User:Mgmirkin

History
Born in 1979, in Pasadena, Michael Gmirkin has lived the majority of his life in Oregon, in the Beaverton/Portland metro area. Michael attended Beaverton High School (Class of 1997) and the University of Oregon (Class of 2001). Michael has since moved into the "real world", but continues his education on his own time, in his own way. He is a free thinker, an INTP, a medievalist, a computer tech, an occasional gardener, and recently an astronomy, physics and math hobbyist.

Education
Michael has enjoyed gaining a well-rounded education, including history, religious studies, folklore, cultural anthropology, medieval studies, basic physics, biology, creative writing, math, computers (lots of computers; web design / databases).

He continues his ongoing education however he can. Independent studies currently include astronomy, cosmology, plasma physics (the basics, still learning), catastrophism (not sold on some of the more out-there stuff, but it's interesting in terms of cultural anthropology). Specifically, the Electric Universe and/or Plasma cosmology models hold a particular interest. Again, not 100% sold, but can't deny certain rather obvious observations made by the EU /PC theorists. Current EU / physics / astronomical heroes include Nikola Tesla, Kristian Birkeland, Hannes Alfven, Dayton Miller, Ralph Juergens, Charles Bruce, Eric W. Crew, Bernard Vonnegut, Halton Arp, Wallace Thornhill, Anthony Peratt, Eric Lerner, among others.

Career/Jobs
Michael has worked in retail, technical support, and office settings.

He has worked for Fry's Electronics (2001-2003) in Computer Sales.

He work temporarily at Stream (2003-2004) doing Tier 1 software technical support (Mac/PC).

He now works (2004-Present) as office support/tech for a social services non-profit that works with adults with developmental disabilities.

Hobbies
Hobbies have included

Games: Magic: The Gathering (collectible card game), cribbage, pinochle, scrabble, reversi, gomoku, and who can forget Mad Libs...

Technical: Computers, math, armchair astronomy, armchair physics.

Activities: Amtgard, amateur photography (including 'light field' photography).

Debate: Philosophy, Religion, Free Will vs Determinism, Models of "Time" and other topics as they come up. He enjoys playing Devil's Advocate, if for no reason than to have to *think* about an issue from a different perspective than the usual. He wishes more people would step outside themselves and *think* in ways "outside the box."

Beliefs
Michael does not consider himself religious in any significant regard. If anything, he considers himself a non-practicing, well, anything really. He simply doesn't see a need to "ritualize" around a specific set of "beliefs." If you really had to pin him down to a "belief," he has to answer Secular Humanism. But, he'd also have to qualify it as saying that it's not a "religious" concept, rather an internal set of morals that needs no reference to a higher authority than the self. "God," if (s)he exists, does not live one's life for them. It is up to them to live it. Thus, responsibility for their own actions, regardless, falls to the individual(s), nobody else.

Michael does not believe in accepting dogma. Just because someone utters a sentence or a paragraph or a book does not make it true. He prefers to take everything with a grain of salt and observe for himself, then evaluate whether or not the author of said thought is anywhere close to cogent. Informed inquiry, without dogma, should be the way to approach life, science, religion, philosophy, etc. Put another way: read as much as you can, digest it, then observe for yourself and draw your own conclusions on the validity of a point. To accept things "on faith" is to blind oneself to alternate interpretations and to possibly miss links to the bigger picture.