About Me
My name is Cody J. Jackson. I am an eighteen-year-old science-fiction enthusiast. I began writing fictional stories about four years ago, but it wasn't until about two years ago that I tried writing in earnest. Inspired by the relative success of the short-story predecessor to We Were Here First (which happened to share the same odd title--the original story was no longer than the first chapter, and can be found in little corners of the internet still), I began writing as a hobby, sharing my works with friends, which led to stories such as Just Part of the Job and others.
When I find the time, I write for fun and relaxation. As I am currently working my way through college as a full time student--aiming for a computer science major, just like every other "technically inclined" young adult--my free time has dropped somewhat, but due to a series of excellent teachers I've discovered and rekindled other passions, including making and studying art and writing essays dealing with real-life issues. I also am developing my real-world skills as a computer lab assistant.
Among my other hobbies are 3D modeling and video game level design, teaching myself to program in various languages (though I am going to be taking some excellent programming classes next semester!), drawing, developing my multi-instrumental skills (guitar, fretless bass, and piano/organ), daydreaming, and indulging in delusions of grandeur.
For the technophiles, I run Debian Lenny 5.0 on all three of my primary computers--An AMD3800+ 64-bit desktop, a Pentium 4 2.0Ghz server, and an older Acer laptop--and CentOS 5.3 on my secondary server. I am admittedly a Linux supremist, but I have no qualms with other people running Windows--just don't bug me about running Linux! (Hey, I'd run Windows if it were free. I can't afford licensing fees and the hell of reactivation.) The P4 server is my testbed for practicing configuration and maintenance without a GUI. On it I run Lighttpd, a lightweight webserver with a splendid configuration syntax, to test my websites and experiment.
For the musician, I play electric blues guitar. I have my own style, strongly influenced by Duke Robillard, Albert King, T-Bone Walker, Robert Cray, Van Morrison, and Etta James. I grew up in a house of blues and jazz, but I'll listen to just about anything--my predominant interests at the moment rest with blues, big band swing and jazz, and dixieland, with a healthy dash of latter-day Steely Dan jazz mixed in for good measure. At the moment, I am working on my skills at the keyboard--I love the Hammond sound!--and am tightening my fretless bass licks. The bass I have (an inexpensive Dean) has the perfect tone for a pseudo-electric swing/jazz sound.
For the artist, sorry, I don't have much for you! My interest in art is still growing, but I have precious little time to practice outside of my Art class (making a decent drawing takes me a long time) and unfortunately, not much motivation. My preferred tools are plain pencils (generally hard, since I tend to press down a little too hard on the page and make huge dark marks), pen and ink (Speedball makes a very good set of pen holders and nibs, just be sure to get the Sketching set and not the Calligraphy set), and Contè crayon, although I enjoy working with charcoal occasionally, just to make a splendid mess--it's good stress relief. Scenes of urban cities, especially older towns and cities, are some of my favorite types of depictions, and occasionally interior design drawings as well. My lovely Art teacher reawoke an old love for studying shapes and forms--I am very lucky to have signed up for her particular class. Imagine if my first art class had been dreary and boring--my view of art (no pun intended) would likely be quite a bit more cool at the moment.
At the time of writing, I'm floating between places of residence, so my updates to my entire site are few and far between. Here's hoping that I'll be able to come back to this page and make a nice ammendment to this line!
Cheers,
Cody "Sentharn" Jackson (Once "Supertanker")
October 28, 2009