"God make me an instrument of Thy peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love,
Where there is injury, pardon,
Where there is doubt, faith,
Where there is despair, hope,
Where there is darkness, light,
Where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive,
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
And it is in dying that we are born
To eternal life. Amen."
-A Prayer of St. Francis

"It is one of the difficult and delightful subtleties of life that we
must deeply acknowledge certain things to be serious and yet
retain the power and will to treat them often as lightly as a game."
-C.S. Lewis

"[Britton is] a goober, but a nice one."
-anonymous

Greetings, Program!

Don't worry. I greet a lot of people that way.  Most people think it's random and bizarre, except for people who are familiar with the movie "Tron".  They just think it's bizarre.

Before I blather much further, let me introduce myself. My name is Porter Britton Gregory -- call me any permutation of any of those names that suits you, but I generally go by "Britton" -- and I was born and raised in Orangeburg, South Carolina. Some people have said that I'm "such a #$&! Southern gentleman it %#?$ me off"; my parents think that I lost all my manners the moment I matriculated; I'm most likely somewhere in between.

Before I tell you more about myself, let me introduce you to...

My Friends

Here are some pages that I'm sure you'll find much more interesting than mine.
Note: Most of these persons do not, in fact, currently have home pages. However, they are still listed; the place is being saved for the day that circumstance is rectified.

• Barbara Anthony -- She's certifiable! (Well, actually, she's certified now, but that doesn't mean she's not certifiable anymore!)
• Christi Calkins -- Could it be...Satan?! No, it's just the Anti-Christi.
• Mike Cyr -- Mike worked with me at Big Blue, and knows "The Princess Bride" even better than I!
• Dakao Do -- He holds more knowledge concerning claymores, Eddas, and old-fashioned honour than anyone else I know.
• Elizabeth Gregory -- My cool little sister, obsessed with Sailor Moon and not obsessed with boys. Page coming soon!
• Liz Gregory -- Not to be confused with Elizabeth Gregory. My sun, my moon, my starlit sky...also, by happy circumstance, my wife. See?
• Doug Haunsperger -- His (and my) philosophy: "Boys are icky, and therefore suck. Girls are not, and therefore suck much more." Given that we're both now married, I suppose that testifies to its truth.
• David Jedlicka -- He watches way too much TV, but hey -- every man must have his vice, and it's not bad as vices go.
• Andrea "Red" Lubawy -- An amazing singer, a wonderful actress, an up-and-coming automotive engineer, and one of the nicest people you're likely to meet.
• Susan Roach -- My cool older half-sister who works at Sun; read about her projects in the Wall Street Journal!
• Ben Serebrin -- He's off at Stanford, getting paid to take classes and write video games about his roomie's dog. Smeghead.
• Vicki Smith -- Vote for her for Dictator of the United States!
• Elisa U -- Also known as "Vortex" for her ability to suck people into various social gatherings (page under construction).
• Margaret Wommack -- A Texan about to make her debut at Vassar. The possibilities are endless...

Well, what are you doing sticking around here? Go pester them!

Oh, all right. I suppose you want to know more about me, eh? Well, first and foremost, I'm a Christian; you can take a look at some of my beliefs or even sermons, if you like. Beyond that, I'm your classic jack-of-all-trades: my current calling is that of General Software Guy for a company called ESS Technology ; I do drivers and other software-talking-to-hardware things. Great fun! Before that, I had a brief stint at 3dfx (rest in peace), and before that I was at at IBM, working on graphics "stuff" (drivers, OpenGL, occasional hardware work) in their server division at Austin. Yes, I’ve moved around a bit since I graduated in 1999, but it’s not entirely my fault…my division at IBM was “dispersed”, and 3dfx sold itself lock, stock and barrel to nVidia (“so evil, it’s kind of ridiculous”), so it’s not like I just up and left because I felt like it. ;)

During my formative years, I was an electrical engineering major at Rice University, where I discovered that I wasn't the only weird person in the world, and also that I wasn't anywhere close to the smartest! (For an example of how weird your typical Rice student is, visit The T.W.I.N.K.I.E.S. Project home page.) More importantly, it was during that time that I really and truly opened my eyes to what it meant to be a Christian and started to put my faith in the forefront where it belongs, to “hold the wheel and drive”, which just goes to show you that, contrary to the message society barrages us with, college doesn’t have to be the spiritual nadir of your life.

I'm an avid reader , albeit of escapist literature as much as anything else. I’m very much into fantasy – epic stuff like Tolkien and Lewis wrote – and am even Dungeon Master for my own little campaign (currently on hiatus). If you're into role-playing and computers, I suggest wandering over to the Shadowbane website -- it promises to be an amazing game...if the FC system gets off the ground and they fix the lag. After that, feel free to wander over to my guild's homepage. (They don't just play Shadowbane, so if you're looking for a great group of people to do any sort of online gaming with, check them out.) I’m also a music nut; I think a whole portion of my brain -- a portion that could be put to better use, like watching where I'm going -- is tied up with constantly playing some song in my head, or picking out any background music that might be playing, even if it can barely be heard, or (heaven forbid) attempting to come up with something new.  (It makes it difficult for me to concentrate sometimes, as anyone who knows me can attest.) Much of my memory seems to consist of song lyrics and tunes, which seem to take precedence over incidental things, such as where I am and what I'm doing. In college I really let myself go: I was, at various times, a member of six different vocal groups (mostly acappella), including the Rice Philharmonics.

By the way, you probably think Britton is a weird name. Well, it isn't.

That's all for now.

Britton Gregory
brittong@alumni.rice.edu
Last updated: 8/03/2003