My Name is Richard Michael Kalvaitis. I was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and I have lived there, New Hampshire, Michigan, and very briefly in California during an age that I don’t remember (or so I’m told). I’m a middle-class straight white male from the suburbs of the midwest, and I identify as a middlle-class straight white male from the suburbs of the midwest. I have made art, I have made programs, I have made games, and I have made music. I wouldn’t necessarily call myself an artist or a programmer or a game designer or a musician. You can’t just be all of those things at the same time. Don’t be silly.
I work as a research assistant at Eastern Michigan University. We are developing a framework for detecting false injection attacks on Smart Meters. I am also working on a video game with a friend of mine about magic spellcasters where players can build their own spells by mixing mechanics together on the fly. The story needs fleshing out, but we settled on a world where magic is mundane, so a magician goes searching for “real magic.” I’m also working on a functioning quadcopter made out of cardboard and cheap electronics from the internet. I have no artistic or musical side projects at the moment, though I would like to learn how to improvise ambient music for use in Dungeons and Dragons (hey, it’s fun - judge me for something else.)
I have problems with self-confidence and seek validation from others. I laugh and joke all the time but secretly I hate myself. I waste a lot of my time playing video games. My favorites are Minecraft, Spec Ops: The Line, The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, and Undertale deserves to be on this list too, even though I hate associating myself with the community of people who tell everyone they love Undertale. I have to admit, it is a very good game. I play League of Legends even though I don’t really like it anymore. It’s something to do with my friends. I also play Oldschool Runescape. I got level 99 magic just the other day. I’m both proud and ashamed.
I’m 23 years old, and I live with my parents. I worked at a restaurant for four and a half years before I had enough money to pay for college and leave the foodservice industry - hopefully forever. I graduate this semester, but that’s on the assumption that I can get everything done on time. There’s a scar on my right foot from a trash bag that had an open can of pizza sauce in it. It was really gross.
My greatest accomplishment is my (almost complete) degree in Computer Science. I struggled for what seemed like much longer than everyone else learning the basics. I worked as a tutor for low-level classes in the Computer Science department, and as a lab assistant in COSC 211 here at EMU. I was mentioned positively several times in the course evaluations. I used to play in a Greek band. I pretended to be Greek and played the drums for money.
My favorite color is #0000FF. My favorite food is heavily Americanized sushi. I’m a virgo, and I think astrology is bullshit. I’m pretty OK at a few things. I’ve made several attempts at being an artist.