Binarynomad

My name is Brian and I’m an IT Engineer that claims residence in the San Francisco Bay Area (but have found myself currently enjoying an extended (10 month) vacation in Australia). Most of the time I can be found playing in either the ocean, technology or photography.

History

I was born overseas and I mostly grew up between Cyprus and Jordan until my parents moved back to the USA. It also didn’t hurt that Cyprus was a tourist/vacation destination for most of Europe, which exposed me to a multitude of cultures. Once I moved to the States, we set down roots in Northern California and have called that home ever since.

Interests

Technology: Growing up, I was mostly an outdoors kid (loved the ocean), but not too interested in electronics. My dad was a ham radio operator and put together his own stuff. Every now and then I’d take apart something (which I had no hope of repairing) just for curiosity. I had a few friends that had home computers and they piqued my curiosity but, for some reason or another, I rarely got a real chance to play with any of them. By the time we reached the states, my curiosity had gotten the best of me. A family friend of ours owned a Commodore 64’s and I finally had a chance to sit down and play (boy was I hooked). My father offered to go half and half on a new computer for me if I earned the other half. He was smart enough to start me a with IBM (turbo XT) instead of a C64 (much to my chagrin, the games were not as good), but in the long run that turned out to be a much smarter (business) choice. By the end of the 80’s I had discovered BBS’s (and the true cost of modems, “Local Toll Charges”) Then in the early 90’s, a friend gave me an account on a NeXT box in UCSF. Thus began my decent into the Internet (gopher, usenet, email, telnet, ftp, irc, international friends, etc) Since then, technology has been a integral part of my life. I have climbed the ladder from “User” to “IT Engineer”, supporting everyone from a 2 person “Mom & Pop” shop upto (20,000+ employee) Public Utillity. I have designed and setup every aspect of core technology (building wiring, security systems, telecom systems, network systems, server infrastructure, desktop standards, policies, etc), and still retain my endless curiosity in anything technical.

Photography: For the longest time, photography has been a part of my life. I’ve at times seriously considered going into the photography field, but it always seemed to be so saturated that I wasn’t sure if I could establish a business. (then again, being a tech in the bay area isn’t any smarter 🙂 ) To give you an idea of my interests, I was looking at a photography school lately and found the possible majors I’d consider taking:

• Advertising and Commercial Photography
• Digital Arts
• Documentary Photography
• Editorial and Corporate Photography
• Fine Art—Black and White Photography

Travel: Growing up, my father was a commercial airline pilot, which allowed me to explore a bit of the world (Lebanon, Cyprus, Jordan, Austria, China, Thailand, Japan, USA), since then, I’ve been to (England, Scotland, Ireland, Bahamas, Hawaii, Australia). I really want to go back to Asia, I’ve always loved their culture (history, technology, cooking, etc). Currently, I’m living in Australia and am planning some trips around (though I’m limited by my budget).

Food: I was spoiled growing up, we didn’t have any “Fast Food” places, so I was mostly exposed to home and regional cooking in the Mediterranean, it also didn’t hurt that my mom loved to cook dishes from all cultures. I have developed a love for good food, and like to explore the different cuisines. I really enjoy Asian (chinese, thai, indonesian, indian, japanese) and Mediterranean (french, italian, greek, arabic) dishes. I run the full gambit, from 5 star restaurants, down to street carts venues.

Fun Things: I’m pretty open to any opportunity that presents itself. So far I’ve water-skied, scuba dived, (barely)surfed, body-boarded, hiked, horse ridden, land-sailed, climbed (indoor & outdoor) walls, bridges, and mountains. I’ve reverse bungeed, snow-boarded, motorcycled, hang-glided, skydived, piloted airplanes, piloted a British battleship (for 5 min), practiced two martial arts, photo-journalized an independent movie, and acted in the renaissance faire, gone Zorbing, surfed the canopy of the rainforest. (I don’t ever consider stopping, and currently looking into kite-surfing.)