Who is Kym? Why this website?
Sometimes I think I'm just a twisted figment of someone's imagination, testing the amount of pain and bad experiences needed to drive someone insane. Seriously, I'm a fairly quirky person with too many hobbies, some of which are too expensive and time consuming.
This website came into existence for a number of reasons - to share my knowledge of various things (teaching, health, hobbies, research) and for somewhere to store my thoughts and reviews.
The title Nifwl Seirff is Welsh, meaning 'misty serpents' if I translated correctly. I love dragons and serpents, and made them misty due to the transient nature of the web.
Development of the HTML and CSS for this site was done by hand in a text editor. Gimp and Picasa are used for image manipulation, and the site is currently checked on Firefox running on WinXP. I do not guarantee that the site looks the same (or as good) with any other browser, especially as it uses style-sheets.
Bio : Kymberly Eirlys Fergusson
Also see my LinkedIn profile
. born: Melbourne, a while ago now
Education
. Fairhills Primary, Wantirna Secondary, Monash University (Computer Science), Japanese Melbourne, ATA (TESOL)
Achievements
. Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) level 4
. Music (piano, woodwind, strings),
Grainger Wind Symphony (percussion), Melbourne Girls Choir, Mountain District Choral Society
. Boronia Tennis Club, Knox Little Aths, Eastern Kung Fu Academy (Tai Chi)
Volunteer
. library assistant: Fairhills Primary, Wantirna Secondary
. choir teacher, accompanist: Wantirna Secondary, Mountain District Choral Society
. web dev: umilator.net, amithlon.net, CSSE
tutors, ASTC (Vic)
Employment
. trainer: Victorian State Library/Vicnet
. technical communicator, project manager: Moldflow
. lecturer/examiner/tutor: Monash Uni (programming, soft eng, communications, project management), Melbourne Uni (metrics),
private tutor (piano, music theory, uni programming, writing, ESL)
. web dev: Monash Uni (MDMC,
RUUG, BusEco)
. library assistant: Boronia library
. admin, retail, warehouse, seamstress, accountant, stocktake, and more: Tans Martial Arts,
Tesselaar, Bookworld, Salmat, Lincraft, Nancraft
Random facts
. normally found in low light and stuck to a computer, crowd-a-phobic, an Australian and British citizen, and usually very cold
. now studying TESOL and Japanese, always learning
. have light evasive blue/grey eyes, blue hair, two crazy cats, several nicknames (NS, Elly, Ladyhawke, Seirff)
. have chronic health problems (endo, sciatica, kidney disease,
adeno, costo, fibro, Raynaud's)
. I wish people would care for the environment, for peace, for a childhood, for more time, education was free, to play cello, for a garden to keep.
Likes and dislikes
. dark colours, the sea, candles, cats and dragons, cold and dark weather
. costuming, gardening, cooking, photography, cross-stitch, tapestry, and quilting
. books/art (Tokien, Feist, Kerr, Kenneally, Herbert, Hobb, Gaiman, Eddings, Two Lumps, Megatokyo, Alan Lee, John Howe)
. movies (LotR, Labyrinth, Ladyhawke, Legend, Dune, Princess Bride, Star Wars, Stargate, Crow)
. sci-fi/fantasy tv shows (Farscape, Bab5, BSG, SG1, Xena, Star Trek, Buffy, Angel)
. anime/manga (FF, Evangelion, GitS, Ghibli, Death Note, Nana, Lain, Witchunter Robin, Heroic Age)
. music (Mendelssohn, DCD, Ayumi Hamasaki, Utada Hikaru, Origa, Tea Party, STOA, Tarkan, McKennit, soundtracks)
. games (Settlers of Cataan, Magic:tG, Carcassonne, Skat, AofE, Starcraft, Pharoah, Myst, Final Fantasy)
. I hate unreliability, lies, cheating, smoking, drugs, broken promises, cruelty, child abuse, paedophiles