Ben Perkins' Personal Information

[The picture at right was taken at Barney's in February 2005]

Since you've gone to the trouble to find your way to down to this page, I'm going to assume you'd like to know a little bit more about me. First, the introduction: My name is Ben Perkins and I've lived in Houston, Texas (USA) since July 1993. My parents are of Texas stock, but after numerous moves they settled in Louisiana well before my birth. I was born and raised Lake Charles, Louisiana, and went on to receive my BS in Computer Science from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.

My move to Texas after graduation was motivated by the necessity of finding gainful employment and the scarcity of computer related jobs in my home state. Since arriving here I've held software development positions at four different companies. The first was in the financial services industry. The second was an ill-fated Internet startup, and the last two have been in the enterprise storage management business.

My parents still live in the house where I grew up in Lake Charles, LA. My father is a retired meteorologist for the National Weather Service. My mother is a retired teacher and is currently working on a series of children's books. My one and only sibling Carl moved to Houston years before I did and now lives nearby. He's an engineer by training, a software developer by experience, and for years was a "rocket scientist" for NASA.

Outside of family and friends, work is, of course, my life. Not. Any time work doesn't demand my full attention, you might find me pursuing any of the following interests:

Computing

It's a hobby as well as a profession. I enjoy learning new things about computers and networks, playing the occasional online game (Quake), chatting with friends, and once in a great while surfing the web. My home systems run GNU/Linux (specifically the Debian distribution) and Windows 2000. And yes, I ran Linux before Linux was cool. :-)

Reading

Tolkien, Clancy, Grisham, Michener, etc. I read lots of fantasy and science fiction, some mystery and suspense, and a little of just about anything else.

Sports

I love playing volleyball and table tennis though I rarely get to do either anymore. I'm a fairly decent swimmer and water skier and wouldn't mind learning to play tennis. Anyone want to teach me? Once upon a time I did a lot of fishing also, though perhaps that's more recreation than sport.

Great Outdoors & Travel

I thoroughly enjoy walking, hiking, canoeing or otherwise experiencing unspoiled natural surroundings. Please take a look at the link to the left if you'd like to see some photos I've taken during recent trips.

I hope this page helped satisfy a bit of your curiosity. Be sure to check out my photo albums as they are the most actively maintained portion of my site.