About Me

If you’re looking at this page, you’re wondering who I am. Or at least, you’re wondering if I have anything witty to say about myself that might amuse you for a few moments. That may or may not happen, but I’ll give it a shot.

I’m Dan Myers. Some people call me Daniel, but I frown at them when they do. Online I usually go by Heron, and if you call me that in real life I’ll probably respond instantly. (Ah, the unintended effects of voice chat in video games.) Heron is short for Heron Blademaster, which itself is derived from the Wheel of Time series. Perhaps this image can illustrate:

In the Wheel of Time universe, one who has mastered the art of swordfighting is awarded a heron-marked sword as a token of one’s status as a blademaster. That’s something to aspire to 🙂

Anyway, without further ado, I present the standard “ten thirteen things about me”:

1. I’m a computer programmer, currently living in Maple Valley, Washington.

2. I’m happily married to Corinne; we’ve been married since February 2007. We have three daughters: Brooke, Azure, and Rose.

3. I’m politically moderate, with occasional conservative leanings. Some of my rants on this blog will likely be political in nature, but they will rarely be partisan in nature – if I attack some proposed law or whatever, it will be because I disagree with the proposition, whether the person proposing it is Republican or Democrat.

4. I’m a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. People call it the “Mormon” Church, but that is not it’s name. I can occasionally be found discussing religion in random Facebook comment threads. Yes, I’ll answer your questions about the LDS Church, preferably via e-mail (dan –at– danielgmyers –dot– com). You can find out more information about the church at comeuntochrist.org.

5. I served a two-year mission for the Church in the Dominican Republic from September 2004 to September 2006, where I gained an almost native proficiency at speaking Spanish. I’m a little (ok, a *lot*) rusty now, since I rarely have reason to use the language anymore, but I can still read Spanish without any issues.

6. I graduated in April 2009 from Brigham Young University with a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science.

7. I write science fiction and fantasy stories when the urge strikes me. I’ve posted some of it here, but I haven’t met my own goals yet; you can expect more at some point.

8. Apart from writing, I’m an avid reader of sci-fi and fantasy stories, mostly series. I’ve read the Wheel of Time six times, and the Shannara series twice. The Stormlight Archive is a new epic fantasy series, and it is absolutely fantastic. Other series I’ve read and enjoyed include the Honor Harrington series, Lord of the Rings, and Mistborn. I won’t even bother listing all the standalone books I’ve read.

9. I was the creator of various Sourceforge projects, a few of which are in a usable state. I’m a big fan of open source software, and I prefer using open source software where possible (like WordPress). What little activity I engage in can be found on my github profile.

10. I used to have Gentoo Linux installed, then I switched to an Ubuntu virtual machine, but these days I’m too lazy to use it. Windows is, at present, the most useful to me.

11. Speaking of Windows, the biggest reason I use it is to play video games. Most recently I’ve been playing Overwatch and Minecraft.

12. I have chronic perpetual nausea. (The actual diagnosis is gastroparesis.) It had been essentially constant since around March 2008. Anti-nausea medication does nothing. We reached a point where the only option left was surgery; I had that surgery on April 18, 2011. So far, there has been a marked improvement. I still feel nauseous most of the time, usually when I wake up and at bedtime, but it’s not nearly as bad as it used to be, and I can actually engage in some amount of physical activity again. Yay!

13. I have a confused sense of taste when it comes to music. If you were to watch my playlist at work, you’d see “Weird Al” Yankovic pop up most often. I also enjoy (in alphabetic order as I glance at my library) Dashboard Confessional, Enya, Green Day, Linkin Park, Plain White Ts, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Secondhand Serenade, Something Corporate, and so on and so forth.

So now that you know all about me, leave me a comment to say hi, maybe with a link to your own blog 🙂