A Bit About Me

This is taken from the revised About page, and reflects the change in direction being taken with this blog/site…

Most people would probably describe me as a geek, and that’s a badge I am happy to wear, if not a little misleading. Yes, my background is in software development, and yes I DO have a preference for typing commands instead of “point and click” and yes I have had Linux installed on my personal machines for quite some time. However…

Just like everyone else on this planet, exactly who or what I am cannot be packaged into one or more neat labels. My musical tastes are somewhat varied, my world view consists of an almost irreconcilable fusion of socialist, capitalist and anarchist ideas, and in matters of a spiritual nature I am very much drawn to pagan, earth-centred pathways.

But the world likes a neat label, so please feel free to use “geek” LOL

I’ve been programming computers since about 1981 when at the age of 12 I became a proud owner of a Sinclair ZX81. By the time I got to college, 4 years later, my thinking was very “left of centre”, I had declared myself a “pagan” (not really knowing /exactly/ what that meant at the time, but it felt right) and I was in no doubt that I really should have been born about 20 years earlier as the late ’60s would have been exactly the right era for me! As it was, I was a child of the ’80s, and my favourite music from that era tends to be bands like The Mission, The Cult, New Order and The Smiths. Yes, I was a bit of a “goth” – none of the “emo” crap you see these days mind you!

But once you leave academia, you enter the “real world”; the world of work and crazy shit like getting married and producing sprogs. With these things come a sense of responsibility and, for someone like me at least, a chronic sense of things not being quite the way they ought to be, but “hey let’s get on with it anyway”. You see, I’m not completely sold on the concept of modern society, not completely convinced that we’ve /really/ advanced in any substantial way. If I was a lot braver (and able to convince my wife), I’m sure I’d sell everything tomorrow and adopt a more nomadic lifestyle. But I’m not, so I don’t, but I still have that inner desire to be free of the scourge of working 9-to-5, never quite being able to do exactly what I want to do, and getting a feeling of despair every time I see a crowd of people heading to (or from) a train and realising that not only are they drones in a rat race, but I am one of them.

It’s those feelings that push me, paradoxically, towards the world of business. It is the urge to be free that gives me a real desire to build my own mini business empire. Not for the thrill of the “cut and thrust”, not to become one of the elite that (wrongly) controls far too much (i.e. all) of the wealth, but to give myself, my extended family and my friends a chance to experience life without unneccessary crap. Also the time and resources to do some real good, rather than chucking a gold coin in a charity box every week.

I remain, at heart, a socialist, but socialism has become tainted by men, much in the same way that organised religion (and religious leaders) has given “spirituality” a bad name.

One of the things, I think, about being a software developer is that it tends to encourage a pragmatic approach rather than a dogmatic one. One of the more bizarre outcomes of this, for me personally, has been a growing acceptance of some of the principles of capitalism. Not the dirty stinking capitalist dogma of the Thatcher era, nor the “greed is good” approach that has resulted in the so-called “global financial crisis”. No, for me, it’s the type of “social capitalism” that you see from the likes of Richard Branson (a guy I have admired for a long time).

The net result of all this is what you see today; a guy who hates red tape, detests much of modern society’s pointlessness, believes in equality and freedom for all, and is out to make a pile of cash. No real conflict of interests there then?

So, what will I do with all this wealth once obtained? The answer to that would cover several more pages, but suffice to say that priority number 1 is my family, and beyond that would come a number of varied initiatives to effect positive change in many ways.

Just as I have accepted that money, wealth and capitalism do not have to be bad, so do many right-wing thinkers also need to accept that socialist principles are not inherently evil either. In fact it’s probably ironic when you think about it; many of those people who berate “socialism” are devout church-goers, yet the last time I bothered to read the bible I think it had a lot to say about respect, equality and the lack of value in material wealth for its own sake.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy some of the stuff that has, and will continue to appear here and my other blogs and sites. If you feel inclined to get in touch, the best way is probably email (gary@avallach.com) or Skype (avallach9)

All the best
Gaz
p.s. for those who are curious, “Gaz” and “Gazza” are nickname versions of “Gary”, popular in UK and Australia (my country of birth and adopted home respectively). It has nothing to do with the Gaza Strip in the Middle East!