm a huge Farscape fan. I really enjoyed Firefly as well and am happy to see that both are being revived in some fashion, as well as Battlestar Galactica. I enjoyed Star Trek in its incarnations for the time it was there, but unless they decide to disband and have an all out civil war amongst the remnants, I'd be happy to see that franchise go. Star Wars? From storytelling(original) to eye candy(prequels) it's good stuff. I liked the expansion books as well.

I ran Cross Country and Track in high school. I enjoy running and one of these days I'm going to start doing it again.

Politically speaking, I'm not completely for or against any party(if that's ambiguous enough for ya). I think our government is reponsible for insuring the safety of its citizens, protecting our national interests at home and abroad, maintaining strong, favorable relations with our allied countries, and being an active and responsible member of the world community. I still haven't formed a full opinion on how the gov't should interact with businesses as yet or with the other issues.

I acknowledge that issues, foreign and domestic, are so many and varied that it's often futile to reduce them to black and white decisions. For me, I force myself to take the hard evidence at hand and base an opinion on what's available. If there's not enough information, I'll ask for more or look it up myself until I think I can make an informed decision.

Do I do that all the time? Probably not, but I try. ;)