I'll admit I'm a bit of a "techno-leech," a digital sponge with whom your wonderous developments enable this parasitic relationship between you and I.

But people grow, situations change and relationships evolve (or devolve) in one way or another; nothing is forever. I've begun upskilling some existing abilities in website design, development and administration, but I plan to earnestly dive into programming and code in the near future. There's arguably never been a better time than now (as they say). GitHub has proven itself an inimitable resource and tool for my learning ventures – not to mention everything else available on the World Wide Web – so the opportunities are ripe for the picking.

NOTE: I've borrowed much of the following details from my Wikipedia user page to save myself some time while relaying the parts of my personal story I consider relevant there and here. I made some changes to reflect GitHub's distinct purpose, mission and services.

As mentioned, I've long lurked GitHub and its comprehensive, seemingly endless database of repositories with encyclopedic fervour.

I'm a strong supporter of this genre of communal development systems, knowledge management and open-source access, especially combined with the passionately shared responsibilities of its users and administrators. So I'm thrilled to finally hand over some personal data in exchange for participation as a full-fledged GitHubian.

My username, realrustyshakleford, does not, in fact, refer to my real name. It instead draws inspiration from the King of the Hill character Rusty Shakleford, whose name is used as an alias by the inimitable Dale Gribble, arguably the show's leading intellectual. He would surely have much to say about GitHub (plus Wikipedia and the like), which partly comprises what he coined – in his usual Baudrillardian fashion – as "The Beast." Ahead of his time, Gribble referenced the concept as early as 1998, during the second season's 17th episode ("Hank's Dirty Laundry"), which also marked the first time he used the Shakleford alias. It came at a time when the internet had only begun to enter the general public's purview and nearly a decade before cloud computing first gained widespread popularity. (Amazon launched the first commercial cloud service in 2006 with a limited public beta test of its subsidiary Amazon Web Services, which used the Elastic Compute Cloud, or "EC2.")

"Computers don't make errors. What they do, they do on purpose. By now your name and particulars have been fed into every laptop, desktop, mainframe and supermarket scanner that collectively make up the global information conspiracy, otherwise known as 'The Beast.'" — Dale Gribble ('Hank's Dirty Laundry,' season two, episode 17, King of the Hill)

(Carry on if you care to read about me—but what's the point of a special profile-bound "README.md" repository if it's preoccupied with anything but the respective profile's user? I hope it's an enjoyable read and encourages some form of communication, whether it's a quick comment, a critique or whatever else my insufferable prolix style of chug-chug-chug, train-of-thought textual expression spurs you to say. Can you dig it?).

Now, if you're curious about me, let's briefly highlight my story's top five chapters (in non-chronological order).

1. As of August 2024, I'm a decade-long writer, editor and storyteller specializing in print and digital journalism plus general multimedia content creation. I fancy myself a history buff, a political junkie and a purveyor of all things postal (but mostly things of the philatelic variety). In addition to my freelance career in the above-mentioned areas, I also regularly work in copywriting, marketing, project strategy and management, website development and administration, public relations and other communications roles in both public- and internal-facing forms.

2. On the side, I currently author Power & Philately, a Substack publication exploring postage stamps as myth-making and nation-building pieces of propaganda. They're stories of persuasion, power dynamics and group psychology on a society level—all told through the lens of those humble bits of gummed paper that spurred a roughly 150-year communication revolution after their invention in the mid-19th century.

3. Before settling into my writing career, I worked as a professional touring musician with a nationally known ska-punk band. I'm now far too old, fat and sore to sling a 3.86-kilogram bass around my shoulders and jump around like someone who would rather drive around this country and the one to my south using (at best) a modest tour bus that was never as nice as one would hope or (at worst) a regular van that provided the same pungent experience you would expect. Both options suck, and I would rather be at home enjoying the many cultural artifacts that warrant a development platform such as GitHub.

4. My personal story also includes non-obligational military service. I completed my country's armed forces' basic military and soldier qualifications, so while I was long ago honourably discharged, I technically remain a trained killer. Domestically, I might be tasked with protecting important people or places related to our interests at home or abroad. In other countries, I would be among the most direct personal engagers of our worst enemies (although I never saw active duty). In either case, my fellow troops and I earnestly recognized the critical importance of a charismatic leader in pyramid-shaped, authoritarian power structures (the ones with a penchant for the unit as an organizational structure combined with the utter destruction of the individual).

   • (Rather than straying too far off topic, this part of my story draws more of a direct relation to Wikipedia; there's something to be said about their editors' strict adherence to the appropriate style guide plus their partial or total prohibition of personal preferences. Both operational aspects allow them to quickly and efficiently operate by making fearless edits and other administrative decisions. After all, you're of little or no utility if you're overcome with inaction in the face of fear owing to your individuality and its intrusive thoughts. You must act fast and without introspection; your training kicks in, and you better damn well take your shot according to the superior guidance drilled via purposely hazardous training into the part of your brain where your individuality once existed. It's in these moments you learn who actually listened during their basic training. I consider these valuable lessons relevant to my journey as an "Extremely Online" person.)

5. Lastly, regarding my professional ventures, I'm currently developing some other side projects focused on digital products and services—but with an intriguing twist. These ventures will use my newfound skills in programming and code, and I'm stoked to get down to business. Need I say more? I think not... because to be honest, I'm unsure how it relates to me and GitHub at the moment, and self-promotion is always so taboo. So I digress, and we'll leave it at that for today.

Thank you for reading this brain dump. I welcome any comments, criticisms, etc., at any of the channels or addresses listed along the left sidebar.