I’m Andy.
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Things I like:
Music – I listen to music a great deal, and also write about it on this blog. I have a small group of people I talk to about music, and am always looking for new things to listen to and new people to talk to. I also started buying CDs again at the end of 2014, and signed up to Rough Trade’s album of the month vinyl subscription from 2015-23. My music habit has more recently lead to a new hobby - buying and building Ikea shelving.
Computing – I got into computing quite late, and I’m not really a proper programmer. I also currently work in IT, so my recreational computing pursuits sometimes have to take a back seat to give me some chance of a decent work/life balance. That said, I still do blog about computers a fair bit, and I’m interested in web technology (especially WordPress and various social media channels), and anything to do with making computers work more like people and people work more like computers. I’ve also done a lot of work with free and open source software in the past, and still dabble on occasion, but I now largely use computers for writing and hunting down new music, books and knowledge in general.
Keyboards - I build and customise ortholinear and/or split mechanical keyboards, and also customise the firmware that controls them.
Sustainability and environmental concerns – I have a degree in Environmental Science, and am a great believer that as custodians of our planet we have a responsibility to keep it healthy for as long as possible. I champion green issues at work, and generally have a number of projects on the go that tap into these ideas. I became vegetarian in 2017, and started using a bike as my main form of transport in 2018. I think I could still probably do more though.
People – I am interested in people, and how they work. I’m a classic INTJ in that respect (and in a lot of other respects actually), and I spend a great deal of time talking to people who interest me. I will go out of my way to track down people who I think can contribute something positive to my life, and one of my projects for 2013 was to spend more time talking about things that matter with people who matter. My project for 2014 was to gain qualification/certification as a MBTI (Myers-Briggs type indicator) practitioner, and I’m now working out ways to use the tool in my personal and professional environments.