Where to begin? Introductions, I suppose.
My name is Taylor Copeland. “Tay,” to my friends and family; or “Mr. T,” or just ‘T.’ I grew up between the Northeast, Southeast, and Midwest regions of the U.S.A., and for the past few years I’ve been proud to call the nation’s capital– Washington, D.C.– my home. In that time, I’ve worked as a full-time stagehand and as a freelance live audio engineer and lighting designer at some well-respected venues in the city. Prior to that, I earned my BA in Physics and Mathematics from Connecticut College, and subsequently earned my MA in Audio Technology from the American University College of Arts and Sciences.
When I was in high school circa 2012, I started teaching myself computer programming (C/C++, Python, shell scripting) and the basics of web design. At that time, the modern Web was just beginning to blossom. Single-page web apps were coming into vogue, jQuery was still all the rage, Twitter [which was still called Twitter] had only just released Bootstrap (but had yet to axe Vine), React was still mostly confined internally to Facebook (now Meta Platforms), and Node.js seemed like the greatest thing since sliced bread. I was being led to believe that native code and systems languages were obsolete, while simultaneously wondering if learning Ruby on Rails might be worthwhile (or just a fun time). Now, as I type this over a decade later, I find myself wanting to dive into Rust and Zig just as much as modern JavaScript and TypeScript.
While I was pursing my degrees, I drew upon my programming knowledge I had taught myself in high school. I used Wolfram Mathematica to aid in my undergraduate astronomy and physics research. In my graduate studies, I used the C++ language along with the JUCE platform to develop audio processing software, namely in the form of plugins for digital audio workstations (DAWs). I’ve also dabbled in MATLAB and Simulink from MathWorks, particularly with their accompanying packages for digital signals and audio processing.
I’ve always liked learning new things. As well as math, science, technology, and computer science, I enjoy learning about music, aviation, history, and geopolitics. During my free time, I like coding for fun, playing guitar, and watching documentaries, podcasts, and video essays on YouTube and Nebula. I’ve listed some of my favorite creators below:
Some of my biggest musical influences include:
My favorite programming language (at this point in time) is C++. It’s a beautiful mess. The Wolfram Language is a close second. My favorite DAW is Avid’s Pro Tools, through and through. Android over iOS. Linux reigns supreme. I use a MacBook as my daily driver and run Windows 11 with Parallels for Android integration. I’m a walking, talking contradiction.
Like everyone else, I have opinions. I like to think some of them are good. The goal of this blog is to serve as an outlet for my opinions and musings. The content published here is likely to reflect the interests I stated above– namely: computer science, technology, audio engineering, and stagecraft. I may also choose to discuss more general subjects like pop culture and current events from time to time.