January 22, 2008: My web site is so outdated it isn't funny. I haven't updated this page in years (except for this paragraph). And this picture is seven years old! I look much better now. Maybe someday I'll have the time to update this page.
I'm Dwight Everhart. I used to work at Sea World here in San Diego where I play the music and sound effects for the shows and operate the video cameras for The Shamu Adventure. It's the most fun I've ever had getting paid to do something. I used to work as a software engineer at a B2B e-commerce software company called OrderFusion, but they went belly up in 2001 as a part of the dot-com crash. I still do software development in my spare time. I'm currently developing a time-management application in Java. It's a complete rewrite of an application I wrote for the NeXTStep operating system called Chronographer. I like being able to do two completely different things. Each type of work satisfies different needs.
I also dabble in filmmaking, helping people as a grip, production assistant, or whatever they need. I've worked on one feature, The Five Stages of Beer, and several shorts. I love the filmmaking process. It's crazy and hectic, but somehow it usually works out in the end.
My Myers-Briggs personality type is INFP (introverted, intuitive, feeling perceiver). I'm especially strong in the first and last dimensions. Given this temperament, I think I would enjoy being a writer, film editor, teacher, psychologist, or priest.
I used to live in Bella Vista, Arkansas, a beautiful, peaceful, semi-rural planned community in the extreme northwestern part of the state. I lived there for five years, but the business I was developing wasn't profitable, so I had to get a job, and there wasn't any work of the type I do there, so I moved to San Diego in November 1998. I now live in a small apartment in Pacific Beach one mile from the beach or the bay.
My girlfriend's name is June. I have a photo album of her and me online.
I started working with computers at the tender age of 11. I saw a computer (an Apple II) in the box office at the premiere of Star Wars (May 1977). It was advertising for a computer store that let people play games on their computers for a modest fee. I played Star Trek and Star Wars and was hooked. My Dad bought me my first computer, an Apple II, for my 14th birthday in 1979, but I had been creating programs for two years prior by writing them on notebook paper and typing them into whatever computer I could hold hostage for an hour at the local computer stores. (For the record, I worked on PETs, TRS-80's, and Apple II's.)
I attempted to earn my living by writing and selling a personal information manager program called Chronographer. Unfortunately, it's only available for NEXTSTEP and OPENSTEP, which are great operating systems which very few people ever used. Because of that, Chronographer didn't sell well, and I had to get a real job. But I'm working on a Java version which will run on Windows, Linux, Mac OS, Solaris, and other systems, so hopefully it'll sell better in those markets. It should, since just the Windows and Mac OS markets are over 250 times larger than the NEXTSTEP/OPENSTEP market was at its peak
I like films a lot, and I can appreciate them on both artistic and technical levels. I occasionally work on films doing whatever needs to be done. I've worked on several shorts and one feature, The Five Stages of Beer, which just premiered at the Dances with Films festival in LA. I love the filmmaking process. The only way to describe it is organized chaos. It's crazy and hectic and looks disorganized, but somehow it comes together in the end (well, usually).
My favorite films are American Beauty, Moulin Rouge, Blade Runner, and The Player. Other films I like include Saving Private Ryan, Shakespeare in Love, Contact, The Stand, Star Trek II, the Star Wars trilogy (especially Empire), Alien, Aliens, Terminator 2, Schindler's List, Much Ado About Nothing, The Remains of the Day, Howard's End, The Age of Innocence, Unforgiven, and Dead Man Walking. I also like foreign films, like Mediterraneo, La Femme Nikita, and Delicatessen.
I don't watch a lot of TV, but I watch the shows I like faithfully every week, except for reruns. My favorite shows include Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The West Wing, Babylon 5, Homicide, Xena: Warrior Princess, and Red Dwarf. I also enjoy science and travel shows.
I like alternative rock, classical, and some new age. Which style I listen to depends on my mood. I also like many other styles except for most country & western and rap songs. I often simply enjoy silence or listening to the birds, cicadas, and tree frogs.
My favorite artists include Concrete Blonde, U2, Enya, The Motels, Sam Phillips, Pat Benatar, Rush, Crash Test Dummies, Stone Temple Pilots, Blondie, Queen, Aimee Mann, The 77's, Phil Keaggy, 2nd Chapter of Acts, Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Holst, John Williams, Mozart, Beethoven, Debussy, Chopan, Gershwin, and Sor. I'm also into Celtic music, specifically the Riverdance soundtrack.
I enjoy traveling, although I haven't had the time or money to do much lately. I've only traveled in the U.S., except for Mexican and Canadian border towns. I love natural areas, especially national and state parks. My favorite places include Yosemite, the Smokies, and the Outer Banks. I enjoy watching a few shows on the Travel Channel, specifically Lonely Planet, Rough Guide, and Travels in Europe.
I really enjoy these things, even though I don't dress for them. I went to the one near Houston several times, and I've been to the one in Kansas City twice. It's my favorite. A couple of small ones have even started up in Arkansas in the last few years.
I'm a Unitarian. I have lots to write about that, but it'll have to wait until I have some time.
I'm a fairly liberal independent. I'm pro-environment, pro-animal rights, and pro-gun control. I don't find labels very useful, and I dislike the American tendency to over-simplify issues by grouping possible responses into two (usually extreme) positions.
I love animals and not just the cute ones. I believe that all life should be respected and no unnecessary suffering should be inflicted on any creature. That's why I became a vegetarian in 1992. In our modern society, we've managed to distance the violent act of the slaughter from the pleasant act of eating. Because of this, most people don't think about the suffering they cause by eating meat. If everyone who ate a hamburger were required to watch a cow being slaughtered, I think most people would quit.
I'm even moving towards becoming a vegan, thanks to soy milk and soy cheese. However, I like to eat out, and eating out as a vegan would be very tough, especially at the fast food places I frequent. So I will probably never completely become a vegan, unless the day comes when I can go to Taco Bell and order a bean burrito with soy cheese.
If you'd like to contact me, I can be reached at dwight@everhart.cc.