I am

Hi there! I am the emerald imp. Well, that's not REALLY my name. My real name is Geoff, and I am a gay queer 26-year-old programmer/musician. I thought it might be nice of me to show you a bit of the guy behind the web pages.

I'm a professional programmer, with 5 years general development experience and 3 years in the C# / .Net space. I've worked with C#, Winforms, ASP.Net, PHP, MySQL and SqlServer (and others!). I use agile and TDD when possible. I'm a fan of DVCSes but I'm undecided between git and Mercurial. I'm currently working for Mapleton Hill Media in Boulder, Colorado.

Well, one of my biggest parts of my life is my music. I play the viola, mostly, though I have also played the cello, the violin, the recorder and the cello in concert. I am currently playing saxophone with a local jazz ensemble.

I also write music. In fact, I have had two of my pieces actually preformed, one by a local community orchestra and one by my high school orchestra. Also, I recently got the music notation program Sibelius and I like it a lot. Plus, I can publish on Sibelius Music. Look for some works at http://members.sibeliusmusic.com/glehr! Also, I am currently in the middle of my "archival" project. I'm inputting "classical" music (such as Mozart and Bach) into a program called "Noteworthy Composer" (http://www.noteworthysoftware.com/) so that you can have access to the scores as well. (There are no copyrights on the pieces I enter.) You can download them on my music pages. I will also be converting those files to Sibelius format soon, and I plan to release further transcriptions in both formats simultaneously.

I wasn't sure where I wanted to put this section, because if I put it first it would seem like it was the most important. It isn't, it's just another aspect of my personality. But I didn't want to put it last, either, because it IS a part of me, nonetheless.

I first figured out that I was gay when I was 12. That seems fairly early, and it is. Unfortunately, the area that I live in, while not being smothering, is not terribly gay friendly (what place is?). I repressed my feelings, hoping that they would go away, for four years. Finally, was able to come to terms with it and I now know that it's just one part of me.

Now, you might be thinking, "oh, look, it's another fag. They keep popping up like weeds. I bet he's a real sissy." Well, cut it out. First off, I don't like to be called a fag. I'm not. I'm not a fem, either. Most of my friends, after I tell them, say, "I would've never guessed." To tell you the truth, I feel that those guys who DO act like women are giving the rest of us a bad name. But, it's their life to live.

Anyway, basically, I'm just like most everyone else, maybe a tad smarter. Feel free to email me if you need to talk, any flames will be ignored. Lastly, right now I am looking for a boyfriend, most important traits are intelligence and kindness, looks are important but not overly so.

When I left for university, I called myself gay, because that's the only term I had for myself, besides homosexual, of course, which means the same thing. However, university is a time of change, and expansion of ideas. I came to note that, although the "gay" (GLBT) community was supportive of lebians, bisexuals and transgenders, it was still divided, and it still left out other folks, such as asexuals.

This is wrong.

Therefore, in an effort to show unity with the rest of the queer community, and indeed to recognize the fluid aspects of human sexuality and gender, I have taken on the label "queer."

Then, in the summer of 2003, when I was nineteen, I came across the Queer by Choice website. I read some of the material there, and I agree with them and their mission, which (as I read it) is this: all persons, regardless of biological inclinations (whether these really exist or not is hard to determine), should have the right to date who they please, marry who they please, and so on. It shouldn't (and, to me, doesn't) matter whether you feel you're born gay or transgender or whatever. What matters is that should be free to persue the relationships you desire, regardless.

And so, that's why I'm queer by choice. I chose to be queer by choice, and I chose to be queer. I didn't choose to be attracted to guys, but I should be free to choose to date guys if I want.

Nowadays, just about everyone writes, in some form or another. Sometimes one ends up writing for school, like a poem or a short story. Almost eveyone who has gone through high school in the U.S. has had to write an essay. But not everyone enjoys it.

I enjoy writing, though I don't always convey the message that I would like. My writings vary, however, one of my favorite types of pieces to write is plays. Plays are wonderful! They can allow you to focus on dialogue and you can argue a point to yourself or others through your characters. They can be melodramatic, silly, serious, anything you want! And, you can help them grow. Plus (this is the coolest part), you can throw something in that's totally unexpected just to see how they react. You get to play God. (or at least, a god)

The plays that I have up so far are just silly plays, plays that I wrote for school. My favorite type of play is the parody, but I'm hoping to soon move into more dramatic settings soon.

Of course, plays aren't the only ways you can do those things. They're just the easiest way for me. I also write novel-ish stories, though I haven't had much time lately to do so. My main area of story writing is fantasy/sci-fi. But I also try to explore human nature, as best I can, though I often don't succeed. I try to make my characters as real as possible, and let them make their own decisions. It's not easy. Once in a while, I will get bored with a story line or write myself into a corner (oh no!). The best solution is to go back and re-write, which is one of the hardest things to learn about writing (and composing).

A large part of my life in high school was the stage.

Due to the large amount of talent at my high school, I only rarely got a part onstage. Mostly, I ended up on the tech crew, who are the guys that build the sets and do the lights and everything. Since my sophomore year of high school, I've had the priviledge of being on lights during the performance, first as Assistant Lighting Technician, then as Lighting Technician. However, I had the great honor of playing Mr. Frank in my high school's production of The Diary of Anne Frank. It was the biggest part I've ever played, and I am immensely grateful for such an opportunity. And during the spring of my senior year of high school, was our school's production of Romeo and Juliet, in which I played Friar Laurence, which is really a difficult part. Not as bad as Romeo or Mercutio (thank goodness!) but difficult nonetheless. Lately, that is, since going to university, I haven't had a lot of time for The Stage, but I am hoping to get back into it soon.