Topic: Get To Know The Team - Sesquipedalian

[Sesquipedalian]

Name: Jon Stovell
Age: I have survived 38 trips around the sun on this spinning space rock.
Location: Canada
Quote: "No one who cannot rejoice in the discovery of his own mistakes deserves to be called a scholar." — Donald Foster
Position: Developer

• Do you have pets?
  I tell my kids they can get any kind of pet they like, as long as it doesn't breathe.
• What is your favorite color?
  Black.
• What kind of music do you like?
  Gothic, industrial, symphonic metal, classical, pounding electronica... and U2.
• What do you do in your free time besides spending time on SMF?
  I read a lot in my free time.
• What are your goals/dreams in life?
  The world is still on its way toward becoming all that God intends it to be. I want to participate well in that process of becoming and help others to find their unique roles and contributions to make in it, too.
• What got you involved in SMF?
  I was introduced to SMF via a site dedicated to modding one of my favourite old video games. Then I used it to create a discussion forum for an academic society I am part of. But what really did it was the (foolish? awesome?) decision to disregard all wise advice to the contrary and build an entirely new, live website for a fairly complex organization (my church denomination) using the SMF 2.1 betas, along with some custom mods and theme, to power the whole thing. (Don't do this at home, kids!) As it turns out, the only way to make that work is to become a very active SMF developer, so here I am.
• Who do you admire? Why?
  Jesus, my wife, people who give when it hurts, people who love in the face of hatred, and quality brewmasters.
• Are you into sports?  If so which ones?
  Sports can be divided into two categories: Hockey, and "other."
• What is your dream job?
  I have it, actually! I'm a theologian who works directly for my church denomination. I get to do all the fun parts of academic life, like teaching, researching interesting topics, and having profound conversations with people on a regular basis, but unlike my wife, who is a university professor, I never have to grade mountains of student papers.
• What was your first screenname?
  Sesquipedalian.
• Do you have any piercings?
  Dual earrings on one side.
• Are you a lefty/righty or ambidextrous?
  Righty.
• Do you have any tattoo's?  If not do you wish/plan to get one?
  Soon.
• Do you have any siblings?  If so, how many of each?
  Five younger brothers, and a younger sister.
• What is your favorite website?
  I have different favourites for different purposes.
• Do you play computer games?  If so, which ones?
  Space fighter sims, Elder Scrolls games, and little puzzle games on my phone sometimes.
• Do you play video game consoles?  Which ones?
  Nope.
• Are you married or planing to get married?
  Since 2004.
  
  • If so do you have any kids?
    Yes.
  • How many kids?
    Two.
• How many languages do you speak?  If so which ones?
  Speak: English and some French. Read: English, Latin, ancient Greek, ancient Hebrew (kinda rusty), German, and French.
  Bonus tip: The defining characteristic of a Canadian is the ability to understand the French written on the side a cereal box.
• Do you drink?
  I enjoy a tasty beverage on occasion. I always go for quality over quantity, though.
• Do you smoke?
  Nope.
• Did you play hookey from class?
  I never understood why anyone would want to do that...
• Do you have a license?
  Yes. I'm not really sure why that is relevant in this context, though.
  
  • Do you own a car?
    Yes.
  • Have you ever been stopped for speeding?
    A few times.
• Do you obtain a good amount of sleep daily?
  Define "good."
• How do you sleep?
  Like this! *naps*
• Have you ever been on an airplane?
  Frequently.
• Have you ever broken a bone?
  Surprisingly, no. I once even shot a nail through three of my fingers at once, and yet none of the bones were damaged at all.
• Do you wear jewelry?  If so what jewelry do you wear?
  Earrings, wedding band, occasionally other rings and a steel necklace.
• How do you dress?
  All black, all the time — except on Easter Sunday, the one day per year when I wear white.
• How many keys are on your keyring?
  Five.
• What time do you go to bed?  What time do you wake up?
  Typically around 1:30 AM. Usually between 8:30 and 9:30 AM.
• What's the freakiest thing you have done?
  Well, I'm a Goth Christian with a PhD who likes ancient texts, sci-fi and fantasy stories, and learning computer languages for fun. It doesn't really matter what context you put me in; someone will usually find my very act of existence kinda freaky. And that makes life fun.
• Do you live alone?
  Nope.
• How many hours a day do you spend on the computer?
  Many.
• How many hours a day do you spend in SMF?
  It varies considerably.
• What is your favorite beverage - coffee, tea, soda, beer, other?
  I'm happy with a good coffee, an interesting beer, a dry, full-bodied red, or a single malt Islay scotch. But I'm kind of a snob about quality in all cases.
• What do you hate?
  Hatred ... and carrots, which are the vegetable embodiment of evil.
• What do you love?
  That is a question that can only be answered with a lifetime. But Jesus, my brilliant wife and marvellous children, and those who respond with hope and love in the face of suffering and evil would all feature highly on that list. Also, spicy Thai curries.
• What is your religion?
  Christian.
• What is your hair color?
  Brown-black, with a few stray greys lately.
• How tall are you?
  6'
• How much do you weigh?
  240 lbs. Or something like that. I think. I probably ought to fix that scale one of these days.
• What's the feature on SMF you can't live without?
  
