User:Cassandraleo

Note: Parts of this biography are probably really old and out of date.

I am a graduate of Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, with a bachelor's degree in political science. I'm almost done with a second bachelor's in information technology from the University of South Florida in Sarasota.

A lot of my spare time is spent developing mods for the Marathon trilogy. The most impressive mod I've worked on that's been released is probably Eternal; I'm the codirector of 1.2.1 and the upcoming 1.3. I recommend playing the most recent preview of 1.3 (or, if you're feeling particularly adventurous, grabbing the version from the "Current Build Folder" on the development page) - everything about the game is way more refined and impressive. We're hoping for the official release of 1.3 to be near the end of this year. I'm also codirector of Where Monsters Are in Dreams, which has not been released yet. We have no estimate for when it will be done. I'm also working on a re-release of Tempus Irae with one of the original developers of the game; we estimate it will be ready sometime around August or September 2022. I have my own mod called Marathon Chronicles, which I estimate to be about half-finished; however, development is currently stalled as I finish off the aforementioned projects, and it doesn't have a website. Beyond that, I've also remastered the soundtrack of Marathon Phoenix and the sounds and music of the Trojan Standalone Edition, and I've also made remastered sounds for Aleph One: Pathways into Darkness (a port of Pathways into Darkness to Aleph One), Marathon 1, and Marathon Infinity. And I run a YouTube channel, just in case that wasn't enough.

I am an agnostic, and hold political beliefs which, if they must be classified, probably qualify somewhere in the realm of libertarian socialism, with the underlying thesis that society needs to drastically transform itself before anything resembling an ideal society can be brought about (a potential which honestly seems more hopeless by the day). My views can be categorised as anarcho-syndicalist as well, though I don't argue that anarchism will be workable anytime in the near future, probably not even during my lifetime. If anyone cares, the Political Compass test has me on the bottom left corner, but it's pretty limited, considering that it doesn't ask important questions like "Should private property exist?" (Yes, just not as it's currently distributed) or "Should government be abolished immediately?" (No, abolishing government now would make the imbalances of power in society even worse), not to mention it doesn't really distinguish between free-market capitalism and corporatism.

Apart from following politics semi-obsessively and developing mods for Marathon, I am interested in music (particularly extreme metal and progressive rock), fiction (particularly science-fiction and fantasy literature), and video games (particularly role-playing games). My handle is a variation on the Mars Volta song "Cassandra Gemini," with the Leo originating from my Zodiac sign. Though I don't care about astrology at all, as I consider it pretty much bunk.

These lists have barely been updated in over a decade.

