"Who are you?"

Honestly? I'm not sure. Father, husband, son, brother: all titles that might tell you a little bit about me in relation to others around me but maybe not so good when trying to get an idea of who I really am. So in a lame attempt at expressing exactly who I am, perhaps, I'll just tell you what I like.

I once read an interesting quote by Linus Torvalds, the guy considered the father of Linux. If my memory isn't faulty: "I'm interested in anything interesting." I think this is a great way to sum up my interests: I have a lot of interests in many subjects. Do I actually partake of everything that I'm interested in? No. I would have to give up my day job, sleeping and my family. But that doesn't stop me from thinking, "Ohh, look! That's pretty interesting... I should look into that later when I have free time."

The list:
Robotics, LEGO anything, comics (all types), digital painting, writing, swimming, nanotechnology, ancient world history, mythology, the Civil War, gadgets, action figures, programming, perl, shell, php, C, LPC, web design, computer hardware of all kinds, various internet technologies (dns, mail, etc), Linux, HP-UX, computer games, RTS games (StarCraft), city building (SimCity, Posiedeon), RPG computer games (Diablo), miniature games, Warhammer 40,000, Star Wars, Axis&Allies, D&D Minis, role playing games, GURPS, D&D, Vampire, Wraith, card games, Pirates, Rocketmen, martial arts, Aikido, Kenpo, reading (fantasy, science fiction), Apache, MySQL, Oracle, PLSQL, board games, online role playing games, MUD/MUSH/MOO/Cold games (playing and programming), French maids, music, collecting and trading pins, playing instruments (drums, harmonica, trombone, saxophone, Japanese drums, bagpipes), computer hardware and other technology, Oreos, German chocolate cake, Jack the Ripper, G.I. Joe, Hellboy, superheroes, Stikfas, cooking, Good Eats and Alton Brown, system architecture and design, drawing, ride/attration design, networking technology, steampunk, steam power, cool watches, Mythbusters, brewing beer, dinosaurs, home businesses, motorcycles, swords, armor, Star Trek, Star Wars, movies, Muppets, feudal Japan, the Far Side, Calvin and Hobbes, tattoos, space, space exploration, Mars, the Mars landers, Harry Potter, web comics, home improvement, landscaping, home theater, home automation, my family, Weird Al, food and cooking, cigars, wines, car technolgies and gadgets, bicycles, console games, Freemasons, Sigma Phi Epsilon, animation, stop-motion, Disney World, Disney movies
... continued later.

Regarding books: I love books, I have books on just about anything which was a running joke amongst my friends for a long time. Whenever something new would come up, my first response was always, "I should get a book and read up on that." Two of the oddest things about my collection is that I have a huge number of books on Jack the Ripper and just as many on Freemasons/secret societies/conspiracies. I'm not really sure why ... I just looked up one day and noticed that I had a huge number of them and so now, continue to add to my collection whenever I can.