I figure that if you’re reading this blog, it might be somewhat helpful to know a little bit about me. My name is Nathan Zachary, but I’ve gone by “Zach” since I was knee-high to a grasshopper. The Z-Issue is simply my journal about various topics–some serious, some silly–ranging from Aristotelian perspectives, to prefrontal cortical development, to not-commonly-known musicians, to random cat videos that I’ve found online. Essentially, it is a strange coalescence of my ideas, thoughts, and interests in an online form.

I’m a big nerd, and love academia, formalised education, and the schooling system in general. Basically, if someone would pay me to be a lifelong student, I would gladly take them up on that offer (at least to a degree [pun intended]). My degrees are in Child and Adolescent Developmental / Cognitive Psychology, and Elementary Education (with a certificate in Special Education). I’m currently working on research en route to a PhD in Child and Adolescent Psychology. My particular areas of interest are behaviour modification, gender atypicality / sex-dimorphic behaviours, and cognitive therapy for abused children. Once finished, I will likely go into private practice in addition to teaching at the university level and publishing books for the public sector.

Currently, I work in a field completely unrelated to my degrees–Linux Engineering. I have been active in the Linux community for about fourteen years now, and use only FLOSS (Free/Libre Open-Source Software) with the exception of Photoshop (that’s for another discussion altogether). There are tons of flavours of Linux out there for one to choose, but I prefer Gentoo and Arch (although I primarily work with RHEL, and derivatives thereof, professionally). If you don’t know much about Linux, and would like to, I’m always glad to help you get started; feel free to drop me a line.

I like to dabble in a lot of different areas, but my primary interests/hobbies are photography, music, and getting outside (whether it is hiking, running, cycling, et cetera). In photography, I am particularly fond of floral macro, object macro, and portraits. I’m starting to try my hand at some High-Dynamic Range (HDR) shots, but have certainly not yet mastered the art of tone-mapping. My musical tastes can best be summarised as eclectic, as I love choirs, metalcore, finger-style, and electronic (drums & bass [dnb]) the best. Some of my favourite artists and groups are Libera, The Juliana Theory, Dead by April, Being, Memphis May Fire, Billy McLaughlin, Rameses B, Vexento, Kubbi, and The Last Sighs of the Wind. That being said, there are FAR too many amazing artists out there to mention by name. As with Linux topics, if you would just like to talk about music, or better yet, introduce me to a new artist, feel free to send me an email or comment on an entry. With getting outside, I prefer to cycle, but I have become an avid runner lately. Though I don’t like doing it nearly as much as I do cycling or hiking, I’ve found that is a really great way to get in better shape.

Anyway, enough about me. I hope that you enjoy at least a few of the articles here on the Z-Issue, and welcome you to comment on them. 🙂

Cheers,
Zach

Last updated on Wednesday, 19 December 2018 @ 20:57 GMT