Interview with:Geoffrey Schumann [ancientoracle]
ART
 | What do you do? How do you define yourself as an artist? I would consider myself a “Fine artist within a computer medium”. I create vast virtual worlds from a 3D application known as Bryce. Very rarely at times, I’ll use Adobe’s Photoshop for some post work, but its very rare. Of the applications, I also use Daz3d, Hexagon, Carrara, Mimic and Blender. Since the late 1990’s I’ve published my works under a series known as “MysticGalleries™ ©Geoffrey Schumann" You can see an example at http://vjmns.com |
| What is your message? Create art that you feel, that you are proud of, never compromise, never create art that isn’t you, as in the end, what you create reflects who and what you are. |
| Do you upload your work to the web? If so, where could we see it? Currently the only site you can see my artwork is at: http://vjmns.com |
| How is an idea born? For you, what is inspiration? Ideas for me can be as simple as fiddling around and something pops. Other times, I have to stop what I’m doing, as it’s a raging beast, that’s going to rip out of my head, until I sit down and just create it. Sometimes it’s a lingering memory, a “postcard from the edge of my mind” that just posses my fingers, and within moments, hours if not days, I finally have a 3D wire-map of what I’m thinking of, ready for render. |
| What role does technology play in your creative process? 85% of my art is created within a virtual landscape, without computers, the bulk of my creative visual art would never happen. 15% of my artwork is done by hand, on a different medium that is 100% non-technological but more of a throwback to the 19th century if not before. |
| What is art? Art, like Love is Organic. It’s ever changing, always growing or withering, expanding or retreating. No one person can say “that’s art” as it’s truly in the eye of the beholder. |
| Is art necessary? Art is necessary, like air is to breathing, water for creating, cleaning, consuming, healing. It allows expression that words cannot describe, a feeling in the core of your own self, or something that generally is beyond the reaches of time. |
| Which websites do you frequently visit? http://technet.microsoft.com
http://linkedin.com
http://gizmodo.com
http://www.engadget.com
http://www.macrumors.com
http://dvice.com
http://www.datamancer.net
http://www.freemason.org |
BLOGGING
| What is your blog address? What subjects do you deal with? http://travelingtaste.com
A journey, opinion and recommendations for places to eat, recopies to make, and showing off the bunt-cakes that I’m known for baking within the circles of family, friends and work assoicates.
http://vjmns.com
This is my Masonic blog, the site is a WordPress site with a Flash treatment.
http://n3rd4u.com
This is my newly launched technology blog. The site mainly deals with Android, Apple & Windows hardware/software. Also there's a Social Network series that i've been writing, the living history.
http://attheclef.com
a F.A.Q. on the music aspects of my life - this site is a work in progress.
http://queeesushi.com
I'm the Webmaster/Admin, Digital Campaign & Photographer for the site. |
| What was it that made you create your blog? On what date did you start it? I have twenty years + of experience: programming; computer repair; building PC’s; Mac professional; beta testing; software development and database management..
Started on a VAC Mainframe; learned the ropes on a Cray super computer. I know my way around the Winchester hard drive systems. Early on in my teen years, learned how to code on a Tandy TRS-80 computer; then moved up to a Tandy Color Computer and finally on to an Apple ][c. In 1985, was a member of the Southern California System-Operators’ guild as a programming ASCII graphics for several BBS’s. Have been coding for half of my life.
During college years, held computer-related jobs by working for an all Macintosh repair company in a retail outlet. Aside from the standard memory and hard drive configurations with which I was involved professionally, I was also the Control Stock Inventory person, responsible for over two million dollars in computer parts. Utilizing my FileMaker Pro knowledge, my reputation for running a ‘tight ship’ and accurate control base was well known. During this period of time, I was attending college, working 30+ hours a week and managed to make the Dean’s List.
In 1992, I returned to the Macintosh scene with the Centris & Quadra series Macintoshes. I have personally worked with both Mac & PC platforms throughout the 1990’s. When Y2K came through, I was 90% Macintosh, 10% PC. The combination of my knowledge of control stock, dealing with Apple Order as well as being a Sr. Macintosh hardware/software tech, my career choice in the world of computers was clear cut. Per my resume, I have worked in the high pressure world of the motion picture industry for over a decade.
Additionally, I am a Free Mason and have been an active member for ten years. For four years, I have run a Masonic newspaper called THE THREE-POINTS-OF-LIGHT, which was the beginning of my interest and active involvement in blogging.
I am an active weekend musician, who is classically & jazz trained. In 1988, awarded The Herb Alpert Music Scholarship. I enjoy researching advancing technology, often combining the classical arts of music with the modern science of computers.
