I will eventually put up a bit more of a detailed hystory of my life when I get the time, but for now I have included:
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Favorite food |
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| Favorite color | Purple! even though I no longer can see it |
| Favorite music style |
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| Favorite artists | |
| Favorite animal | Small dog, but a cat comes in very close |
I have always had a love of computers, ever since our family bought a computer back in 1992. Mainly back then I would mostly just play games, like:
And also draw pictures using the program Paint Brush, and write documents using an old dos program called Word Processing For Kids.
My love of computer problem solving/configuring/programming came when I learnt how to create and configure new menu items in a dos menu system called 3D Menu. But everything all changed when I received my first laptop in 1998 after losing what sight I did have.
Soon I realized that computers would probably be my life. I quickly started to learn all one could know about the MS Windows operating System. And also started learning the Jaws For Windows Scripting language. Check out the JFW scripts I have written so far (Jaws For Windows is a program that speaks to me what is on the screen, using a speech synthesizer, allowing me to use the Windows operating system just as well as a sighted person.
I have always had a love for sound and music, but this has definitly increased since I've been able to now use the computer to record and edit my sound/music projects.
Finally I also fell in love with the Linux operating System. and now have a server running Debian GNU/Linux I also have Debian installed on my laptop and on my multimedia PC, how ever these two computers are used primarily in MS Windows. (This is because although Linux has an exceptionally good console screen reader called Speakup There is still no efficiently good screen reader for a Linux Graphical User Interface.
Through learning to use Linux, I have also become quite proficient in the BASH scripting language, and now also always improving on my C programming language knowledge. I have also started learning Perl.
Check out the programs/scripts I have written so far
From when I was a very young child, I have always had a love for singing. In fact i used to show off my singing any time I could ... I'm sure some people may have got a bit sick of this. I joined any of my primary school choirs that I was aloud to ... don't tell anyone this, but I actually joined the Tecoma Primary School Chamber Choir in grade 2, how ever you had to be in grade 4 to join *that* choir. I also started learning the keyboard in grade3 but after two years decided to drop that and start learning the drums instead.
I continued learning the drums through my high-school years and also joined the Upwey High School Juniour concert band and also the Upwey High School Big Band. I of course joined the Upwey High School Choir, how ever that choir did die and reserect quite a few times because of the changing of singing teachers at the school.
From the start of my high school years, I also took up singing lessons for about five years and in that time achieved my grade 3 and 4 AMEB classical singing exam certificates. I also performed in a few Astedfords and managed to win a Kevin Casy award.
In grade five of primary school I also joined the Victorian Youth Theatre and stayd with them for three and a half years. Through that time I was in such musicals as:
Around the time I lost my sight in 1998, I realised how fun sound recording and editing was. Before I got in to sound editing on the computer I made do with using a minidisk recorder. But when I did start using the computer I never looked back.
Now days my studio (when it is all put together) consists of:
The multimedia PC containing:
Also the sound editing programs I use are:
Of course if you are feeling bord, and have a bit of time to waste, why not Have a listen to some of my recordings from over the years.
Tertiary qualifications I have received so far is a certificate 3 in Information Technology. I completed this in parallel with my last two years at high school through a VET (Vocation Education Training) program. I have how ever completed the first year of a bachelor of Information Technology at La Trobe University and the first semester of a bachelor of Arts at Monash University (I was interested for a time in psychology, hence the arts course, but I seem to have more success in I.T so I hope to fully complete a bachelor of Computer Science in the coming years. this will also be at Monash).
Before studdying at La Trobe university, I went to Tecoma Primary School and Upwey High School.
For the last year or so I have been the acting president of Young blind Citizens Victoria. Young Blind Citizens Victoria is Blind Citizens Australia's Victorian youth branch. It was started because a lot of Victorian blind youth felt that BCA wasn't completely answering the needs of its youth members, and that there should be a good strong youth network for both social and political reasons.
Blind Out and Proud is a group that was started in December 2002 to try and tackle the issues that are faced by blind and visually impaired people who are of a different sexual orientation (gay, lesbien, bi-sexual, trans-sexual, trans-gender, intersex, and or queer). The group has been heavily planning to be come a branch of Blind Citizens Australia, and hopefully soon this goal will be achieved. We will be then known as BASIC (Blindness and Sexuality Interests Collective).