A quick fact box about me before we begin:
 |
Name | John Carlos Cruz |
| Birthplace | Detroit, MI USA | |
| Currently | Mount Clemens, MI USA | |
| Birthday | December 31, 1985 | |
| Political | Libertarian | |
| Ethnicity | Mexican, Welsh, Irish, French Canadian, English | |
| Religion | Gnostic Christian | |
| Sign | Capricorn | |
| Trade | Web Developer | |
| Education | BAS of Web Development (June 2008) | |
| Drink | Guinness and Rum | |
| Cell Provider | T-Mobile |
Now, on with it.
I started Conveniently Misplaced in April of 2007. At the time I had given up on working from home and was concentrating on my 9-5 job and full time school. I wasn’t about to ditch my domain, especially since all my email lives here, so instead I just decided to turn it into a blog. It used to be just for business, a portfolio, etc. But I figured I could work around that one and incorporate the important business features and everything else I want to into this new website somehow.
Seems like nobody just has a website any more, they have a blog. Wordpress is awesome because it really bridges the gap between blog and content management system, and I’ve been very happy with it. So since this is the way of doing it, this is what I started doing. I really do enjoy writing, and this has been a good outlet for me since I don’t really get a chance to write any more for anything.
The theme used on Conveniently Misplaced is a modified version of the theme NightLightIdea by Robbie Williams. I just changed some colors and the header, the design is awesome and Robbie deserves all the credit in the world for it. The header image is the God Atlas at Rockefeller Center in New York. He’s there not as an overall dictating thesis for the rest of the site to work back to, but is an in reference to the novel Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, the book that introduced me to the Objectivist philosophy I still follow.
The whole point of this blog is not to have a specific theme, like how some blogs are just about politics or music. I have found it very limiting to restrict yourself to a certain area, especially when one day I might want to talk about election results, and another day I might want to share some random funny video I’ve found. So it’s really just a vast mix of stuff I feel is important enough to talk about, or just general blatherings about my daily life and what I’m up to.
As for myself, I don’t personally like trying to decipher how someone feels about something by reading through all of their posts, wasting my time, only to later decipher that I want nothing to do with them. So here’s where I lay it all out, let you know about myself so you can decide if you even want anything to do with me. This way too you get a feel for who I am and what you can expect of my writings.
I am John Carlos Cruz. I was born in Detroit, Michigan on December 31, 1985. Despite this, I have never claimed residence in Detroit, only Dearborn, Clinton Township, and as of right now, Mount Clemens. I am a full time college student (till June of 2008, then I’m DONE!) and freelance Web Developer. I’m also a musician of sorts, primary instrument is the saxophone (I’ve been playing since I was 9) but I also play guitar, bass, clarinet, flute, and I have even more that I own but am terrible at playing them. In music tastes I’m all across the board, from classical to hardcore, I’m into most everything. I love listening to music (my server currently holds about 25,000 songs for 70 days worth of music) and going out to shows.
I am a member of the Libertarian Party, The GOP, The National Association of Photoshop Professionals, the Detroit Historical Society. I’m pretty sure those are the only things I’m officially involved in. I’m also an Objectivist, a Photoshop junkie, a computer geek, a Capricorn, a half Mexican, and a troublemaker should the need arise to cause trouble.
In my realm of computer geekyness, I’m a web geek. I program in PHP primarily but have worked with PERL and will work with Python, Java, Ruby, etc. I don’t mess with the Microsoft stuff on that end, the *nix server environment is just so much better to work in. All there is too it.
I mentioned I’m half Mexican. I’m also part Welsh, Irish, French Canadian, some German is in there, and a mix of who knows what else. This is what I look like on any typical day. At least when I’m standing at the ocean in the middle of the night. It’s a nice mix that I am. When I apply for a job or anything college related, I check the “hispanic” box. But if I have to go to court or am registering a firearm (I am a gun owner, BTW), I check the “white” box. It’s nice, very convenient.
Religion wise, I am (or aspire to be is probably more like it) from the Christian realm of Gnosticism. While we thrived during the first few centuries CE there aren’t many of us left. I don’t talk about or reference religion often, but read up on it and you will see why my viewpoints are the way they are on certain subjects. It’s not the orthodox Catholic or Protestant babble you are used to hearing (such as “we love blind faith”, “the golden compass is the devil”, “let God think for you”, etc. All the religious stuff that’s been talked about for much of your life I’m sure.. It’s a different take, and something that I take very seriously.
I am a graduate of Mount Clemens High School (Class of 2003), I graduated with honors in Music and NHS. I will graduate from Baker College in June 2008 with my bachelors of Web Development.
So that’s all you should have to know about me, any and everything else should be explained through my posts, but you can always drop me a line by sending an email to john AT cruzweb DOT net and I’ll get back to you ASAP.
