Everything You Didn't Want to Know About
Me
Welcome, people! My name's Darrel W. Beach, the proprietor of this
website. I hope you find your visit to this niche in the World Wide
Web entertaining.
A Little Biography
These days you'll find me in the middle of Canada's wheatland, Regina,
Saskatchewan. The official slogan of Saskatchewan is "Land of the Living
Skies", but you may know it better as the land of flat plains and roads
in dire need of repair. Seriously, though, my residence in "The Queen
City" is almost like going full-circle for me, having spent my formative
years in the neighbouring city of Moose Jaw.
Behind me are the days of a fresh university graduate searching for a
lucrative job in the computing science field and those of a green programmer
struggling to turn a contract position into a permanent one. Yep, now
I'm a green programmer working a full-time position for a contract software
company at a steel pipe mill. I should further point out that some of
our employees (myself included) do work inside the mill plant
as well. Not exactly what I had envisioned myself doing, let me tell
you. While there are times I can certainly do without the noise and
the grime, the work has been rewarding and, at times, quite fun. In fact, I just celebrated my first anniversary at Focus Systems on May 3rd!
My life isn't
otherwise terribly exciting; you could pass me on the street and never
realize it (at least that's how it feels like most of the time.) I'm
usually a shy, quiet guy, but once I warm up to people I act quite
differently. In other words, you really have to hang around me for a
while before you can truly appreciate the kind of person I am. I have
been known to be a great listener, and I am normally very patient and
congenial (I do have a few buttons you don't want to push, though.)
So, what could possibly be interesting about me? Let's see...for starters,
I have an identical twin brother, Darren, who's five minutes younger than
I am. I am left-handed, although you wouldn't be able to tell by
my hand-writing (it slants the same way as all you righties out there,
not that my hand-writing is terrible.) I love surfing the Internet
and mucking around with my web pages (I'm particularly having fun designing
my own graphics, which you'll notice on my other pages.) I am also
completely obsessed with Star Trek (yes, pity me); not only do I watch
the several series on air and read the novels, I have even been writing
stories about it. (An entire section of my home page is dedicated
to this pasttime, which I call The Writers' Corner.) I really enjoy
participating in such sports as baseball, softball, golf, floor hockey
and curling (Canada's most popular winter sport, aside from hockey.)
In fact, I was this close to representing the province of
Alberta at the Canadian Junior Men's Curling Championships back in 1992
(holds thumb and forefinger a centimetre apart). The team needed
a couple of replacements (the two guys both suffered injuries playing,
yep, hockey) as they headed into the national competition. The team's
coach (who also happened to the ice-maker at my curling club at the time)
didn't think my brother and I would be interested in playing. Sheesh!
Other Interests
Favorite TV Programs
- The Star Trek series, with the exception to the original series (although
it is good for a laugh sometimes)
- X-Files
- Ally McBeal
- The Simpsons
- The Practice
- Early Edition
- The Drew Carey Show
-
ReBoot and Shadow Raiders
- two half-hour animated programs (computer generated), produced here in Canada by the great people of Mainframe Entertainment
Favorite Music Artists
In the last five years I've really evolved into a country music fan (I've
too soon reached the point where most modern rock music sounds like nothing
but garbage to me.) You should certainly be able to tell by the
following list of artists I enjoy listening to:
| Brooks & Dunn |
John Anderson |
Mark Chestnutt |
Toby Keith |
| Diamond Rio |
Shania Twain |
Sammy Kershaw |
Lonestar |
| Terri Clark |
Amy Grant |
Phil Collins |
Bryan Adams |
| The Corrs |
Tom Petty |
Dire Straits |
Wilson Phillips |
Favorite Professional Sports Clubs
- Saskatchewan Roughriders (CFL football)
- Minnesota Vikings (NFL)
- Edmonton Oilers
- Ottawa Senators
- Toronto Blue Jays
- Chicago Cubs
Favorite Links
Apart from the multitudes of Star Trek links I've collected
(which you'll find via my other pages), I've collected another large list
of fun and interesting Internet sites. You can find it
here.
Return to The
Writers' Corner
Darrel W. Beach, BSc.
Programmer/Developer, Focus Systems, Inc.
E-mail: dwbeach@sasktel.net