I must have missed this the first time around. ^_^;;
I've got the good Irish name of Mike Sweeney (potato-famine Irish/Mayflower english background). I've still got the Boston accent but lived as much of my life as I could manage in sunny CA, last twenty-odd years in what we fondly call "The People's Republic of Berkeley."
I studied theater and music in college, dropped out, joined the Army to blow up things and jump out of planes, paid my dues as a white-collar worker and at last got back to the backstage work I love. Somewhere in those heady days of Shakespeare on the beach and experimental plays in "the city" I wrote a novel, a bunch of short fiction -- as yet only a couple of articles have seen the light of print -- and begun what has been an abiding interest in modern Japan.
When I started my present job as "master electrician" (chief fix-it for all things that plug in, and resident sometimes-designer at a small theater) the whole computer thing started to snowball on me. First it was composing and designing sound effects on computer. Then I discovered 3D. The computer grew and grew, sprawling over my desk, spawning broken mother-boards and extra hard drives to clutter shelves and floor, and demanding an increasing share of my attention.
I need to start designing my own game like I need a new head. I'm composing with one hand, designing for theater with another, still writing (and still trying to interest a publisher), and still trying to get a bit of computer art done here and there. Trouble is, I can't resist the creative challenge.
Oh...I listen to practically everything, and I mean Bengali street musicians to Maria Callas, J-pop to Al Hirt. My job means I get to listen to that kind of variety live as well, plus chat with the musicians. I read genre (SF, mystery) and history, plus the simpler science texts. I hardly have the time for movies and wish I didn't play games, but like to unwind over something like CivII or Warcraft.
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everywhere else, it's --
"Nomuse"