A person is a perpetually changing collection of life experiences playing upon a genetic tapestry. Rather than struggling to explain or define who I am, I’ll try to offer a bit of insight regarding how I came to write these words. There are two reasons why I wish to share this information.
First, I feel that by enumerating some of the major events that have shaped my life, I’m encouraging a personal connection with you. Secondly, my past is a factor in choosing the topics I write about.
This is part of a series detailing the intellectual pillars of my craft. The other two are:
“Why Am I Writing?”^, which details my motivations.
“Mission Statement”^, which details my purposes.
Now… where am I coming from and where am I heading?
Early steps
Imagination played a very important role in my childhood. I became my own story-teller quite early. As a teenager, I started writing several novels before being completely absorbed by another passion of mine.
This other passion barged in my life around the age of 6, when I interacted for the first time with a computer. It was a mesmerizing experience for the child that I was. Computers back then weren’t common at all and I think that the event took place at a perfect age, an age when I perceived that screen as a sort of magical, wonderful device. This feeling, this enthusiasm is as fresh in my mind as it was back then.
A few years later, after I first set eyes on computer games, I felt an irresistible attraction towards technology. Everything else came second. Not only did I become a gamer, but I also took my first steps in game design, using pen and paper. Later on, I focused towards becoming a software developer – this happens to be how I’m currently making a living.
Music was another early passion, even though I eventually settled for listening rather than creating. My father introduced me to bands such as Pink Floyd, ZZ Top and Dire Straits. Later on, childhood friends got me into rave and metal. I eventually made my way to all sorts of genres and artists from around the world.
My parents got divorced when I was 7, after some rather rough years. What followed wasn’t easy either. Emotionally, my mother had the duty to put me back together again after a rather difficult childhood. She did so with fantastic love and diligence, given the handful that I was. This is worth mentioning because the seeds of love she planted in me are a powerful influence in my art.
The gaming years
Dune 2, Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, WarCraft 2, Mortal Kombat, StarCraft, Diablo 2, Heroes 3 and Baldur’s Gate 2 are just a few of the games in which I invested copious amounts of time. Yes, I used the word “invested”, not the word “wasted”. My gaming time was an investment, one which has proven its value more than once, socially, professionally and artistically. Along with music, this was a refuge through a stormy period of my life.
These years also brought a renewed interest in electronics. I was always a tinkerer and my computer became the perfect learning ground. Soon, I was upgrading my systems and making good use of any hardware-related information that was available to me.
The technology years
After my father’s translation of Dune was published, it became, and still is, my all-time favorite book. I did surprisingly little reading as a child, and even less as a young man. To say that I couldn’t stand the educational system is an understatement. I dropped out at the first chance I had, which was at the start of University, when I got my first full-time job as a C# coder.
As an employee, I became even more interested in computer hardware. While programming software for various companies, I devoured news about processors, storage and pretty much anything concerning computers.
Eventually, I became so engrossed in this that I found myself publishing my first few articles on The Inquirer, a British tech website. A year earlier, in 2006, I published articles that could fill two books while covering the Formula 1 season. It’s a sport I’m no longer interested in – and I plan to explain exactly why at some point in the future.
In 2010, I moved to Sweden together with my girlfriend and begun work at my second game. Without a full-time job to slow me down, this was guaranteed to be a success, since I had lots of time to put into the project and an artist to help me. After two years of working 12 hour days, I realized the project has no chance of being done in the third year and got a full-time job. The game I was working on, Alien Invasion, never made it past the pre-Alpha stage.
The writing years
After starting my first full-time job in Sweden, I did a lot of soul-searching. The almost-unhealthy partnership with technology stabilized to more acceptable levels. My girlfriend, who in 2013 became my wife, is partially to thank for this. I began investing more time into writing and also resumed reading literature – a welcomed change after a decade of intensely parsing the news.
Most of my free time in the last couple of years consisted in personal development of all kinds: meditation, introspection, sports and workshops. I also began to seriously consider my intellectual diet: games, music, movies… everything that gets inside my brain. It goes without saying that I’ve been taking better care of my body as well.
And here I am, as ready as I’ll ever be. The writing years begin now. Sure, I’ll maintain my day job for some time to come, and I’ll continue keeping a watchful eye on technology. VR gaming, I’m looking at you! But other than that, I officially consider myself as a new student of this world, doing his homework in the public space. And now, with my first opinion or analysis^ piece on Mentatul, let the writing begin!
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