I'm a two-sided individual. One side is a romantic and quixotic Puer Aeternus, while the other is a pedantic realist and nihilist. Both influences are ever-present, though at times one may dominate the other. It makes sticking with any one path a bit difficult, but I've learned to balance the two influences over the years. Actually, I would say that the former's constant failed attempts at finding happiness caused it to create the latter in order to cope and find a solution. The gestalt of the two in me is something that I've been quite proud of since coming to terms with it.

My career choice has always been pointed towards computers. Though software engineering is my passion, I'm currently employed as an enlisted network administrator. Hopefully, I can get more on track in that regard. I do a lot of writing in my free time, which I'm violently secretive of. But, if all goes well, then perhaps this site will eventually be a hub from which I advertise my first completed novel.

My recreational time would, ideally, be one part media indulgence, one part research, one part promenade, one part social excursion, and one part gaming. Media indulgence is preferably some classic literature or aesthetic film (I can be won with either subject matter or cinematography). Research can be almsot anything, sad to say. I enjoy knowing things. I'm an aspiring linguist, theologist, psychologist, sociologist, philanthropist, historian, so nearly anything will do. I also simply get wrapped up in discovering the music scene from before and after my time. The promenades were burnt into my psyche as a clandestine experience do to the many outtings my friends and I would make on foot in our teens, coupled with the hikes I would take in early childhood and young adulthood. Hiking applies, but I actually prefer to wander both urban and suburban areas like a vagabond. The socialite aspect of myself only developed somewhat recently, due, I assume, to the social restriction I suffered for the first year after my enlistment. The gaming portion is dedicated more to retro-gaming than the modern fare. However, that hobby has undoubtedly consumed more of my life than any other. I've cut back a bit since entering adulthood, which is probably healthy for me, but I can't begin to fathom how differently I would've turned out without this influence in my life.

The screen name causes me a little annoyance now and then. Primarily from people being drawn to my MySpace page, mislead by the name into thinking that I claim my religion as pagan. In fact, I've simply been using this screen name for so long that I can't bare to part with it. It began with my naming a character in a game "PaGaN," which I did with more the definition of "infidel" in mind. My young mind was simply resisting Judeo-Christian influence, as I seemed to be a popular target for those wanting to convert in those days. I suppose it was that I seemed a nice guy with good morals, so they didn't understand how I could possibly not be of such faith, as they often expressed to me. A sequel to said game required a surname as well, so my slightly older self chose "elements," thus displaying that the character was not pagan, but simply possessed traits that could be considered so. It was around that time I first had the notion of wanting to create a web page some day. From that time forward, I dreamed of this site, and PaGaN 3l3m3nts became my screen name for anything that would have it. I've also tried to reinterprit the name as referring to elements such as earth, fire, and water, with "pagan elements" referring to the variable "fifth element," preferably ether.