Interests

This section describes some interests that I have outside of work.

Linux

Linux is a computer operating system that is an alternative to Microsoft Windows. Over the past few years, I've worked on learning more about Linux by installing it and using it on my personal laptop. I've tried running a few Linux distributions on a virtual machine, I've tried installing it beside Windows so that my laptop is a dual-boot system (2 or more operating systems) and I've tried working with it as the sole operating system on my laptop. I've mainly worked with the Linux Mint and Ubuntu Linux distributions, but there are many Linux distributions available. A lot of these different Linux distributions can be found at the DistroWatch website.

Cycling

I enjoy riding my street bike around the various neighborhoods to look around near where we are. I recently rode over to the Corso Italia neighborhood in Toronto, which is a great area for cafes and patio dining. It's a bit far to walk to but also a bit of a hassle to get there by transit, so biking felt like an ideal way to see the neighborhood. My bike also comes in handy if I need to run an errand at a store nearby but it's not really within walking distance.

Reading

I like to read both fiction and non-fiction, so I'll usually alternate between the two. This is especially the case if the non-fiction book was very heavy and serious and I'll then read fiction as an escape. A book I read recently by Canadian author Thomas King, called Double Eagle, was a very entertaining murder mystery set in the American Northwest.

Music

I like to listen to music from a variety of different genres; mainly rock, metal, electronic and sometimes blues. We recently bought a record player and we are starting to build up a vinyl record collection. Lately, I've been on a synthwave/electronic music kick, listening to bands like Com Truise and M83.

Video Games

I enjoy playing video games on my Xbox as well. I'm mainly interested in survival, space exploration and 3rd-person action RPG (role-playing) games. A couple of games that I've really enjoyed playing recently are No Man's Sky and Elden Ring.