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| The Story |
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My name is Eric von Bayer as I'm sure you've already found out if you've gotten here. If you don't
want to know about me, you're definately in the wrong place as this is my rambling description of
myself. I am 48 years old. I live in San Jose, California currently. I grew up in Ohio out in the middle of nowhere, really beautiful country. Too bad
the mold content is so high there that I never could breathe. It was a little too grey for my
liking too.
What can I say... my childhood was not the most enjoyable. People say "remember the good old days," and I really can't imagine what they're thinking. My parents are pretty nice for the most part. It was mostly the hazard of being a unique person. Being unique isn't cool till you're older sadly. Anyhow, that's life... So after High School I went to College at DeVry in Columbus, Ohio... College wasn't too bad... I learned more on my own than in class, I'm not too quick to blame the college for that. I wouldn't particularly recommend it either. So anywyas... I graduated with an Bachelors in Electrical Engineering Technology (EE like degree with minor in computers.) About 27 years ago I moved out here to Cali to work for LTX as a Software Engineer. I've enjoyed my time out here. It's really hard to make new friends out here, mostly the city mentality problem, but hey... It's really the happiest time in my life so far. I work for a good company, have a few good friends, get some (not quite enough) time to do my hobbies, and sleep... Sleep is good. |
| Interests |
ArtI've been drawing since I was a young squirt... Granted I've come a long way since drawing people like beans with stick legs and arms and a belly button. No clue why the belly button... I was always odd. I enjoy drawing with markers, pencils, pastels (to a lesser degree)... Painting in oils is a recent addition. I really like oils, it allows me to work at a scale people can see from across the room. Some day I'd love to become good enough that I could live off my art. I don't know if it will ever happen, but a fella can dream...MusicI've always been interested in music. Since I was a child banging away on a piano. Unfortunately I've never devoted enough time to become skilled at any instrument really. I can kinda play the piano, and people don't run screaming when I play, so this is a small victory. I mainly pursue this facet of my creativity by using MIDI so that I can massage the stuff I play and existing music into something new. It's incredibly fun to have a whole orchestra at your fingertips and yours to command. I used to do MODs on my Amiga... I found this extremely limiting, but it kept me interested and playing.PhotographyPhotography is my newest hobby, I've been doing it for about 24 years. It seems I have some natural talent as I'm learning it very quickly. I enjoy it because it's not a long process of carefully crafting each detail, but with a push of a button you have an image... Granted this is also a limitation of conventional photography, but beyond that I enjoy using the computer to modify, fix, and add to pictures. Some people may regard this as cheating, but I think by combining my Art skills as well it brings more to it.PoetryI've been writing poetry since I was in High School. Oddly enough I started writing poetry because I hated to write. A teacher required us to keep a journal, we were supposed to write about our lives, and write half a page. She said that if we wrote a poem, that could take the place, so I took this option... I discovered I could write poems faster than I could ever figure out something meaningful to write in a given day. After that year I didn't write much till after college when I took it up again, mostly for love poems... Then depression poems to get feelings out of my system. I really love poetry because you can capture an instant in time and also free yourself of some of the feeling. Of my works, my poetry is my most intimate hobby. All my poems are facets of me and my life... the good and the bad. Not much mediocre... hard to write a worthwhile mediocre poem.Programming/ComputersI grew up in the middle of nowhere with very few neighbors, so at 7 I got interested in computers as a good way to occupy my mind. I quickly found I loved the ability to create programs... Making a program to simplify a task or do something was the coolest thing I ever saw. From that point on I was totally hooked. I still remember programming in Basic that old Apple II+, it's very different than these days. At 12 I learned 6502 Assembly so I could do more powerful things. The next year I bought my own computer... an Amiga 500. I got hooked on computer music and graphics for a couple years, I didn't do much programming. When I was 16 I really got back into programming starting with C and progressing through several languages while in college. At one point I was learning a new language a month. I did a lot of programming on MUDs, a form of multiuser game on the internet. When I graduated from College, I got a job as a Software Engineer, so therefore this became MUCH less of a hobby. Not much fun to do what you just did for 8 or more hours.Couch Potato PursuitsI love movies. I think it's one of the neatest mediums currently. They combine music and photography together to make for journeys of the mind. Some day I'd love to make a movie, but for now my pursuits are more on watching as many of them as I can. If you wish to check out my video collection, click here. Also for a database of my music, click here. |
| Philosophy |
KindnessIt's not always easy to do the right thing, it often takes much thought at the time or in advance. Kindness may not always seem to benefit you, but it has a way of coming back to you. Anyways, what kind of a world would it be if people did their best to hurt you at every opportunity? I wouldn't want to live in it... that's for sure.LifeLife is a series of choices... with each choice comes the negation of the other choices (at least temporarily.) Not choosing is just as much of a choice as choosing, though often a worse one. Within a span of time it's possible to accomplish much just by carefully choosing though at the expense of other opportunities. This is why it's important to have your priorities straight. You can chose to float chaotically from choice to choice following the path of least resistance or you can chose actively. It again depends upon what you want, the important thing is the consciousness of your decision of how to live and not passively let yourself feel "helpless."DeathDeath is a natural step. People come and people go, the point is to make the most of them while they're here. It's natural to miss people who are close to you when they leave be it death or moving away. I really feel thatthe important thing is to carry their memories and wisdom with us and pass it on to all of those around us, especially those we love. When it's our time to go then people will have memories and wisdom of yours to pass on.ReligionReligion has come to bother me in recent years. I grew up in a very conservative family in a very conservative area. I think it's important to have a strong belief system, but I have come to see that religion often serves another purpose. It creates a system in which people are afraid to express their complete beliefs due to peer pressure. Granted various religions are better or worse from this standpoint. Peer pressure isn't all bad, it plays an integral role in helping hold one to their belief system (if it matches their peers' systems.) The problem is that this comes at the cost of reevaluating one's beliefs when new knowledge arises. When a large part of the relationship with one's peers is based strictly on the belief system, one risks losing thir peers as the system is challenged or changed. Not necessarily directly, but the relationship can become strained and awkward.Religion and beliefs are tricky things, it is impossible to avoid all prejudice over a difference of beliefs, but I try my best. In light of the fact that I only think I know what's right, I have little ground on which to judge. The main basis on which I find it feasible to really judge is in the fact of being constructive when dealing with situations and not causing unnecessary pain or hurt. Sometimes small pain is required to fix a large one, but it is not a matter to be taken lightly. One should at very least see it through and take responsibility for cleaning up the mess if things go awry. |