About the author
My name is Maria Varmazis. It’s nice to meet you.
Με λένε Μαρία Βαρμάζη. Χαίρω πολύ.
私はバルマギス・マリヤと申します。よろしくお願いします。
Here’s the deal with me: I live in Somerville, a city right outside of Boston (kind of a suburb of Boston, but don’t tell the townies that). My neighborhood specifically is Davis Square, a quirky little intersection on the Red Line of the T that isn’t square at all.
I got my B.A. in journalism and Japanese from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst a little while back, but only after spending two years at Columbia University’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences studying computer science. I know, it’s weird. So you can think of me as something of a geek-hybrid, I don’t mind.
I’m the kind of person who takes things apart to find out how they work. This is how I taught myself HTML in the early-mid 1990s—by taking apart other websites and shaping the raw code into something of my own, I eventually learned how to code HTML, and later CSS, DHTML, PHP and some Javascript. SQL is my next priority.
Though this blog is rather new, I’ve actually been “blogging” since October 2000. I have an account on Livejournal and still maintain it, though my account is private.
I studied abroad three times during my college career. I spent about two months in Greece on the Cycladic island of Paros in 2002 on an intensive Greek language program. In 2004, I was a homestay/exchange student for three months in Japan, mainly in the Nagahama area of Shiga-ken studying both Japanese language and traditional bunraku theater. In 2006, I was a student at the Sorbonne in Paris, where I studied French language and history for six months.
Topics and activities I enjoy that are also useful for impressing people at cocktail parties:
- Art history. I feel very much at home an art museum—generally when I’m in a new city, the local art museum is my first stop.
- Japanese, French and Greek language and culture studies. I’ve studied all three of these languages and cultures throughout my life, and those studies continue. I’m not fluent in any of them, though I’m at intermediate levels for each.
- Road biking. Okay, this doesn’t impress anybody. Granted, I’m not very good at it and my bike is about 30 years old, but I love it.
Obligatory disclaimer: I do have a day job (one I greatly enjoy), but this blog is in no way affiliated with the company that hired me or the magazine that I work on. I won’t talk about my work, my employer, my sources or anything that might compromise the integrity of my sources. This blog is completely extracurricular, and everything published on it is 100% my responsibility and my domain. I don’t speak for or represent any one here but myself.
