Morning everyone. Chicago suburb native of 42 years who doesn't really feel like leaving. Working at one of the many data centers in the Chicago area, if you can call it work, because I enjoy technology in general. I joined because I've been migrating from legacy social media to the Fediverse; Reddit's API nonsense helped that process along.

Contrary to what my parents and sisters drilled into my head as I was growing up, I've been leaning more and more left as I age. At some point, someone decided that giving our children a better life meant making them suffer. Seems like teaching my kids to be grateful for the opportunities they have, respect others' beliefs, accept people from all walks of life, stand up for marginalized groups, foster positive mental health outcomes, not expect anything to be handed to them, and just be good people in general makes me a communist in the eyes of many, including my own parents. I'm gonna have to pass on whatever ideology came up with that and work toward dismantling it.

Beyond that ... I'm pretty low key most of the time. I like PC (Linux) gaming, physical computing, 3D printing, video editing, analog media preservation, listening to open source-related podcasts, road trips, dogs, glamping, grilling, beer, grilling while glamping and drinking beer and hanging out with my dogs, etc. I listen to metal but have been on a Sleep Token kick since the newest album was released.

I don't speak up often because someone else typically said what I want to say first, posting responses like "This" is annoying, and upvotes are silent. At any rate, nice to meet everyone, hope to be able to contribute something useful at some point.