Introducing myself

This week in Blaugust has the theme of Introducing yourself. I haven’t really done that this year, so here goes.

Who is Kelly Adams?

I’m a 62 year old man with greying red hair. I am married and have been so for 36 years as of July. My wife and I live in Castlegar, BC with our dog and four cats. Here is a somewhat recent photograph of me for visual context:

I have an out of date “About me” page that gives a bit of an overview of my interests. But in summary: I’m a science fiction and fantasy fan who has enjoyed both pen and paper and electronic roleplaying games for over 40 years. I have made a recent return to regular reading of fantasy novels and am consuming the Dungeon Crawler Carl series at a rapid clip. I’ve also gone backwards a bit by re-reading Tailchaser’s Song, a book I first completed in the 1980s.

Technology

In addition to fiction, I’m strongly interested in real-world technological developments. I spent about 40 years as a computer professional in infrastructure support and software development roles. I worked at IBM for thirty of those forty years, and my last decade or so I was a development team leader for a small part of a large public health database system. That is to say I wasn’t the primary guy who wrote code, but I did some coding and was especially adept at debugging the ‘hard’ problems that stumped others. I also reviewed the work of other developers and was part of a code quality review process we instituted on the program.

Probably the most significant skills I developed during my years writing code wasn’t familiarity with a particular language or set of libraries. Instead I developed a strong ability to break down problems, especially debugging problems, into bite-sized chunks. Things that can be tested and validated appeal to me, which is probably why I’m less of a fan of developing UIs and more interested in code interfaces (APIs). I also developed a healthy distrust of change for the sake of change, and a strong attraction towards simplification via code re-use.

Health and retirement

I retired in good health at the end of May, 2024. But my health has taken a turn for the worse during the past twelve months reminding me of my own age. I’m still doing fine, but my perceptions of my own wellness have definitely changed.

I haven’t written much about it, but a big part of my new mental health situation is a major shift upwards in my baseline anxiety levels. This is all tied together in a knotty mass with my general health issues, and has left me with less desire to challenge myself. For example, I cancelled a long planned motorcycle road trip to join up with a group known as the Canadian Senior Motorcyclists which I am sure I would have enjoyed. But between my dysfunctional digestive tract and my anxiety I felt better simply staying close to home.

Summation

I’m a fantasy, science fiction, and technology geek with fairly broad interests across other areas. I’m in my 60s, retired, and suffering some insults to my physical and mental health. Overall, however, I’m still doing well enough: both my wife and I live in a lovely area (despite the seasonal smoke!) and enjoy a comfortable if boring life. We share our lives with our animals, and are generally content if not outright happy.