About Darkademic

Bio

Introduction

dark

adj. dark•er, dark•est

1. Concealed or secret; mysterious.
2. Sullen or threatening: a dark scowl.
3. Being or characterized by morbid or grimly satiric humour.

academic

adj.

1. Relating to studies such as philosophy, pure science and languages.
2. Having an aptitude for study.

epidemic

n.

1. An outbreak of a contagious disease that spreads rapidly and widely.
2. A rapid spread, growth, or development.

I am Nikolai, a.k.a Darkademic. I work for my own company as a web developer in the United Kingdom. The name Darkademic is a combination of dark, academic and epidemic. "Dark" because I'm an introvert and somewhat hard to get to know, and also because I was born on the winter solstice (the darkest/shortest day of the year). "Academic" because I am interested in philosophy, politics, science and many other intellectual subjects. "Epidemic" because I like spreading and developing my ideas and opinions via debate and discussion, and have spent a lot of time doing so on various forums.

Interests & Skills

I've been making websites since 1999, and since then I've acquired a great deal of knowledge and understanding of the technologies used on the Internet. I'm very experienced in PHP, HTML, CSS, JavaScript and SQL, and reasonably experienced in ActionScript and ColdFusion. I'm also a huge perfectionist when it comes to writing code and take a lot of pride in my work. Although I'm primarily a programmer—working with the underlying code of websites—I'm still very experienced in graphic and interface design, as well as website maintenance and administration.

After completing my A-Levels in 2003 I became increasingly interested in philosophy, sociology, economics and political theory and since then I have read the works of many prominent thinkers from each of those fields, including Marx, Nietzche, Kant, Aristotle, Mises, Rothbard, Hayek, Rand, and many others. I have also written numerous essays and posted extensively on various Internet forums, constantly working on strengthening and expanding my own arguments and ideas. I now consider myself an Objectivist in terms of my philosophy, and a free-market capitalist in terms of politics/economics.

During my time studying philosophy and politics I also got into a tangle with the White Nationalist movement and became a vocal opposer of their racist beliefs. I have subsequently done research into anthropology and human genetics, and for five years I was an administrator on MootStormfront, a forum dedicated to opposing racism.

Another of my interests is music production. As I write this I have made over 130 full length songs and have produced over 1000 instrumental compositions. I started off producing hip-hop music in 1998 and both my emceeing and production developed into a dark, abstract and angry style, influenced by many mainstream artists such as B-Real of Cypress Hill (mainly as on their Temples of Boom and IV albums), Psycho Realm, the Wu-Tang Clan, the Gravediggaz, and a number of less well-known artists including a Russian hip-hop group called NTL. My lyrics contain dark and cryptic content underpinned by political and socially cynical themes, dealing with issues such as insanity, government control, irrationality, depression and death. I stopped rapping in 2005 and have only rapped a couple of times since then, however I still produce instrumental music.

Although I haven't done any for a while, drawing and painting have always been hobbies of mine. I tended to do a lot of black & white ink / biro / gel-pen drawings, many of which contained sinister characters, dark imagery and monochromatic colour schemes, and I also did many paintings which were mainly either abstract and gestural, or very symbolic. I make a lot of graphics using a computer as well, and I am very experienced with GIMP, a free graphics suite similar to Adobe Photoshop which I personally find easier to use.

Finally, PC games have always been a big part of my life, probably due to having a PC from a very young age. I've led an online gaming clan called [DkR] since 1999 which has participated in online leagues for C&C: Tiberian Sun, Team Fortress Classic, Counter-Strike: Source and Team Fortress 2, as well as played many other games in-between such as Warhammer Online, World of Warcraft, Guild Wars, Diablo II and Neverwinter Nights.

Qualifications

I have 9 GCSEs, all grade A, in Maths, Science (Double), English Language, English Literature, History, Graphic Design, German and Art.

I have 4 A-levels; an A in Art, an A in Product Design, a B in Sociology (1 mark off an A for reasons outside of my control), and a B in Computing.

I have a Foundation Diploma in Art & Design.

Finally, I have a BA (Hons) in New Media, a degree which involved a wide variety of disciplines including website design and development, graphic design, video production, animation, communications theory, website statistics analysis, dynamic scripting languages and media science & technology.

In the not too distant future I intend to do a PhD.

Other Info