Benjamin Karnow

"I reject your reality and substitute my own!" --Adam Savage 

Biography
Ben was born in a small, impoverished asteroid-mining colony in the year 20XX. When he was only 5 years old, a terrible mining accident killed his entire family and left him limbless and helpless, unable to interact with the world, barely conscious. Integrated with a virtual environment, he was finally able to live again, through a historical simulation of the life of a boy in the late 20th century of Earth.

To date, he has played through 22 years of the simulation, and although he has achieved very few actual gains, feels that he is gradually gaining an understanding of the game's mechanics and rules. He has yet to successfully find any cheat codes, though.

Academics
Ben has now filed and finished Division II, and is VERY done with it, thank you very much. Having emerged from a yellow fog, he's now a Div III, with all the evasions, incapacities, subtleties, and good company thereunto appertaining, canonical, conanical, or cannincial. Completion and attendant graduation is still scheduled for the end of the 2010 Spring Semester.

Current courses:

 * CS-0260: Video Game Design (Attending and serving as Teaching Assisstant) with Paul Dickson
 * CS-0292: Philosophy of Wittgenstein with John Connolly

Areas of Interest for Collaboration
I'm going to be (most likely) using the Unreal Engine 3 to make a mod for Unreal Tournament 3 for my Div 3, based on my study of narratives and so on and so forth. In addition, I'm a decent Python programmer, a creative writer, and have always harbored a secret ambition to do voice acting. I can't sing worth a damn, though, so don't tempt me.

Non-academic Activities
I suppose I'm lucky in that my work and my lesiure time overlap so much. I'm going to be working with a game engine for my Div 3, so in my free time... I play games. It's research. In addition, I'm a regular DM for Deathfest, Hampshire's semesterly roleplaying tournament, and I enjoy the science of fitness and weightlifting. I used to play the piano, and I can play Guitar Hero badly, so I suppose that counts for something. Oh right, and I also work in the Diagnostic Center during the year, and at a data recovery company over the summers, so draw what you will from that.