Charles - ProfilesArchive

About Me

I've been a software engineer for 13+ years. I'm currently enrolled part-time at the University of Wisconsin - Madison where I have returned to pursue my BS in Computer Science. I write web-based network management tools by day, and study at night. I have five required classes to go and plan to graduate in May, 2009.
I study French. I'm pretty hardcore about it, and it's something that pays excellent dividends in terms of what I put into it vs the progress I see. I'm currently reading "Interview With The Vampire" in French. I know American Sign Language and I used to be quite proficient with it. It's been a while.
I'm a musician. Have been since I was in fourth grade. I sing, write, and play guitar, bass, drums, fiddle, and whatever else ya got.
When I'm not studying, I enjoy playing and recording music, my job, watching movies, and hanging with my friends and my lovely wife.
I've played with a lot of different bands, including an acoustic rock group called Old Man Sanders. Right now doing the school thing, but I still play occasionally with my old bandmates in Badwolf . Right now, given my time constraints, it's about all I can manage.

My Interests

I'd like to meet:

Funny, interesting people with big ol' brains in their heads. We don't have to agree on everything as long as you have thought your position through and are open to examining differences of opinion reasonably.
I strive to be that way... not always successfully.

My Blog

Why Renaissance Faires?

An old friend wrote to me recently:> I don't get [Ren Faires] ... they literally scare me.> I'm truly curious what about them is so appealing.I tried to explain as best I could:"It's a multitude of th...
Posted by on Fri, 25 May 2007 16:18:00 GMT

Xmas Letter 2006

Greetings and Felicitations! Hip Hip Hoorah! Tally-Ho!This is Leah and Charles's first ever "what we did this year" letter to our friends and family. We engage in this endeavor fully cognizant of the ...
Posted by on Sun, 24 Dec 2006 14:42:00 GMT

Are you kidding me?

I had an experience today which I classify as "funny and yet awful".It was shortly before my class. I usually brush my teeth before meetings and before heading to class because I have a huge paranoia...
Posted by on Tue, 05 Dec 2006 16:05:00 GMT

I am immature

Date: Thursday, November 9, 2006 12:42 PMTo: [email protected] Subject: Toward the futureAs a citizen of Wisconsin I would like very much to look forward to a day when Rep. Sensenbrenne...
Posted by on Thu, 09 Nov 2006 14:43:00 GMT

You Can't Go Home Again

Last Saturday I hosted a reunion for my old band "Badwolf" at my house. We originally wanted just to get together and hang out because we're all still good friends, albeit too busy to see each other ...
Posted by on Tue, 10 Oct 2006 16:32:00 GMT

Narrow-Mindedness and My Responses

I got an email from a family member and friend. It was one of those mass emails that people pass along adding comments like "Hell Yeah".I was shocked by the racist and xenophobic tone of the email, an...
Posted by on Sun, 20 Aug 2006 08:15:00 GMT

Weekend Off?

After last week's stress and a Friday night that was strange enough I couldn't possibly put it into words, I was looking forward to a weekend of just relaxing and recovering from an awful hangover cau...
Posted by on Sun, 13 Aug 2006 19:44:00 GMT

Three Weeks of Sweet, Sweet Freedom

Classes are over for the semester... shit, it was a tough one. AI ended up being the toughest class I've ever taken (with third semester Organic Chem coming a close second). I've certainly never devot...
Posted by on Fri, 11 Aug 2006 15:09:00 GMT

Drowning... again.

I'm in full-on study mode for my "Artificial Intelligence" midterm on Wednesday. I'm doomed. Drowning in a sea of formulae, variables, algorithms, constraints, search types, heuristics, logic proofs...
Posted by on Sat, 15 Jul 2006 19:24:00 GMT

Know-It-All vs Knows-His-Shit

To me, the difference between "Know-It-All" and someone who "Knows-His-Shit" has nothing to do with the person in question, but rather has to do with the audience.If someone starts spouting off on som...
Posted by on Sat, 17 Jun 2006 11:40:00 GMT