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My name is Marnanel. When I was about eleven years old, my baby brother was born. He learned to talk, and as he learned, I became fascinated with the way language works. I studied as many Teach Yourself books as I could lay my hands on, especially Welsh, and designed a language of my own, Nimyad. It was in this language that I named myself marnanel, "a dreamer".

I became unhappy at school, gained some desultory A-levels, went to study at Hertfordshire, did really rather well in my BSc, and ended up at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge studying natural language processing. It was there that depression first became a major problem for me, and to cut a story short, I ended up out of college without a master's. But I stayed in Cambridge for five years anyway. I love that town. It will probably always mean home to me in one way or another.

A few years later, I went on a trip to Chicago, my first trip abroad since early childhood. I had a two-hour layover in Philadelphia, and a friend of mine from online came over with zir daughter to keep me company. One thing led to another and I ended up moving out to Pennsylvania to be with them both. The friend is Firinel and our daughter is Riordon. I love them both so much. Firinel's name means "creator" in Nimyad.

We have three cats.

I work as a perl programmer, part of a large team which helps make sure that people get food, heating and a roof over their heads that they might not otherwise have received. I love my job.

I believe in the power of people working together to help one another. I believe in equality, consensus and respect.

The free software movement is very important to me. I think everyone should take the time to inform themselves about the issues, and look into what they can do to help. I run Ubuntu at home and Debian at work, both using GNOME in Welsh. I'm a great fan of Emacs, but I'm learning vi.

I'm still learning Welsh. One day I want to be good enough to submit a poem at the Eisteddfod. And by 2025 I plan to have a PhD, hopefully in Welsh/English computer processing of natural language.

My favourite colour is orange. I love chocolate.
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