  • As an administrator?
    Highly configurable permissions.
  • As an end user?
    That whole posting-and-reading-other-people's-posts thing that SMF does is kinda cool.

[Shambles]

You sound like a fun kind of guy, but I've no idea who you are, in SMF context  sorry.

[Arantor]

He's been a major contributor to SMF 2.1 in recent months and done some really nice work on some of the internals.

[Sesquipedalian]

You sound like a fun kind of guy, but I've no idea who you are, in SMF context  sorry.

That's not too surprising. Most of my involvement takes place on GitHub, whereas this is only my 91st post on simplemachines.org itself. That's part of why I figured it would be a good idea to post this "Get To Know The Team" topic sooner rather than later.

He's been a major contributor to SMF 2.1 in recent months and done some really nice work on some of the internals.

Thanks, Arantor. That's a significant compliment coming from a man of your stature in the history of SMF's development.

[Colin]

Warm welcome and thanks for all of your hard work! SMF is lucky to have you.

[Dzonny]

Warm welcome and thanks for all of your hard work! SMF is lucky to have you.

+1 here.
And you sounds like a fun guy from what I can tell

You said you read a lot. What exactly you like to read, and what you're reading now?

[Steve]

Hockey or other ... lol ... typical Canadian.

[Sesquipedalian]

What exactly you like to read, and what you're reading now?

As an academic, I spend a lot of my time reading scholarly articles and books in my field, which I quite enjoy, so there's that. For example, at the moment I am in the midst of reading a paper on African concepts of the Trinity, so that I can respond to it at an academic conference a few weeks from now.

For fiction, I usually find myself reading classics of literature these days if I am reading just to myself. However, I have two school-aged kids who, while voracious readers themselves, still also really enjoy it when I read aloud to them before bed. This has given me a great excuse to go through The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, and the Harry Potter series again. After all, I would be remiss as a father if I didn't make sure their childhoods included Eówyn defeating the King of the Nazgul.

[live627]

Five younger brothers, and a younger sister.

Same here, just add another sister. Never a dull day at the house. Being the oldest of seven makes you feel old at times watching them grew up.

[d3vcho]

So... you're a thelogian, but what about developer stuff? How did you get involved with it?

Did you play hookey from class?
I never understood why anyone would want to do that...

If you were in Spain, you'd probably understand why... ^^

[Sesquipedalian]

Hockey or other ... lol ... typical Canadian.

Five younger brothers, and a younger sister.

Same here, just add another sister. Never a dull day at the house. Being the oldest of seven makes you feel old at times watching them grew up.

Yup. There's a spread of 14 years between me and the youngest. It makes for some interesting family dynamics, for sure.

So... you're a thelogian, but what about developer stuff? How did you get involved with it?

I'm just self-taught, actually. It began when I first got a Mac years ago and discovered AppleScript and then Bash shell scripting, and then things began ballooning from there. I find programming to be a fun hobby, because it is like playing with a big, complicated Lego set—you learn what the pieces are and how they fit together, and then you build stuff. Almost all the programming I have done over the years has started with, "Okay, how can I get the computer to do [insert complicated task here] for me?"

I started picking up PHP when I found myself needing to do some customizations on my first SMF site. Since PHP has such great documentation, it was really easy to learn.

Did you play hookey from class?
I never understood why anyone would want to do that...

If you were in Spain, you'd probably understand why... ^^

[GravuTrad]

Nice to see new devs.