About

CinnamonPirate.com was registered on June 10, 2005, but this site’s content long predates that registration. The domain registration marked my transition from college to the workforce.

The site began as a place to put up whatever I am working on, rant or comment on current events. Today it is more focused on material at least tangentally related to my professional work.

Most of the static pages, especially those related to translation or programming, were created before the CinnamonPirate.com domain. Some even date back to the archives of JumpStation.org, this site’s predecessor.

The site’s hook and cutlass logo was made by John Anderson and Erik Wampler and was originally intended to be used for the ever-delayed libPirate.

Who is the author?

I am Derrick Sobodash, an Oakland University graduate who holds a BA degree in journalism and Chinese studies.

Outside of this Web site I write for newspapers and magazines. The bulk of my work is published in The Oakland Press and Beijing Today: the former was my first internship out of college, and the later is my current employer. I was also published in PiQ before ADV’s lust for money killed it.

I am—less frequently— a published photographer and designer. I like collecting and typesetting fairy tales and folklore and composing calligraphy: of course, I have not found a way to get paid for these. If you have any ideas on how to do this, please e-mail me at contact＠derricksobodash.com.

From where is this site written?

My postings are filed either from my apartment on Guangqumen Wai Avenue or the Beijing Youth Daily building by Changhong Bridge, both of which are in Beijing’s Chaoyang district.

The apartment has one bed and one couch. If I know you and you feel like visiting China, the couch is your’s.

Where is it hosted?

CinnamonPirate.com is hosted by and has always been hosted by the fine people at Versus Technologies. The account is an early adopter and was one of the first on their servers. The hosting solution was found after a very dishonorable deletion by Hostik, my former host. Hostik is so incredibly evil that I will not link it, as that would bump up its Google PageRank.

What software do you use?

This Web site was initially powered by a content management system of my own design called Kung Fu. It sucked, because I spent more time working on Kung Fu than adding content. Around 2004 I switched to WordPress, which I have used ever since. The gallery section is powered by the Slickr plugin.

What kind of camera do you have?

Photographs used in this Web site are shot primarily using a Nikon D40X. I own four lenses: the Nikkor AF-S 18-55mm kit lens, a Nikkor AI-S 50mm f/1.4 lens, a Sigma 70-210mm f/4 manual lens and a Vivitar N/AI-S 17-28mm f/4. My oldest pictures are shot with a Sony Mavica CD-1000, which I passed on to my dad and brother in October 2008.

Random facts

• This Web site is syndicated on Syndic8.com as Feed #504602.
• All times on this site are in Chinese Standard Time (CST), the time zone for all of China.
• As of my 25^th birthday, one in five days of my life was spent translating Der Langrisser; two in five were spent translating any game.
• I use MSN Messenger. You can reach me as dsobodash＠gmail.com.
• I also have a GoogleTalk account at dsobodash＠gmail.com.
• My AOL Instant messenger account is dsobodash.
• My ICQ number is once again 15584206.
• My QQ number is 249832971.