About Me

To Begin With

I was born in Kiev, Ukraine in 1989 (See some of the pictures I took when I visited in 2003). My parents and I moved to the US when I was 11 in August 2001. I've lived with them in Pittsburgh, PA until I started going to Oberlin College in September 2007, where I expect to get married to Michael in March 2010 (check out our wedding website!), and graduate May 2010.

One of the most powerful experiences I've had was learning JavaScript in seventh grade, mainly because I didn't have a computer, and I spent a lot of time at the public library. It made me realize that (in retrospect), yes, computers were these marvelous things that could do whatever I was sufficiently competent to ask of them, but they had a social context, too. Who I became, who I met, what my goals eventually morphed into was in a large part because of how I sat down in the library one day and decided that I was really, really bored with NeoPets. I think I would be completely different if I had started learning these thigns in a school setting, or even in the privacy of my home.

Since about ninth grade, I've had an answer prepared if anyone, ever should ask me, "what would you do with a large, but finite sum of money?" I would help to build or sustain a public library.

And Then What?

In an eleventh-grade questionnaire there was a prompt concerning future career preference, and I hastily wrote "professor in," leaving blank space at the end to later decide on Chemistry or Computer Science. Exams came and went, the postponement slipped my mind, and the questionnaire remained as it was, proclaiming my future as a rich and famous Professor In. Although I have discovered a much stronger interest in Computer Science and Mathematics than what I had in eleventh grade (and a new interest in Human-Computer Interaction), I still jokingly see myself as a vague, abstract "Professor In" one day.

Stuff I Like

I've had a personal webpage for a while. I think I made my first one in seventh grade. Most of the time, I spent a ton of time trying to make it look pretty and use all kinds of swanky new JavaScript/CSS/whatever. I love that. That is great. Sometimes I get to design other people's sites for money, but then they have an aesthetic they want followed or something. But making my own website has always been an enormously fun thing, because I can almost convince myself it's practical, and I can always try out new things. Like this design - turn off CSS and see what happens. That's what I learned this time.

Anyway, despite almost compulsively wokring on my website design, I reallydon't fill it in too often. Usually, it remains "under construction" for a while. I only really fill it in when I am applying for soemthign, and the application(s) has(have) a field for "homepage." So then I fill it in, largely with professional-sounding stuff. But here's something which has been brought to my attention I never actually do: show I am a real person! with interests and hobbies outside of working. So here goes. (Note that I do love to do work - homework, web dev work, research work, whatever work - I love it, and I am a happier person for that. But I have other loves, as well.)

• I love Pink Floyd, also Metallica. Sure, indie stuff is great and all, but I have been listenign to these thigns since I was in the womb. I loved them as a child, I love them now. Dark Side of the Moon is the most beautiful sound in the universe. St. Anger does not count as a Metallica album, it's terrible, and if you hate Metallica because you hate St. Anger, that just tells me you've been painfully deprived of their finer albums.
• I also love Nautilus Pompilius. This is a Russian band, and it and Pink Floyd and Metallica form basically my holy trinity. I hopeoen day to post song translations on this site.
• I cross-stich like some manner of cross-stitching wizard. Actually, I haven't done it as much lately, but I've been cross-stitching since I was four. (It was tough to convince my grandmother to teach me, but it happened). Since I am Ukrainian, and, as I've recently found out, it's sort of a Ukrainian thing, I also learned a lot of technique throughout elementary and middle school. In high school, I was in the Latin club, and we went to the Pennsylvania Junior Classical League Latin Convention. I always made a cross stitch soemthing for the competitions. That was really fun. Actually, every time I feel overworked or tired or frustrated, I daydream about having a little shop where I sell little cross-stitch design pillowcases. I hope to have some tutorial or gallery of work up on this site at one point, but all my best work is in Pittsburgh at my parents', not with me.
• I love cutting stuff up and then gluing it together. My oldest happy place: scissors, colored paper, glue.... and go! As you might imagine, Color Theory class was great for me. I am very meticulous and neat, and I love cutting and interspersing texture and color. That said, I don't mean collages in the sense that I sut up old magazines and stuff. I make things, then cut them up, then put them together. Outside of scissors and glue, I love to work with inks and markers; less often charcoal and soft pastels. I don't like drawing reality, and I don't like erasing. I make art because I love it, not because I am trying to sell anything. That said, I do like to make greeting cards.
• I love love love webcomics! Ask me about it if you care, be prepared for a long conversation:)

Here's some stuff I don't like at all:

• Organized sports on TV: I don't care about whatever game this is and I don't like it hogging prime time and not letting me watch House/Bones/whatever I was going to watch.
• Shoes inside the house/apartment/dorm room: it causes an unnecessary mess, and it makes shoe-less-indoor folks, like me, uncomfortable.

One day, I really want to visit Iceland. I don't particularly want to go anywhere else.