I am a person of many hobbies and intellectual pursuits, all of which are combined with my career choice of computer/technology work. As my resume reveals per my work record, I am a loyal, long term employee who works with a strong honor code. A native of Los Angeles and a United States Citizen, any background check is welcomed and easily passed. I am interested in moving ahead to a position of more responsibility utilizing my extensive experience in technology and my curiosity to learn as new challenges appear. |
| What blogging system have you adopted and why? I first started with a blogspot.com account when I launched http://technomage-djinn.blogspot.com
From there I was on the Google fast track and started dealing with a plethora of WordPress sites:
http://travelingtaste.com, http://vjmns.com, http://thedoubtfulguests.com, http://attheclef.com, http://queeesushi.com
At the end of 2010 I started to learn the Joomla 1.5 systems and recently upgraded my sites to Joomla 1.6. I've since then retired my blogspot account and have re-launched it in a Joomla 1.6 format http://n3rd4u.com, I am also working on http://livingmitzvah.org which is going to be centered around the local Jewish community of the Los Angeles area. |
| How many visits a day do you get? What type of comments do you receive? Since Technology is my life-blood, I visit a multitude of websites for personal and business research. My comments are always in the positive and have even gleaned a few websites to build for a few from it. |
| How has 'having a blog' contributed to your life? I find that the blogging platform allows me to share with the world, the different aspects and viewpoints of my life and how I perceive the world around me. Since I do technology for a living, I have a unique standpoint on how it has changed over the years, the systems I’ve work on, developed, re-engineered and personal interests, which allows me to share it, educate others with it, and help some in the decisions that they are about to make, for either a home/work purchase to a project that they have in their life. I don’t know or have all the answers, but I know the right questions to ask, to help obtain a solution.
With http://travelingtaste.com & http://n3rd4u.com, I’ve been contacted by a manufacturer to try a new product they’re branching out into. I hope that in the future I’ll get other invites to try and sample other products. |
| Have you created relationships with other bloggers or readers of your blog? I have been blessed for trackbacks to my sites. I find that if you reach out to your intended target, they're generally more then willing to allow you to use their art/graphics/logo/articles, etc. Also most of them will blog/twitter/facebook that their article is on one of my sites. |
| How often do you post? Does regular posting of your blog require a lot of effort on your part? Posting for me is rather time intensive. When I blog about something, I take the extra effort to list every manufacturer, product reference with all the appropriate links to everything and everybody listed. I also am very choosy to what I blog about. Everybody has a blog regarding their view on technology or food, of which are the two blogs I mainly do outside of my personal responsibilities.
I just don't blog about anything and everything, so my postings at times can be sparse, however I am picking up the slack, since I have several blogs that I do run and maintain. |
| Does blogging bring in income for you? Can one make a living from posting? At this time, blogging does not provide any extra funds in my pocket, however it has opened many doors in the realm of barter whereby I receive services at cost, or for free by trading my knowledge for credit/favors with others. I feel at times, in the end, the ends justify the means, where if I didn't have these "favors" I'd be spending money out of pocket for the exact same thing that I require anyway.
It would be nice however, to be paid for what I know, as my SEO is iron-clad, if you doubt it, just google my name. |
| How do you promote your blog? With my iron-clad SEO technique. |
| How would you define your readers? Have you got a faithful audience? Depending on the blog and subject matter, I feel I have a strong audience that has been loyal on the different blogs that I run and maintain.
On http://technomage-djinn.blogspot.com I had the pleasure of attending the F.B.I. Citizen Academy back in 2007. During the course on Cyber-Crimes, I created an article from what I’ve gleaned from the lessons and with what I knew on my own. You can find these articles at http://n3rd4u.com
I run three twitter accounts:
http://twitter.com/inspectorgadget
http://twitter.com/n3rd4u
http://twitter.com/alchemybyhand
When there's something new, on any of the accounts, i'll get a swarm of readers and new followers daily. I am very luck in that sense. |
| How do you see your blog evolving in the future? Of the websites that I have created, and currently am building, they always have room for expansion and development. I have one website that is running under what I call Phase-One, and Phase-Two will be the newer improvements to how “you the user” interfaces with the actual site. Any Web Master worth their weight in code knows that you have to refresh, rebuild, expand each and every site you have; otherwise it will become stagnant, old and obsolete. |
| What advice would you give to someone who wishes to begin a blog? Create a blog that you think people will want to come and read. Pick a subject matter or a new approach to a subject that somebody else has done. Be different, be creative, don’t copy what anyone else has done, otherwise you’ll not be unique; you’ll not give your readers a reason to keep coming back for more. Research, research & research your topics, before you post. Use a spelling & grammar checker before you publish, and never post anything that you have not experienced yourself, as a “hear-say” post can get you into a great deal of trouble and above all, be honest. |
| 
918 visits Whohub
Geoffrey Schumann
West Hollywood, CA
|
99698 interviews created
INVITE YOUR FRIENDS