That awkward introduction
This is at least the 10th time I've written an 'about' page, and I usually pair that with a 'bio' page (the latter being much harder to write). But I'm going against tradition by trying to merge the two together, because this site is, after all, me.
The site
qaiser.net is in its second incarnation, starting in August of 2003. I took it down in early January [2006] because I just wasn't keeping up my journal or any other part of the site. In fact, my bio page wasn't updated for over two years, failing to mention that I got married or had [at the time] three pets.
As of December 16, 2006, it's back again. Aside from my journal, all other content won't be back online. I need to organize my thoughts on what I want to put up and where to put them up, and if I can make regular updates, etc. The journal is the heart of the site, though, so that's more than enough for now.
I've had some sort of site for at least 7 years now, starting from Geocities to my own server. Each one hopefully represented some evolution in my skills as a developer and designer. It's been a good experiment for learning, if nothing else.
The creator
I am Kaiser: 26 years-old; married to Asma; brother of Hasan; father to seven children (chinchillas Shirin and Mishti [the baby of the family], bunnies Papaya Jane and Elton John, and parakeets Penelope, Featherbert, and Moon (sleep well, Proud Feather)); a computer science graduate from UIUC; shy; weird; funny; creative; an occasionally voracious reader; bad at keeping in touch with friends [and family]; roughly equal parts optimism and pessimism.
I moved to the DC area (from Springfield, IL) in September of 2004 and we currently live in Bethesda, MD. The area is expensive, and there's a high concentration of assholes, but the winters are pretty mild and there are some beautiful places.
Right now I'm a consultant at AARP (technically, AARP Services, Inc., which, among other things, manages the site) doing various things, from boring production work to programming scripts of various sorts. I'm also a co-founder of The CulturalConnect. I also did some freelance projects, sometimes on top of those two things. I am a workaholic and I'm trying to wean myself off the 'gotta work' mentality so that I can maybe start to experience the world more and actually spend some time doing things with my wife.
I am Muslim. I reject hadith as being valid, sacred and/or necessary to understand and intrepret the Qur'an (you would, after all, have to give the hadith a higher place than the Qur'an if the Qur'an itself states that it is a perfect book), and I despise the abuse of any religion, especially for political gain and power.
My belief, and I think the belief of any compassionate and rational person who believes in a nurturing and creative god, is that doing good deeds and striving to have good intentions and being kind is the key to any sort of salvation. Revelations only serve to raise the moral bar – it's a bare minimum to live by, but it's a much higher calling to actually surpass the idea that society is fixed on rigid rules, that doing X, Y, and Z will get you to heaven. Good work should be done on the merit of good work and service to humanity, not the precondition that you will be rewarded with a good afterlife.
And on that note, I think I'll end this page. The journal provides a wealth of information about me. Some of it is flat out embarassing. But hey, that's part of my history and growth.
Enjoy! Drop me a line if you've got any questions, concerns, suggestions, or whatever.
Peace.