Incomplete list of bands and musicians I like
!T.O.O.H.!; Abigor; Akercocke; Alcest; Alice in Chains; Arcturus; Astarte; At the Drive-In; Atheist; Ayreon; Syd Barrett; Bathory; Beastie Boys; The Beatles; Beck; Ludwig van Beethoven; Between the Buried and Me; Jello Biafra; Big Black; Black Sabbath; Borknagar; David Bowie; Jackson Browne; Jeff Buckley; Burning Witch; Cult of Luna; Cynic; Darkestrah; Darkthrone; Miles Davis; Dead Kennedys; Death; Deathspell Omega; Diabolical Masquerade; Ani DiFranco; The Dillinger Escape Plan; Dissection; The Doors; Dream Theater; Drudkh; Bob Dylan; Edge of Sanity; Emperor; Empyrium; Brian Eno; Enslaved; Ephel Duath; Estatic Fear; Fairport Convention; The Fall of Troy; Flower Travellin' Band; Peter Gabriel; Marvin Gaye; Genesis; Philip Glass; Godspeed You! Black Emperor; Gorguts; Green Day; Guns N' Roses; Hollenthon; Gustav Holst; Hüsker Dü; Immolation; Immortal; Iron Maiden; Isis; Jane's Addiction; Jethro Tull; Elton John; Joy Division; Hiroki Kikuta; King Crimson; The Kovenant; Led Zeppelin; Lethargy; Limbonic Art; Lunar Aurora; Lurker of Chalice; Lux Occulta; Lykathea Aflame; The Mars Volta; Massive Attack; Mastodon; Magma; Mayhem; Megadeth; Melvins; Merzbow; Meshuggah; Metallica; MF DOOM; Ministry; Mirrorthrone; Mr. Bungle; Yasunori Mitsuda; Moonsorrow; Ennio Morricone; Jim Morrison; My Bloody Valentine; Nagelfar; Negură Bunget; Neurosis; Nile; Nine Inch Nails; Nocte Obducta; Nyktalgia; Oasis; Opeth; Orphaned Land; OutKast; Pantera; Mike Patton; Pavement; Paysage d'Hiver; Peccatum; Pink Floyd; Pixies; The Police; Porcupine Tree; Radiohead; Rage Against the Machine; The Rapture; Red Hot Chili Peppers; Lou Reed; Steve Reich; Reverend Bizarre; The Ruins of Beverast; Rush; Sacramentum; Motoi Sakuraba; Shining (Norwegian band); Shining (Swedish band); Sigh; Sigur Rós; A Silver Mt. Zion; Skepticism; Skyclad; Slayer; Slint; The Smashing Pumpkins; Solefald; Sonic Youth; Soundgarden; Sufjan Stevens; The Stone Roses; The Stooges; Richard Strauss; Igor Stravinsky; Summoning; Sunn O))); Tears for Fears; Television; Thorns; Tiamat; Tool; Tortoise; Týr; Nobuo Uematsu; Ulver; Vangelis; The Velvet Underground; Richard Wagner; Tom Waits; Roger Waters; Weakling; The Who; Brian Wilson; Windir; Wintersun; Wolves in the Throne Room; Yes; Neil Young; Frank Zappa; Zwan

Some games I like
Bubble Bobble, Chrono Cross, Chrono Trigger, Dragon Quest V, Dragon Quest VI, Earthbound, Final Fantasy V, Final Fantasy VI, Final Fantasy IX, Katamari Damacy, The Legend of Zelda, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Marathon trilogy, NetHack, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Seiken Densetsu 3, Shadow Hearts, SimCity 2000, Star Ocean 3, Suikoden II, Super Mario All-Stars, Super Mario Kart, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, Tetris, Xenogears

Some authors I like (or used to like)
Douglas Adams, Isaac Asimov, Mikhail Bakunin, William Blake, Noam Chomsky, Richard Dawkins, Philip K. Dick, Fyodor Dostoevsky, James Ellroy, Steven Erikson, Al Franken, Neil Gaiman, William Golding, Emma Goldman, Robert A. Heinlein, Frank Herbert, Tracy Hickman, Christopher Hitchens, Robin Hobb, Aldous Huxley, Robert Jordan, James Joyce, Stephen King, Naomi Klein, Peter Kropotkin, Stieg Larsson, Ursula K. LeGuin, George R.R. Martin, Karl Marx, A.A. Milne, Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, Friedrich Nietzsche, George Orwell, Thomas Paine, Greg Palast, Terry Pratchett, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Philip Pullman, Bertrand Russell, R.A. Salvatore, Jean-Paul Sartre, William Shakespeare, Robert Shea, Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, Jonathan Swift, J.R.R. Tolkien, Leo Tolstoy, Kurt Vonnegut, Voltaire, Margaret Weis, Robert Anton Wilson, Howard Zinn

Some films I like
12 Monkeys; 2001: A Space Odyssey; Almost Famous; Amélie; Barton Fink; Blazing Saddles; The Big Lebowski; A Clockwork Orange; Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb; Fargo; For a Few Dollars More; Good Night, and Good Luck.; The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly; High Fidelity; Kill Bill; Kung Fu Hustle; The Lord of the Rings film trilogy; The Majestic; Monty Python and the Holy Grail; Monty Python's Life of Brian; Moulin Rouge!; Once upon a Time in the West; Pan's Labyrinth; The Prestige; Pulp Fiction; School of Rock; Star Wars (Episodes III-VI), Sybil; Taxi Driver; This Is Spinal Tap; The Usual Suspects; Why We Fight

Some comedians I like
Bill Hicks; George Carlin; Jon Stewart; Stephen Colbert; Monty Python; Lenny Bruce; Al Franken; David Cross; Sacha Baron Cohen