Life According to Duck » About The Duck

Hi there! Some of you may know me as Duck L'Orange, others as Mike Cousins. Some still may not know me at all. In any case, here's a little about me:

I'm a 26 Year Old Web Developer living in the beautiful Niagara region of Ontario, Canada. I've been living in the area for a bit more than a decade now, minus a few years in Kingston attending Queen's University. Prior to that, I was a 'Base Brat', moving every year or so at the whims of the Royal Canadian Air Force. I've lived all over Canada, from a small radar post at the North end of Victoria Island, to the sub-arctic climes of Goose Bay, Labrador. For a change, it's nice to be putting down roots and calling someplace home.

I began my 'career' as a Web Developer at the age of 14, in the Summer of 1995. The Internet was (at least from a consumer standpoint) very new, and very misunderstood. In a display of unadulterated geekiness, I volunteered at a local computer store on Weekends simply for the learning experience - which put me in contact with my first webserver, and my first Web Design clients. Web Design was very different in those days - <hr> tags were all the rage, and Table-based layouts were just coming into their own. A few years later, I was producing Intranet content for different corporate and government agencies. While this seemed high-profile, it had certain drawbacks - private content hidden behind government firewalls doesn't do much for your Portfolio or Resumé. I've worked a variety of odd jobs since then, most of them having little or nothing to do with Web Development, until I struck gold in April '07. I joined up with a young internet startup that was operating out of the owner's basement, a mere 2 blocks from my own home, and haven't looked back since.

I'm an avid Computer Gamer, with a good chunk of my free time spent protecting the Citizens of Paragon City as my namesake, Duck L'Orange. From time to time I'm struck by the urge to write short works of fiction, though my ambitions almost always exceed my interest, leaving me with a collection of half-stories. I also dabble in Digital and Traditional Art, with Comics and Gaming as my main source of inspiration.

I've also recently taken up playing Warhammer 40K with some of my coworkers, and we now run a weekly club out of the spare space in our office. You'll occasionally find me posting at MiniWarGaming.com as Mike The Necron Guy.

I'm an avid Star Wars fan, and proudly display my Master Replica Darth Vader Lightsaber on my wall.

I love cooking, and find myself experimenting more often than following recipes. Pad Thai is easily one of my favourite foods to make, although the recipe varies a little each time. I tend to follow in my grandma's footsteps, where terms like pinch, sprinkle, and dallop are perfectly acceptable units of measure.

I've recently rediscovered the simple joys of jogging and biking, and love to spend any time I can waterskiing at the family cottage (which is never often enough). Despite the price of gas, I still enjoy leisurely drives in my 2005 Lancer Ralliart with no particular destination in mind.

There you have it - The Duck in a Nutshell.