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I'll keep this short and relevant - if you really want to find out more about me, talk to me face-to-face.

Why the suffix "theundead"?

Some of you, upon noting the URL to this site, may be wondering, "What in hell possessed you to use a name like 'RAKtheUndead'"? Others may have become apprehensive, and yet others will snigger.

My reasons were very simple. Online, such a simple set of letters as "RAK" will have commonly been taken on larger online communities, such as online games or large forums. I experienced such problems on Diablo II, which I played online for a short time. Searching my head for an appropriate name, I decided the suffix "theUndead" was appropriate, as on most online games or other communities, weird names are the norm, and in the scale of things, my name was actually quite banal. It happened to transfer well from that game, I must say.

Those of you who use the Internet almost solely for social networking sites (which makes most of the people I've met at college) will not understand this hiding behind a pseudonym (or in my case, my initials), as you seem to throw your real names about everywhere (yes, I am presenting myself as flamebait). It makes sense to me, and for that reason, I shall not use my name on this site.

My Interests

As you may have inferred from the site, I'm a big fan of writing, usually in the dystopian, science-fiction or war-story genres, and sometimes hybrids of the above. I also like to write non-fiction, usually technical articles.

I have two big interests: computers and cars. I am extremely enthusiastic about these. I feel that the machine is the great equaliser, which corroded the former class systems of the world and made those people who lived with the machines affluent. As well as that, I'm fascinated by how these machines work, particularly the car, whose method of operation I would describe as almost beautiful.

On the computer side of things, I'm particularly interested in computer gaming - which the "RAKtheUndead" name is explained by. I'm also interested in computer programming, although to call myself a programmer would be a stretch by anyone's standards - I know a fair amount of BASIC and a small bit of C++ - and I also like to discuss computers, which many of my friends have discovered to their detriment.

On the car side of things, I'm even more of a vocal enthusiast of them than I am of the computer. While I can, to some extent, understand people's aversion to computers, I find it difficult to understand why they can't see the point in purchasing a performance car over a "box with wheels" design, like many coming from the South-East Asian markets. To some people, there's no functional difference between buying a Hyundai compared to a BMW, and as little difference between the same Hyundai and a Ferrari, for instance. And at this, I cringe, because to me, there is an easily quantifiable difference between these choices. Luckily for me, people tend to be more interested in cars, to which there is attached a form of image, than computers, which to everybody but the computer enthusiasts, appear to be all built on the same design, which is to a large extent true.

Bringing that image thing forward, I can't understand how people set their image by the mobile phone that they buy or the music player that they purchase. I've set myself up as somebody who wouldn't buy a phone unless it was either basic, or else loaded up with the highest-spec hardware. As for the music players, they are, in fact, more similar than their internals would dictate - they're all currently based on the ARM processor architecture, which means, in simple terms, that there's surprisingly very little difference between an iPod and a Creative Zen, or a Zune, or any other music player. In fact, most home computers are more dissimilar from each other than these music players.

I realise at this point that I've pretty much written a short technical article in that last paragraph, so I'm moving on. What else am I interested in? Well, to continue on the machinery part, I'm interested in other types of machinery in the same vein as the above two interests - aeroplanes, helicopters, boats, spacecraft, robotics, and so on. I'm also very interested in science, as might have been inferred by the large volume of science-fiction and technical material that I've written. One particular interest of mine is cybernetics, in which field I hope to find a career.