PaJoFo Ponderings

Who Am I?

Created: Modified: 6 min read

Introduction

Howdy, I’m Patrick!

I’m an undergraduate student at Liberty University just trying my best to make it through the world. I publish a poem a day both here and on my Substack, Patrick’s Daily Poem and write about a wide variety of topics, including fiction, tech, collegiate debate, books, and politics. This page exists so you can get to know me1 a little.

If you want to get in touch, send me an email. Alternative methods like LinkedIn, Substack, or Instagram might work as well, but do you really want to risk it?

The Boring Stuff

Work History

Education

Hobbies and Interests

I have a wide range of projects and interests that range from artsty-fartsy to moderately technical. I’m no whiz at most of them, but I try to have a basic understanding of a variety of topics.

Poetry

While my public school education did everything it could to instill a deep hatred of poetry and its interpretation, later developments (primarily reading The Ballad of the White Horse and Beren and Luthien combined with an ill-fated attempt to follow the advice of Jane Austen4) managed to reignite the flame that had been so carefully kindled by Shel Silverstein and Dr. Seuss as well as the passing fancy that formed post-convo poetry and my CST 110 experience. As such I started posting a poem a day, first to Instagram, then to one Substack, then finally to Patrick’s Daily Poems.

I prefer the traditional English ballad, but have been known to branch out into sonnets, limericks, haikus, and extraneous free verse . If you’d like a poem for yourself, feel free to ask. I’m behind on commissions, but the queue is incredibly short, and I’m not known for following a strict order of completion.

Music

I’ve played the French Horn for over a decade and have some competency, though my range is certainly not what it could be with dedicated practice. I’ve played in a variety of ensembles, including marching, high school, college, and community bands,

I can play the French Horn, Mellophone, some basic Trumpet, and have a third grade proficiency with the Recorder. When I attempted to play the clarinet I made noises that the experienced clarinetists couldn’t comprehend (in a bad way).

John Philip Sousa and Leroy Anderson are my enemies, but I also love them dearly.

Reading

I read a variety of authors across a range of genres and mediums, but will forever love a book. Favorite authors include G.K. Chesterton, George MacDonald, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, M.T. Anderson, Charles Dickens, Marion G. Harmon, Timothy Zahn, and Robert A. Heinlein, along with so many more.

writing

I dabble, see this site.

Techy Stuff

Aside from the grass touching activities listed above, I’ve worked on a few projects of interest including my adventures designing this site, adventures in self-hosting, a twitter bot, various excel adventures, coding (though mostly with scratch), experimentation with Gephi, a poke at using Scribus to create more beautiful editions of public domain books, dabbling with Linux, Audacity, some video editing with DaVinci Resolve, a bit of laser engraving, playing with NFC tags, geospatial analysis, and moderate understandings of GIMP, Photoshop, and Inkscape.

Debate

While I no longer compete, I was on the collegiate debate scene for two years, and those two years were sufficient to install a deep hatred and deep love of the game without rules. While I’m retired, once in a moment an idea hits me and it compels me to write a file, or a block, or just flag it for when inevitably someone with sanity decides that the whole of collegiate deserves to be defunded and needs a justification for it.

Gaming

I play/have played a wide variety of games, though I’ve played a lot less post-high school. I’ve been known to play FPS, 4X, RTS, MMO, Puzzle, Factory, Metroidvania, Tower Defense, KSP, minesweeperrush, and open-ended games like Minecraft and Terraria.

Outdoor Recreation

As a proud Eagle Scout and toucher of grass, I enjoy hiking, canoe/kayak/rowboating, and some camping. One of the highlights of my life was a raft trip down the Grand Canyon, and Boy Scouts was a wonderful experience. A sturdy hammock and a good book make for a lovely afternoon

Amateur Radio

While I did learn Morse code on a whim in the summer of 2025, I’ve yet to gain a license. That’s my goal in the next month or so (hopeful license date, February 2026).

Footnotes

  1. I was deeply confident that this song was from The Sound of Music, so I was surprised when my search for this link showed me that it’s actually from The King and I ↩

  2. lol - PILF ↩

  3. Think of this as me taking a double size government minor and a social science minor ↩

  4. “And so ended his affection,” said Elizabeth, impatiently. “There has been many a one, I fancy, overcome in the same way. I wonder who first discovered the efficacy of poetry in driving away love!”

    “I have been used to consider poetry as the food of love,” said Darcy.

    “Of a fine, stout, healthy love it may. Everything nourishes what is strong already. But if it be only a slight, thin sort of inclination, I am convinced that one good sonnet will starve it entirely away.”

    - Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 9 ↩

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