Aloha!

Welcome to the personal home page of Michael Allan Faries.

After surfing the Internet in October 1994, I began to maintain a personal web site. Throughout the years, it's a fun place for self-expression and sharing. Since then, I've toned back the quantity of personal information which I've wanted to share online.

Family time has also cut significantly into any personal web development work. While I maintain other web sites for fun, mostly to have a creative outlet, I've had VERY little free time with the additions of Connor (2001) and Caitlin (2004). (Lest you wonder why the web sites haven't been converted to PHP, or underwent newer, mind-blowing redesigns.)

Excuses, excuses, I know. Give me a 28-hour day and the wonders might never cease. ;-)

Photo Gallery

Family, friends, countrymen...

Much love to my wife, Stephanie, my family, and my friends.

What's on the Entertainment radar right now?

Speed Racer. Probably one of the most addictive cartoon shows from my early youth. Go Speed Go!

Favorites

Web browser(s): Mozilla SeaMonkey and Firefox.
OS of choice: I run multiple OSes on my MacBook Pro, thanks to Sun's VirtualBox software. Presently: Mac OS X (Leopard), Ubuntu Linux, OpenSolaris & WinXP Professional.
Foods: Japanese, Chinese, Thai, Tex-Mex. (Hot food is good food!)
Drinks: Decaf iced tea with lemon.
Type of tea: Darjeeling, Constant Comment.
TV shows: I have time to watch TV? ;-)
Currently it's Medium, Grey's Anatomy and Lost. (And if you know me, that's a LOT of TV watching, considering how little I've done in the past decade.) I also enjoy watching shows on DVD. Currently, it' Rescue Me.
My all-time favorites are the original Star Trek (TOS), The Bob Newhart Show, Kung Fu, the classic Warner Bros. cartoons, The Simpsons, Samurai Jack, various Gerry Anderson shows, and the original Jonny Quest by Doug Wildey/Hanna-Barbera. There are numerous other favorites, too, ranging from Space: 1999 to The Prisoner to the original Battlestar Galactica to (fill-in-the-blank). I rarely watch television these days, though. I have too many other focuses in my life.
Movies: 2001: A Space Odyssey, Iron Giant, Spartacus, Gladiator, Field of Dreams, Get Shorty, Seven Samurai, anything from Pixar, Memento (f-ing brilliant!), Bound, Ghost, Bruce Lee's Game of Death, most everything with John Wayne.
Books: (Moi? A bookworm?) "Zen and the Martial Arts," "Jonathan Livingston Seagull," "Autobiography of a Yogi," "The Art of War," anything by William Latham, John Kenneth Muir, Herge (Tintin), Richard Bach, Dirk Benedict, Richard Hatch, Thomas Moore, Isaac Asimov, H. Beam Piper, Robert Heinlein, Edgar Cayce, Edgar Rice Burroughs, among MANY others.
Anime: Star Blazers (the Space Battle Ship Yamato series); Crusher Joe, Odin, Macross: Love, Do You Remember? ("Oboeteimasu ka me to me ga atta toki wo | Oboeteimasu ka te to te ga fureatta toki | Sore wa hajimete no ai no tabidachi deshita | I love you so...")
Games: Mahjongg, Parcheesi, Chinese Checkers, Boggle
Music: Led Zeppelin, Yes, Alanis Morissette, Poe, Heart, Hiram Bullock/David Sanborn, Joe Satriani, Jimi Hendrix. (My music tastes range from rock to metal to jazz/blues to classical to symphonic soundtracks, too.)
Modern day illustrators: (I enjoy art!) Frank Frazetta, P.E. Serpieri (Druuna), Gil Elvgren, Dave Stevens, Vargas, Dave Cockrum, George Perez, John Byrne, Matt Busch, Michael Golden, P. Craig Russell, Mike Grell, Neal Adams.
Historical figures: U.S. Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan; Sun Tzu.
Some of my favorite web sites: DrudgeReport.com, TrekMovie.com, Pink is the New Blog, Slashdot.org, TheDigitalBits.com, Netflix.com, Space.com, Google.com, DoomBuggies.com and Renderosity.com (search on "Trinary")
Vacation spots: Maui, Hawaii; Cabo San Lucas, Mexico; Carmel, California, and, of course, Disneyland. ;)

Facts

I was born in December (Year of the Horse). I'm a Sagittarian. And a child of the Sixties. ;)

I currently work for Sun Microsystems, Inc. as a Marketing Programs Manager and Senior Web Architect. (My resume is not posted for public viewing, though.) I've worked at other Fortune 500 companies, too.

In 1995, I helped develop Disney.com's Disneyland and the Disney Channel web sites. (And I can honestly claim that I worked on one of the Top Ten web sites on the Internet at that time, according to various published statistics.)

As a hobby, I still maintain a science fiction fan site [ Space1999.org ]

I haven't traveled to Japan, China, Australia, New Zealand or Tahiti... yet.

I consider myself a moderate conservative. Sometimes I wonder if many of us exist in this political climate of far-right conservatism.

Metaphysics and spirituality are very personal subjects for me.

Yoga is about breathing. The martial arts are about all facets of balance. Feng Shui works.

Zen is... and isn't.

You need three things to succeed in life: Common sense, a sense of responsibility and a sense of humor. (My parents get full credit for that mantra.)

There's a big difference between "believing" and "knowing." And there's no such thing as "coincidence."

I'd rather play sports than watch them. Soccer is my favorite sport.

If you think you know me from reading this web page, you've only reached the tip of the proverbial iceberg. I'm much more complex that the surface things you've seen here. ;-)

Did you hear? In March 2002, scientists implanted a computer chip within a monkey -- who was able to control an onscreen cursor with his thoughts! I can see it now on my future resume: "Yes, I HAVE the chip!" (Speaking NON-factually: In an alternate universe, my clone is working in my place while I'm taking a much-needed vacation.)

This web page was created with the Bluefish editor and The GIMP, running on Sun Microsystem's Java Desktop System (Solaris).

I actually wrote my first-ever eBook in April 2006... 36 years since self-publishing my first book at age 4: "Cats on the Beach." Yes, really.

And, yes, I know: I don't update this page often enough.

What's been in the wallpaper rotation on my desktops...