About Me

Who I Am

My name is Stephen Musal, often called Steve. I'm a 26-year-old male from California, currently serving my country at Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora, Colorado. I am a military journalist, an aspiring fiction writer and sometime poet, an unabashed gamer, an Eagle Scout and a halfway-competent Web designer. I am brother to Chrissy and Jeffrey, husband to Desiré, and son of Liz and Mike.

Also known as

I go by many aliases in various venues, especially over the internet. What follows are a list of my most common "other names."

• Jupiter: Used here and elsewhere; often spelled Iupiter. Also used on my LiveJournal, Jupiter's Grin, and in writing.
• Eros Serafiem: Used mainly in gaming, especially in EVE Online.
• Mandible Bones: Used exclusively for d20 System gaming, especially on the Giant in the Playground Fora or (formerly) as a nominal part of Victorious Press.
• Darren "Darque" Blackbane-Finvarra: My persona name in both Amtgard, where I am likewise an expatriate from the Principality of Westmarch, and the Society for Creative Anachronism, where I am (nominally) a part of the Shire of Trelac. The spelling and pronounciation may vary, but you can usually get my attention just by yelling "Darque!" (pronounced "dark") at me. It worked in college, anyway.
• Brukavian: Mostly outdated now; formerly a nickname used while LARPing as a member of the Camarilla Fan club. An amalgam of the names Brujah and Malkavian.
• Additionally, I have a Facebook profile, though I no longer have a MySpace page.

What I Stand For

• Citizen of the United States of America
  I love this country, and have taken up arms in its defense as a member of the United States Air Force. Regardless of my politics, regardless of the way I may feel about one leader or another, I am prepared to give my life in the defense of the U.S. Constitution.
• Californian Expatriate
  I have lived in four states, visited many more, and traveled to more than a few other countries. Everywhere I go makes me miss my beloved California more and more.
• Libertarian (lower-case)
  Of the things I hold most dear in this country, the dearest are freedom of speech, of the press, of peaceful assembly and of religion. I believe in small central government, strong state government, a strong defensive military and the separation of church and state (without infringing on the right of individuals to exercise their religion). I believe in human rights, animal welfare and equal opportunity. I believe in low, flat federal taxes and higher state and local taxes to solve problems at the lowest possible level. I believe in equal rights before the law for all American citizens, and for the children of American citizens, and I don't particularly care what a gay couple calls their civil union so long as they have the same legal rights as a heterosexual couple. I believe that abortion is morally wrong, but I support a woman's right to choose - and I believe that abortion rights are chosen at the state level, not the federal level. I believe that rapists should be shot and murderers should be forced to make reparations to the families of their victims, but until our legal system is 100 percent accurate, I stand against the death penalty for all but the most heinous crimes. I oppose war except in defense of our nation or at the direct request of and in defense of our allies, or when all diplomatic avenues have been exhausted, but I support cleaning up our messes worldwide and believe that diplomacy can only be conducted from a position of strength.

About This Site

Layout and Design

This site was created entirely with Notepad, and utilizes cascading style sheets. I have every intention of keeping it compliant with HTML 4.0, XHTML and CSS 2.0. This site is optimized for 800x600 screen resolution and is best viewed on any browser that supports images (I personally prefer Mozilla Firefox).

Images

Background images for the header and menu are ©2008 Christina Musal, and are used with permission. They were taken on the coast of California, somewhere on Hwy. 1 between Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz. All images were edited using Adobe® Photoshop CS2.