First! Introductions

This is the first entry on my new academic blog! Hello :) ☺️ I’ve been wanting to start one for a while, and I have been behind (as usual 😅) in my management of adminstrative tasks such as updating my website and CV, so in catching up I am taking the opportunity to do this as well.

First let me introduce myself and what I am currently working on professionally and personally. Then I will also say a bit how I am managing this website, in case anyone is interested.

My name is Harold Lee Jordan II, but you can call me Howy, Howie, Howee, or Harold Lee if you’re feeling semi-formal. I am 34 years old at the time of writing (actually my 34th birthday was yesterday). I have a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Colorado Boulder, where I currently still work as a Lecturer. I enjoy teaching, but also love research. I am currently looking for postdoctoral research opportunities to apply for!

My former Ph.D. and I have been working with a colleague to extend some results from the theory of finite-dimensional quantum states to infinite-dimensional states, which has been interesting. I am also working to extract and expand on part of my Ph.D. thesis, specifically the part about Artin gluing data for bundles. Since my thesis, I have thought of further examples I think would be interesting, and I have had questions about applications from others that I would like to explore!

In addition to mathematics, I enjoy acting, dancing, and music. I had an acting apprenticeship in undergrad for a couple years, and even won some best actor awards (from the theatre department at the university 🏆). I have also danced as part of CarnivalGlass, a local dance troupe based in Boulder, Colorado. Unfortunately, it has been over a year since I danced outside of a club or (more likely) my kitchen 💃🏻.

I also enjoy fiddling with technology, for instance managing a home lab with some simple services. Recently, I have been fiddling with Ollama and OpenWebUI, but I also enjoy tools like Grocy. I have also been trying to migrate to a Zettelkasten based organizational approach, that I think would accelerate my productivity and work well with a future LLM inclusive workflow.

I have been a Certified Linux Enjoyer™️ for over 15 years, btw 🤓. I am also a big proponent on repairable hardware and open source technologies in general. I have been using a Framework laptop and a Fairphone device for over a year now, and I still love them more than any laptop or phone I have ever used. I do still use a Remarkable for a lot of work, which thankfully runs on Linux but does still have a proprietary layer that is an occasional headache but overall is fine.

For this website, I am using Jekyll to generate the html from markdown files, including this blog post! I think this will work for the time being. I don’t foresee actually need more advanced features like comments (email me if you have a comment, for now ☺️).

¡Toki pona!